Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-11-06

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

A growing number of people rely on restaurants and convenience food (frozen food and packaged meals) rather than home-cooked food to supply most of their meals.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of eating this way?

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

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Growing demand of ready-to-eat food and restaurants instead of home-cooked food is majorly seen due to time constraints. The trend of consuming instantly cooked food holds some benefits like its easy availability but also contribute to major health issues among individuals.

The primary advantage of relying on restraurants food is that it is cooked and delivered in lesser time than self-cooked food. The cost, time, energy, and patience taken to cook food at home is very less comparitive to the instant food. The packaged meals are so well-prepped that effort to eat is very minimal. This way offers people freedom to use the saved time by choice. Along with it, some people lack the skill to cook which eventually creates a dependency on convenience food or packaged meals. So, I feel some people depend on this trend by choice and some rely on it because of their incapablities.

Now looking into the darker side of this shift, it is seen to be the major contributor in deteriorating public health. Once a wise man said, "anything can comes easy is dangerous". This saying clearly applies on the price people pay to eat instant food which is leading to growth in obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, and long-term deficiencies. Home-cooked food is freshly bought and cooked to preseve its nutritional value. But, the instant foods contains multiple preservatives to improve the shelf life of the food without adding any nutrition in it. They also contains chemical dyes to build the taste, color, and texture of the food similar to home-cooked meals. Regular consumption of these harmful chemicals lead to serious health issues. Another aspect of this trend is spending money on buying food repetitively without any chance reusing it.

Overall, I feel on occasional basis its healthy to eat out or try packaged meals as it offers new taste and saves time. But, if it turns into a habit it will surely costs the health and money of the individuals which cannot be reversed once damaged.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both sides of the question and maintain a clear overall view: convenience food saves time, while habitual consumption may harm health and finances. The discussion of time and cooking skills is relevant, and the health paragraph gives examples such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. This meets the task well, but some points are asserted rather than fully explained. For example, the claim that packaged food contains preservatives and dyes could be linked more carefully to particular nutritional or health concerns, and the financial disadvantage is introduced only briefly at the end of the paragraph. To strengthen the response, develop each main advantage and disadvantage with a specific explanation or example, while avoiding broad claims such as saying these foods inevitably cause serious illness.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a coherent overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on advantages, one on disadvantages, and a concluding opinion. Signposting such as “The primary advantage,” “Now looking into the darker side,” and “Overall” makes the direction easy to follow. This shows clear organisation, although some links feel mechanical or the relationships between ideas are not fully smooth. The advantage paragraph moves from speed to preparation, saved time and cooking ability without always showing how each point connects; the sentence beginning “The cost, time, energy, and patience…” is also difficult to follow. Group related points more tightly and use clearer references between sentences. A more direct transition into the financial disadvantage would also help the argument progress naturally.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range for the topic, including “time constraints,” “dependency,” “nutritional value,” “preservatives,” and “long-term deficiencies.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, and you attempt some less common vocabulary. However, several word choices, collocations and spellings are inaccurate or awkward, such as “Growing demand of,” “restraurants food,” “comparitive,” “incapablities,” and “build the taste.” “Instantly cooked food” is also not a natural description of ready-made meals. These errors do not prevent understanding, but they limit precision and naturalness. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations for food and health, such as “demand for,” “restaurant meals,” and “enhance flavour.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex forms, including clauses with “which,” “that,” and “if,” and the overall meaning is generally clear. Some sentences are controlled, but errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence construction remain. For example, “the instant foods contains” should have a plural verb, while “anything can comes easy” has an incorrect verb form. In “Regular consumption … lead,” the singular subject needs a singular verb; “it will surely costs” also uses the wrong verb form after “will.” The opening sentence and the sentence about the cost, time and energy of cooking are structurally awkward. Review subject–verb agreement and verb patterns, then proofread each sentence for a clear subject and main verb.

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