Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some consumers are increasingly choosing to buy goods that are produced in their local area, rather than imported goods.

What are the reasons for this?

Is this 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 no doubt true that there are some consumers who like to purchase things that are produced locally as compared to buy imported prodcuts .

This letter will highlight why is this happening along with its positive or negative sides in the upcoming paragraphs.

To begin with reasons, environmental concern is one of the significant cause to buy local goods. For example, these kind of things are produced in the local areas and do not need to import from other countries that cause transportation cost due to long distance and may cause air pollution. Moreover, people want to support small business and farmers that manufacture the things locally. Likewise, it helps to boost the domestic economy.

As per its postive side, the local business assist to more employemnt in the area and number of people can get job in local manufacturing industries. Additionally, local goods are mainly fresh and better in quality. People can check the quality of the product and buy according to their choices because these things must be made accoridng the familier local standards.

On the negative side of this aspects, the local goods might have less variety than imported goods that offers huge range of products in different colours or patterns. Furthermore, local goods may be expensive. Likewise, imported goods offer some discounts on the products and may have less price.

To conclude, although the local goods are readily available and are fresh to use but, imported goods have more benefits like variety in goods, offer some discounts and cheaper in price.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, identifying reasons for buying local goods such as environmental concerns and supporting the domestic economy, and discussing both positive and negative aspects. However, the tone and framing are slightly inconsistent; the introduction refers to 'This letter' despite the task being an essay, which is a common misapplication of templates. Ideas are generally relevant, but the support tends to be somewhat repetitive and lacks depth. For instance, the positive and negative aspects overlap slightly with the reasons provided earlier. To reach a higher band, the ideas need to be more fully extended and supported with precise examples rather than generalisations. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the criteria for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing used for the introduction, reasons, positive aspects, negative aspects, and conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed to signal transitions, such as 'To begin with', 'Moreover', and 'On the negative side of this aspects'. However, there are noticeable mechanical errors in cohesion and referencing, such as 'these kind of things' and 'this aspects'. Paragraphing is present, but the progression within paragraphs occasionally feels disjointed due to abrupt shifts in ideas. While the overall structure is logical enough to follow easily, the misuse of cohesive elements prevents the essay from achieving a higher score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic ideas about local versus imported goods. Words like 'environmental concern', 'domestic economy', and 'manufacturing industries' demonstrate an attempt to use topic-specific language. However, there are numerous word choice errors, awkward collocations, and spelling mistakes, such as 'prodcuts', 'postive', 'employemnt', and 'accoridng the familier'. The range of vocabulary is somewhat limited, and less common lexical items are frequently inaccurate. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using relative clauses and subordinate conjunctions such as 'although the local goods are readily available and are fresh to use but...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are frequent errors in article usage, pluralisation, prepositions, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'need to import' instead of 'need to be imported', 'cause transportation cost', and 'has less price'. Punctuation errors also occur, notably the incorrect comma placement in the conclusion. While simple sentences are generally understandable, complex structures are often faulty, placing the grammar firmly at a Band 5.0.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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