Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-11
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)
It is considered by a few that spending evenings and weekends with co-workers is good to be socialise with them, while others believe that. It is very necessary to keep their personal and professional life will be seperate. I agree that people need to keep their personal and professional lives different because it creates lots of misunderstandings between colleagues.
On the one hand, spending time with co-workers in evening and weekend help them to make their bond stronger with each other. To elaborate it, I colleagues spending more time together then they know each other better as well as if they have any problem regarding work they they can help each other without any hesitation and make their bond more stronger that will also be beneficial for the company and every employees. For example, a report established by a newspaper "The Times" states that In America companies get more benefits and profits because their employees have good relations with each other. As a result, having a better relations among co-worker help company to more productive.
On the other hand, mixing professional life with social life create many misunderstandings between colleagues as they share their personal things with them. To illustrate it, In office if people share their personal things with their colleague then sometimes they share these things with them and you do not want to share this with someone else. And at that time you do not trust on that person which will also effect there work life and you both co-operate with each other regarding and work. that effect your position in company and ruin your relations with other employees as well. For instance, In Indian 50% employee do not like to talk with each other due to misunderstandings. Hence, separate work and personal life is better in the workplace for maintaining privacy.
In conclusion, although spending time with work colleagues is better for maintaining good relations with each other, it creates many misunderstandings that will ruin their whole career and also not good for company.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses both sides of the argument and provides a clear personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat repetitive and occasionally lacks clarity. For instance, the explanation of why socialising leads to misunderstandings is circular and slightly confusing. While the task is fully addressed, the supporting arguments could be more nuanced and logically structured to reach a higher band. The examples provided, such as the reference to 'The Times' and the statistic about Indian employees, are relevant but lack sufficient integration into the broader argument to fully convince the reader.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, and there is an attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'To elaborate', and 'In conclusion'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or inaccurate, such as the awkward transition 'To elaborate it, I colleagues...'. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly in the second body paragraph where the use of 'they' and 'this' creates ambiguity regarding who is sharing information with whom. The progression of ideas is generally logical, but the flow is occasionally interrupted by grammatical errors.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it is often repetitive and lacks precision. Phrases like 'good relations', 'personal things', and 'make their bond stronger' are used frequently. There are also some collocation errors, such as 'report established by a newspaper' (should be 'published') and 'effect their work life' (should be 'affect'). While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary, the range is limited, and the errors in word choice occasionally draw attention to the language rather than the content.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there is a high frequency of grammatical errors. Issues include subject-verb agreement ('every employees'), incorrect verb forms ('is good to be socialise'), and punctuation errors. There are also several sentence fragments and run-on sentences, such as 'It is very necessary to keep their personal and professional life will be seperate.' These errors are frequent and sometimes impede the reader's understanding, although the overall meaning remains generally clear.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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