Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-28
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, brands market products focusing on their innovation due to number of entrepreneurial reasons. From my standpoint, this can prove to be a positive development.
In the modern day, there is a multitude of businesses offering the same end product. Thus, in order to help people identify what suits their situation the most, brands advertise their novelty in the product. For example, it's been a decade since people are choosing between samsung and apple, so these companies define their product specifications in their advertisements. This helps the public perform comparison and buy the product most suitable to their needs.
Additionally, in order to state their difference from the competition organizations focus on what's new because of its immunity to plagiarism. For instance, people tend to be attracted to the jewellery with the novel design rather than the old design. Therefore, people might find themselves attracted to the new release and this technique can potentially boost sales. Not only customers benefit from these innovation focused ads but also the businesses.
Ultimately, novelty focused advertising is a positive development as it facilitates customer by pinpointing so they can decide whether product is for them or not. Moreover, it helps businesses achieve their goals by attracting people to the latest edition of the product that people might currently be using.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The student addresses both parts of the task by discussing why businesses emphasise novelty and giving an opinion that this is a positive development. However, the response falls short of the 250-word minimum, containing only 217 words, which negatively impacts task completion and prevents full development of ideas. While the examples regarding companies like Samsung and Apple and jewellery designs are relevant, they remain somewhat underdeveloped and lack depth. The position is clear throughout the text, but the under-length nature of the essay restricts it to a Band 5.0 for Task Achievement.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response is arranged into four paragraphs, following a standard essay structure with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Ideas are generally ordered logically, with basic cohesive devices used to connect thoughts, such as 'Thus', 'For example', and 'Additionally'. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes mechanical or unclear, such as in the concluding sentence 'attracting people to the latest edition of the product that people might currently be using', which creates confusion. Paragraphing is adequate, but overall progression suffers due to the brevity of the response. This performance aligns well with the Band 6.0 descriptors.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating attempts at less common lexical items such as 'entrepreneurial reasons', 'novelty', and 'plagiarism'. However, there are noticeable limitations and occasional inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'it facilitates customer by pinpointing so they can decide whether product is for them or not', which lacks necessary object nouns and prepositions. While meaning is generally conveyed, the limited vocabulary range and word choice errors restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilising structures such as 'in order to help people identify what suits their situation the most'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as missing articles ('due to number of entrepreneurial reasons', 'to the jewellery with the novel design'), punctuation issues, and awkward prepositional use. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the essay from reaching a higher band. The grammar is characteristic of a Band 5.5 performance.
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