Task
Some people say that it is possible to tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from their choice of clothes.
Do you agree or disagree?
Candidate’s Answer
This is an answer written by a candidate who achieved a Band 7 score.
It is certainly a very interesting question. Does what a person wears tell us so much about their culture and personality or not? I tend to agree that clothes can tell us some basic things, but that they do not tell us much more than those basic things.
First of all, I will consider how a person’s choice of clothes reveals their culture. This is true in some ways, for example, in many countries people have a distinctive national style of wear, and some particular clothes and fabrics are typical of certain areas. Therefore, clothes can sometimes reveal the ethnic origins and culture of a person, but as so many people nowdays dress in business suits or jeans and T-shirts worldwide this is becoming less and less true.
As character is concerned, we can tell in some places if the wearer of clothes is a follower of fashion. Another aspect of dress is whether the clothes look clean and ironed or grubby and very casual. This might tell us how much concerned they are about to be smart. However, the way someone dresses can also be misleading at times. There are some people which wears clothes that seems very unusual and strange, but often they are just following fashion and are not unusual or strange people in their personalitys at all.
To sum up, I would say that we can find out something about a person from their style of dress but only the surface things, and not the deeper character.
Examiner’s Comment
The response addresses all parts of the task and there is a clear opinion. Ideas are usually expressed fully, but they sometimes need more support. Organisation is logical and there is a clear central topic to each paragraph. There is a good range of cohesive devices, although there are some errors (As character is concerned…, There are some people which…). Substitution is usually good, although there is some repetition (basic things) in the first paragraph. There is a good range of vocabulary and there are some less common words and phrases (distinctive, ethnic origins, Another aspect of dress is, grubby, misleading, they are not just following fashion…). There are some word choice errors (national style of wear), and spelling errors (nowdays, personalitys). There is a good range of complex structures and many sentences have accurate grammar and punctuation. There are a few errors in grammar (how much concerned they about to be smart).
