Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-29

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)

Some buyers are choosing to purchase household things which are produced in their local place instead of foreign products. The main reasons are that return is conveniece and they like to support local people. In my opinion, this is a positive development, as promoting local businesses creat best relationship with seller.

First of all, the main reason to buy local items is that if they purchase anything from local shop, they have better option to return them at convenient time. To exemplify, the items can be replaced or returned if they have any fault or not good to use. For example, I bought a laptop from the nearest shop one day and it was not in good condition. Next day, it was replaced with a new one without any problem. Another reason to be consider is that this is best way to support local community. Although the items are expensive compared to imported goods, local buyer should spend their money in local shops to show support. As a result, the shopper can run their families. Overall, spending money on local goods are beneficial for local shoppers.

This is a positive trend because residents can create a best relationship with local vendors. That way, they can be helpful in emergency situations. For example, a woman really need some sugar when the shops is closed. If she maintained a good relationship with the vendor, she could make the vnedor to open the shop and buy some sugar.

In conclusion, buyer prefering to get goods from local shop because of easy return or replacement and this is way to promote local products. I think this is a positive development, as creating a good relation with seller can be beneficial sometimes.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by identifying reasons for buying local goods, such as easy returns and supporting the community, and provides a clear opinion that this is a positive trend. However, the ideas are somewhat basic and lack deeper extension. For example, the reason regarding returns is supported by a personal anecdote about a laptop, but the discussion on supporting the community remains fairly general, noting simply that 'the shopper can run their families.' Similarly, the positive trend is illustrated by a somewhat trivial emergency example of needing sugar. The position is clear throughout, but the level of task fulfillment aligns best with Band 6 because some ideas feel under-developed and rely heavily on simplistic examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is divided into logical paragraphs with an introduction, body paragraphs addressing reasons and the positive nature of the trend, and a conclusion. There is an attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'First of all', 'To exemplify', 'Another reason to be consider', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'Another reason to be consider' contains a grammatical error, and the progression between sentences can feel abrupt. Paragraphing is present and appropriate for the structure of an IELTS essay, but overall logical flow places this text comfortably at Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic ideas about local shopping. However, there are noticeable limitations and word choice errors, such as 'household things' instead of 'household goods', 'local place' instead of 'local area', and 'return is conveniece' instead of 'returning items is convenient'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary like 'community' and 'vendor', but these are accompanied by errors in form and collocation, such as 'make the vnedor to open'. This lexical profile fits the Band 5 descriptor, where vocabulary is minimally adequate with noticeable errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'if they purchase anything from local shop, they have better option...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors in tense, agreement, and word forms throughout the text, including 'creat best relationship', 'reason to be consider', 'goods are beneficial', and 'buyer prefering to get'. While communication is rarely impeded, these persistent errors prevent the writing from achieving a Band 6, keeping it firmly at Band 5 due to frequent inaccuracies in grammatical structures.

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

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