Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-22
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Nowadays famous people are photographed by professional photographers everywhere they go. Some people say this is a good thing because the public are interested in their lives. Other people think that photographers are wrong to follow famous people.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
In today's society, celebrities are often photographed my professional photographers wherever they go. Public are interested and curious in their life, so this is good thing to keep them updated. Following celebrities everywhere will ruined their private life.
On the one hand, photographing celebrities is acceptable as public are interested in their achievements about lives. This is because it will help to gain more media coverage which can be useful for their career development.Nowadays famous people choose to remain on active on social media for popularity. For example, celebrity will have more fan following ,which can help collabrations with brands and earn more money.
On the other hand, photographing famous people everytime affects their personal life due to media coverage. It becomes difficult for them to spend time with family especially in public places. This behaviour sometimes disappoint many celebrities, inspite of earning good money they often fail to have their perosnal time. For example many celebrities go for vacation with friends or family thinking they can have some lesiure time unfortunately public try to click pictures and post on social media.
In conclusion, although photographers follow them click photos is acceptable, I believe that even celebrities deserve to have normal life maily because we cannot expect them to be always present on public demand just for the latest news.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both views—that paparazzi attention is good for career exposure and that it ruins privacy—while also including a personal opinion in the conclusion. However, the ideas lack full development and extension, remaining somewhat generalized throughout the body paragraphs. Crucially, as noted in the length check, the response contains only 220 words, falling short of the mandatory 250-word minimum. This significant under-length constraint prevents the student from fully developing their arguments, which directly impacts the task achievement score. On the positive side, the stance is clear from the beginning to the end. To improve, the student should expand on their examples and ensure the word count requirement is consistently met in future tasks.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is generally coherent and follows a recognizable four-paragraph structure comprising an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting opposing views, and a conclusion. Logical organization is evident through the use of standard transition phrases such as 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and cohesive devices are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the phrase 'click photos is acceptable' in the conclusion lacks necessary grammatical linking. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate main ideas, but overall progression within paragraphs can feel abrupt due to underdeveloped supporting sentences. Cohesion requires more flexible and accurate linking words to ensure smoother transitions between ideas.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'media coverage', 'career development', and 'collaborations'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'Public are interested' instead of 'The public is interested', 'ruined their private life' instead of 'ruin', and spelling mistakes like 'lesiure' and 'maily'. Word formation issues also appear, such as 'remain on active'. While these inaccuracies do not severely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.0, as the range is limited and imprecise in places.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional-like ideas. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several frequent errors in articles and subject-verb agreement, such as omitting necessary articles ('Public are interested', 'celebrity will have more fan following') and tense errors (e.g., 'will ruined'). Punctuation and word order issues are also present, as seen in the final conclusion sentence: 'although photographers follow them click photos is acceptable, I believe that even celebrities deserve to have normal life'. These errors require some effort from the reader to interpret, placing the response firmly at a Band 5.0 for grammar.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.