Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-18
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
News stories on TV and in newspapers are very often accompanied by pictures.
Some people say that these pictures are more effective than words.
What is your opinion about this?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
In this technological era, many publishers are publishing their news stories on television as well as in newspapers generally accomapnied by pictures. However, a few number of people believe that these pictorial presentations are far way effective than words itself. I completely agree with the statement that picutres are important while presenting news.
To begin with, many news publications prefers to publish news with pictures whether on TV screens or newspapers. This is mainly because people give more importance to visuals instead of reading words. To make it clear, lets understand this scenario with an example, if the news article contains the full information about the incident but does not contain any picture from the site, people will have to understand the whole scene or they can make false assumptions about the accident. Whereas, if the same article have pictures as well, it will become more easy for them to analyse the situation and they can remember the incident for a long period of time.
Moving to the second scenario, pictures are considered as the primary means of providing the information of actual and specific incidents that happened. Whenever reports witness any incident they tend to capture the spot by using their cameras which helps the readers to understand the situation. For instance, at the time of coronavirus, many reporters covers the footage of corona positives by appearing physically because they believed that the viewers can better analyse the situation through pictures. Apart from this, majority of people read newspapers for the reason that the news are followed by pictures which create an appealing effect to read the news rather than just dictating the words.
To conclude, I believe that in order to convey the real scenario of accident, news publications should continue to use picutres in their news either on TV or paper news because writing thousands of words cannot picturise the accident spot alone.
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 candidate addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position agreeing that pictures are more effective than words in news stories. The essay includes relevant arguments, such as how visuals prevent false assumptions and aid long-term memory, supported by an example about coronavirus reporting. However, some ideas are a bit repetitive, particularly the emphasis on reporters capturing accidents and the general repetition of why pictures are appealing. This places the task response at Band 6. To reach a higher band, the student should develop distinct, well-supported ideas in each body paragraph without repeating core concepts.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is divided into clear paragraphs with a logical overall progression from the introduction to body paragraphs and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Moving to the second scenario', and 'To conclude' are utilized to guide the reader through the text. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in awkward transitions like 'To make it clear, lets understand this scenario with an example'. Additionally, referencing words like 'they' and 'their' occasionally create slight ambiguity. Overall, the organizational structure is adequate and coherent, earning a Band 6.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases like 'pictorial presentations' and 'false assumptions'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, such as 'accomapnied' instead of accompanied, 'far way effective' instead of far more effective, 'picutres', 'prefers' instead of prefer, 'have' instead of has, and 'covers' instead of covered. Furthermore, phrases like 'corona positives' are somewhat unnatural. Because these errors do not severely impede communication, the lexical resource fits Band 6.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional-like structures ('if the news article contains... people will have to...') and relative clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('the news are followed'), tense inconsistencies ('reporters covers'), and missing articles or prepositions ('more easy' instead of easier). Despite these recurring errors in grammar and punctuation, the meaning remains mostly clear, which aligns with the Band 6 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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