Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-01

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)

It is irrefutable to say that taking and posting pictures everywhere on social media has become a trend. Nowadays, more and more people visit well- known places to take pictures of themselves only, without looking at the place. According to me, It is happening because of social media influence leaving both positive and negative trend. I will discuss the above statement and put forth my views,supporting my opinion in upcoming paragraphs.

To begin with, social media has evolved since Covid-19 hit the world. People had start to post on social media during Covid-19 for their entertainment purposes without learning that they could even make money by just being active on the sites like Tik Tok, You tube and Instagram. Additionally, this has improved their financial condition 100 times better and after Covid- 19 is gone, individuals choose to travel, to seek more content which they can post on their social accounts in order to attract views and likes. Simultaneously,these platforms had become their only source of income too.To illustrate: people travel local and overseas to depict beautiful places which influenced others to do same and post too to get apprecaition and good comments without seeking proper knowledge of the place. Hence,they forget to enjoy and stopped mesmerzing the beauty of the places they visit.

Probing further, this has led to both postive and negative trend. It become positive in terms of earning money and doing what they like. Also, people get to travel and explore more than what they use to in before Covid-19 in their regular life. However, it has affected negatively too because indiviuals had started to do things for community's approval only rather than thinking and looking to acquire information and become more knowledable. Further, people now lacks integrity and has low IQ level.

To recapitulate, people tend to take more pictures only because of social media influence than to keep them as memory to get knowledge about the the places they visit.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions: social media is identified as the main reason, and you discuss benefits such as income and travel alongside drawbacks such as seeking approval instead of learning about a destination. Your position that the trend has both positive and negative effects is clear. The explanation of how platforms encourage travel and content creation is relevant, but the claim that people’s financial condition becomes “100 times better” is broad and unsupported, and the negative effects would benefit from a more specific example. The final paragraph mainly repeats the social-media explanation rather than drawing together your evaluation. Develop the effects with clearer evidence and make your overall judgement more decisive to strengthen the response further.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph explaining the cause, a paragraph weighing positive and negative effects, and a conclusion. Sequencing phrases such as “To begin with,” “Additionally,” and “However” help readers follow the main stages. However, some links feel mechanical, and the long first body paragraph combines several steps—earning money, travelling, posting, and influencing others—without clearly separating them. “Simultaneously” does not make the relationship between the ideas especially clear, while “Probing further” is an awkward transition into the evaluation. The conclusion also repeats an earlier point rather than summarising the argument. Use clearer topic sentences and more precise referencing so each paragraph develops one main purpose.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of topic-related vocabulary, including “social media influence,” “source of income,” “community’s approval,” and “acquire information.” These phrases help communicate the central ideas, and some less common choices show an attempt to express nuance. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “depict beautiful places,” “good comments,” and “doing what they like.” Spelling errors—including “apprecaition,” “mesmerzing,” “postive,” and “knowledable”—also reduce precision. Some expressions, such as “100 times better” and “low IQ level,” are overly informal or unsupported for this discussion. Choose more precise collocations and check spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a cause-and-effect construction beginning “because of social media influence” and a contrast introduced by “However.” The overall meaning is generally understandable, but errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries occur often enough to make some sentences awkward. For example, “People had start to post” should use a correct past form, and “people now lacks” has a subject–verb agreement error. In “It become positive,” the verb form is incorrect; “individuals had started” also uses a tense that does not fit the general claim. Punctuation and spacing around commas are inconsistent. Practise accurate tense and agreement in longer sentences, and proofread each sentence for a clear subject and verb.

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