Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-29

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 6.5)

In recent years, an increasing number of individuals attend popular attractions just to take pictures of themselves. That is definitely because showing off on social media became trendy. In my opinion, this habit is a cause of concern because it makes people overlook the true value and beauty of the place.

First of all, nowadays, social media pushes people to share their personal life and boosts the views of special posts such as pictures in interesting locations; consequently, facebook, Instagram or Tiktok users visit these popular places while their only purpose is increasing their followers and aquiring more views resulting in more visitors having selfies just to prove that they were there. For instance, recently, the popular football player Mohamed Salah visited a breathtaking landscape in turkey and took a picture next to a rock, what's shocking, is that thousands of turkish people went to the exact same rock to take a picture of themselves just for the trend and they gave it the name of "Salah's rock".

This trend has several deleterious impacts especially on the cultural meaning of the landscape and the true beauty of it. In other words, a crowded popular place with less people respecting its real importance and significance is a soulless place. If we personalize it, If I were a well-known place I would welcome people who promotes my historical impact, value my beauty and love me for who I am.

In conclusion, visiting a popular place to capture some photos of themselves is increasingly common , especially among social media users who are influenced by trends. As a result, many popular ladscapes lost its authentic meaning and true beauty.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both parts of the prompt: you explain the trend through social-media attention and clearly judge it negatively because visitors may overlook a place’s value and beauty. The example of people visiting the rock associated with Mohamed Salah helps illustrate how a trend can attract crowds. These points are relevant, but the explanation of the causes is more developed than the discussion of the negative effects. The claim that a crowded place becomes “soulless” is evocative but needs a concrete consequence or example, such as damage, disruption, or reduced appreciation of local history. Your position is clear throughout; to strengthen the response further, extend the effects with specific reasoning rather than relying mainly on broad statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall progression: an introduction states the cause and your view, the first body paragraph explains social-media influence, the next discusses its effects, and the conclusion restates the main point. Linking expressions such as “First of all,” “consequently,” and “In conclusion” make the sequence easy to follow. The main opportunity is to make connections within paragraphs more precise. The first body paragraph contains a long chain of ideas joined by semicolons and “resulting in,” which makes the cause-and-effect relationship harder to track. The shift to “If we personalize it” also interrupts the discussion. Break the long sentence into shorter units and use clearer references to connect each consequence to the trend.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use a suitable range of topic vocabulary, including “popular attractions,” “social media,” “cultural meaning,” “significance,” and “authentic meaning.” The less common word “deleterious” shows an attempt to express a precise negative judgement, though some choices are awkward or inaccurate: “boosts the views” and “a soulless place” do not convey the intended ideas naturally. There are also spelling and capitalization slips, including “aquiring,” “ladscapes,” and the names of platforms and countries. These do not prevent understanding, but they limit the accuracy and polish expected at a higher level. Aim for natural collocations and proofread proper nouns and spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex forms, including a conditional sentence (“If I were a well-known place…”) and cause-and-effect clauses. Meaning remains clear overall, but some grammatical errors recur. For example, “a popular place … lost its authentic meaning” has a tense and agreement problem, while “people who promotes” does not match the plural subject. The sentence beginning “what’s shocking, is that” has faulty punctuation and clause structure, and the repeated capitalisation in “If” after a comma is incorrect. There are also some article and plural-control issues. Review subject–verb agreement, consistent tense, and sentence boundaries; dividing the longest sentence would help you control these forms more reliably.

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