Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-03
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
The growth of online shopping will one day lead to all shops in towns and cities closing.
Do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
Nowadays, People prefer more to do online shopping rather than going to shops and supermarkets. This rapid growth of online shopping can result in all the local shops and markets closing. In my opinion, I disagree with this trend.
However, there are plethora or reasons why shops in town and cities are inevitable. Firstly, local stores provides not only conveniency but also trust and reliability. For an instance, people living in small towns can easily walk to the local store to shop their daily needs like grocery and consumables. Moreover, we don't have to wait to get our shopping needs if we can just purchase them same day in few hours by going to store. Secondly, online shopping is still not effective in rural as well as remote communities. People living in these smaller villages primarily rely on local shops. Finally, local shops and supermarkets supports community even provides employment. For example, Walmart stores in Newfoundland provides jobs to 70 percent of it's population.
Nevertheless, Online shopping has it's own advantages too. Platforms like Amazon often runs a great deals for their customers that provides cheaper and faster deliveries. Moreover, Online shopping have better vast range of products that are not avaiable offline.
Hence, Online shopping is treading and has its own advantages but that can not lead to shut down for local shops.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position against the idea that all shops will close. However, the essay is under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of development. While the arguments regarding convenience, rural accessibility, and employment are relevant, they are somewhat brief. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your examples—for instance, explaining why online shopping cannot replicate the social or immediate benefits of physical stores in more detail. The conclusion is also quite abrupt and does not fully synthesize the points made.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, and the progression of ideas is generally clear. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Moreover', and 'Finally' to link your points. However, the transition between the body paragraphs and the counter-argument paragraph ('Nevertheless') is a bit mechanical. Additionally, some referencing is slightly unclear, and the overall structure would benefit from more sophisticated linking words to improve the flow between sentences and ideas.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There are several word-choice errors, such as 'conveniency' (should be 'convenience'), 'treading' (likely meant 'trending'), and 'shop their daily needs' (should be 'purchase their daily necessities'). While you attempt some topic-specific vocabulary like 'consumables' and 'remote communities', the overall lexical control is inconsistent. Focusing on more precise collocations and avoiding repetitive phrasing would significantly improve this score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally distract the reader. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('local stores provides', 'local shops and supermarkets supports'), incorrect use of articles ('in few hours'), and punctuation errors with possessives ('it's' used instead of 'its'). While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors in basic grammar prevent the response from reaching a higher band. You should proofread carefully to ensure subject-verb agreement and correct apostrophe usage.
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