Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Momentum Workout · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Concern for the environment is growing rapidly and more and more people are choosing to be 'eco-tourists' - travelling in responsible, environmentally-friendly ways. As a result, the eco-tourism industry is expanding.

To what extent do you think this is a positive trend?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

It is often argued by some people that there is a significant rise in environmental awareness among responsible tourists all over the world. Although some people disagree with this statement, I completely agree. Not only because responsible tourists protect the environment and boost the local economy, but also because rises environment awareness.

There are multiple benefits associated with travelling around the world, mainly for eco-tourists. Firstly, eco-tourism protects the environment by encouraging different businesses and industries. As the environment is damaged through industrial water pollution and plastic waste. Take an example of New Zealand, as this country is considered one of the cleanest and has a good environment, the main reason behind this development in 1988 was that their government made a new department named New Ecological Tourism, in the following years this department did its best to improve and protect the environment. Thus, it is proven that responsible tourists can positively protect the environment.

Secondly, tourists industory boost the local economy by providing different jobs. As it creates jobs and income for local people, such as tour guides, hotel workers, and local businesses. For instance, in Brazil, it is expected that by the year 2046, their local economy will be doubled, mainly because recently their government officials allowed international tourists to visit their country's sites without any taxes. Hence, eco-tourism is beneficial, as helping to improve local economy is leading benefit of this development.

Finally, eco-tourism gives awareness to people about how to protect the environment. As many people are not aware about negative and positive affect on the environment caused by tourism.

To sum up, I believe the eco-tourism industry would be beneficial for our environment, not only because of protect the environment from pollution and help to grow the local economy, but also because rises environment awareness to among people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by clearly taking a stance that the expansion of the eco-tourism industry is a positive trend and providing reasons to support this view. The introduction sets out a clear position, and the body paragraphs discuss environmental protection and economic benefits. However, the ideas are somewhat simplistically developed and occasionally repetitive. For instance, the first body paragraph mentions New Zealand in 1988, but the connection between the government department and the actual impact of eco-tourists is weakly explained. Similarly, the conclusion restates the points without adding further synthesis. While all parts of the task are addressed, the depth of argumentation aligns more closely with a Band 6.0, as some ideas remain slightly under-developed or rely on broad generalizations.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body points, and conclusion logically. Transitional phrases like 'Firstly,' 'Secondly,' and 'Finally' are used to guide the reader through the structure. However, there are notable cohesion and referencing issues throughout the text. In the introduction, the sentence fragment 'Not only because responsible tourists...' disrupts the flow. Additionally, some cohesive devices feel mechanical, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'mainly because recently their government officials allowed international tourists to visit their country's sites without any taxes.' These flaws in logical progression and sentence linkage prevent the response from achieving a Band 7.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms related to the topic such as 'environmental awareness,' 'industrial water pollution,' and 'local economy.' However, there are numerous lexical and collocational errors throughout the essay, such as 'tourists industory' instead of 'tourism industry,' 'rises environment awareness' instead of 'raises environmental awareness,' and 'leading benefit' instead of 'primary benefit.' These word choice and spelling inaccuracies, along with repetitive phrasing, demonstrate a lack of precision that restricts the lexical score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and introductory subordinate clauses. However, grammatical control is weak, with several major structural errors. The essay contains sentence fragments and incomplete structures, such as 'Not only because responsible tourists protect the environment and boost the local economy, but also because rises environment awareness.' There are also issues with subject-verb agreement and preposition usage, such as 'gives awareness to people about how to protect' and 'affect on the environment.' Because these errors frequently occur and occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, the grammar score falls into the Band 5.0 range.

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