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)

In the contemporary world, advertising has become an increasingly significant that attracts considerable public attention. In their commercials, business currently usually highlight that their items are fresh in some ways. This essay will cover the reasons and either promotion has a positive or negative effect.

Firstly, I will talk about the causes behind it. Businessman's nowadays start promoting their products just to justify the highest prices of the product by labelling the goods with new tags. For instance, there are mobile phone companies in Pakistan promoting their new phones by just updating their tags and people become crazy to buying them just to follow the trend. Moreover, similar things are vast in number. In Pakistani markets and high brand companies starts publicity of their older items by showing them in advertisements as a latest discovery. To illustrate, it gets a lot of public attention and customers buying them online or they want sometimes those equipment's immediately.

From my perspective, it is a negative development in our society. Sometimes people waste too much money by just watching adds of the products. For example, this leads to the wastage of money because by watching commercials, people occasionally buy some unnecessary equipment. Additionally, some are crazy to follow the trend, and this is the work of companies to make latest products every year and starts advertisement of that product, this will make negative effect on the finances of people. For example, In Pakistan, showing our new clothes to others is getting more popular with the passage of time and by watching commercials about new clothes, girl of new generation wants these clothes immediately and they ordered them without thinking about them.

In conclusion, companies promoting their products just to justify the highest prices of the items while it is a negative development because people waste more money in buying these new goods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both parts of the prompt: you suggest that businesses present products as new to justify higher prices, and you clearly judge this as a negative development because it encourages unnecessary spending. The examples about phone marketing and clothing in Pakistan make the discussion relevant. However, the explanation of why businesses stress novelty is narrower than the question allows: the phone example mainly describes consumers following trends, rather than explaining the companies’ motives in detail. The second reason paragraph also repeats the spending point, and some claims—such as older products being advertised as new discoveries—need clearer explanation. Develop the business rationale and connect each example more explicitly to your main ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on reasons, a paragraph explaining your negative view, and a conclusion. Signposting such as “Firstly,” “From my perspective,” and “In conclusion” helps readers follow the main stages. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes uneven. “Moreover, similar things are vast in number” does not specify what those things are, and the move from older items to customers buying equipment is not fully explained. The conclusion repeats the central points without adding a concise synthesis. Use clearer links between claims and examples, and make references such as “this” and “those” identify their meaning precisely.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use vocabulary relevant to advertising and consumer behaviour, including “justify the highest prices,” “public attention,” “follow the trend,” and “unnecessary equipment.” There is also some attempt to vary expression through terms such as “commercials” and “publicity.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are noticeably inaccurate, sometimes making the intended meaning less clear. Examples include “an increasingly significant” without a noun, “fresh in some ways,” “similar things are vast in number,” and “latest discovery” for products presented as new. Repetition of “new,” “products,” and “people” also limits precision. Build a wider set of natural phrases for product launches, marketing claims, and consumer spending.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentence forms, including sentences with reasons and examples, and the overall meaning is generally recoverable. However, control is inconsistent, particularly in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “business currently usually highlight” has an agreement problem, while “people become crazy to buying them” uses an incorrect verb pattern. In “companies … starts publicity,” the subject and verb do not agree, and “girl of new generation wants” has problems with number and article use. Some long sentences combine several ideas without clear grammatical boundaries. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement and verb patterns, then divide complex explanations into shorter, controlled sentences.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.