Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-03

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

More and more people nowadays visit well-known places to take photographs of themselves, without looking at the place.

Why do you think this is happening?

Is it a positive or a negative trend?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

In recent times, more and more individuals visit popular places to take photographs of themselves without exploring the place. It is more of a negative trend than a positive one. Lack of historical knowledge and social media pressure by tourist makes it a negative trend.

Tourists who tend to visit historical places with the sole aim of taking pictures and making videos show a lack of interest and value in such great historical places they are. Some of these places have iconic and historical meanings and background stories that tourists and visitors are told about them. most individaual now careless about the historical stories of a particular place; all they do care about is the aesthetics and the beauty of such an environment for taking pics and making videos. Most of these historical places are open to people to explore and learn about the cultural, political, spiritual, social, and economic background. When most of these individuals tend to make pictures and videos a piority than that of exploring the historical background of the place, it tends to serve as a negative trend. For instance is a visit to the Fountain Square in Imo state whichis historically known as a place where the founding fathers of the Eastern States of Nigeria were buried and their statues erected, of which due to the beautification of such an environment; many people now visit there for fun, making videos.

Another point of this being a negative trend is the aspect of it being a social media pressure. it is obvious in our society today that people tend to celebrate and worship individuals with high and biggest followers, and like and comment on their social media platforms. Having to visit such historical places that are so beautiful serves as a golden opportunity for them to focus more on making viral pictures and being more viral than exploring the historical aspect of the place. They tend to match up the social media pressure of posting pictures and videos with beautiful backgrounds that can give them more engagement on their platforms. For example, some top Nigerian celebrities who tends to spend a lot of money to travel to historical places like Egypt, Ghana, and Mali just to make videos that can make them trend on social media when they post them.

In conclusion, I believe that the lack of historical knowledge and social media pressure on tourists makes it a negative trend.

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AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the reasons for the trend and the evaluation of whether it is positive or negative. The position is clear from the introduction. The ideas are relevant, particularly the discussion on social media pressure and the loss of historical appreciation. However, the development is somewhat repetitive, and the examples, while personal, could be more effectively integrated to support the argument. The essay covers all requirements well, though the depth of analysis could be increased to reach a higher band by exploring the psychological motivations behind the trend more thoroughly.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two main reasons provided. Cohesive devices such as 'Another point of this being', 'For instance', and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader. However, there is some mechanical use of these devices, and the flow between sentences is occasionally hindered by awkward phrasing or repetitive sentence structures. Referencing is generally clear, but the transition between the discussion of historical sites and the social media aspect could be smoother.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the student to convey their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'aesthetics', 'iconic', and 'engagement'. However, there are several instances of word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'making pictures and videos a piority than that of exploring' and 'worship individuals with high and biggest followers'. Spelling errors, such as 'individaual' and 'piority', are present but do not impede communication. To improve, the student should focus on more precise word choices and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('some top Nigerian celebrities who tends to spend') and awkward phrasing ('For instance is a visit to the Fountain Square'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some issues with sentence boundaries and comma usage. The student demonstrates an ability to construct complex sentences, but the frequency of errors prevents a higher score, as these errors occasionally require the reader to re-read for clarity.

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