Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-28

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 or Madam

I am here to discuss about my participants experience in your hotel. My company employees like your Hotel design they were very happy to saw your cleaniness and behaviour of your staff, all servants are very freindly they know how to take care of their guest. On the other hand, they don not accepted taste of the food because its very salty and too much oily as well as they used unwanted sauces in food. I think that you can make a criteria for all food, in criteria you can inform about the quantity of each ingredients it may help to reduce the chances of excessive use of ingredients. Manager can also check the food on regular basis which can also improve the quality of food and with this trick its easy to know about food as well as make the changes in food.

Yours faithfully,

Bhavanpreet Singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address all three points in the task: you praise the hotel’s design, cleanliness and staff, explain that the lunch was too salty and oily and included unsuitable sauces, and recommend setting ingredient quantities and checking food regularly. These details make the purpose clear and relevant. The praise and complaint are reasonably specific, while the proposed improvements are less fully explained—for example, you could say who should set the standards and how regular checks would ensure consistent quality. A more formal opening that identifies the meeting and a clearer closing request would also make the letter feel more complete. Overall, the main requirements are covered, but some ideas need further development and precision.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response follows a generally sensible order: it begins with positive feedback, turns to the food complaint, and ends with suggestions. The contrast marker “On the other hand” helps signal the change in focus, and the letter has an appropriate sign-off. However, nearly all the content is placed in one long paragraph, so the different purposes are not clearly separated. Some links are also repetitive or unclear, particularly the repeated use of “which can also” and “as well as.” Divide the letter into short paragraphs for praise, the problem, and recommendations, and use more precise links between ideas. This would make the progression easier to follow and reduce the impression of ideas being joined mechanically.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary to communicate the main points, including “cleanliness,” “friendly,” “salty,” “oily,” and “quality of food.” These choices make the complaint understandable. However, the range is limited, and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “discuss about,” “accepted taste,” “unwanted sauces,” and “make a criteria.” Spelling errors such as “freindly” and “cleaniness” also reduce accuracy. Aim for more precise expressions suited to a formal complaint, such as “the food was excessively salty” and “unnecessary sauces.” Building a small set of accurate phrases for describing service, food quality, and practical recommendations would help you express the same ideas more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt to connect ideas in longer sentences, for example when describing the staff and when proposing regular food checks. However, the range of sentence structures is limited, and errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries are frequent enough to make some parts difficult to read. Examples include “they were very happy to saw,” “they don not accepted,” and “Manager can also check,” where the verb forms or article use need correction. The final sentence joins several ideas without clear punctuation, making the recommendation hard to follow. Practise accurate simple sentences first, then add subordinate clauses with correct verb forms—for example, “Participants appreciated the clean hotel and friendly staff, but found the lunch too salty and oily.”

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