Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-20

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

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir,

My name is Anuj Madaan, I have been living in the Rose Society for the last 10 years. I am writting this letter on behalf of all society memebrs on ongoing issue with garbage collection from our society.

First of all, I would like to say thank you for your all efforts to improve our society. However, we are facing a big problem of garbage collection system. The manegment is not working properly, most of the time they come by 8 am in the morning when all of us are about to leave house for work, due to which everyone has to face traffic. Secondly, workers are taking too much leaves, they always come twice in a week, which was once in day service in previous time.

We all are having hard times due to this, we got late to work mostly and due to less service garbage create smells and attract more mosqitose which leads to fatal diseases. All of us struggling with this problem from last 2 months.

I am requesting you to please provide the servise adequatly and I hope you take strickt actions against the workers who never showed up

Thanks for your time and consideration

Yours faithfully

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three points: you describe collection happening at an inconvenient time and less often, explain lateness to work and the smell and mosquitoes, and ask the council to improve the service. The details about the previous daily service and the two-month duration help make the complaint specific. However, some points are less fully developed than others. For example, “everyone has to face traffic” does not clearly explain how the collection time causes traffic, and the request to take “strict actions against the workers” is less constructive than a specific service improvement. Explain the practical consequences more clearly and suggest measures such as a reliable collection schedule or a replacement crew.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: it introduces the complaint, describes the collection problems, explains their effects, and ends with a request. Paragraph breaks support this progression, and linking phrases such as “First of all,” “However,” and “Secondly” help signal the sequence. Some cohesion is mechanical, though, and a few connections are unclear. For instance, “due to which everyone has to face traffic” does not make the relationship between the collection time and traffic easy to follow. The final request also moves quickly from asking for adequate service to demanding action against workers. Use more precise links between cause and effect, and connect the proposed remedy directly to the problems described.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the complaint, including “garbage collection,” “workers,” “smells,” and “diseases.” There are also attempts at more formal language, such as “on behalf of” and “consideration.” However, spelling errors and imprecise or unnatural word choices are noticeable and sometimes make the reader pause: “manegment,” “mosqitose,” and “servise” are examples, while “taking too much leaves” is not a natural way to describe staff absences. “Fatal diseases” is also stronger than the evidence in the letter supports. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations for complaints, such as “missed collections,” “unpleasant odours,” and “staff absences.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a sentence with “due to which” and one explaining that rubbish attracts mosquitoes and may lead to disease. The main message remains understandable, but some sentence structures and grammatical patterns are not controlled consistently. For example, “My name is Anuj Madaan, I have been living…” joins two independent clauses with only a comma, and “All of us struggling with this problem from last 2 months” lacks a finite verb and uses an incorrect time expression. There are also issues with articles and verb forms in phrases such as “face traffic” and “garbage create smells.” Use full sentence structures, check subject–verb agreement, and use the present perfect with “for the last two months.”

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