Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-13
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Many aspects of the way people dress today are influenced by global fashion trends.
How has global fashion become such a strong influence on people's lives? Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
Nowadays, people are following global fashion trends to look gorgeous and fashionable. Although it is a positive thing to remain up-to-date according to the worldly trend, it still has numerous negative effects on people minds.
One major negative impacts of following global trend is that people blindly adapting their culture and tradition. Instead of promoting their own culture at international level, public is adapting whatever global designer make trend. For instance, When people follow worldly trend, they start hating their own culture and suffers from inferiority complex. It causes negative impact on their mind.
The second negative development is that people with low income families, tried to follow international fashion trends and leads to suffer from depression. Their income doesn't fit with their expenses and they get involved in illegal activities. In addition, Social media is one of the major reasons that people are trying to follow worldly trends. It influenced the vast majority of people to follow them. People earning low money trying to follow international fashion and when they are unable to do that, it makes them stressful.
In contrast, following global trend makes people more trendy and they find some time for themselves. People tried to look adorable and it makes them relaxed from their hectic routine.
In conclusion, although global fashion trend has influenced people a lot in recent years and people trying to follow them blindly. Following everything that is world following is not good all the time. Things should be balanced to live a happy life instead of taking stress of things which are not really imperative for healthy life.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt: how global fashion influences people and whether this is positive or negative. The writer outlines negative impacts such as cultural displacement and financial stress, alongside a brief mention of the positive aspects related to relaxation and looking trendy. However, the position is somewhat muddled in the introduction, where the student states it is a 'positive thing' but then immediately focuses heavily on negative effects. The ideas are relevant but lack full extension, showing tendencies to over-generalise, such as stating that people start hating their own culture. Overall, the task is addressed with clear attempts at supporting ideas, placing the response firmly at a Band 6.0 level.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate the negative and positive developments. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases like 'In contrast' do not accurately connect the preceding ideas about financial depression to the subsequent discussion on relaxation. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'following them blindly' without a precise antecedent. While logical progression is attempted, the mechanical use of cohesive devices and occasional disjointed transitions place this criterion at Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'inferiority complex', 'hectic routine', and 'imperative'. However, there are numerous lexical and collocational inaccuracies throughout the text, such as 'people minds' instead of 'people's minds', 'worldly trend' instead of 'global trends', and 'earning low money' instead of 'earning a low income'. Furthermore, there is repetitive use of words like 'trend', 'global', and 'people'. These noticeable errors and lack of precision restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response features a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as conditional and concessive clauses ('Although it is a positive thing...', 'When people follow...'). However, the text contains frequent grammatical errors in tense consistency, subject-verb agreement, and articles. Examples include 'One major negative impacts' (should be 'impact'), 'people blindly adapting' (should be 'blindly adapt'), 'suffers' (should be 'suffer'), and 'tried to follow' (should be 'try to follow'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the writer from achieving a higher band, making Band 5.0 the most accurate descriptor.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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