Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Memories are kept through photographs. In this digital era, primary purpose of tourism is to capture ownself, often ignoring the actual surroundings. In my opinion, it is a negative trend as this shows self obsession and people don't appreciate natural beauty, they don't focus on God's creations.

Well, the major reason behind this is the vast trend of social media, specially Instagram and TikTok. Traveling has become a source of signaling status and show your lifestyle, outfit of the day showing the major shift of culture to the modernism and show off. They came live on these apps just to promote the brand they are styling by tagging the brands and promoting them. This not only benefits the brand but also people get a chance to get paid reviews by the brand in future. Trend of short videos, i.e. Reels is followed by the people and they get a lot of reviews and following on these social apps, influencing their fans to do the same.

However, in my opinion, capturing yourself is not something odd but it should be limited, it should not just show yourself but also the place you are visiting. Well, I would say if someone only captures himself, this is quite negative because you don't promote the place, the architecture of well-known places, you just visit there to show yourself to the world. Well, I would say this ois a way of showing self-obsession and showing your status to your peers. They may get upset as many of them hardly get a chance to visit such places but when they see you, they only see one side of the story and get stress that why they are not able to dress like this, why they hardly get a chance to visit such places. This promotes hatred and jealousy among people and this way they do bad comments on your social media. For example, as under celebrities' posts, people comment like, oh your makeup is so bad, omg what are you wearing, while deep in heart they actually have intense dislike that they are able to dress like this, why not me.

To conclude, I would say that taking pictures of own self is not bad, but it should be in a limit that people don't start to dislike you for this reason. You should promote the place as well, show the natural beauty around you so that people get to know and see the place as well.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your response addresses both questions and maintains a clear view that the trend is negative, while acknowledging that taking photographs is acceptable when it does not replace showing the place. You also give relevant reasons, especially social-media status, brand promotion and the effects of comparison on viewers. These points show some development, and the celebrity-post example helps illustrate your argument. However, the explanation of why people take these photographs is stronger than the discussion of the broader consequences, which relies heavily on jealousy and negative comments. Some claims, such as that visitors are motivated by self-obsession, are asserted rather than explored. To strengthen the response further, explain the causes and effects more precisely and support them with a more balanced, specific example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on social media, a discussion of your view and its effects, and a conclusion. The main ideas are generally easy to follow, and phrases such as “However” and “To conclude” signal shifts in the argument. At times, though, cohesion feels mechanical because “Well, I would say” is repeated, and several ideas are joined in long sequences without clear relationships. For example, the discussion moves from limited photographs to status, then to peers’ reactions and online comments. Clearer topic sentences and more deliberate links between cause, example and consequence would improve progression. Avoid repeating the same point about self-presentation in adjacent sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “social media,” “signaling status,” “promoting the brand,” “architecture” and “natural beauty.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “self-obsession” and “intense dislike.” However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, which limits precision: “capture ownself,” “source of signaling status,” “get a lot of reviews and following,” and “get stress” do not express the intended ideas naturally. “Specially” is also not the right form in this context, and “modernism” does not fit the intended meaning of modern culture. Aim for accurate collocations and avoid repeating broad terms such as “show” and “place”; this will make your argument clearer and more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “if someone only captures himself” and a relative clause in “the brand they are styling.” The overall meaning is usually understandable, but some grammatical errors and punctuation problems remain. For example, “primary purpose of tourism is to capture” needs an article and a clearer subject, while “it should be limited, it should not just show yourself” joins two independent clauses with only a comma. In “people get a chance to get paid reviews,” the sentence structure does not clearly show who pays whom. There are also shifts between “someone,” “you” and “they” that weaken grammatical consistency. Check articles, clause boundaries and pronoun reference, and vary sentence patterns while keeping them controlled.

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