Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-03

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 5.5)

It is observed that in this contemporary epoch, many individuals are dependent on fast food chains such as restaurants and convenience store and are often seen consuming frozen packaged meals. However, the consumption of healthy home-cooked food is declining and is loosing its value. This trend has numerous drawbacks, an individual eating packaged and frozen food might suffer from obesity in future and may get affected by other health related problems.

To begin with, no doubt eating ready made food is convenient and often helps working professional who do not get sufficient time to cook but it also has various demerits. In packaged and frozen food an individual do not get enugh nutrient value that their body requires. Most of the junk food consists large amount of calories because they are fried and made with fat containg ingredients. To exemplify, a survey was conducted in America last year, which stated more than 70% of their population eat frozen and packaged food because of their personal choice but this demad affects the country's obesity rate.

To add on, food is kept in freezers to increase their shell life days but people often misuse this and store it for moths. In restaurants chef claims that any food kept in freezer has a life of 6 moths if you have defrosted it appropriately However, I wonder if the same nutrient value will exist after keeping it frozen for so long. People skipping home-cooked meals could face various problems as the food you make at your home is fresh, made with hygiene and is rich in nutrients. Furthermore, not eating adequate level of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fat could impact your body and you might suffer from diabetes and immune disorder

To conclude, ready-made food does not contain rich nutrients which are essential for a human being. It can be harmful regular eating of junk food can make you obese and you might suffer from health related problems in future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of eating restaurant and convenience food, but the ideas remain limited and under-developed. For instance, the writer mentions that ready-made food lacks nutrient value and can cause obesity, but this point is supported by a generalized and vague reference to a survey in America rather than detailed reasoning or strong examples. The position is visible throughout the text, yet the development lacks depth and extension, preventing the response from reaching a higher level. To improve, the writer should ensure that every main point is thoroughly explained with relevant and specific supporting details.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates some organization with distinct paragraphs introducing different arguments, but there is a lack of clear overall progression between the ideas. Cohesive devices are occasionally repetitive or mechanical, such as the frequent use of transition phrases like 'To begin with' and 'To add on', which do not always connect sentences smoothly. Referencing is also sometimes unclear, as seen in the transition between thoughts in the second and third paragraphs. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to employ a wider range of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure that the progression of ideas from one paragraph to the next flows logically and seamlessly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic message about convenience foods and health. There are noticeable lexical errors and issues with word form and spelling throughout the text, such as 'loosing' instead of 'losing', 'enugh' instead of 'enough', 'containg' instead of containing, 'demad' instead of demand, 'shell life' instead of shelf life, and 'moths' instead of months. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a restricted control of less common vocabulary. To progress, the writer should expand their lexical range and pay closer attention to spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The text displays a limited range of sentence structures, with attempts at complex sentences often resulting in structural or grammatical faults. There are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including subject-verb agreement issues such as 'an individual... do not get' and 'food is kept... to increase their shell life days', as well as missing punctuation before conjunctions and incorrect prepositional usage. These frequent errors can cause difficulty for the reader. To improve, the writer needs to practice forming accurate complex sentences and monitor basic grammatical rules such as subject-verb agreement and article usage closely.

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