Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-08

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 6.0)

An increasing number of tourists visit famous destinations primarily to take a photos of themselves rather than fully engaging with their surroundings. This happens mainly because of social media, and I believe it represents a mostly negative development.

To begin with, the main reason behind this trend is social media platforms. People want get likes and shows their friends and family that they are heaving an exciting life. Taking a photo at a famous spot is a quick way to feel popular. Also, modern smartphones make it very easy to take and post photos right away. Because of this, many tourists care about getting a good picture than learning about the history or culture of the place.

On the other hand, I believe this is a negative trend for two main reasons. First, tourists miss out on real experiences. When people spend all their time taking selfies, they do not truly look at the beautiful buildings or local lifestyles. However, they treat famous places like simple photo backgrounds instead of enjoying them. Furthermore, it causes problems for other people and location. Crowds of people waiting for photos make places noisy and crowded, and sometimes tourists even accidentally damage old buildings.

In conclusion, people take selfies at famous places because they want attention on social media. This is a negative development because it stops people from having real travel experiences and causes problems for historic sites and other tourists.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: explaining the reasons for the trend and providing a clear opinion on whether it is positive or negative. However, the essay falls short of the 250-word minimum requirement, which limits the depth of the arguments. While the ideas are relevant, they are somewhat underdeveloped due to the brevity. For instance, the impact on historic sites is mentioned but could have been expanded with a concrete example to reach the required length and provide a more comprehensive response. The position is clear throughout, but the lack of sufficient word count prevents a higher score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph has a central theme, and the progression of ideas is easy to follow. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'On the other hand', and 'Furthermore' are used effectively to link ideas. However, the transitions are somewhat mechanical, and the overall structure would benefit from more sophisticated linking phrases to improve the flow between sentences. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the reasons from the evaluation of the trend.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at topic-specific vocabulary, such as 'engaging with their surroundings' and 'historic sites'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are minor errors in word choice, such as 'heaving an exciting life' (should be 'having') and 'care about getting a good picture than learning' (should be 'care more about... than learning'). To reach a higher band, the student should incorporate more precise collocations and a wider variety of academic vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'take a photos' (should be 'take photos'), 'want get likes' (should be 'want to get likes'), and 'shows their friends' (should be 'show their friends'). These errors are frequent enough to be noticeable but do not significantly impede communication. To improve, the student should focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of infinitives after verbs.

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