Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-04

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)

Nowadays people prefer to order from the restaurants and also consume processed or readily available for the various reasons. Some believe that even though this trend might fetch several benefits to the individuals who have hectic life or busy job schedules but others argue that detrimental factors cannot be overlooked. This essay will elucidate more details in the following paragraphs and write plausible conclusion.

To commence with, people who profess supporting the former notion and share their view point stating that, opting this method might help the person to save enormous of time and money. To explain, due to this arrangement one might not spend to much time on shopping groceries while visiting various stores and wasting valuable time not spending with their loved ones. Moreover, this arrangement also help them to taste different cuisines and explore the different culture and tradition without visiting that particular country. For instance, pizza and burger are western country food and this endeavour would allow them to experience the taste of that country.

However, other school of thought believe that, people who choose to consume outside food or ready made food could face colossal health consequences like indigestion, food position and skin allergies and many more due to the unhygienic place, low quality oil or products and also some restaurants uses expired goods. For example, in the year 2020, there were 12,000 restaurants were seized by the Indian food officials for using expired food products.

To conclude, although, people might find easy to buy packed food for their own convenient to save time and money, yet I personally believe that, this trend would definitely bring huge detrimental health problems to the public.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on convenience food. The position is clear throughout, and the ideas are relevant. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the point about exploring cultures through food is a bit superficial and could have been better linked to the convenience aspect. The example regarding the 12,000 restaurants in India is specific and relevant, which strengthens the argument. To reach a higher band, ensure that each point is fully extended with more nuanced reasoning rather than relying on general statements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a distinct focus. Cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'Moreover', and 'However' are used to guide the reader. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, and there are minor issues with referencing (e.g., 'the former notion' is used without a clearly defined preceding noun phrase). The concluding sentence is a bit abrupt and could have better summarized the main points discussed in the body paragraphs. Overall, the progression of ideas is clear and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'elucidate', 'plausible', and 'colossal', though some collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'food position' (likely meaning food poisoning) and 'fetch several benefits'. There are also minor errors in word choice, such as 'convenient' used as a noun instead of 'convenience'. While the range is sufficient to convey meaning, more precise and varied vocabulary would improve the sophistication of the writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'some restaurants uses' (subject-verb agreement), 'too much time on shopping' (preposition usage), and 'enormous of time' (quantifier error). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage around introductory phrases and clauses. These errors do not impede communication, but they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and correct prepositional phrases would significantly improve the accuracy of the writing.

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