Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-08

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)

It is becoming increasingly common among companies’ marketing strategy that represents their products and services somehow labelling as new with the people. While this trend is driven with couple of motives, it seems to me that its impact could results in negative sentiments.

Organisations excessively spent significant amount of their budget in creating advertisement to attract buyers to stay ahead from their peers, in this competitive market. By doing so, they could develop healthy relationships with their customers, which leads to increase in the annual sales of business, resulting in beating their competitors. Moreover, building reputation and establishing image of being looks rich is become trend among young people nowadays. They often attract to purchase new products that have launched recently to display it in their society that they have exclusive access of all modern-day products than others. For example, whenever Apple launches its new model of iPhone, individuals stand in long queue on a first day of the launch to show of others.

However, this development has a wide-range of disadvantages rather than advantages. This is because mostly marketing strategy influence from this phenomena of younger generations and they often involves false branding of their products, which results in unnecessarily increase in expenses of middle class families. Due to high competition, additionally, companies often lacks in time for research and developments for the innovation, this time is consuming in impressing new buyers. As a result, they push themselves, and tend to change the packaging and designing of their products instead of innovating. For instance, Apple change their mobile phones’ design mostly when they launch, resulting in the similar features and user experience as old models have.

To conclude, advertising and labelling products as new, nowadays, become convenient way for businesses to maximizing revenue and sales growth in this competitive era. Although, the impact it creates for its end users such as false marketing and lacks in innovation are seems to be serious, which could not be justify.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the reasons for the focus on 'newness' and the evaluation of whether this is positive or negative. The position is clear throughout, arguing that the trend is largely negative due to superficial innovation and consumer pressure. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the example of Apple is relevant, the explanation regarding 'middle class families' and 'false branding' is a bit generalized and could benefit from more precise logical links. The response covers all requirements, but the depth of analysis is more consistent with a Band 6.0 level, as some points are slightly repetitive or under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. There is a progression of ideas from the motives behind the trend to the negative consequences. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'This is because mostly marketing strategy influence from this phenomena'. Additionally, some referencing is unclear, and the transition between sentences occasionally feels disjointed. While the paragraphing is appropriate, the flow between and within paragraphs could be smoother to reach a higher band. The overall structure is coherent, but the internal cohesion requires more refinement.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'exclusive access' and 'competitive era'. However, there are several instances of inaccurate word choice and collocation errors, such as 'labelling as new with the people', 'display it in their society', and 'lacks in time'. These errors do not impede communication, but they demonstrate a limited control over more sophisticated lexical items. To improve, the student should focus on collocations and ensuring that words are used in their correct grammatical context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including issues with subject-verb agreement ('companies often lacks', 'are seems to be'), preposition usage ('driven with', 'influence from'), and article usage. While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors are noticeable and detract from the overall quality of the writing. The student attempts complex structures, but these are often where the errors occur. A greater focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would significantly improve the score.

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