Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-24

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries nowadays, consumers can go to a supermarket and buy food produced all over the world.

Do you think this 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)

Globally in various parts of the world, these days people can go for shopping to the malls and can purchase their own choice of food items. In my opinion this is partially a benificial practice because they can buy online as well.

On the first hand, many individuals decide to go for shopping to buy food items because they can see there the condition and the freshness of the food themselves right away and on the spot. Moreover, they likely to select the fresh cooked bakery items, vegetables, meat and bevrages by identifying and experience the manufacturing and expired dates by reading the labels on it for health purpose. For instance, if they pick a packet or bundle of chocolates and biscuits, they will first check definitily its expiry date. Although they are made fresh but some people have OCD that can leads them to these kind of doubts. Therefore, they choose their happiness over unknown fears and prefer not to be scammed by online shopping.

On the other hand, by sitting at home and finding the food items online then order them also a beneficial way. They will not be bother to go outside and has no worries for supermarket's opening and closing timings. Thus, they can enjoy the variety of international cusines and receive the delivery on their door step within a day or few hours. Ferthurmore, it has some drawbacks as well. For example, the food could be expired and not fresh as they have seen on internet via photos and videos so not everytime it is safe.

To keeping everything into account, Purchasing food items from supermarts can be benificial in some wasy but we can avail the ficility of online purchasing as well. Both wasy have some negative and as well as positive sides also so we should purchase especially food items much carefully whethere its from supermarts or by online shopping.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the benefits and drawbacks of buying food from supermarkets versus online shopping, forming a partial position regarding the globalization of food. However, the interpretation of the prompt slightly drifts towards comparing physical supermarkets with online shopping rather than focusing primarily on whether the availability of global food produce is a positive or negative development. The arguments provided, such as checking expiry dates in supermarkets versus the convenience of delivery, are relevant but remain somewhat superficial and under-developed, particularly regarding the global aspect of food production. This aligns best with the Band 6 descriptor, where all parts of the task are addressed, but some areas are underdeveloped or slightly off-centre from the core socio-economic implications of global food distribution.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay is arranged into an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing an overall logical structure. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate physical supermarket shopping from online alternatives. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty, seen in phrases like 'On the first hand' and 'To keeping everything into account', which are unnatural transitions. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as pronoun use referring back to food items. While the progression of ideas is generally clear, the repetitive phrasing and awkward cohesive devices prevent the response from achieving a higher band score, placing it firmly at Band 5.5 to 6.0, where cohesion is sometimes mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'manufacturing and expired dates', 'international cusines', and 'convenience'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'benificial', 'bevrages', 'definitily', 'Ferthurmore', and 'supermarts'. The student also misspells several words ('cusines' instead of 'cuisines', 'whethere' instead of 'whether', 'wasy' instead of 'ways'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5, reflecting a mix of adequate everyday vocabulary and persistent spelling and word-choice inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional clauses ('For instance, if they pick a packet...') and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, including subject-verb agreement issues ('they likely to select', 'has no worries'), incorrect prepositions ('on their door step', 'via photos'), and tense inconsistencies. For example, 'order them also a beneficial way' lacks a main verb and proper structure. Although the meaning can usually be understood, the high frequency of errors across both simple and complex sentences prevents the essay from reaching Band 6.0, making Band 5.0 a more accurate reflection of grammatical control.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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