Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-27
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 today's highly competitive market, companies frequently highlight the novelty of their products in advertisements. This tren is driven by consumer psychology and market stauration, and I believe it is lagely a negative development. This essay will expalain the primary drivers associated with this trend.
One of the main reasons why businesses emphasize newness. Firstly, it attracts attention of the people. In an era where consumers are bombarded with advertisements nad glued to screens, a product labelled as new, improved and latest model creats a sense of curoisity. Consequntly, as a result of more consumers are naturally drawn to innovation and believe that new product will be more efficient and offer better features. Secondly, it is a powerfull marketing strategy to drives sales. For instance, by constantly launching new versions, such as smartphones and cars, companies creat artificial demand and make old products obsolete.
However, I consider this development is extremely negative. The most siginficant drawback is that it promotes waste.People discard perfectly functional gadgets just to own the latest version. Consequently, leading to massive electronic waste and environmental degradation. For instance, individuals are thrown millions of phones annually because a new model was launched. Morever, this focus on newness is often misleading.
On the other hand, there is a minor positive aspect. the emphasis on innovation drive technological advancements and pushes companies to invest in research and development, which ultimatle benefits society with bwtter products.
In conclusion, although advertising new products is a logical tectic experience to capture consumer interest and stimulate sales, I believe its negative consequences such as environmental damage, financial strain, far outweigh the benefits of innovation.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the reasons behind the advertising trend and evaluating whether it is a positive or negative development. Your position is clear throughout the essay, leaning towards it being a negative development due to waste and environmental concerns. The ideas are extended and supported, such as mentioning smartphones and cars as examples of artificial demand, and electronic waste as a consequence. However, there are some minor mechanical and structural issues in the prompt response that limit deeper development, placing this performance solidly at a Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, separating the introduction, reasons, negative aspects, positive aspects, and conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the sentence fragment 'One of the main reasons why businesses emphasize newness. Firstly...' lacks a main verb, and transitional markers are occasionally misused, as seen in 'Consequently, as a result of more consumers...' and the abrupt transition in the conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas, but referencing and logical links between sentences occasionally stutter due to structural errors.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'consumer psychology', 'market saturation', 'obsolete', and 'environmental degradation'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('tren', 'stauration', 'lagely', 'expalain', 'curoisity', 'Consequntly', 'powerfull', 'siginficant', 'Morever', 'ultimatle', 'tectic') and awkward collocations. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they recur frequently enough to prevent a higher band score, restricting your lexical score to Band 6.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'In an era where consumers are bombarded with advertisements...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation lapses, including sentence fragments ('One of the main reasons why businesses emphasize newness.'), dangling modifiers, and incorrect verb forms ('individuals are thrown millions of phones'). Despite these issues, the meaning remains mostly clear, which aligns well with the Band 6 descriptor where errors persist but rarely impede overall communication.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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