The phrase "a sort of model" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing something that resembles or functions similarly to a model, but may not be a perfect representation.
Example: "The prototype serves as a sort of model for the final product we aim to develop."
Alternatives: "a kind of model" or "a type of model".
You had a sort of model in Manny.
"She is a sort of model for the younger generation.
But Ms. Bachmann, who is prone to foot-in-mouth blather, is a sort of model (good and bad) for Republican congresswomen.
The white brick facade of the 1951 Manhattan House at 66th Street and Third Avenue, a sort of model housing complex for the upper class, was certainly chosen with class as much as aesthetics in mind: by midcentury, scores of new housing projects constructed across the city in orangey-red brick had tainted that color for upper-income residents.
With baseball's interleague play as a sort of model, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner and former Secretary of State, could debate Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who's running behind Trump, and the third-place Republican, Ohio Governor John Kasich, could have been available for consolation matchups in subsequent rounds.
Evelyn Waugh was perhaps first among his idols, and Kingsley Amis's "Lucky Jim" a sort of model, and if he felt at home anywhere it was with those Angry Young and then Not-So-Angry (and not so young) men Amis, Alan Sillitoe, and John Braine.
It's those who can chip in for those who can't – a sort of cooperative model of publishing".
"For each folio, they took lots of different images and then stitched them together in a sort of 3D model," explains Smith.
(Open University has often served as a sort of inspirational model for such ventures, which Nathan Heller wrote about last year in the magazine).
What Manoj was proposing was a sort of anchor model.
So it's a sort of hybrid model between streaming and downloading that works quite well.
