Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-20

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)

For a business to grow, having unique selling point is a must to have. To show case this factor, they advertise their product are different from the existing market in some way. I think it is a positive development rather than being a negative one.

A product to survive in an existing market, it has to be advertised heavily because of the competition. Unique selling point (USP) as well as product market fit is a must to capture the consumers' attention. Hence, businesses must put their product in market as something that gives the consumers something more than the existing products. A easy way to do this is to say it is innovative, new than competition.

In Bangladesh, the markets are quite competitive, because of easy sourcing, manufacturing, listing, basically the steps a product has to go through before ending up at the doorstep of a customer. So, the way business owners can spread awareness of their product is through marketing. And aggressive marketing is a great option to put the words out there, illustrating new features is an easy marketing. Existing vendors can also put more values in their product by differentiating their product. A real life example can be the soft drinks market during Coca-Cola boycott in Bangladesh, As the consumers are on strike to boycott Coca-Cola, an already existing company, Mojo, started branding their beverage as a pro-Palestain prodcut, which differentiated their product. They also started using new tag "My country, my product", a new one, to put them in a great spot, which worked wonderfully. They grew as a brand, more consumers started buying it, they grasped most of the market share. From this example , it is evident that having new features is the way to go, even if it's not new, it can be labelled as something better.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you consider the emphasis on novelty positive, and you explain that it helps businesses attract attention and compete. The Bangladesh soft-drink example gives relevant support, showing how Mojo differentiated its branding during a boycott. You also address why businesses do this, particularly through competition and the need to communicate a unique selling point. However, the explanation of why novelty is emphasised is more developed than your evaluation of whether this trend is positive. The conclusion that it is “the way to go” is asserted rather than weighed against possible drawbacks, such as misleading claims or unnecessary consumption. Develop that judgement with a clearer explanation of benefits and, briefly, any limits.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, an explanation of competition, and a paragraph illustrating the argument with a local example. The example generally follows from the point about differentiation, and linking expressions such as “Hence” and “From this example” help signal relationships. However, the progression within the final paragraph is crowded: market conditions, marketing, existing vendors, and the Mojo example are combined without clear separation. Some links are mechanical or unclear, including “So” and “which worked wonderfully,” whose reference is not precise. Use one paragraph for the general explanation and another for the example and evaluation, and make each paragraph’s main point explicit. This would make the argument easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “unique selling point,” “product market fit,” “competitive,” “differentiating,” and “market share.” These terms help communicate the business context, and the example shows an attempt to use language beyond basic everyday vocabulary. However, several choices and collocations are awkward or imprecise, such as “put the words out there,” “put more values in their product,” and “new than competition.” There are also spelling errors, including “prodcut” and “Palestain,” which reduce accuracy. Aim for more natural academic phrasing and check spelling carefully. For example, describe firms as “promoting a product’s distinctive features” rather than saying they “put the words out there.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure in “A product to survive in an existing market, it has to be advertised heavily because of the competition” and a longer sentence explaining the Mojo example. The main ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors recur. Articles and sentence construction need attention: “having unique selling point” should be “having a unique selling point,” while “they advertise their product are different” needs a structure such as “they advertise their products as different.” There are also agreement and punctuation problems, for example the comma splice in “In Bangladesh, the markets are quite competitive, because…” and the capitalisation after “Bangladesh, As.” Practise building accurate complex sentences and proofreading sentence boundaries.

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