Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-24

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)

Nowadays, many people depend on restaurants and easily available food which needs less time or no effort to cook. This kind of food has less pros but a lot of cons, that are discussed further.

On the one hand, purchasing food from a shop whenever it is a situation of hurry or no time is left beyond for cooking, makes sense. As it is easily available in thhe restaurants. We just need to call and place an order, then pay and get our food. Also, there are options of dine-in and take-out for the orders. Moreover, there is no limit for buying meals. We can get food for the whole family or individual. The food is available for any time of the day like, we can get breakfast, lunch or dinner. Even though, snacks, desserts and beverages are available. Most of the times deals are available to attract costumers. Moving further, the outside food tastes very delicious and served in an attracting way that it looks mouth watering by looking for the first time.

On the other hand, cooking at home is safe and healthy because we know what we are going to consume. Bringing frozen food from stores or restaurants causes various health issues like diarrhea, nausea, obesity, thyroid etcetra because sometimes the expired food items are used for making meals and hygiene is not followed. Mainly, ample number of chemicals are used to preserve these products for long time which affect human health badly.

To conclude, it's good to depend on restaurant or packaged meals in shortage of time, but avoiding these meals helps us maintain good health and develop our own cooking skills.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question and give a clear overall view: convenience is useful when time is short, while avoiding these meals supports health and cooking skills. The advantages paragraph includes relevant points about ordering, meal availability, and deals, and the disadvantages paragraph explains concerns about hygiene, preservatives, and health. However, some points are listed rather than developed. For example, the range of meal times and dine-in/take-out options could be linked more explicitly to how they benefit people with busy schedules. The health claims would also be stronger with a specific, carefully explained example rather than a list of illnesses. Developing and supporting these ideas more evenly would make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion that restates your position. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “To conclude” helps readers follow the main direction. Within the advantages paragraph, however, several points are presented as a sequence of short additions, including ordering, meal choices, availability, and deals, so the progression can feel list-like. Some links are also awkward or unclear, as in “Even though, snacks, desserts and beverages are available.” Group related points and use transitions that show how one idea leads to the next. This would make cohesion less mechanical while preserving the clear paragraph structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for the topic, including “convenience food,” “take-out,” “hygiene,” “preserve,” and “cooking skills.” These choices communicate the main ideas, but several expressions are imprecise or unnatural, such as “easily available food,” “a situation of hurry,” and “served in an attracting way.” There are also spelling or word-form slips, including “costumers” and “etcetra,” which reduce accuracy. Some wording is repetitive, particularly repeated references to “food” and “available.” Aim for more natural collocations and precise terms, and check spelling carefully. This would make your vocabulary more flexible and appropriate to an IELTS discussion without changing the ideas you express.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including the conditional idea “whenever it is a situation of hurry” and the reason clause beginning “because we know what we are going to consume.” Most of the message remains understandable, but some grammatical errors make individual sentences awkward or incomplete. For example, “As it is easily available in the restaurants” is a fragment, and “which affect human health badly” has a subject–verb agreement problem because “chemicals” is plural but the relative clause refers to the products collectively unclearly. The opening sentence also has an unclear construction around “which needs less time.” Practise building complete sentences and checking agreement, articles, and clause connections. Greater control of these patterns would improve accuracy while retaining your attempts at complexity.

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