Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-11-12

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 5.5)

In this contemprary era, A large number of people depends on frozen food and packaged meals instead of home-made food. Convenience food have both props and cons, and I will discuss both of them in upcoming paragraphs.

On the one hand, it's useful for individuals who don't konw how to cook. To explain this, nowadays, most of younge generation don't know about cooking, they find cooking is impossible to them so they rely on restaurants and packaged meals. Apart form this, frozen food available wide range of food choices, so people can enjoy different food everyday. In this busy life-style, people don't have enough time for coooking, so they use fast-food rather than home-cooked food of their meals.For example, most of the working women give packaged meals to their children in lunchbox.

While, it can provide disadvantages too. The first one is, it can be harmful for our body. To elaborate this,some meals contain too much sugar and salt, if person can intake this regular basis,it might affect his health like obesity or weight gain. Furthermore, people may lose habit of cooking, if they utilize convenience food daily basis.Not only lose cooking skills,but it also encourage unhealthy eating habits. For instance, regularly eating fast food such as burgers/pizza anf fried chicken may increase the consumption of salt and unhealthy fats.

To conclude,although eating out is convenience and available in wide range of choices, but cooking at home is more beneficial as its provide nutrition food and less expensive than restaurant food.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question and give a clear overall view: convenience food offers ease and variety, while home cooking is ultimately more beneficial. Relevant support includes the example of working mothers packing prepared meals and the health risks associated with frequent fast-food consumption. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained. For example, the claim that younger people find cooking “impossible” would be stronger if you explained why they lack the skill or time, and the advantages of restaurant meals are less developed than the health disadvantages. Develop each main point with a clearer cause-and-effect explanation or a specific example, and make the comparison in your conclusion more precise.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “Furthermore,” and “To conclude” helps readers follow the discussion. Within paragraphs, however, some links feel mechanical or are not used accurately. “While, it can provide disadvantages too” does not form a clear transition, and the ideas about cooking skills and unhealthy habits could be connected more explicitly. There are also places where sentence boundaries and spacing make the progression harder to follow. Use fewer formulaic transitions and link each supporting sentence directly to the point it explains; clearer referencing would also help the argument flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for the topic, including “packaged meals,” “wide range of food choices,” “obesity,” and “unhealthy fats.” These terms make the main ideas understandable, and you attempt some less common expressions. However, spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, as in “contemprary,” “props and cons,” “coooking,” and “anf.” Some combinations are also unnatural, such as “available wide range” and “nutrition food,” while “fast-food” is used where “fast food” would be more natural. These slips do not prevent understanding, but they reduce precision. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations as complete phrases, especially when describing convenience, health effects, and food quality.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including conditional structures such as “if a person can intake this regular basis, it might affect his health.” The meaning is generally recoverable, but some errors in agreement, articles, sentence construction, and punctuation remain. For example, “A large number of people depends” should use a plural verb, and “Convenience food have” also has a subject–verb agreement problem. The sentence beginning “Not only lose cooking skills” is incomplete, and the final sentence combines “although” with “but” unnecessarily. Improve control by checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, and practise accurate conditional and contrast structures before adding more complex clauses.

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