Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-14

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 recent businesses advertising it has been seen that they are emphasising that their products are new in some way. This is mainly because of lack of ideas and increased competition among business industries. However, I largely believe that this development can have negative consequences and can create trust issues between consumers and marketers.

The major reason to this development is that some businesses are already famous and they might have no interest in developing new things. Furthermore, they lack ideas to work on something new; instead they advertise their usual products in a new way rather than creating some new products. Another factor is increase competition in business market, many businesses are now competing with one another and even with international businesses to gain people's attention. Some may scam public by advertising their old products in new packaging. For instance, people these days are tend to buy things if they are advertised in new ways without searching about it. As a result, businesses get successful in their schemes.

On the other hand, I largely believe that this growing trend might affect people's lives. This is because some people trust blindly on the advertisements which are runned by some famous businesses. Consequently, whenever there is a arrival of new product in the market people usually get excited and buy them without giving them a second thought. As a result, if the product is not useful, people might get trust issues with the brand. Moreover, this trend can affect international businesses because of similar advertising techniques and product packaging.

In conclusion, some businesses emphasise that their products are new because they want people's attention while competing with their co-businesses. However, I believe it can harm people's moral values and international businesses might have to suffer.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both parts of the question: you suggest that businesses highlight novelty to attract attention amid competition, and you give a clear negative view, linking the practice to consumer disappointment and reduced trust. These are relevant ideas, but the explanation of why businesses do this is only partly developed. For example, the claim that established companies “might have no interest in developing new things” is not clearly connected to why they advertise products as new. The example about buyers responding to new packaging is relevant, but it would be stronger with a specific illustration and fuller explanation. The final point about harm to “people’s moral values” is also unclear and does not follow directly from the discussion. Develop each reason and connect it more explicitly to the question.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate body paragraphs and a conclusion. The main ideas are generally grouped sensibly, and linking expressions such as “Furthermore,” “On the other hand” and “As a result” help show relationships. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the first body paragraph moves from companies lacking ideas to competition, then to misleading packaging, without fully explaining how these points connect. The repeated use of “As a result” and “This is because” makes cohesion somewhat mechanical. Some references are also vague, such as “this trend” and “their schemes,” leaving the reader to infer exactly what they refer to. Use clearer topic sentences and make each paragraph develop one central line of reasoning.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main points, including “competition,” “advertisements,” “consumers,” “packaging” and “trust issues.” There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “gain people’s attention” and “advertising techniques.” However, the range is limited by repeated general words such as “businesses,” “new” and “people,” and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate. For example, “increase competition in business market” and “co-businesses” are not natural expressions, while “scam public” is too informal and imprecise for this essay. These choices do not prevent understanding, but they reduce precision. Build a wider set of accurate phrases for describing marketing strategies, consumer behaviour and commercial competition.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “because,” “whenever” and “if,” so there is some structural variety. However, control is inconsistent, and errors occur frequently enough to make parts of the response awkward. Examples include “the major reason to this development,” “many businesses are now competing … to gain,” and “people these days are tend to buy,” where sentence patterns or verb forms are faulty. There are also errors in agreement and articles, as in “there is a arrival,” and the passive form “are runned” is incorrect. Some sentences combine ideas without clear grammatical links. Practise checking verb forms, articles and sentence boundaries, and aim to produce accurate complex sentences before adding further complexity.

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