More and more people want to buy famous brands of clothes, cars and other items. What are the reasons? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?
Sample Response
In recent years, more people have shown a preference for buying clothing from well-known brandswell-known brands of clothing, cars, and other luxury goods. This trend is primarily driven by a desire for social statusdriven by social status and the influence of advertising. While purchasing branded products can offer certain benefits, I believe this development has more negative consequences than positive ones.
One major reason for the increasing demand for products from famous brandsdemand for famous brands is the desire for social recognition. Many individuals associate luxury brands with wealth, success, and prestige. For example, wearing designer clothes or driving an expensive car often gives people a sense of confidence and admiration from others. Additionally, branded products are often perceived as high-quality and durable, which makes people feel they are making a worthwhilevaluable investment. Moreover, effective marketing campaignscampaigns also play a significant role, as brands use celebrities and influencers to create an aspirational lifestyle that attracts consumers.
However, this growing obsession with brands has several negative effects. Firstly, it can lead to financial problems, as many people spend beyond their means to afford luxury items. For instance, some individuals take out loanstake loans or use credit cards to buy expensive goods, which may result in debt and financial stress. Secondly, this trend promotes materialism, wherebywhere people judge others by the brands they wearbased on the brands they wear rather than their personal qualities. It creates social pressure and reduces the importance of values such as hard work and humilityvalues like hard work and humility.
In conclusion, while branded products may offer high quality and social recognition, their increasing popularity has led to financial difficulties and materialistic attitudes. So, it is important for people to focus on practicality and personal values rather than blindly following brand trends.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response is strongest in its clear position and logical coverage of both the causes of brand preference and the resulting drawbacks. Its main limitation is that several arguments remain familiar and broadly stated, especially the claims about quality and social values. The highest-priority improvement is to deepen the causal analysis with more specific explanation of how branding influences choices and why the negative effects outweigh the benefits.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response answers both questions, maintains a clear negative position, and supports its main ideas with relevant explanations and examples.
Develop the comparison between benefits and harms more deeply so the final judgement follows from a sharper evaluation.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through a clear introduction, focused body paragraphs, and a consistent conclusion, with cohesive devices used effectively.
Use a few more implicit links between related sentences to make the progression feel less dependent on standard signposting.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise, with effective expressions for status, marketing, finance, and materialism.
Replace broad or familiar phrases with more exact language that distinguishes perceived product quality from status-driven consumption.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of simple and complex structures is controlled accurately, and errors do not interfere with communication.
Refine occasional awkward constructions, particularly relative clauses such as the explanation of materialism, for greater naturalness.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
More and more people want to buy famous brands of clothes, cars and other items. What are the reasons? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.