Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-22
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 5.5)
It is an undeniable fact that people habits and taste usually alter with the passage of time. Howbiet, In today's era, most of the individuals prefer to watch crime novels and dramas. I think there are a numerous reasons behind this phenomenon which I will explain in the upcoming paragraphs with my own opinion.
To commence with the causes, why people admire these kinds of shows because it holds lots of mysteries and suspence. For instance, nowadays
film makers always use the main part of the film for promotion and shows a scene like person is killed by a ghost or a anonymous person that create a curiousity in between audience and they cannot restrict themselves to watch the full series. Another thing is that, people like it due to its storeyline is quite fascinating they do not get bore while watching it. Howbiet it has a lots of sequence such as comedy part, action scene and romance portion that helps spectators to engage for a longer period of time.
According to my perspective, crime magazines and serials is a powerful entertainment source that provide awareness regarding the crime and its reprecussions. To explicate it, in film scence it shows that if individuals did any kind of robbery or murder. As a punishment, government send them to jail for few years or lifetime as well as they also have to pay penalty as a compensations. Furthermore, I believe that it assists children to enhance their imagination power and creativity. While reading novels they get eager to know what is te next scene of the story that push their brain to think more and help them to broaden their horizon.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that crime novels and dramas help individuals and society to give knowledge about the serious issues and their drawbacks but it has a lots of positive effects that cannot be ignored.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses both parts of the task by discussing the reasons for the popularity of crime fiction and TV shows, and providing a personal opinion regarding their benefits. The position is stated early and maintained throughout the essay. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or vague, such as the mention of film makers using the main part of the film for promotion, which lacks clear integration. Examples and explanations are provided, though they tend to generalise. For instance, the discussion on how crime dramas provide awareness regarding consequences is relevant but lacks specific detail. Overall, the prompt is adequately covered, placing this submission firmly within the Band 6 descriptor category for task achievement.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, separating the introduction, causes, personal perspective, and conclusion. However, cohesion is often faulty or mechanical, with noticeable spelling and lexical errors affecting transitional phrases, such as 'Howbiet' instead of 'However' and 'suspence'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, for example in sentences like 'why people admire these kinds of shows because it holds lots of mysteries', which creates a disjointed flow. While the progression of ideas is generally understandable, the misuse of cohesive devices and mechanical referencing issues prevent the essay from achieving a higher band score, fitting well within the Band 5 descriptors.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'phenomenon', 'reprecussions', and 'broaden their horizon'. However, there are numerous noticeable errors in spelling and word choice throughout the text, including 'Howbiet' for however, 'anonynmous' or 'anonymous', 'curiousity', 'storeyline', 'scence', and 'compensations'. These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret, although communication is not severely impeded. The vocabulary range is minimally adequate to convey the intended meaning, matching the criteria for a Band 5 in lexical resource.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in sentence structures. However, frequent grammatical errors are present, particularly with subject-verb agreement and clause structures, such as 'people habits and taste usually alter', 'causes, why people admire these kinds of shows because it holds', and 'dramas is a powerful entertainment source'. Punctuation and capitalization errors also appear frequently, including commas separating subjects from verbs and fragmented clauses. These errors can cause occasional difficulty and distraction for the reader, aligning the grammar performance with the Band 5 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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