Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-22

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)

In the recent time, there is development in online purchasing is trending as in the past street shopping was famous this lead to closure of small shops. I disagree with this view because online shopping has its own benefits and shopping from shop is different.

A key factor for the people are nowadays preferring to purchase online rather than going outside to the market. Firstly, there are numerous platforms where you can search for the desired product as you can get variety of options as compared to traditional shopping they will mostly selling from limited brands. Secondly, in online website you can also get eligible for some discount on purchasing on some amount of money that will save your money that customer can use for shopping other things. For instance, my friend was looking for the purchasing the smartphone as he has visited many shops where he was not getting proper price so i suggest him to seasrch online in their website or amazon and he got a better deal as result he purchased and saved $120 as discount.

Another reason the shops will remain intact as the service provided by them cannot be expected in the ecommerce site and if you face any problem then you need to take consumer support guidance from the specific company. To explain this, the shop owner will treat you as the god because there is quote "customer is treated as God in business" that means customer will be served as god before browsing the catelog they will serve the local food that is popular in that surrounding area subsequently customer can purchase the thing that they were looking for.

To conclude, despite there is change in trend for shooping as in present, an individual preferring to do online shopping as other group of people like to shop from online as result no shops arew closing as their sales are down because of online shopping platforms.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is stated clearly in the introduction: you disagree that online shopping will cause all town and city shops to close. You give relevant reasons, including online choice and discounts, and the smartphone example helps illustrate the financial benefit. However, the response only partly develops the central question of whether shops will eventually close. The second body paragraph describes attentive service and local food, but does not explain clearly how these advantages will enable shops to survive alongside online retailers. The conclusion also becomes unclear, saying both that people prefer online shopping and that “no shops are closing” because their sales are down. Develop the survival argument with a direct explanation and keep the conclusion consistent with your stated position.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “To explain this” help signal the order of points, and the example is placed with the paragraph about online benefits. However, progression is uneven: the first body paragraph focuses on why people shop online, while the next shifts to shop service without clearly linking that point to the claim that shops will remain open. Some connections are also difficult to follow, particularly the long sentence beginning “To explain this” and the final sentence, where the relationship between online shopping, falling sales and shops closing is unclear. Use shorter, more focused sentences and make each paragraph’s link to your position explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “online purchasing,” “traditional shopping,” “discount,” “consumer support,” and “ecommerce.” This gives you enough topic language to communicate the main ideas. However, word choice and collocation are often inaccurate or repetitive, which sometimes makes the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “eligible for some discount on purchasing on some amount of money” is an awkward way to describe a discount threshold, and “shops will remain intact” does not naturally express that they will continue operating. There are also spelling errors such as “seasrch,” “catelog,” and “shooping.” Build a bank of natural phrases for comparing online and in-store shopping, and check spelling and word forms during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including a reason-and-example structure and clauses introduced by “because” and “as.” However, complex sentences are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to make some ideas hard to understand. The opening, “there is development in online purchasing is trending,” combines incompatible structures; “A key factor for the people are” has subject–verb disagreement; and “the shop owner will treat you” shifts awkwardly from plural shops to a singular owner. Several sentences also lack clear boundaries or use punctuation poorly, especially the long explanation of customer service. Practise building accurate sentences around one main clause, then add a subordinate clause only when its relationship is clear. Check agreement, articles and sentence boundaries.

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.