Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-17
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)
The influence of worldwide fashion trends on what people wear has become considerabely more apparent than before. The emerging impact of these trends on people's lifestyle can be seen in serveral ways. Most of the time this influence is using shady strategies that impact people negatively.
Firstly, fashion shows are becoming an integral part of TV shows. As more cultural events get broadcasted, showcasing celebreties and stars, people pay more attention to what their favourite personaility wears.
Next, Influence of social media platforms on people's lifestyle, This can range from various topics, including clothing. People gather to watch livestreams about influencers giving advice on what to wear for the summer, or them informing about new trench coats for the winter. These are affiliated products sponsored by brands and shops trying to sell their products indirectly using strategical marketing tactics.
Furthermore, global fashion perferctly exploits a psychological effect called "the fear of missing out". This manupilates a person into buying and wearing trending clothes despite personal preferences. It also creates creates a contageious effect by people following others, and an urge to belong to the society's trends. Of course, this feeling gets under people's skin.
As clearly stated above, global fashions proves to be powerful weopen into luring people into buying whatever the market demands. By using different techniques to capitalize on people's lifestyle. People find themselves regretting these decisions later when finding out how their limited paycheck has been wasted by buying unneeded things, just to blend with the crowd.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| 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's lives and whether this is a positive or negative development. The student takes a clear negative stance, stating that fashion trends use shady strategies and exploit psychological effects like the fear of missing out. The ideas are relevant and supported by examples such as television broadcasts, social media influencers, and sponsored products. However, some arguments could be extended further; for instance, the conclusion touches upon financial regret, which could have been integrated more thoroughly into the body paragraphs. Overall, the task is adequately addressed, earning a Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate different points, such as television in the second paragraph, social media in the third, and psychological effects in the fourth. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, starting paragraphs with words like 'Next' or 'Furthermore' feels a bit disjointed, and the sentence fragment 'Influence of social media platforms on people's lifestyle, This can range...' disrupts logical flow. Referencing is occasionally unclear, but the overall progression of ideas remains followable, warranting a Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student attempts less common vocabulary, such as 'affiliate products', 'strategical marketing tactics', and 'fear of missing out'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'considerabely' instead of considerably, 'serveral' instead of several, 'celebreties' instead of celebrities, 'perferctly' instead of perfectly, 'manupilates' instead of manipulates, 'contageious' instead of contagious, and 'weopen' instead of weapon. While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the lexical score from reaching Band 6.0, placing it firmly at a Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. However, grammatical and punctuation errors are frequent. Examples include punctuation errors like comma splices and fragments ('Influence of social media platforms on people's lifestyle, This can range...'), morphological errors ('global fashions proves to be...'), and unnecessary duplication ('creates creates a contageious effect'). While meaning is generally recoverable, the high density of structural and mechanical errors means the grammar sits at a Band 5.0 level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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