Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-29

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 or Madam,

I am writing this to express my concern about the recently organised company meeting in your hotel.

Firstly, all the participants were happy to saw the room that you provide us for the meeting. It was so clean and nice. Besides this, the chairs were also very comfortable and your staff was respectfull to us.

Furthermore, my team was unhappy about the food. Because I already mentioned to your staff that half of the team members are vegetarian in my team, but the menu they served were mostly non-veg. Apart from that, the food was not even fully cooked. As 3 people are suffering now from the food poisoning.

Finally, I would like to suggest you to keep an eye on the menu what the teams or the people ask and make sure you are serving the correct dishes. With this, also taste the food before service if it is fully cooked or not.

Thankyou for your time and I am looking forward for your response.

Yours Faithfully,

Anjali.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The candidate has successfully covered all bullet points in the prompt, adopting an appropriate formal tone suitable for a complaint letter. You successfully stated what participants liked about the hotel, explaining that they appreciated the clean rooms, comfortable chairs, and respectful staff. You also clearly explained why they were unhappy regarding the food, specifically noting the dietary oversight regarding vegetarians and the undercooked meals that caused food poisoning. Finally, you provided practical suggestions for the manager to improve future dining experiences. The purpose of the letter is clear and fully realised throughout the response, meeting all the requirements of a General Training Task 1 effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter is logically organised with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Each paragraph addresses a distinct point, starting with the positive feedback, moving to the core complaint, offering suggestions, and concluding politely. Cohesive devices are used adequately to connect ideas, such as "Firstly", "Besides this", "Furthermore", and "Finally". However, some referencing is slightly awkward or mechanical, such as "With this, also taste the food...", which slightly impacts the flow. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the different sections of the letter, creating a coherent overall structure that is easy for the reader to follow from start to finish.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating the main ideas and emotions. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary and appropriate phrases, such as "express my concern", "vegetarian", and "food poisoning". However, there are some word choice and collocation errors, such as "happy to saw" instead of "happy to see", and "respectfull" which has a spelling error. Furthermore, phrasing like "mostly non-veg" leans slightly towards informal usage. Despite these occasional lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips, communication is never impeded, and the vocabulary is sufficient to handle the requirements of the task satisfactorily.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. You successfully employed relative clauses and conditional-like structures, such as "Because I already mentioned to your staff that half of the team members are vegetarian..." However, there are several noticeable grammatical errors and awkward constructions throughout the text, including "the room that you provide us" (tense error), "the menu they served were" (subject-verb agreement), and the sentence fragment starting with "As 3 people are suffering now...". Punctuation is generally acceptable, and while these errors are frequent enough to prevent a higher band, they do not impede the overall communication of your message.

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