Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-28

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)

Nowadays, businesses in their advertisement usually highlight that their products are new in some way because people want the new products to be distinguish from the existing ones.

In the modern world, people have almost every product which makes their life more convenient. People want the new products to have some qualities that are not available in existing ones. Although businesses are not able to make a completely new product, they modify the existing products for betterment and present them as new thing. While people lives are already convenient, they want existing product to be upgraded as well. For instance, a person is using a laptop which takes more time in computation would want to upgrade his laptop for better speed. The company launches a new laptop with some modification in the product and will advertise it as new because people want new product instead of existing ones. Similarly, businesses are launching mobile phones by changing their designs and some little modifications and present them as new ones. These kind of advertisement helps the business grow more because they attract more customers.

In my opinion, it is a negative development because business should advertise what actually is the product they are selling rather than presenting an existing product as new. If their product is not new then they should advertise it as it is and they can show the customers how their product is better than the existing product which will attract the customers and retain them for a longer period of time.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: explaining why businesses emphasize 'newness' and providing an opinion on whether this is positive or negative. However, the development is somewhat limited. While the explanation for why companies use this strategy is clear, the discussion on whether it is a positive or negative development is brief and lacks depth. The argument that it is 'negative' is stated, but the supporting reasoning could be more robustly explored to reach a higher band. The response stays on topic throughout, but the ideas could be extended further to provide a more comprehensive analysis.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into three paragraphs, which is a logical structure. There is a clear progression of ideas from the introduction to the body and the conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'For instance,' 'Similarly,' and 'In my opinion,' which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are a bit mechanical, and the flow between sentences could be smoother. The paragraphing is sufficient, but the final paragraph is quite short, which affects the overall balance of the essay. Referencing is generally clear, though some sentences feel slightly repetitive in their structure.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at using topic-specific vocabulary like 'computation,' 'upgraded,' and 'retain.' However, the range is somewhat limited, and there is a reliance on simpler terms. Some word choices are slightly imprecise, such as 'people want the new products to be distinguish from the existing ones' (should be 'distinguished'). To improve, the student should aim to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and a wider variety of synonyms to avoid repetition of words like 'new' and 'product.'

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'people lives are already convenient' (missing possessive 'people's') and 'These kind of advertisement' (should be 'This kind of advertisement' or 'These kinds of advertisements'). There are also issues with article usage and verb forms. While these errors do not significantly impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. A greater variety of error-free complex structures would be needed for a higher band.

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