Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-14

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people think that it’s a good idea to socialise with work colleagues during evenings and weekends. Other people think it’s important to keep working life completely separate from social life.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

There is an ongoing debate on whether employee needs to socialise with their co-workers or not. As far as I am concerned, although it helps workers to build strong interpersonal connections and a thriling job experience, I believe there must be a boundary to strike a balanced worklife, as it gives a sense of satisfaction and maintain professionalism.

On the one hand, doing parties and making friend after office timing strenthen their bonds, as having great time together and share thier experience to motivate others. As a consequence, it not only makes the engaging and friendly office's environment to discuss problems they face, but also make thier job satisfactory and entertaining. In othe words, people would enjoy working and learning with friends to whom they can trust and help each other during unexpected situations. Thus, to away from boredom you should spent quality time with your colleagues.

On the other hand, I would say people should make a good balance in between their peronal and professional. Because, it maintains respect in the work place and people value you and your work if you mind yur own business, instead of being friendly and spending time with each other on weekends. For instance, if a manager starts meeting their staff members to do parties or other things, employee would not value his comitments and order he gives to them. Therefore, I would say people should set a strong boundary to keep intact and maintain equilibrium in private mad public life.

In conclusion, having time after office no doubt makes good relations among workers, but I would say it has an adverse affect on their professional life reduce productivity and no one has fear of anyone.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both perspectives and state a clear view: socialising can strengthen relationships, but boundaries are needed to protect professionalism. The first body paragraph explains how colleagues may support and motivate one another, while the second gives a manager–staff example to support separation. These are relevant responses to the task. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained: for example, the claim that socialising makes work more satisfying is not illustrated, and the manager example does not clearly show why meeting socially would reduce respect or commitment. The conclusion also introduces reduced productivity and lack of fear without developing these claims. Explain the consequences more precisely and support each main point with a clear example to make the discussion more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion. Signposts such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” help readers follow the discussion. Within paragraphs, however, connections are sometimes mechanical or unclear. For instance, “As a consequence” introduces several effects at once, and “Thus, to away from boredom” does not clearly follow from the preceding explanation. The final sentence also combines several ideas without showing how they relate. Use linking phrases to express the precise relationship between claims, and make pronouns and references explicit. A clearer progression from reason to example to consequence would make the argument easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You attempt a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “interpersonal connections,” “professionalism,” “equilibrium,” and “productivity,” which helps convey the main ideas. Some less common expressions are not used accurately or naturally, however: “thriling job experience,” “make the engaging and friendly office's environment,” and “keep intact” are difficult to interpret as intended. Spelling errors such as “strenthen,” “thier,” and “comitments” also reduce precision. These issues do not prevent the reader from understanding the general argument, but they make parts of it less clear and fluent. Focus on accurate collocations and check spelling; simpler, natural phrasing is more effective than ambitious wording used incorrectly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a concession in the introduction and conditional structures such as “if a manager starts meeting their staff members.” However, errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence construction occur across the response. For example, “it gives a sense of satisfaction and maintain professionalism” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “having great time together and share thier experience” does not maintain a consistent grammatical form. The sentence beginning “Because, it maintains respect” is also an incomplete sentence, and the final sentence lacks a clear grammatical connection between its claims. These errors sometimes make relationships between ideas harder to understand. Practise checking each sentence for a complete clause, consistent verb forms, and agreement.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.