What’s the difference between Band 5, Band 6, and Band 7 writing?

These are official writing samples from IELTS. I’ve colour-coded the errors based on their seriousness, i.e. based on how much they affect your score.

• Yellow = Awkward language/minor grammar issue
• Orange = Moderate language/grammar issue
• Red = Serious language/grammar issue

Even without reading them, you can tell the difference from a distance.

Band 5

IELTS Official Writing Task 1 Sample – Band 5. Errors are highlighted: yellow represents awkward language or minor grammar issues; orange represents moderate language/grammar issues; red represents major language/grammar issues.

The examiner gave this a Band 5 for the following reasons:

• It’s too short and low on detail. There are no specific references to the data.
• Overall, it’s difficult to understand.
• There are major sentence structure problems (highlighted in red).

Band 6

IELTS Official Writing Task 1 Sample – Band 6. Errors are highlighted: yellow represents awkward language or minor grammar issues; orange represents moderate language/grammar issues; red represents major language/grammar issues.

The examiner gave this a Band 6 for the following reasons:

• Some information is missing.
• Some information is inaccurate.
• Cohesion problems: connections between some ideas are unclear.
• Awkward language
• Lack of sentence structure variety

Band 7

IELTS Official Writing Task 1 Sample – Band 7. Errors are highlighted: yellow represents awkward language or minor grammar issues; orange represents moderate language/grammar issues; red represents major language/grammar issues.

The examiner gave this a Band 7 for the following reasons:

• Lack of sufficient detail in the general overview
• Awkward expressions
• Minor issues with word forms