Are Traditional Festivals Losing Their Meaning?
A complete IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 question with a model answer of 289 words, plus a breakdown of the sentence structures, cohesive devices and vocabulary that answer uses. Write your own version first, then compare.
Written by Manish Sharma · CELTA and DELTA qualified · 8 years teaching IELTS
Score my answer to this questionThe question
You have 40 minutes. Write at least 250 words.
Many people believe that traditional festivals and celebrations are losing their meaning in modern life and have become more commercial than cultural. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Write at least 250 words.
How to approach it
- 01State your position clearly in the introduction — partial agreement is a legitimate stance
- 02Acknowledge the opposing view fully before reinforcing your own
- 03Use specific festival examples from different cultures to show range
- 04Reference experts or studies where natural — it signals academic awareness
- 05Use hedging language: 'partially agree', 'to a certain extent', 'undeniably'
- 06End with a forward-looking conclusion rather than a flat summary
Model answer
289 words in 4 paragraphs. Read it after you have written your own, not before: the point of a model answer is to show you what you missed, and you cannot miss anything you have not attempted.
From Christmas in London to Lunar New Year in Singapore, traditional festivals are now framed as much by advertising campaigns as by ancient rituals. While I partially agree that commercialisation has eroded some of their spiritual depth, I would argue that the underlying cultural significance of these celebrations has shifted rather than disappeared.
There is clear evidence to support the view that festivals have been commodified. Christmas in many Western countries has become inseparable from shopping, with retailers beginning their campaigns months in advance and households accumulating debt on gifts that hold little personal meaning. Similar trends are visible elsewhere: Diwali is marketed through electronics sales, Eid through fashion collections, and even Halloween, originally a Celtic festival of the dead, now centres on costume retail. Sociologists such as George Ritzer have argued that this commercial framing distracts from the religious or seasonal meanings that gave these days their original power.
However, it would be inaccurate to claim that festivals have lost all cultural value. For many families, the rituals surrounding these days, sharing food, visiting relatives, and observing customs handed down across generations, remain deeply meaningful, even if a gift or a decoration was bought rather than made. In multicultural cities, festivals also play a new and important role in identity preservation: second-generation immigrants often connect with their heritage through Lunar New Year reunions or Eid celebrations that their grandparents would still recognise. The cultural function has adapted rather than vanished.
In conclusion, while I accept that commercial forces have undeniably reshaped how we celebrate, I believe traditional festivals continue to fulfil important social and cultural roles. The challenge for modern societies is not to mourn lost authenticity but to ensure that meaning is consciously preserved alongside the commerce.
What this answer actually does
Measured from the text above, and compared against the other 69 answers of the same type in this library. These are counts, not band scores: they describe what the writing does, which is the part you can copy.
2 fewer than the median answer for this task type
8 words at the shortest, 35 at the longest
1 fewer than the median answer for this task type
carry a subordinate or relative clause
Sentence rhythm
Sentences average 24.1 words and vary by 8.1 words either side of that, running from 8 words to 35. Variation is the point. Grammatical Range and Accuracy rewards a mix of simple and complex sentences, and an answer where every sentence is the same length reads as flat no matter how correct it is. 9 of the 12 sentences here carry a subordinate or relative clause.
The cohesive devices it uses
5 in total, spread across 3 different functions. Range matters more than count: an answer that opens every paragraph with a sequencer signals its structure but never signals a relationship between ideas, and Coherence and Cohesion is marked on both.
however, while
such as
in conclusion
Vocabulary and repetition
Ignoring grammar words, 83 per cent of the content words in this answer are distinct, and 71 per cent appear exactly once. Lexical Resource is where repetition costs the most marks, and the usual cause is not a small vocabulary but reaching for the same noun every time the topic is named.
The longest run of words copied straight from the question is 2 words. Examiners discount wording lifted from the question, so a short run here is the right outcome: the answer restates the topic in its own words rather than borrowing the question's.
What you are marked on
All four criteria carry equal weight, and your Writing band is their average rounded to the nearest half band.
Task Response
Take a clear position and develop it with relevant arguments and examples
Coherence & Cohesion
Logical progression with effective discourse markers
Lexical Resource
Cultural and sociological vocabulary used precisely
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
Range of complex sentence structures with consistent accuracy
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