IELTS Task 2 band 7 sample answer: technology, with the full examiner breakdown

A band 7 answer is not a flawless one. It holds a clear position from the first paragraph to the last, extends every idea it raises, and keeps the majority of its sentences error-free — and the sample below does that on a technology prompt without using a single rare word.

What follows is the question, the answer, and then the marking: one section per criterion, with the specific sentences that earned the band. At the end there is the more useful comparison — what would have taken this essay to 8, and what small changes would have dropped it to 6.5.

What earns the band is not visible in the words — it is the single line of position running from the introduction to the conclusion.

The question and the band 7 answer

Task 2. Some people say that the widespread use of smartphones has weakened people's ability to communicate face to face. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Smartphones have changed where conversations happen more than whether they happen at all. I partly agree that constant phone use has weakened face-to-face communication, but the damage is to attention and habit rather than to the underlying ability itself.

The clearest cost is attention. A phone lying on the table competes with the person sitting across it: notifications break the rhythm of an exchange, and even a glance at a screen signals that something more interesting may be available elsewhere. Over time this trains people to accept shallower conversations, and the capacity to sustain a long, unbroken one is the first thing to weaken. Anyone who has watched a family eat a meal with three phones face-up on the table will recognise the pattern.

A second effect is avoidance. Because messaging removes the discomfort of an unrehearsed reply, many people now choose text for exactly the situations that build confidence — complaints, apologies, disagreements. The skill is not lost, but it is exercised far less often, and the lack of practice shows when the conversation cannot be avoided.

The argument is much weaker, however, when it is stated as a general decline. The same devices let people arrange meetings that would once have been impractical, and they hold relationships together across distance until the next meeting happens. Similar predictions were made about the telephone and about television, and both proved exaggerated. What has changed is the default, not the capacity: people who put the phone away still converse perfectly well.

In conclusion, I agree that smartphones have made face-to-face communication harder to sustain, chiefly by fragmenting attention and by offering an easier alternative to difficult exchanges, but I would not accept that the ability itself has been lost.

Word count: 288.

Task Response: why this is a 7 and not a 6

Band 7 Task Response asks for a clear position throughout, main ideas that are extended and supported, and an answer to all parts of the question. Watch what the essay does with "to what extent":

• The position is qualified in the introduction and never drifts. "I partly agree… but the damage is to attention and habit rather than to the underlying ability itself" sets the exact extent of agreement in one sentence, and the conclusion restates the same boundary. A band 6 answer typically agrees in the introduction, argues both sides in the middle, and leaves the reader to work out the position.
• Each main idea is extended, not listed. The attention paragraph gives a mechanism — notification, broken rhythm, tolerance for shallower exchange — rather than asserting that phones are distracting. That causal chain is the single most reliable marker between 6 and 7.
• The counter-view is answered, not just mentioned. Paragraph four does not concede and retreat. It reframes the opposing claim as an overstatement and then supplies the distinction the whole essay rests on: the default has changed, the capacity has not.

If you consistently score 6.5 on Task 2 despite writing well, this criterion is usually the one holding you there. How to get band 7 in IELTS Writing takes the same four criteria apart as conditions your essay has to meet.

Coherence and Cohesion: paragraphing that does the work

Band 7 CC wants logical progression, clear central topics, and cohesion that does not draw attention to itself. Three things this answer does:

• One job per paragraph. Attention, avoidance, counter-argument. Each paragraph opens with its own claim ("The clearest cost is attention", "A second effect is avoidance"), so the structure is visible without a table of contents.
• Cohesion by reference, not by signpost. "this trains people", "the same devices", "both proved exaggerated" — the links are pronouns and repeated key nouns rather than Firstly / Moreover / In addition. Overusing those connectives is described in the public descriptors as mechanical, and it is a common reason essays stall at CC 6.
• The order is not reversible. Paragraph three depends on paragraph two having established that the problem is behavioural, and paragraph four answers both. If you can shuffle your body paragraphs without loss, you are writing a list, not an argument.

Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range: the band 7 bar

Both criteria sit at 7 here, and it is worth being precise about how low that bar actually is compared with what candidates imagine.

Lexical Resource 7. The essay uses "unrehearsed", "fragmenting attention", "exaggerated", "sustain" — sufficient range with some less common items, used accurately. There is no idiom, no rare academic register, nothing memorised. Band 7 LR rewards flexibility and precision, so one misused impressive word costs more than ten plain accurate ones. The weakest point is "hold relationships together", which is slightly informal for the register; that is the sort of lapse band 7 tolerates.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy 7. There is a mix of forms: a causal subordinate clause ("Because messaging removes the discomfort…"), a relative clause ("Anyone who has watched a family eat a meal…"), and mid-sentence adverbial placement for emphasis ("The argument is much weaker, however, when…"). Band 7 requires a majority of error-free sentences, not all of them. An essay with fifteen sentences and two minor slips that never obscure meaning still sits at 7.

The four criteria are averaged for the Task 2 score, and Task 2 is then weighted against Task 1 for the Writing band: (Task 1 + Task 2 × 2) / 3, rounded in 0.25 steps. That weighting is why a Task 2 criterion left at 6 is expensive. The official criteria are published by IELTS: IELTS Writing band descriptors and key assessment criteria.

What would have made it an 8 — and what would have made it a 6.5

Neither direction takes much. One flat opinion sentence drops it a half band; one developed counter-argument raises it.

To 8, the essay would need to be more precise, not longer:

• TR — the counter-argument paragraph would need its own extension. "The default has changed, the capacity has not" is the essay's best idea and it is stated once, in the last line of the paragraph, instead of being developed.
• CC — paragraph three ends on a general remark; band 8 keeps every sentence load-bearing.
• LR — "hold relationships together" and "shallower conversations" would need sharper alternatives, used naturally rather than swapped in.
• GRA — band 8 expects the majority of sentences to be error-free and the range to be wide; here the sentence patterns are slightly repetitive across paragraphs two and three.

To 6.5, remarkably little would have to change:

• Cut the qualification in the introduction to a flat "I strongly agree", keep the rest as it is, and TR falls to 6 — the body no longer matches the stated position.
• Replace the referencing with Firstly / Secondly / Moreover and CC falls to 6, with no other edit.
• Drop the final body paragraph and the essay stops addressing "to what extent" at all.

Each of those is a one-minute decision under exam pressure, which is exactly why the same writer can produce a 6.5 and a 7 in consecutive attempts. The side-by-side version of that is in Band 6.5 vs band 7 essay: the same question, scored side by side, and the wording the bands above and below are written in runs through the band descriptors post.

How to use a sample answer without copying it

Reading model answers has a low ceiling, because the thing that earns the band is invisible on the page — it is the relationship between the position, the paragraphs and the concession, and that does not transfer by imitation. Two things that do work:

• Reverse-outline it. Write one sentence per paragraph describing its job, not its content. If your own essay's reverse outline reads "topic, topic, topic" rather than "claim, extension, answer", the problem is TR and CC, not vocabulary.
• Rewrite the counter-argument paragraph only. It is where most 6.5 essays lose the half band, and it is short enough to redraft five times in the time one full essay takes.

And do not copy the question or the phrasing into a real exam answer. Memorised sentences are visible to examiners and are penalised under Task Response, which is the criterion you can least afford to lose.

Score your own technology essay against the four criteria

The reason self-assessment misleads is that writers mark their own grammar strictly and their own task response generously — the argument was clear in your head before it reached the page, so it reads as clear on the page. Marking each criterion separately, as this breakdown does, is what exposes the one that is holding your total down.

Paste your own Task 2 answer, get a band for Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range separately, and compare the four against the sample above.