Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-03

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 5.5)

Dear Sir,

This is Tom from IT company in Toronto.We recently organised a party at your hotel for 50 people. It was a good experiene but I would like to write a letter regarding positive and negative feedback during our meeting.

First of all, I would like to thank you regarding the great service during the meeting.The mike and the audio system was fabulous.There are couple of buttons from which we can adjust the volume according to the needs.Moreover, the stage organized by your staff was amazing. Everything was at right place. The decoration was eye- catching. In addition, everyone loves the sitting area, they finding it more comfortable.

On the other hand, there are some things which they do not like such as food. The food was cold even it was too spicy. Some of my employees did not had a food because they are vegetarian.I already mentioned this before but still we did not get any option for them. This is main thing which really needs some improvement.

I would like to request you to give some instruction to your staff reagrding food service. Hope we will get good service next time.

looking forward to hear from you.

Yours Faithfully,

Tom

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, successfully mentioning what participants liked about the hotel, explaining why they were unhappy with the food, and suggesting improvements for the future. However, some areas are under-developed or lack sufficient clarity. While the positive aspects of the hotel and the food complaints are covered, the explanation regarding the vegetarian options is slightly unclear and repetitive. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter, but the overall development of ideas remains limited and could be extended further to fully explore each bullet point with greater depth and specific supporting details.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical letter-writing structure, moving smoothly from the purpose of the letter to the positive points, the negative points, and finally the suggestions. Paragraphing is used adequately to separate distinct topics. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, relying on basic connectors such as 'First of all,' 'Moreover,' and 'On the other hand.' Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the transition between sentences describing the sitting area and the food, which affects the overall flow and progression of ideas throughout the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'eye-catching' and 'experiene' (misspelled as experience). However, there are noticeable word-choice and spelling errors that occasionally detract from the reading experience, such as 'mic' written as 'mike', 'sitting area' instead of seating area, and 'reagrding'. Collocation and word forms are sometimes awkward, for instance, 'everyone loves the sitting area, they finding it more comfortable,' which demonstrates limited control over vocabulary and minor slips that reflect an adequate but restricted lexical range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response shows a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions, such as 'The mike and the audio system was fabulous' and 'did not had a food'. Articles are also omitted or misused in places, such as 'This is main thing'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are noticeable and demonstrate that complex sentence structures are often faulty, restricting the grammatical range and accuracy to a developing level.

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