Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-06

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 7.0)

Today, individual presence of social media websites has become a great social currency among the youth. Records of lifestyle, travel destinations and recreational activities are publicly posted and circulated among peers as a new way of communicating life updates. Following and taking part in social media trends makes a collective group of people feel belonged to the rest of generation. Amongst one of these trends that has become quite popular is that of being a wanderlust traveler.

While being well-travelled around the world is a feat of its own and a well received form of recreation for people. It also is a form of learning and educational experiences for travelers to learn new cultures, students to meet new people and develop a diverse group of peers and educationists for learning and spreading knowledge. However, social media has made this act of traveling an almost competition among people, where the more a person has travelled or the more popular destinations one has travelled they receive a superior for of attention of media recognition from friends. This has led to people wanting record their travel and experiences of popular and trendy locations but not for experiencing it, but to showcase a proof of them being there. And this can be a growing negative trend.

For example, a friend of mine visited Japan recently, and currently Japan is a destination that is blowing up on social media. After she came back and was talking about her experiences, I noticed that every time anyone asked her about the more local or non-touristy or trend destination or experience, she did not have an answer. She has deliberately made a list of locations to go to from social media posts and went to those places, clicked pictures and came back. Even answers about those visited places were shallow, which made me realize this trip was treated as a grocery shopping list to get done.

I feel this trend is not healthy, because it takes away from the emotional and more human connect to the act of traveling. Humans traveled across borders and shared history, culture, technology, knowledge and that is why we see so many wondrous places and monuments. To truly appreciate, them one must look deeper and travel to places with intention rather than relevance.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have addressed both parts of the prompt effectively. You clearly explain the reasons for this trend—namely, the influence of social media and the desire for social currency—and you provide a strong, well-supported argument that this is a negative development. The inclusion of a personal anecdote about a friend’s trip to Japan adds depth and illustrates your point well. To reach a higher band, ensure that your conclusion explicitly synthesizes your main points rather than just offering a final reflection, and ensure that all arguments are fully developed without minor generalizations.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. Each paragraph has a central theme, and you use cohesive devices such as 'However,' 'For example,' and 'Because' to link your thoughts. While the structure is sound, some transitions between sentences feel slightly mechanical. To improve, try to vary your cohesive devices further and ensure that referencing (e.g., 'this act,' 'these trends') is always precise to avoid any ambiguity for the reader. Overall, the paragraphing is effective and supports the flow of your argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate a good range of vocabulary, using terms like 'social currency,' 'wanderlust,' and 'monuments' appropriately. There are some minor inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'superior for of attention' (should be 'superior form of attention') and 'trend destination' (should be 'trendy destination'). While you successfully use some less common items, there is room to increase the precision of your collocations to achieve a more natural, sophisticated tone. Focusing on word formation and common collocations will help elevate your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is appropriate for this task. However, there are several grammatical slips that occur throughout the text, such as 'feel belonged to' (should be 'feel a sense of belonging to') and 'superior for of attention' (a typo). Additionally, some sentence fragments or slightly awkward phrasing, such as 'It also is a form of learning,' slightly disrupt the fluency. Increasing your control over complex structures and proofreading for minor errors would help you achieve a higher band.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.