Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-26

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 complain about local garbage collection system. I am a resident of Royal community.

Due to inappropriate way of garbage collection, we are facing continous problems. The workers who are working in the local area fail to perform their duties wisely such leaving garbage bins unempty, damaging garbage bins, and unexpected timing of rubbish collection.

As a result, somedays we do not have enough space in garbage bins to throw more garbage. Additionally, we have to spend more money to repair or buy garbage bins after they damaged the bins while collecting the rubbish.

We request you to provide proper training to the workers before hiring them. Moreover, an observation can be done on the workers to know the quality of work of employees such as track the hours of their work.

I hope an instant consideration on my request.

Kind regards,

Simranpreet Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You address all three requested points and maintain a clear, appropriately formal purpose. The collection failures are identified through examples such as bins being left unemptied, damaged, and collected at unexpected times. You also explain practical effects—insufficient bin space and the cost of repairs or replacements—and propose staff training and monitoring. These ideas are relevant and sufficiently extended to make the complaint clear. To strengthen the response further, develop the impact on neighbours more explicitly, since the effects are mostly described as shared problems rather than illustrated with a specific consequence. The proposed monitoring could also be made more directly actionable, for example by asking the council to review collection schedules and inspect the service regularly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter has a clear progression: you introduce the complaint, describe the service failures, explain their consequences, and then make requests. Paragraphing supports this sequence, and linking expressions such as “As a result” and “Additionally” help show how the problems affect residents. The opening and closing also suit a formal letter. To make the organisation more polished, connect the final requests more explicitly to the specific failures—for instance, link schedule monitoring to unpredictable collection times. Some transitions are slightly mechanical, and the list of failures in the second paragraph could be integrated more smoothly into a complete sentence. Overall, however, the reader can follow the complaint and its proposed solutions without difficulty.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the complaint, with relevant terms such as “garbage collection,” “residents,” “repair,” and “training.” You also attempt more formal language, including “inappropriate” and “observation.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural, which limits precision: “workers … perform their duties wisely,” “bins unempty,” and “an instant consideration” do not express the intended meanings idiomatically. There are also spelling errors in “continous” and “somedays.” Aim for natural collocations and precise service-related wording, such as “carry out their duties properly,” “leave bins unemptied,” and “prompt attention.” This would make the letter sound more fluent and professional.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the cause-and-effect construction “As a result” and the clause beginning “after they damaged the bins.” Meaning is generally clear, and the paragraphs contain several straightforward sentences that are easy to understand. Some grammatical errors remain, particularly with articles, sentence construction, and verb forms. For example, “complain about local garbage collection system” needs an article, while “such leaving” requires a different structure, such as “such as leaving.” In “after they damaged the bins,” the pronoun reference is unclear and the passive form would be more suitable. The final sentence, “I hope an instant consideration on my request,” is also incomplete in its current form. Review these patterns while continuing to vary sentence structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.