IELTS Task 2 Band 6.5 Sample: Is Advertising Persuasive? Strong Structure, Weak Grammar (Part 2 of 3): The 7.5 Comparison and Why LR and GRA Stayed at 6

3. Why this essay got 6.5: the four criteria one by one (continued)

Same template, so why one band higher the next day?

When I put this essay next to the competition essay from the next day, I found that the two use almost the same sentence frames: both introductions use “The purpose of this essay is to analyze both sides of this argument”, both first body paragraphs use “The main one is that…”, both second body paragraphs use “However, the option of…”, and both conclusions use “both sides have merits / are supported by some reasons” + “On balance”. The difference is in the details:

The most interesting part is the sentence “The main one is that”. In the competition essay it follows “There are some reasons”, so “one” naturally means “one of the reasons”. In the advertising essay, I changed the topic sentence to “Advertisements is beneficial” but did not change the next template sentence to match, so “one” was left hanging. Template sentences are not independent parts; each one is tied to the sentence before it. If you swap one, check the other as well.

Also, the subject of the competition essay, “competition”, is an uncountable noun, so every verb is singular and every pronoun is “it”, which naturally leaves less room for error. The advertising essay jumps between “advertising”, “advertisements” and “advertisement”, and singular and plural get mixed up as a result. Of course, the competition essay still has plenty of language errors (which is why its LR and GRA are only 7), but they are not concentrated in one category, and they do not disrupt the referencing within paragraphs.

Lexical Resource 6: spelling errors and imprecise word choice

The key description for LR 6 is “attempts less common vocabulary, with some inaccuracy, and makes some spelling errors”. In this essay, “brillant”, “attact” and “basic” are very basic spelling errors, while “advocate”, “option” and “characters” are words that look advanced but are used in the wrong place. Together, these two kinds of errors make it hard for the examiner to give a 7.

To move from LR 6 to 7, I think the shortest path is not to memorise more synonyms but to bring the errors down first. For spelling, build your own list of words you often misspell during practice (for example attract, basis, brilliant, receive, environment) and check against it every time you finish an essay. For word choice, follow one principle: if you have never seen a usage in an example sentence, do not try it for the first time in the exam. “Advocate” means to promote or argue for, and it is usually followed by a positive course of action (“advocate stricter rules”). If you have never seen it followed by a negative judgement, using it that way in the exam is a gamble. Swap risky words for safe ones like “argue”, “claim” and “believe”. Your LR will not drop because of it; it will actually go up, because there are fewer errors.

Grammatical Range & Accuracy 6: subject-verb agreement errors again and again

GRA is the criterion in this essay that most needs work. When I sorted the errors into categories, I found that most of them fall into the same group:

The biggest group is singular/plural: three subject-verb agreement errors, three pronoun errors and two countable/uncountable errors, so eight errors in total are all about “is this one thing or many things?” This is a textbook GRA 6: the sentence structures vary (relative clauses, participle clauses, “let alone”, clauses with “since”), but basic agreement is not under control.

“let alone” is worth a mention too. In “I usually skip those advertising videos…, let alone focus on the information”, “let alone” normally follows a negative sentence (“I don’t even watch them, let alone focus on…”). “skip” implies a negative, but the sentence itself is positive, so it reads a little awkwardly. If you want to use “let alone”, make sure what comes before it is clearly negative.

Over-generalisation: turning absolute claims into measured ones

The TR 7 descriptor includes “there may be a tendency to over-generalise”, while Band 8 requires ideas to be well developed. “undoubtedly” and “always” in this essay are textbook over-generalisation. An IELTS essay is not a debating contest, and you do not need to make absolute claims; measured statements actually make your argument sound more mature and harder to challenge.

Useful “softening” words to remember: likely, tend to, often, many, some, may, can, to some extent. But do not soften every sentence, or your position will become vague. The principle is: soften when describing facts and trends; be firm when stating your own position.

How to use a personal example in a both-views essay

For view B in this essay, I used my own experience: I usually skip adverts on YouTube. Personal examples are allowed in IELTS Task 2, and they are often more convincing than an unsourced “research shows”. But keep two things in mind.

First, put the personal example in the paragraph for the view it supports, and explain what it shows. In this essay, the example is followed by “In this situation, advertisements are useless because people will not concentrate on the advertisements themselves”, which links it back to the point. That part worked well.

Second, if your personal example supports the side you do not take, your conclusion has to respond to it. I skip adverts myself, yet I argued that advertising is useful, so the reader will wonder: why would you still be influenced by adverts? One line in the conclusion, such as “although many people, including myself, skip adverts…”, resolves the contradiction and can even make your position look more reflective.

4. The major problems in this essay

Problems 1 and 2 are the main reasons GRA and LR stayed at 6; problem 3 is why TR stayed at 7 and did not go higher. The good news is that the first two are errors with clear rules that you can check for, unlike depth of argument, which takes a long time to build.

Why are singular and plural so easy to get wrong?

Chinese nouns have no singular or plural forms, and verbs do not change form with the subject. “The advert is useful” and “these adverts are useful” use exactly the same verb in Chinese. So when we write in English, nothing in our heads reminds us how many things the subject is; we can only rely on deliberate checking. (If your first language works the same way, this probably sounds familiar.)

What makes it worse is that while writing, most of our attention goes on thinking of arguments and finding good words, so grammar control automatically drops. “people is so busy” and “Advertisements is beneficial” in this essay are, on their own, grammar I learned in junior and senior high school; but when you are thinking about content and sentence structure at the same time for 40 minutes, it is very easy to slip. This is why people at GRA 6 often feel “but I know this”: you do know it, but nothing reminds you while you are writing.

I think the two most practical countermeasures are these. First, reduce the number of different subjects: for example, use “advertising” (uncountable, singular) throughout, and avoid switching between singular and plural. Second, after writing, spend two minutes looking only at subjects and verbs, and nothing else.