Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-14

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have just read an article in an international travel magazine which contained some information about your town that is incorrect.

Write a letter to the editor of the magazine. In your letter

• correct the information in the article
• explain why it is important for the magazine to give correct information
• suggest what the magazine should do about this situation

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,

Hope you find this letter in your good time. I am writting this letter, correcting the details of my town in your travel magazine article.

In your article you write about my town, and explaining the dark side of the town. I think you need to correct yourself about my town. My town have a beautiful park, where our childrens play in the evening. The whole town live like a family. In my town the crime rate is zero, everyone feel safe.

This is not good for your magazine. If you spread falls news. This is not good for your channel, people like it, because your magazine is the best in the country, and the wrong news is not good for your reputation.

In this case, The magazine do appology, and re-write about my town. This time you have to explain every detail of my town.

I am waitting for your response.

Best Regards,

Muhammad Hurera Imran

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You successfully covered all three parts of the task prompt. You corrected the false information regarding your town by highlighting positive features such as the beautiful park, zero crime rate, and a strong sense of community. You also explained why accurate reporting is important by mentioning the magazine's reputation and credibility. Finally, you suggested that the magazine should issue an apology and rewrite the article with accurate details. However, your ideas are somewhat basic and lack deeper extension, and the tone fluctuates slightly between formal and informal. Therefore, this response satisfies the requirements for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Your letter has a discernible overall structure with an appropriate opening and closing. You attempted to use paragraphing to separate different points, such as the correction of facts, the impact on the magazine, and your suggested solution. However, the logical progression is occasionally hindered by abrupt transitions and choppy sentences, such as 'This is not good for your magazine. If you spread falls news. This is not good for your channel.' Referencing is also sometimes unclear. While the letter holds together as a coherent whole, the cohesive devices are overly mechanical, placing this performance securely in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range, warranting a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using words like 'reputation', 'details', and 'apology'. However, there are notable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as writing 'writting' instead of 'writing', 'falls' instead of 'false', 'channel' instead of 'magazine', and 'waitting' instead of 'waiting'. Furthermore, phrasing like 'Hope you find this letter in your good time' is unnatural for this context. While these lexical slips and errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempted a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional clauses like 'If you spread falls news...'. However, your writing contains frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('My town have', 'The whole town live', 'everyone feel safe', 'The magazine do appology'). Punctuation is also problematic, particularly with sentence fragments and comma splices, such as treating dependent clauses as independent sentences. Due to the high frequency of basic grammatical errors that occasionally strain comprehension, this response meets the criteria for Band 5.0.

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

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