Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-01

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)

In recent years, an increasing number of people visiting tourist spot places to take pictures or videos on themselves without visualizing at the place. And in my perspective, this could turn as negative trend.

As new innovation of technology, people are more attracted for usage and purchasing one. For instance,

The digital camera or the latest version of smartphone with good quality of camera, most people buy this for the sake of good quality of picture. Additionally for the influence of social media like TikTok and instagram, people are trigger to visit well known places just to take photographs for themselves and post on their social media. Moreover they posting it to gain more likes and comments from other account holders. With this trend, people loss their interest to appreciate the beauty of the tourist spot. Moreover, they missed the value of their travel, like seeing the history, culture and captivating beauty of the places because they are destructed and focused taking selfies. With this growing trend, it can cause detrimental effect to other tourist people because it can give them disturbance with the noise and also with over crowded. People may forget to be responsible and out of the respect to some quite places like in Grand Mosque of United Arab Of Emirates, visitors need to remain silent while entering this place, but some people can’t hold their self for making noise because of unlimited photographs.

To conclude, it is consider to be negative trend for visiting well known places to take photographs on themselves because of the influence of social media and gaining rewards for likes and comments. Tourist spots should be visited to value and appreciate the places.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task, presenting reasons why people take photos without experiencing tourist spots and stating a clear position that it is a negative trend. However, the development of ideas is uneven. While the causes are outlined through references to technology and social media, the elaboration on the negative effects is somewhat generalized and lacks deep extension. For instance, the mention of the Grand Mosque provides a relevant real-world example, but other supporting points remain brief and under-developed. To move to a higher band, the writer needs to fully extend and support all ideas with deeper explanations and more comprehensive examples throughout the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established in the introduction and reiterated in the conclusion. However, the organization suffers from a lack of clear progression, particularly within the body paragraph where multiple distinct ideas are clustered together without smooth transitions. Cohesive devices are sometimes used mechanically or inaccurately, such as starting a sentence with 'Additionally for the influence' or abrupt shifts using 'Moreover'. Furthermore, paragraphing is not fully utilized to separate distinct arguments, as the main body is presented as a single, dense block of text rather than being broken down into logical sub-themes like causes and effects.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, providing a sufficient range to communicate the main arguments. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'detrimental effect' and 'captivating beauty', but these attempts are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'tourist spot places', 'visualizing at the place', and 'people loss their interest'. Additionally, there are awkward phrasings like 'people are trigger to visit' and 'out of the respect'. These lexical errors and awkward formations occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, though the overall meaning remains recoverable.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer employs a limited range of structures, relying on a mix of simple sentences alongside attempts at complex forms that are frequently faulty. There are persistent errors in grammar throughout the text, including issues with prepositions, articles, and verb forms, such as 'to take pictures or videos on themselves', 'As new innovation of technology', and 'focused taking selfies'. Sentence structures can be disjointed, with fragments or run-on tendencies appearing, such as 'For instance, The digital camera...'. These frequent errors require the reader to decode the meaning at times, placing it firmly within the characteristics of this level.

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