Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-20

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)

Corporations these days are using one of the effective strategies for selling their items which is advertising. I feel that since consumers always pursue new fashions and trends, managers and CEO are aware of this fact, so they take that to their advantage. This change in the way of marketing has positive aspects when what is claimed to be new has a benefit and negative aspects on the other hand.

Human beings find routinely activities dull. This makes every thing new whether an object, the weather or a trip meaningful in their life. Sometimes, just travelling to another country so changing the culture and places make people happy. By employing the same principle in advertising, it is sufficient for a company to say that its product has novel functionalities to convince many individuals to purchase appliances or devices even when they do not need.

To buy a device only because it is new will have surely negative aspects since the decision is based on emotions and desire without taking into consideration logical and real arguments. It is obvious that almost all new products in the market nowadays have some beneficial aspects. However, to fully take advantage of a prodcut, one need to not only consider the appearance of an item but also how useful can be.

To conclude, it will be beneficial for companies and consumers alike if corporations include practical functions in their new products and also consumers should be aware when choosing what to buy and what they are going to purchase have to be based on real facts.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing why businesses emphasise new products and evaluating whether this is a positive or negative development. The writer takes a clear stance, stating that it has both positive and negative aspects depending on whether the claimed novelty provides genuine benefits. Ideas are generally relevant, but the body paragraphs tend to over-generalise and lack fully developed specific examples. For instance, the discussion on human psychology regarding routines could be supported by a concrete example of a market sector, such as technology or fashion. Nevertheless, the main task requirements are met with sufficient clarity.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately, with each paragraph focusing on a distinct aspect of the prompt. However, some cohesive devices feel mechanical or awkward, such as 'on the other hand' used without a preceding 'on the one hand', and referencing is occasionally unclear (e.g., 'every thing new whether an object, the weather or a trip meaningful in their life'). Furthermore, transitions between sentences could be smoother to enhance the overall flow of the arguments.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'novel functionalities' and 'consideration logical and real arguments'. However, there are noticeable word-choice errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, such as 'routinely activities' instead of 'routine activities', 'CEO' instead of 'CEOs', and 'prodcut' (spelling error). While these errors do not impede communication, they reflect a lack of precision that prevents the lexical score from reaching the higher band levels.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Corporations these days are using one of the effective strategies for selling their items which is advertising.' There are several grammatical errors and awkward structures, including subject-verb agreement issues ('how useful can be' instead of 'how useful it can be'), missing articles ('one need to not only consider'), and prepositional slips ('take that to their advantage' instead of 'take advantage of that'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but grammatical inaccuracies occur frequently enough to occasionally cause the reader hesitation.

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