Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-17

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 6.5)

Some people believe that to socialise with co-workers after work is a good idea, whereas others believe that it is important to keep working life apart from personal life.

In my opinion, it is important to keep work relationships separate from social life, because professional competition can outweight the benefits of frienship at workplaces.

One of the reasons that people become friends is the proximity and work place is usually the place that people spend most of their time. Consequently, it is a place that they might find some new friends. To get along with work colleagues can improve teamwork and some work tasks are more likely to be accomplished easier, because when people feel free to speak openly and work collaborativelly, they would probably achieve better results. For example, colleagues who are friends may feel more comfortable sharing ideas during meetings, which can help the team find creative solutions to problems.

On the other hand, some people prefer to completely separate their personal life from their professional life. Some professional environments are affected by employees rivalry, and it would not be wise to make friends at work and share their vulnerabilities with them. For instance, if someone is going through a breakup in their personal life, they would be vulnerable talking about it with colleagues. Eventually someone who does not like that person can cross the line on purpose, making inappropriate commentaries and affecting that person's feelings.

In conclusion, there are benefits on having friends at work, the risks are higher. In my opinion, it is better to keep work relationships completely apart from social life, because professional competition outweights the benefits of frienship at workplaces.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both views and state a consistent opinion: you support keeping work and social life separate, while acknowledging that workplace friendships can improve teamwork. The examples about sharing ideas in meetings and a colleague exploiting someone’s personal vulnerability are relevant and help explain each side. This meets the task well, and the clear position shows some of the stronger development expected at the next level. However, the discussion is uneven: the benefits of socialising are explained through teamwork, but the risks are presented mainly as one scenario, without exploring how common or avoidable they are. Develop the reasoning further and make the comparison between the benefits and risks more explicit to strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion that restates your position. The progression from workplace proximity to teamwork, followed by concerns about rivalry and personal vulnerability, is generally easy to follow. Linking phrases such as “Consequently,” “On the other hand,” and “For instance” help signal relationships between ideas. Cohesion is not always smooth, however. The conclusion’s opening, “there are benefits on having friends at work, the risks are higher,” joins two complete ideas with only a comma, and the repeated wording about keeping work and social life separate makes the ending feel somewhat mechanical. Use clearer sentence boundaries and vary references to the central contrast.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “professional competition,” “teamwork,” “collaboratively,” “vulnerabilities,” and “creative solutions.” These choices allow you to discuss both practical benefits and interpersonal risks, and the meaning remains clear. There are also some inaccurate word choices, collocations, and spelling slips that limit precision: “outweight” and “outweights” should be “outweigh” and “outweighs,” “frienship” should be “friendship,” and “inappropriate commentaries” is not a natural phrase in this context. “Work place” is also better written as “workplace.” Aim for more natural collocations and proofread spelling; this would make the vocabulary more controlled without changing your ideas.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including subordinate clauses with “because,” “when,” and “if.” Most sentences communicate their meaning clearly, and the example beginning “For instance, if someone is going through a breakup…” shows an effective conditional structure. Some grammatical and punctuation errors remain. In “the work place is usually the place,” the article and repeated noun phrase make the construction awkward; “some work tasks are more likely to be accomplished easier” combines two comparative forms; and the conclusion joins independent clauses with a comma. The sentence beginning “Eventually someone…” also needs a comma after the introductory adverb. Review comparative structures, sentence boundaries, and punctuation to improve accuracy while retaining your complex sentences.

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