Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-05

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)

Advertisement nowadays emphasizes more into their products to persuade that they are new somehow. In my opinion, I think this is a positive development because consumers should always expect a new feature in their products. This creates a sense of competition between business companies, which favors the consumer.

Advertisement is a big window, which allow businesses to flourish and climb up the market. But, in real life situations, companies might not always bring up new products, rather they use different approaches from their products that value certain consumers. A paramount technique used in business. For an example, sports companies use a role model to reach out to their fans, so they would consider this product next time they go shopping. A real example, Cristiano Ronaldo, well-known for his risky and powerful performance in football, Addidas takes advantage of this and make contracts with CR to advertise their products in order to reach his fans.

Furthermore, local market with numerous businesses puts loads on companies to be innovative and create new features in their products. To emphasize this point let us take the US market as an example, tech companies are striving each year to develop new products, but this time consuming and requires more staff. In order to stay in the competition, each business bring to the market tiny feature to suit certain purpose. To accelerate this approach, Apple company used to produce iPhones each two to three years with major shift in the design and brilliant features, meanwhile, iPhone 14, iPhone 15, 16 and 17 has been produced in only few years with little to now additives. But they take advantage of advertisement to showcase how this model revolutionize technology.

In the end, businesses nowadays are using several techniques in their advertising in order to keep up the pace with the market demand. Techniques, such as using famous models like Cristiano Ronaldo in sports company and Apple company with their iPhone versions with very tiny changes.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: explaining why businesses emphasize 'newness' and providing an opinion on whether this is positive or negative. You clearly state your position in the introduction. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While you provide relevant examples like sports marketing and the tech industry, the explanation of why this is a 'positive' development is slightly underdeveloped. You mention competition, but the link between 'newness' and consumer benefit could be more explicitly argued. To reach a higher band, ensure that every point made is fully supported with a clear logical link back to your main argument.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'In order to', and 'In the end' to guide the reader. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and some transitions feel abrupt. For instance, the transition between the general discussion of marketing and the specific example of Cristiano Ronaldo could be smoother. Additionally, the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the phrase 'different approaches from their products that value certain consumers', which is grammatically awkward and obscures the intended meaning. Improving the variety and precision of your linking words will help elevate your score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'flourish', 'innovative', and 'revolutionize'. However, there are instances of imprecise word choice and collocation errors that hinder clarity. For example, 'emphasizes more into their products' is non-standard; 'emphasizes' should be followed by the object directly. Similarly, 'little to now additives' is likely a typo for 'little to no additions'. While your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your message, you need to use less common lexical items with greater precision and pay closer attention to collocations to move into the higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is a positive step. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'each business bring'), incorrect preposition usage, and awkward phrasing (e.g., 'iPhone 14, iPhone 15, 16 and 17 has been produced'). Punctuation is generally functional, but some sentences are slightly run-on or lack necessary clarity. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency of the essay. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and refining your sentence construction will significantly improve your accuracy.

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.