Task 2 · Positive or negative development · Travel
Choosing holidays from social media photos
A positive-or-negative essay on travel chosen from social media, where the band 9 answer argues that the real loss is not the crowds but the surprise.
The question
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Many people now decide where to go on holiday because of photographs and videos they have seen on social media. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?
A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The 6.5 sets free information against fake photos and crowds; the 7.5 explains why online attention piles visitors onto a few spots; the 9 notes that travellers have always been steered, and argues that what is new is a trip organised around a picture that already exists.
The three answers
Band 6.5
282 words (the task asks for at least 250)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
Nowadays, social media is playing a big role in the life of the people, and many people are choosing their holiday place3 after seeing the photos and videos on Instagram or other apps. In my opinion, this is more a negative development than a positive one, although it has some good sides also.
Firstly, there are some positive points. Social media gives people a lot of information about the places for free. Before, people had to buy the guide book or ask to the travel agent, but now they can see the real pictures of the hotel, the beach and the food before they go1. Moreover, small places which were not famous before can become popular, so the local people can earn more money from the tourists.
However, the negative points are more important.2 Firstly, many photos on social media are not real, because people are using the filters and editing, so when the tourists reach the place they feel disappointed. Secondly, when one place become famous online, thousands of people go there at the same time and it become very crowded and dirty4. For example, some beautiful villages are now full of tourists who only want to take the selfie and then leave. Moreover, some people are doing dangerous things like standing on the edge of the cliff only for getting a good photo, and some of them have accident5.
In conclusion, although social media is useful and can help the small places, I think it is a negative development because the photos are often fake, the places become overcrowded and people take the risks. People should use social media carefully and also check other informations before they choose the destination.
What an examiner notices
1. Task response
“now they can see the real pictures of the hotel, the beach and the food before they go”
Praised here as a source of real pictures, social media is accused in the next paragraph of showing photos that 'are not real'. Either claim could be argued; making both without noticing the conflict shows the points were listed rather than weighed.
2. Coherence and cohesion
“However, the negative points are more important.”
The verdict is announced before a single negative point has been made, and it is never demonstrated afterwards. 'Firstly' then restarts the count, so the essay has two first points.
3. Lexical resource
“many people are choosing their holiday place”
'Place' and 'places' carry the whole essay; 'destination', the word the topic calls for, arrives only in the final sentence.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“when one place become famous online, thousands of people go there at the same time and it become very crowded and dirty”
The third-person ending is missing twice in one sentence, although the meaning is never in doubt.
5. Grammatical range and accuracy
“some of them have accident”
A singular countable noun with no article. Set beside 'the selfie', 'the filters' and 'the risks', it shows article use going wrong in both directions.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
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