Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-01
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)
Most of the time on Television and in newspaper the news stories are published with pictures, several people also believe that these visuals are more useful then words. This notion seems partialy true to me since pictures portrays more than words but written news helps to use more cognetive power. Supporting reasons are described in the further paragraphs.
To begin with, visuals are effective to understand the actual situations of news story as it shows actual settings. Even news accompanied by pictures are seems interesting to everyone because in that type of news an individual does not need to ude their brain power to visualise the incidents in their mind. Similarly, these kind of news youngers like to watch just because they are getting something attention catching pictures and those visuals help to understand the whole news without reading the headlines. For instance, just watching the picture of a graph with red line going down can help to understand everyone that this news is about negetive trend of an item.
On the other hand, written news seems boring to masses because it asks lot of reading to understand the whole situation. But these type of news help to develop good skill of understanding and cognetive strenghth become more strong as a person is observing situation through own mind. Likewise, it makes a person to look differently towards the news. To exemplify, influencing adults to read news without the visuals can help them to see the news from distict perspectives.
In conclusion, news with the pictures are good to understand the actual situation while news without visuals can help to portary the incident according to the mindset and look diffrently towards it.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the effectiveness of pictures in news stories and presenting a counter-argument regarding the value of written text. Your position is clear throughout the essay. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the paragraph explaining why visuals are helpful is somewhat repetitive, relying heavily on the idea that they save mental effort, as seen in the phrase 'does not need to ude their brain power'. To move to a higher level, you should extend and support your arguments with more precise examples and avoid over-generalising how different age groups consume news, ensuring every supporting point adds a distinct layer to your overall position.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion. You use standard cohesive devices to structure your thoughts, such as 'To begin with', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate your main arguments. However, progression is occasionally hindered by mechanical referencing and repetitive phrasing. For example, the transition between ideas within body paragraphs can feel abrupt, and pronouns like 'these type of news' lack smooth integration. To reach the next tier, you should ensure that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and that referencing within and across sentences flows more naturally without relying on formulaic transitions.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
Your vocabulary provides an adequate range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'cognetive power', 'distict perspectives', and 'negetive trend'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors that detract from precision, including 'partialy', 'portrays', 'cognetive', 'strenghth', and 'diffrently'. Collocations are sometimes awkward, such as 'ask lot of reading'. These inaccuracies indicate a limited control over less common lexical items. To improve, you need to expand your precision, ensure correct word forms and spelling, and use vocabulary more naturally to convey your ideas without impeding the reader's understanding.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as 'Even news accompanied by pictures are seems interesting...'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('pictures portrays', 'news... are seems'), article usage, and prepositions within grammatical patterns. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader. To achieve a higher score, you must exercise greater control over complex sentence patterns, ensure accurate verb tenses and agreements, and eliminate basic grammatical slips throughout your writing.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.