Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18
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)
Today, many people wear dress of different design and are followed the global trends. According to me, it is the negative development on the people's lives.
Global fashion spread a huge impact on people's lives because many people follow their favourite celebrity and they also want to wear the clothes which their celebrity wear. Moreover, Global fashion influences lives profoundly because it transforms daily attire into an instant, highly accessible form of digital self-expression and identity. Driven by social media and fast supply chains, trends now cross borders in seconds, making personal style a universal cultural language.
This is the negative development because most of the people do not have enough expense to become the part of the global fashion. Some of them work hard as well as do overtime in their work to met the expense. But despite this, many people are unable to become part of the global fashion. Simultaneously, social-media-driven micro-trends promote a culture of constant consumption and artificial urgency, pressuring individuals into continuous spending while eroding unique local cultural styles in favor of homogenized, disposable clothing.
In conclusion, while global fashion serves as a powerful medium for digital self-expression and cross-cultural connection, its rapid proliferation ultimately carries profound negative consequences for society. By creating unrealistic financial pressures that force individuals into overwork, and fostering a culture of artificial urgency and endless consumption, the industry promotes unsustainable lifestyle habits. Furthermore, it is very hard for the people to buy these costly product because they work to support their family.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by explaining why global fashion has become influential and presenting a clear position that it is a negative development. The student presents relevant ideas, such as celebrity culture, digital self-expression, financial pressures, and the loss of local styles. However, some ideas feel repetitive, particularly the arguments concerning financial strain and overwork, which are mentioned multiple times across the body paragraphs and conclusion. This prevents the ideas from being fully extended into a higher band, placing the response solidly at Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a recognizable introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate different aspects of the prompt. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'According to me' is overly simplistic and unnatural for academic writing. Furthermore, referencing and logical progression occasionally stutter, as seen in sentences like 'Some of them work hard as well as do overtime in their work to met the expense,' where the link to preceding ideas lacks smooth flow. Cohesive devices are present but somewhat repetitive.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common and topic-specific items such as 'digital self-expression,' 'homogenized,' and 'micro-trends.' However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'wear dress of different design' instead of 'dresses of different designs,' 'spread a huge impact' instead of 'has a huge impact,' and 'to met the expense' instead of 'to meet expenses.' These lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips occur frequently enough to restrict the score to Band 6.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses driven by connectors like 'because,' 'moreover,' and 'while.' However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('are followed the global trends,' 'celebrity wear' instead of 'celebrities wear'), incorrect prepositions ('on the people's lives' instead of 'in people's lives'), and tense inconsistencies. While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they prevent the text from reaching the level required for a Band 7.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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