Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The system used for rubbish/garbage collection in your local area is not working properly. This is causing problems for you and your neighbours. Write a letter to the local council. In your letter

• describe how the rubbish collection system is not working properly
• explain how this is affecting you and your neighbours
• suggest what should be done about the problem

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 letter to report that the rubbish/garbage collection system in our local area is not working properly, which is causing lots of issues in the neighbourhood.

Firstly, the timing of the garbage collection van is not fixed and the van oftenly arrives during mid-day. Furthermore, the cleaning staff who comes along with garbage collection van does not seem to be well-trained, as they miss collecting the grabage from several collection points. This includes the garabage lying outside some of the houses.

In addition to this, the waste lying on the street after the van leaves, makes the neighbourhood looks more clumsy. Due to these wastes, the threat of rats and cockroaches has increased significantly in our area. Conequently, this is also creating hygiene issues and i am afraud thay it can cause the outbreak of certain diseases. Moreover, the streets also smell at times which is causing a great discomfort to us.

From my perspective, it will be great if you can schedule our meeting with the garbage collection team and discuss these pain points. Moreover, I suggest you can form a team who will monitor the performance of garabage collection system so that these issues must not occur in future. Hygiene and cleanliness should be the main focus along with the punctuality.

Therefore, I request you to look into this promptly and help us as early as possible.

Regards,

Gaurav

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The candidate has successfully addressed all three bullet points of the prompt in a clear and appropriate tone for a formal letter to a local council. The letter begins appropriately with 'Dear Sir or Madam' and outlines the issue with the rubbish collection system effectively. The student describes how the service is failing, specifically mentioning irregular timing and untrained staff missing collection points. Furthermore, the impact on residents is clearly explained, touching upon hygiene issues, pests like rats and cockroaches, and foul odours. Finally, actionable suggestions are offered, such as setting up a monitoring team and scheduling a meeting. The tone is consistently polite and formal, and all parts of the task are well-developed, satisfying the requirements for a strong band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The letter demonstrates a clear overall progression and logical organisation. Ideas are logically grouped into paragraphs, starting with the problem description, moving to the consequences, offering solutions, and concluding with a call to action. The student uses appropriate cohesive devices to link ideas, such as 'Firstly', 'Furthermore', 'In addition to this', and 'Consequently'. However, paragraphing could be slightly more refined, and some transitional phrases feel slightly formulaic. Referencing is generally clear, though minor mechanical issues in cohesion prevent it from reaching a higher band. Overall, the layout and flow make the letter easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate to good range of vocabulary suited to the task, using terms such as 'neighbourhood', 'hygiene issues', 'outbreak of certain diseases', and 'punctuational'. However, there are some noticeable lexical and spelling errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'oftenly' (instead of 'often' or 'frequently'), 'grabage' / 'garabage' (misspellings of 'garbage'), 'clumsy' (inappropriate collocation for a street looking untidy; 'messy' or 'cluttered' would be better), 'Conequently' (spelling error), and 'afraud thay' (typos for 'afraid that'). Despite these errors, communication is never impeded, and the vocabulary is sufficient for the task.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. The student attempts complex structures with relative clauses and conditional-like phrasing, such as 'I am writing this letter to report that...' and 'it will be great if you can schedule...'. There are several grammatical and mechanical errors throughout the text, including punctuation errors (such as the lowercase 'i' in 'i am afraud') and spelling typos. Additionally, some phrasing is slightly awkward, such as 'suggest you can form' instead of 'suggest that you form'. While these errors are noticeable, the majority of simple sentences are clear, and the errors do not impede overall communication.

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

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