Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

Some people say that advertising is persuading them to buy things and on the other hand some say that advertising is very common nowadays and they dont feel persuaded.

In my opinion advertising nowadays is extremely attractive and eye catching that many of us end up buying that particular product or service just beacuse of the advertisement even though the product itself is not very pleasing but the ads make them look so.

People that get convinced by the ads into buying the product are not at fault and there are numerous reasons for that. Brands nowadays spend a lot of money on marketing and advertisement campaigns with the sole purpose of attracting customers and persuading them to buy their products or services, they make their products or services look and feel premium with an eye catching price tag which an average person could easily afford, this can be done by making an attractive packaging for their products

or running ads with famous influencers onboard.

However there are some people who do not find the advertisements convincing enough for them to buy the things, infact they find them very common and most of the times ignore them and there are many possibilities of this situation. The first major reason for this is the advancement in technology as it has made marketing and advertisement very easy nowadays, brands and companies can easily make ads by the use of artificial intelligence and run them on social media apps which is accessible for everyone nowadays and when hundreds of ads are being run on such platforms for same products or services by different sellers it becomes very common and people ignore them.

But still, as mentioned before ads can be extremely persuading and consumers can end up buying things based on just the ads whereas there are very few people who would find these things common.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You discuss both views and state your own position clearly: you believe advertising remains persuasive, even though some people ignore it. The explanation of persuasion is relevant, especially the points about premium-looking products, affordable prices and influencer promotion. You also explain why advertising may be ignored, linking its prevalence to social media and the volume of similar ads. However, the two sides are not developed equally: the view that people no longer pay attention receives less explanation, and the final claim that “there are very few people” who find ads common is asserted rather than supported. Develop the contrast with a specific example or explain more fully how repeated exposure leads to people tuning ads out.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable progression: an introduction, a paragraph explaining why ads persuade, a paragraph on why some people ignore them, and a concluding position. Linking phrases such as “However” and “But still” help signal the contrast. At times, though, the connections feel mechanical or unclear. The opening sentence repeats the task wording, while the final paragraph largely restates the introduction rather than drawing the discussion together. Several long sentences join multiple ideas with commas, making the relationship between claims harder to follow. For example, the sentence beginning “Brands nowadays spend a lot of money” contains several explanations that would be clearer as separate, logically connected sentences. Use clearer paragraph focus and more precise referencing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “marketing and advertisement campaigns,” “persuading,” “influencers,” “artificial intelligence” and “social media apps.” These choices make the main ideas clear. However, some wording is repetitive or imprecise, particularly repeated uses of “ads,” “products or services,” and “common.” A few combinations are awkward, such as “eye catching price tag” and “influencers onboard,” and spelling errors such as “beacuse” and “infact” reduce accuracy. Aim for more precise alternatives and natural collocations, while checking spelling and avoiding repeated phrases. This would make the argument sound more controlled and fluent without changing its meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “even though,” “as” and “when.” The meaning is generally understandable, but some sentences are overloaded and punctuation does not always show how the ideas relate. For instance, the sentence beginning “Brands nowadays spend a lot of money” runs several clauses together, and the sentence beginning “The first major reason” also combines multiple points without clear sentence boundaries. There are also errors in sentence construction, such as “advertising is persuading them to buy things,” where the intended general meaning would be clearer with a different structure. Break long sentences into shorter units, and check clause boundaries, articles and agreement when editing.

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