Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-04

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that advertising is extremely successful at persuading us to buy things. Other people think that advertising is so common that we no longer pay attention to it. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Now-a-days you can find advertisement on anything, from rat poison, simcards to luxury collections. It is widely believed that advertisement is an effective means for pursuading people into buying products, while others beleive that using it for promotion is common and it is basically ineffective. I firmly believe that advertisement has good pursuasive factor and can used to engage people into buying products. The ensuing paragraphs will discuss both views in detail.

Advertisement is the most common way among many in effectively promoting a product. With the advent of media, advertisement has been the main marketing tactic. This medium has flourished and proven so effective that most big and small business depend on it for the promotion of their products and services. For example, the NewYork time square is filled with billboards and advertising screens because it gets a huge amount of traffic 24/7. For businesses high number of people mean high eye traffic, more viewers, more awareness, and thus high chances of getting increased number of customers.

The advertising of products has improved heavely in the past few decades. It has become more advanced, more creative, more catchy and at the same time more decieveing. It is common knowledge that advertisements has a factor of deception. For instance, in th early 19th century, peope started advertising on a more serious note. Businesses realized the importance of heavy marketing and came up wih various tactics to make their products and businesses seems more attractive, Thus they started lying in their advertisements. This tactic turned into an uprorar from the common populace and many businesses were sued for deception. Thus consumer laws were passed that mandated businesses to disclose to consumers incase they were using any kind of product modifications in their advertisements.

On the other hand, people have become so used to seeing advertisements on every single insignificant thing that they have become immune to even the high budget and genuine advertisements. This is because the human psychology has realized that most of these advertsiement are a hoax made by advertising companies just for the sake of vierwership and monetizing on people's interest. For example, businesses tend to pay marketing and advertising companies to advertise their fake products on different channels and mediums, with no product to back the advertisement's claim people end up getting scamed and lose their money.

In conclusion, Advertsiements are a great way of promotion for businesses andit is highly reliable and effective source fo rpursuading and attracting consumers. Meanwhile, some people do not agree with this school of thought and want the advertising to be under strict control and regulations. Thus, it is effecient to promote businesses using various mediums of advertisements for gaining profits.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views on advertising—its effectiveness versus widespread fatigue—and includes a clear personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is uneven. While the argument regarding advertisements being a successful promotional tool is relatively well-supported with examples like Times Square, the exploration of why people ignore or distrust ads touches upon deception and scams but lacks deeper extension. Some points are slightly repetitive, indicating that while the task is covered, certain aspects would benefit from further elaboration and clearer focus to move beyond a competent, generalized level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and a definitive conclusion, and the response is divided into logical paragraphs. However, progression is sometimes hindered by mechanical or slightly repetitive use of cohesive devices, such as the frequent reliance on 'Thus' and 'For example' to transition between sentences. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and transitional phrases do not always seamlessly connect ideas, creating a slightly disjointed flow between paragraphs. While the organizational structure is apparent, greater flexibility and smoother transitions are needed to achieve a more unified progression of thought.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'marketing tactic', 'eyetraffic', and 'consumer laws'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('Now-a-days', 'pursuading', 'beleive', 'pursuasive', 'NewYork', 'heavely', 'decieveing', 'peope', 'wih', 'uprorar', 'incase', 'advertsiement', 'vierwership', 'scamed', 'Advertsiements', 'andit', 'fo', 'rpursuading', 'effecient') and occasional word choice inaccuracies like 'high eye traffic'. These lexical slips and spelling mistakes do not impede overall communication, but they restrict the score because precision and control over less common items are inconsistent throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional structures. There are, however, some recurring errors in grammar and punctuation. Examples include missing articles ('advertisement has been the main marketing tactic'), faulty preposition use and agreement issues ('businesses tend to pay marketing and advertising companies to advertise their fake products on different channels and mediums...'), and comma splices or run-on sentences in places. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede communication and the basic meaning remains clear, though greater control over complex sentence patterns and punctuation is needed to secure a higher level.

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