Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-03

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)

In recent years, people's way of consuming food has been changing with their busy lifestyle. Nowadays, most of people are dependent on ready-to-eat food as compared to freshly prepared food at home. In this essay, I will discuss the advantage and disadvantages of both behaviours and how advantages of home prepared food outweigh the disadvantages.

First of all, although packaged food items have bad influence on our health, but it still contains advantages. These kind of food material are more convenient, helps to save time. For example, from my personal experience, being an international student it was really hard to adjust in a new environment where you do not know anyone simultaneously, looking for a home in a new country. At that time, these kind of packaged food or fast food places helped to manage my studies and early hustle. Secondly, due to long working hours people do not have enough time for cooking. Therefore, number of people depending on ready-to-eat meals has been increasing.

On the other, there are some disadvantages of rely on frozen foods. If, a person followed this kind behaviour for long term, it may cause harmful diseases. As, enclosed food products are highly processed, high in fats and sugar and artificial flavours and enhancers to increase their shelf life. For instance, this will cause obesity and some heart related diseases in early age. In fast food restaurants, it is very hard to maintain the quality and hygiene of freshly prepared food. Hence, people should try to avoid these kind of highly processed foods.

In my opinion, I personally believe that, the food prepared at home has more benefits than outdoor foods even though it do have some advantage. But, we cannot depends on this type of lifestyle for long term.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on convenience food. However, the development is uneven. While the advantages (convenience, time-saving) are supported by a personal example, the discussion on disadvantages is somewhat repetitive and lacks depth regarding the broader societal impact. The position is clear, but the conclusion is abrupt and does not fully synthesize the arguments presented. To reach a higher band, ensure that each point is balanced with specific, well-explained examples and that the conclusion provides a more comprehensive summary of the main points discussed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices such as 'First of all', 'Secondly', and 'On the other' are used to signal the progression of ideas. However, the flow is occasionally interrupted by awkward phrasing and mechanical transitions. For instance, the transition 'On the other' is incomplete, and some sentences feel disconnected from the previous ones. The use of referencing is generally clear, but the overall structure could benefit from more sophisticated linking words to improve the flow between sentences and paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the student to express ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'highly processed', 'artificial flavours', and 'shelf life'. However, there are instances of imprecise word choice and minor errors, such as 'food material' instead of 'food products' and 'bad influence' instead of 'negative impact'. The range is sufficient to communicate the message, but it lacks the precision and flexibility required for a higher band score. Expanding the use of collocations and more academic synonyms would enhance the quality 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, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('it do have', 'number of people... has been increasing') and article usage ('the advantage and disadvantages'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with unnecessary commas appearing in several places. While the errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the essay from reaching the 7.0 band. Focusing on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would significantly improve the score.

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