Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-02

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 6.0)

Dear Harold,

How are you doing? I hope you are fine? I am writing to update you about the reviews my colleagues gave after the recent PTA meeting held at Ricky's hotel.

The hotel was located in a secured environment which made them feel safe. The rooms were large and conducive. The bathroom had a water heater which was perfect as the weather was cold. The staffs were very welcoming and were swift to response whenever they were needed.

Although they were displeased with the food as the portions served was very small. The lobsters tasted salty. The fried rice was soggy, more like it wasn't prepared that day. Also the menu was limited as there was no variety of options and people were left to choose from what was available.

I would suggest that a professional chef is hired. The chef would ensure the food prepared looks presentable. The management should also invest in their cutleries as first impression gives clients an insight to the company's value.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this.

Warm regards,

Nwamaka Ndego

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address all parts of the task, meeting the core requirements by mentioning what participants liked, explaining their unhappiness with the food, and suggesting improvements for the future. However, certain parts are under-developed or mismanaged. Specifically, the letter fails to follow the prompt's instruction to begin with 'Dear Sir or Madam,' instead adopting an informal tone by addressing 'Dear Harold'. This misjudgement affects the appropriacy of the register required for a formal business complaint letter to a hotel manager. Furthermore, while the hotel's positive aspects and food issues are mentioned, the explanation of the food's shortcomings could be extended further to fully explore the impact on the participants.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your letter demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement and logical progression of ideas. Each paragraph has a clear focus: the opening introduces the context, the second paragraph details the hotel's positive features, the third outlines the food complaints, and the final paragraph offers constructive suggestions. You use basic cohesive devices adequately to guide the reader through the letter, such as 'Although', 'Also', and 'I would suggest'. While paragraphing is generally used sufficiently and appropriately, the transitional flow between sentences could sometimes be smoother to fully meet the expectations of the next band level, where referencing and logical bridges are handled with greater flexibility.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and descriptive terms such as 'conducive', 'welcoming', and 'presentative'. However, there are some word choice and word form errors that occasionally distract, such as using 'staffs' instead of the plural uncountable 'staff', writing 'response' instead of the verb 'respond', and stating that 'portions served was' instead of 'were'. Spelling and word choice errors remain generally controlled and do not impede communication, but eliminating these inaccuracies and demonstrating a more precise selection of formal business vocabulary will help lift your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms throughout the letter, incorporating structures like relative clauses and conditional-style descriptions. However, there are noticeable errors in grammar that prevent a higher score. For example, there are subject-verb agreement issues, such as 'The staffs were' and 'portions served was', alongside prepositional inconsistencies like 'response whenever they were needed'. Additionally, the opening question 'I hope you are fine?' mixes styles inappropriately. Your sentences contain enough correct structures to ensure communication is rarely impeded, but frequent basic errors in agreement and tense consistency demonstrate the limitations typical of this level.

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

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