Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-11-03
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)
Most of the humans depend on food that can be easily prepared and they prefer food oulets for their daily meals instead of eating home made food. I am going to discuss the pros and cons of this trend with relevant examples in the following paragraphs.
To commence with, the pros of individuals rely on dining places are that they do not have enough time to cook food and also they find restaurant food tasy instead of home cooked food. To eloborate it, people are busy in their life because they are doing jobs. They do not have time to cook food in the morning and at night as they do have to be on time at work in the morning and when they come home they feel tired. In addition to it, masses find different taste in outside food. several people eat in restautrants and prefer frozen and packaged food because it iod delicious. Hence, humans trust on dinning food and ready to eat meals cause of the time shortage and also they have habitual to eat mouthwatering food. For example, in developed countries like canada and America, the number of the individuals who prefer outside meals has incresed since the last 5 years.
On the other hand, the cons of this trend are that many times thae restaurants food is not fresh and also they waste their money on buying frozen meals and packaged food. To explain it, it happenes sometimes that people suffer from food poisioning because they eat unhealthy food from the meal oulets. People are also wasting their money by spending on outer meals. Thus, omost food the masses are suffering from numerous kinds of diseases because they eat ready meals and restaurants food. For instance, in Sault Ste Marie Canada, it has found that one canadian suffered from food posioning after eating food in restaurants.
To conclude, I have provide merits and demerits of eating outside food.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
You address both sides of the question and give relevant reasons: lack of time and preference for taste are presented as advantages, while food poisoning and expense are disadvantages. The examples about busy workers and a reported case in Sault Ste Marie help make the discussion concrete. However, the ideas are only partly developed. For instance, you mention that restaurant meals may be unhealthy, but do not explain how frequent reliance on them could affect health; similarly, the cost point could be compared with cooking at home. The conclusion merely repeats that you have discussed merits and demerits, rather than summarising your overall assessment. Develop each main point with a clearer explanation and a more specific example.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5
The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph for advantages, one for disadvantages, and a conclusion. Signposts such as “To commence with,” “On the other hand,” and “To conclude” make the direction of the discussion easy to follow. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and shows some ability to guide the reader. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical, with repeated transitions such as “To explain it” and “Hence,” and ideas within paragraphs are not always linked precisely. The sentence beginning “Thus, omost food the masses…” is difficult to connect logically to the preceding point. Use fewer formulaic linkers and make the relationship between each reason, explanation, and example explicit.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “frozen and packaged food,” “food poisoning,” and “time shortage.” However, the range is limited and several inaccurate or misspelled choices make the writing less clear or natural. Examples include “food oulets,” “tasy,” “iod delicious,” and “trust on dinning food.” Some expressions are also awkwardly repetitive, particularly “outside food,” “outer meals,” and “restaurants food.” These errors sometimes require the reader to work out the intended meaning, which is consistent with this level. Build a more reliable set of collocations for convenience food, eating out, freshness, and cost, and check spelling carefully.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including explanations with “because” and a contrast introduced by “On the other hand.” However, the range is limited, and complex sentences are often not controlled accurately. For example, “people are busy in their life because they are doing jobs” has problems with number and tense, while “they do have to be on time at work” does not express the intended meaning clearly. Errors also appear in verb forms and sentence construction, as in “it happenes sometimes” and “I have provide merits and demerits.” These patterns can make parts of the response difficult to understand. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement, verb forms, and sentence boundaries before adding more complex structures.
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