Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-22

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)

It is true that nowadays images has become significant part to telecast news on Televison and in newspaper. Its is favoured by some people by saying that words are not that much appropriate medium to understand the news unlike pictures. In upcoming paragraphs, I will discuss the main causes along with my perception.

On the one side, visual informations are helpful for illerate people as they can not read but they can understand the news with the help of images. For example, when a newspaper print news about flood, then photogrsphs assist to understand the extent of damage including, damage of houses, people'life, and environment. Instead of this, reading lines do not provide actual information and unable to express emotions , whether snapshots attract readers intention and they are able to show their sentiments.

On the other hand, written context is required becuase it provide detailed information about particuler incident. For instance, a murder case in written form can illustrate information about place, time, result and reason. As a consequence, it makes people more satisified than images. Moreover, news in words help people to enhance their reading skill and provide grater context, thus it prevents people from making conclusion only on the base of visual infomation which sometime can mislead to the people.

In my view, words are more important as it information in deep on some senstive topics such as politics, or any scientific invention, where readers do not only need of images even they require peoper explanation of any happening.

In conclusion, although photographic images are good initiative but it can not replace the importance of words since it provides detailed, accurate and contextual information about news events.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The candidate addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position and exploring both sides of the argument before concluding. The introduction outlines the topic and the writer's stance, and body paragraphs provide relevant arguments, such as the benefits of pictures for illiterate individuals and the necessity of written text for detailed information. However, some ideas lack full development and depth. For instance, the discussion on murder cases or political topics is somewhat brief and relies on general assertions. Additionally, minor generalisations occur, but the overall task is sufficiently covered. This performance aligns well with the descriptors for Band 6, where all parts of the task are addressed, though some areas remain under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response exhibits a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, with an introduction, two opposing body paragraphs, a personal viewpoint, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitional phrases like 'On the one side', 'Instead of this', and 'on the base of' show awkward usage or inaccurate collocation. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as pronoun ambiguity in 'where readers do not only need of images even they require'. These flaws in cohesive devices and referencing place the performance comfortably within Band 6, where organisation is generally clear but cohesion exhibits mechanical features and minor inaccuracies.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'significant part', 'extent of damage', 'sensitive topics', and 'contextual information'. Nevertheless, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, including 'images has become significant part to telecast news', 'illiterate people as they can not read', 'people'life', 'readers intention', and 'written context'. Spelling and morphological errors, such as 'Televison', 'illerate', 'photogrsphs', 'becuase', 'particuler', 'satisified', 'grater', 'infomation', 'sometime', 'senstive', and 'peoper', are frequent. These inaccuracies occasionally cause strain for the reader, placing the lexical control at a Band 5 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'when a newspaper print news about flood, then photogrsphs assist' and 'where readers do not only need of images even they require peoper explanation'. However, frequent grammatical and punctuation errors occur throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('images has', 'information... is', 'words help'), incorrect verb forms ('unable to express emotions , whether snapshots attract', 'it can not replace'), and missing articles or prepositions ('provide detailed information about particuler incident'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the response from reaching Band 6, anchoring the grammatical accuracy firmly at Band 5.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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