Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch.

Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter

• say what the participants liked about the hotel
• explain why they were unhappy about the food
• suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing this letter to complaint about the food that was prepared and served by your hotel staff during an office event which was held at your Taj hotel.

An event was organized at your Taj hotel on 13th May from 10am to 4:30pm where approximately 50 participants gave their presentations and speech. They said that the decoration was amazing and the lightning was perfect for the event. Many of them also liked the project system prepared by your staff.

Additionally, they did not like the food for some reasons. The food was cold and had little variety of options to choose. Participants said that the most of the food was Italian and Chinese; however they prefer Indian cuisine.

It will be better if the food is hot and served to guests as soon as possible so they can enjoy freshly made. Different types of cuisine should be available for guests so that they can enjoy variety of food. After food , a sweet dish should be mandatory for the guests.

hope to hear from you soon.

yours sincerely,

nav

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions well. You successfully mention what the participants liked about the hotel, such as the decoration, lighting, and projection system. You explain why they were unhappy, noting that the food was cold and lacked variety, with too much Italian and Chinese food instead of Indian cuisine. Finally, you suggest what the manager should do to improve future catering, including keeping the food hot, offering diverse cuisines, and including a mandatory sweet dish. The ideas are relevant and clearly presented, although some points like the sweet dish could have been slightly better developed in context. Overall, the task purpose is fully achieved with a clear tone suitable for a formal complaint letter.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter has a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. You use appropriate paragraphing to separate your introduction, the positive aspects, the complaints, your recommendations, and the closing sign-off. Cohesive devices are generally used effectively, such as 'Additionally' to introduce the negative feedback and 'It will be better if' to transition into suggestions. However, some referencing is slightly mechanical and the paragraph structure could be smoother, particularly in how individual sentences are linked together. Overall, the layout is neat and easy for the reader to follow from start to finish.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a sufficient range of vocabulary to communicate your message with adequate flexibility and precision. Phrases such as 'approximately 50 participants', 'decoration was amazing', and 'different types of cuisine' serve the task well. However, there are some noticeable lexical and collocational errors that prevent a higher band, such as 'to complaint' instead of 'to complain', and 'project system' instead of 'projection system' or 'projector'. While these errors do not impede communication, they highlight a lack of precision in less common vocabulary choices.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'An event was organized at your Taj hotel on 13th May from 10am to 4:30pm where approximately 50 participants gave their presentations and speech.' There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings present, including 'hope to hear from you soon' lacking a capital letter and pronoun, 'most of the food was Italian and Chinese; however they prefer Indian cuisine' lacking past tense consistency ('preferred'), and missing articles in places. Despite these errors, they rarely impede communication, and your sentence control is generally adequate for a Band 6.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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