Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-12
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 5.5)
Increasing technology is the most concerning issue all over the world. The majority of individuals these days visits most famous places to have pictures of their own, without taking pictures of the place. Looking at this statement this negative trend and will be discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.
To begin this, most of the individuals think that the advancement of technology makes their mind influenced by the influencers posting pictures of their own on the social media and getting attracted by everyone. They does not giving any positive message and knowledge about the historical places. They simply looking towards likes, comments and shares where they find benefits to earn capital and all their viewers are doing same and being uneducated. Moreover, they think that we can get information from the internet also so we did not need to struggle their in lines to have information and seeing some important architectures.
Furthermore, it can also disturb the other visitors by taking their own photos, others also not get information and view what they need and this whole impact is on the visitors and the money which can be used for maintaining cost of the monuments. By this trend the majority of visitors are not visiting the places where they feel unsafe and time wasted.
In conclusion, taking photographs on the famous places is only by the social media and having their memories safe. But this is a negative trend because it can prevent on most of visitors from visiting places and have the less capital to maintain it, that why they are less reconstructing.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt: why this is happening and whether it is a positive or negative trend. However, the development of ideas is limited. The explanation for why people take photos—blaming influencers and the desire for social media validation—is relevant but lacks depth. The discussion on the negative impact is somewhat disjointed, particularly the argument regarding maintenance costs and visitor experience, which is not clearly linked to the act of photography itself. The position is clear, but the supporting arguments are underdeveloped and occasionally confusing, preventing a higher score.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the progression of ideas is often hindered by awkward phrasing and a lack of clear logical links between sentences. While some cohesive devices are used (e.g., 'To begin this', 'Furthermore', 'In conclusion'), they are sometimes used incorrectly or in a way that feels mechanical. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the final paragraph where 'they' is used ambiguously, making it difficult to determine if the author is referring to the visitors or the monuments.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for higher bands. There is a reliance on basic or repetitive terms, such as 'pictures', 'places', and 'individuals'. Some word choices are inaccurate or unnatural, such as 'earn capital' instead of 'generate revenue' or 'maintaining cost' instead of 'maintenance costs'. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of variety and occasional misuse of collocations limit the score. More sophisticated vocabulary related to tourism, social media, and cultural heritage would improve the quality of the response.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow of reading. Common issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'They does not giving'), incorrect verb tenses, and awkward sentence construction (e.g., 'that why they are less reconstructing'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the lack of control over complex structures means that errors are frequent. While the reader can understand the writer's intent, the high frequency of errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band score.
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