Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries today, crime novels and TV crime dramas are becoming more and more popular. Why do you think these books and TV shows are popular? What is your opinion of crime fiction and TV crime dramas?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

In recent times, crime novels and TV dramas have been watched excessively by elderly people as well as youngsters. The most common factor for this trend is the increasing rate of crime in cities as well as in rural areas. However, I believe we should watch such dramas and movies with a balanced approach, as excessive watching and reading stories could lead to mental disturbance.

Crime shows and novels are popular for several reasons. Firstly, people love to watch things based on real incidents, as they increase their curiosity to know the reason behind attempting it. In addition to this, it will also alert them to the situations happening around them and help them to prepare for future mishaps. Secondly, crime shows are always so interesting and suspenseful to watch, which increases people's attention and focus. Furthermore, advertising influence is also at its peak. They influence people to watch such shows. Lastly, nowadays, everything is easily available in the market at affordable prices, with so many deals on it. Individuals just buy them without thinking about the money.

In my opinion, people often watch things that are full of suspense and real-life history. Because they hear about them on the news, TV channels, and on social media, and feel insecure. Therefore, they watch them to make their children aware of such situations and how to tackle them. However, in my opinion, a balanced approach should always be taken. Because too much emphasis on such dramas and books will erase the adolescence of kids before time and make them overthinkers, which is not good for their development.

To conclude, a balanced approach is needed; once in a while, watching crime series and dramas is totally fine to acquire knowledge about the incidents happening in neighboring cities and countries. However, too much emphasis will put bad impact on children's brains as well as on mental health.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, exploring the reasons for the popularity of crime novels and TV dramas and stating an opinion regarding them. In the second paragraph, the writer attempts to explain the popularity by citing reasons such as curiosity about real incidents, the influence of advertising, and affordability. However, the connection between rising crime rates and the popularity of fiction is slightly underdeveloped, and points like advertising and easy availability are asserted without strong elaboration. Your position is stated in the introduction and reinforced in subsequent paragraphs, but the ideas could be extended more deeply to reach a higher band. Overall, the prompt is adequately answered.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The text displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, separating the introduction, reasons, personal opinion, and conclusion appropriately. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'In addition to this', 'Furthermore', and 'To conclude' are employed to guide the reader through the essay. However, some cohesive links feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, such as the repeated use of 'In my opinion' in consecutive paragraphs. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical progression within the second body paragraph stumbles slightly when shifting abruptly from suspense to advertising and affordability.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'elderly people', 'youngsters', 'curiosity', 'suspenseful', and 'insecure'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, though occasional word choice and collocation inaccuracies occur, such as 'reason behind attempting it' instead of committing it, and 'put bad impact' instead of 'have a negative impact'. Spelling is generally accurate, and the lexical errors present do not impede communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating control over relative clauses and conditional ideas, as seen in 'people love to watch things based on real incidents, as they increase their curiosity'. There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as fragments starting with 'Because they hear about them' and 'Because too much emphasis'. Punctuation is mostly functional, and while errors exist, they rarely impede communication, placing the writing comfortably at band 6.0.

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