Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-05

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, impressed by global fashion trends, people pay alot of heed towards what they wear and how they look. Fashion industry has changed the way we look at a dress. Rather than just choosing a shirt, a pair of jeans or buying any type of garment, we also check if the garment we are chosing is up to the trends or not. There are two main reasons why people want to dress up to the trends.

Firstly, we have been living in the era of social media so everyone have access to see what is trending. As a result people try to follow the life style of the celebreties they follow and the brands which posts the trending fashion designs. This allows easy access of trending articles and clear picture of the clothes they are going to buy. For example, if someone wants to buy a lounge suit, he or she would simply search on internet nad would easily ge the trending designs and color combinations and would also find the link to buy it online from the comfort of home, Rather than going to a market and spend hours, finding a loubge suit. So in short, social media has extremely influenced our dressing sense.

Secondly, people are curious to know about different cultures like, how they live and how they dress. This curiosity leads people to adapt their fashion sense and and follow their dress code. For example, people nowadays are more comfortable following western fashion than promoting their own culture. This cross cultural knowledge also influences people to adopt global fashion trends.

However these trends have affected many cultures, because people are more prone to wear what is trending rather than following their cultural dresses. For example, Balochi shalwar qameez is considered as outdated in Pakistan even it is the cultural dress of Balochi culture. But people always try to follow the latest fashion trends.

So we can say the generation today always follow the latetst trends when it comes to their appearance because of the social media and cross cultural connections. This has affected the fame of their own cultures but they prefer to look mordern rather than following their culture.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing why global fashion is influential and whether this is a positive or negative development, but the ideas are developed only to a limited extent. While the writer identifies two main reasons regarding social media and cross-cultural curiosity, and touches upon the negative cultural impact of abandoning traditional dress like the Balochi shalwar qameez, the exploration lacks depth and specific supporting evidence beyond basic assertions. The position is generally clear throughout the essay, but the arguments remain somewhat surface-level and lack the fully extended support required for higher bands. To improve, the writer should elaborate further on how and why these trends displace local culture, providing more developed, substantive examples rather than brief mentions.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, two body paragraphs exploring causes, a paragraph discussing the negative impact, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal progression, such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'However'. However, referencing and cohesion are occasionally mechanical or slightly faulty, as seen in the transition from discussing internet shopping back to social media, and some paragraphs lack smooth internal transitions. Pronoun referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as 'they' referring ambiguously to different groups. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to ensure that cohesive devices connect ideas more naturally and that logical progression between sentences is tightly managed without relying on formulaic listing transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the main ideas about fashion, social media, and cultural shifts. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'curiosity', 'cross cultural knowledge', and 'outdated', but there are noticeable word choice errors and spelling slips throughout the text, such as 'alot', 'chosing', 'celebreties', 'posts', 'nad', 'ge', and 'mordern'. Collocations are occasionally awkward, for instance, 'pay a lot of heed towards'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score because precision and control are lacking. To progress, the writer should focus on accurate spelling, more natural collocations, and a wider variety of precise phrasing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as conditional or participial clauses like 'Rather than just choosing a shirt...'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'everyone have access' and 'brands which posts', missing articles such as 'on internet', and run-on punctuation errors in sentences like '...comfort of home, Rather than going to a market and spend hours, finding a loubge suit.' These errors require some effort from the reader to parse, though they rarely obscure the overall meaning entirely. To reach the next level, the writer must exercise greater accuracy with basic grammatical rules, verb forms, and punctuation, while increasing the proportion of error-free complex sentences.

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.