Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-17

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)

Nowadays, it has become quite evident that majority of people go to a lot of famous destinations around the world just to take pictures of themselves, without even researching about the place. According to me, this mainly happens because of the increasing trends in social media and technology and it is largely a negative trend because this will definitely affect the younger audience in a negative way.

Firstly, one of the significant reasons for such kind of behavior is the increasing use of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. People often want to share their experiences on their social media platforms to show their friends and followers about where they have travelled. It gives them a sense of achievement when they receive likes and praise from their followers. For instance, when a popular actor shares their photographs from a certain place, his followers would like to immediately go to the place to share their experience and proudly showcase these with their friends. Secondly, there is a huge rise in mass tourism all around the world. Some people travel to famous places to create memories and document personal experience, however others are so focused on taking photographs that they rarely appreciate the surroundings.

In my opinion, this is mostly a negative development. Firstly, constantly taking photographs can prevent people from fully appreciating their surrounding environment. For example, a person visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris might spend all their time taking selfies instead of looking at the beautiful architecture or learning about it's history. Secondly, this might put unnecessary pressure on people to make their holidays look more exciting than they actually are, which in a way influences the audience in a wrong way.

In conclusion, although social media and the desire to preserve memories explains why this trend is becoming popular, it is extremely important to appreciate the natural beauty of the place from your own eyes and enjoy the moment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The response addresses both questions and maintains a clear negative view, while recognising social media, the wish to share experiences and mass tourism as reasons for the trend. The examples of an actor’s followers and a visitor at the Eiffel Tower help illustrate the points, and the conclusion reinforces the central argument. This fits the descriptor for a response that covers all parts and extends ideas with support. Some claims, however, remain broad: the statement that the trend affects “the younger audience in a negative way” is not explained in detail, and the point about pressure to make holidays look exciting could be developed with a clearer consequence or example. Explaining these effects more fully would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay has a clear overall progression: the introduction presents the causes and position, one body paragraph explains why the behaviour occurs, the next develops the negative effects, and the conclusion summarises the view. Paragraphing is appropriate, and signposts such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “In conclusion” make the structure easy to follow. This is a logical and coherent organisation. At times, however, the linking is somewhat formulaic, particularly the repeated “Firstly” across the two body paragraphs. The transition from mass tourism to the negative evaluation could also be made more explicit, since the causes paragraph briefly shifts to people who appreciate the place less. More varied referencing and smoother links between related ideas would make cohesion more flexible.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The vocabulary is sufficient to discuss the topic and includes some useful topic-specific expressions, such as “social media platforms,” “mass tourism,” “appreciate the surroundings,” and “preserve memories.” Meaning remains clear throughout. The response also shows some awareness of more formal phrasing, for example “significant reasons” and “negative development.” However, several expressions are imprecise or awkwardly collocated, including “increasing trends in social media,” “show their friends and followers about where they have travelled,” and “influences the audience in a wrong way.” “Surrounding environment” is also less natural than a simpler alternative. To move beyond adequate range, aim for more precise, natural collocations and avoid repeating general words such as “place” and “people.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.0

There is a good range of sentence forms, including complex clauses with “because,” “when,” and “although,” as well as a conditional example: “a person visiting the Eiffel Tower … might spend all their time taking selfies.” Many sentences are controlled and easy to understand, and punctuation generally supports the meaning. A few errors persist, such as the missing article in “the majority of people,” the incorrect possessive in “it's history” (it should be “its”), and the agreement issue in “a person … taking selfies instead of looking … or learning” is avoided, but “their surrounding environment” is awkwardly formed. There are also some long sentences that could be punctuated more carefully. Proofreading articles, possessives and sentence boundaries would improve accuracy while preserving the range.

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