Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-08

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 5.5)

In contemporary society, numerous people visit famous places to take photos of themselves, without looking at the place. There are several reasons behind this trend, while I believe it is a negative trend. This essay will explicate both the aspects in the upcoming paragraphs along with relevant examples.

There are many reasons regarding the statement about people visit well-known places to take photographs of oneself, without looking at the places. One of them is that individuals want to show off their personality on social media. To elucidate, celebrities has been going out to several places and it will become famous. Consequently, individuals follow their ideal celebrity, and they just go to those places for taking photographs of themselves and post it on their social media platform. Moreover, people unable to enjoy the places and experience a real world outside of the online screen. To exemplify, in recent times, when individual go out to see the sunset on the beach then they do not want to experience the nature in real mode; however, they just click photos and videos of oneself.

The most crucial reason behind it being a negative trend is that it develops anxiety and stress. To elaborate, when individual go to well-known places and that places are not allowed to take photos of themselves due to certain protocols. Individuals will become anxious as they do not able to post on social media platform such as Instagram. Many people's mental health depends on social media, so it creates a disturbance in their life. This will deteriorate the quality of life.

To recapitulate, there are some reasons behind this trend such as people want to show off their lifestyle and personality in the world of technology; however, it is a negative trend as it affects the mental health of a person and gives anxiety, trauma and stress.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions and make your position clear: you consider the trend negative. The explanation that people imitate celebrities and post at famous locations gives a relevant reason for the behaviour, while the discussion of anxiety when photographs cannot be taken supports your evaluation. However, some ideas are less fully developed than others. For example, the beach example illustrates taking photos instead of experiencing a place, but its connection to the main reason—showing off on social media—could be made more explicit. The claim that social media dependence causes anxiety is also broad and would benefit from a specific example or clearer explanation of how this behaviour leads to harm. The response meets the stated length requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph explaining reasons, a paragraph evaluating the trend, and a conclusion. Linking expressions such as “Moreover,” “To exemplify,” and “To recapitulate” help signal the stages of the argument. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical because several sentences begin with formulaic phrases such as “To elucidate” and “To elaborate.” Some references are also unclear: “that places” and “it” in the sentence about posting on social media do not point smoothly to their intended ideas. The second body paragraph would progress more logically if it first explained the pressure to post, then showed how restrictions or unmet expectations create anxiety. Use simpler, more precise links and make each sentence’s connection to the previous one explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a range of vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “well-known places,” “social media platform,” “mental health,” and “quality of life.” There are also attempts at more formal language, such as “deteriorate” and “contemporary society.” However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, which limits precision: “show off their personality” is less suitable than describing people presenting an image of themselves, and “experience a real world outside of the online screen” is awkward. “Trauma” is also too strong for the anxiety described, unless you provide evidence of serious psychological harm. Aim for natural combinations of words and choose terms that match the strength of your claim. This would make your vocabulary more flexible and convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “when,” “as,” and “while,” and your meaning is generally understandable. However, errors in agreement, verb forms, and sentence construction occur across the response. For example, “celebrities has been going out” should use a plural verb, while “when individual go out” needs a plural or correctly formed singular subject and verb. In “they do not able to post,” the verb phrase is incomplete; use “they are not able to post.” The opening sentence of the second paragraph also has an awkward structure (“reasons regarding the statement about people visit…”). Practise building accurate subject–verb patterns and checking articles and pronouns. More reliable control of these forms, alongside your attempts at complex sentences, would improve clarity.

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