Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-28

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)

In many countries, there is a growing trend of consumers purchasing locally made food instead of imported ones. This essay will explain the reasons and argue that it is a possitive development.

Firstly, this supports local economy. Buying local products create job opportunities in the Community such as farming, fishing and other production of local goods work. For instance, people living in lagos believe local food are fresher and more healthier than imported foods, especially the frozen ones. In addition, imported goods are expensive due to tranport and exchange rate. Local goods are cheaper and affordable to people of low earnings.

Furthermore, consumption of local products can improve the nation's economy and reduce unemployment. when people consume local product, it makes money to stay in the country and it creates more job for people to earn substantial salary to take care of their person problems. In addition, people are aware of climate change, importing causes pollution from ships. Consuming local food brings less carbon emissions and less preservatives. For example buying rice from ogun state vs importing goods.

In conclusion, increase purchase of locally made products is a positive trend because it creates job opportunities and provide cheaper food options for low class citizens. It can also contribute to the nation economic growth.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses both parts of the task: the reasons for buying local goods and whether this is a positive or negative trend. The student presents clear ideas such as supporting the local economy, job creation, affordability, and reducing carbon emissions. However, the response falls short of the minimum length requirement, containing only 213 words instead of the required 250 words. This under-length impacts the full development of ideas, particularly in the conclusion and body paragraphs, leading to a penalty under Task Achievement where ideas remain somewhat concise and under-developed. Because of this length deficit, the score is capped at Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The text is structured into clear paragraphs with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Transitional markers such as 'Firstly', 'In addition', 'Furthermore', and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader through the arguments. However, the overall progression is occasionally hindered by repetitive ideas and abrupt transitions between sentences, such as jumping from job creation to Lagos residents' food preferences within the same paragraph. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion can be mechanical and repetitive. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical flow between sentences occasionally falters, placing this securely at Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, incorporating terms like 'consumers', 'imported goods', 'unemployment', 'climate change', and 'carbon emissions'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'possitive development' (spelling), 'local food are fresher and more healthier' (double comparative and agreement error), and 'take care of their person problems'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with mixed success. Spelling errors like 'tranport' and 'possitive' also occur. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'In many countries, there is a growing trend of consumers purchasing locally made food instead of imported ones.' There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('Buying local products create', 'local food are'), missing articles, and punctuation mistakes. Capitalisation errors are also present, such as starting a sentence with 'when people consume local product' and 'lagos' or 'ogun state'. While some sentences are accurate, the frequency of basic errors prevents the writer from achieving a higher band, making Band 5.0 appropriate.

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