Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-11-10

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In their advertising, businesses nowadays usually emphasise that their products are new in some way. Why is this? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Many businesses nowadays use new techniques to advertise their products. They use methods to show that their products are new and better in some ways. They use social media platforms for the promotion of the products as well as the local advertising compaigns are considered into action.

I think of it as a positive development in some ways as well as negative development also. Firstly, if we talk about positive development the company gets a lot of sales by advertising their products in this way. People get engaged seeing new things and they buy products in curiosity which indirectly increases the sales of the company. For Instance, a smartphone company reannounces a mobile with futuristic new features. This increases people's curiosity about the mobile and people buy the smartphone in order to check new things.

Secondly, it also adds more variety in the market like new smartphones and more futuristic gadgets get a chance in the market. This helps companies to experiment new products and technologies and hence the world gets useful products in return. For example, a new company comes into market with a vision to experiment and bring new gadgets and products for people. This adds more variety into the market.

However on the other hand, it has some negative developments as well like the less customer satisfaction. The companies sometimes fail to deliver the same products as they advertised which leads to customer dissatisfaction. For instance, a company advertised a new TV with multiple features but they fail to deliver it. This breaks people's trust and hence people will never invest in these kind of things.

In conclusion, advertising new things and new products is not a bad thing but companies should deliver what they are showing. All in all it is overall a good development.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: you suggest that novelty-focused advertising attracts buyers and creates market variety, and you give a qualified positive view while acknowledging the risk of unmet expectations. The smartphone and television examples help illustrate these points. However, the reasons businesses emphasise novelty are not explored fully; the response mainly describes the effects on sales and consumers rather than explaining the business motives, such as standing out from competitors or encouraging repeat purchases. Your position is also slightly mixed: you call the development positive, but the conclusion says it is “not a bad thing” and “overall a good development” without clearly weighing the drawback. Develop each main reason with a clearer explanation and make your overall judgement consistent.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for benefits and a drawback, and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” “However,” and “In conclusion” make the progression easy to follow. Some connections are mechanical or unclear, though. For example, “I think of it as a positive development in some ways as well as negative development also” is awkwardly constructed, and “However on the other hand” combines two contrasting signals unnecessarily. The examples are relevant, but their links to the main claims could be made more explicit. Use a wider range of natural transitions and refer back clearly to the specific point each example supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main ideas, including “curiosity,” “variety,” “features,” and “customer satisfaction.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “futuristic gadgets,” although some choices are imprecise or repetitive. “New” and “products” recur frequently, while “new techniques to advertise” does not quite express the task’s focus on presenting products as novel. Spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, including “compaigns” and “reannounces,” and phrases such as “adds more variety into the market” are not natural collocations. Build a broader set of precise terms for novelty-based marketing and check spelling and collocation when editing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use both simple sentences and some longer structures, including clauses with “which” and “as well as,” and the main meaning is generally understandable. However, control is uneven, particularly in longer sentences and in sentence construction. For example, “as well as the local advertising compaigns are considered into action” does not form a clear grammatical structure, and “a company comes into market” is missing an article. The sentence beginning “I think of it as a positive development” also has an awkward parallel construction. Practise building complex sentences around one clear main clause, and check articles, verb forms, and punctuation. More consistently accurate sentence patterns would make your ideas easier to follow.

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