Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

It is sometimes possible to pay somebody to do things you don't want to do, or don't have time to do, for example, household chores or looking after children.

Is this a good way of providing work for others?

Should people do these things themselves?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.0)

In many countries, the amount of crime is increasing.

What do you think of the main causes of crime?

How can we deal with those causes?

In this contemporary era, crime rates are increasing in many nations across the world. This essay will elaborate on the main reasons behind this phenomenon and discuss possible solutions.

To begin with, nowadays, an increasing number of criminal activities in various parts of the world is a concerning issue for many governments. Interestingly, these events are observed primarily in developing countries. There are numerous factors that are directly or indirectly responsible behind this tendency. The first and foremost is poor financial condition of such countries. Due to corruption, governments are unable to improvise their citizens' livestyles. In fact, the economic disparity between the rich and the poor is rising rapidly. AS a result, individuals from the lower-income community are struggling to meet their daily essential needs. Hence, some people are compelled to engage themselves in criminal activities such as robbary and fraud.

However, taking appropriate actions can potentially help reduce the amount of crime in a country. To elaborate, governments especially from underdeveloped nations must introduce stricter amendment laws against the corruption. This can effectively cause a significant reduction in the corruption related cases and boost the development in the nation, allowing citizens to increase their income. To illustrate, research conducted globally shows that nations that have anti-corruption laws has lower crimes compared to those without such regulations.

To conclude, even though poverty is a major factor that cause an increasing number of crimes, a few couter-steps can easily ressolve the issue.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The candidate has completely misunderstood the prompt, writing an essay about the causes of crime and how to deal with them, which is a completely different topic from whether paying others to do chores/childcare is good and whether people should do these things themselves. According to the official band descriptors, when a response is completely off-topic, it fails to address the prompt properly. Although the ideas presented regarding crime are coherent and supported with general examples, the complete failure to respond to the actual task means the score for Task Achievement must be severely impacted. The student provides a clear position on crime, but because the task instructions regarding hiring domestic help or childcare were entirely ignored, this results in a low task achievement band score of 3.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Despite the severe off-topic issue in Task Achievement, the essay itself displays a logical structure. The writer uses standard organizational markers such as 'To begin with', 'However', 'To illustrate', and 'To conclude'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, with distinct introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. Cohesive devices are generally managed well within the paragraphs, though referencing is sometimes basic. For instance, the transition between ideas flows adequately, and the progression of the argument about crime is coherent. However, because the text is answering the wrong prompt, the overall progression does not relate to the given task. Evaluating the language actually produced, the coherence merits a band score of 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'contemporary era', 'economic disparity', 'compelled', and 'underdeveloped nations'. There are some noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices, such as 'improvise their citizens' livestyles' instead of 'improve their citizens' lifestyles', 'robbary' instead of 'robbery', and 'couter-steps' instead of 'counter-steps'. There is also a typo with 'AS a result'. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary used is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without severely impeding communication. Therefore, the lexical resource is awarded a band score of 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and participial phrases, such as 'Due to corruption, governments are unable to improvise their citizens' livestyles' and 'research conducted globally shows that nations that have anti-corruption laws has lower crimes'. There are several grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('nations that have... has') and slight misuse of prepositions or articles. However, these errors do not heavily impede comprehension. Punctuation is generally acceptable. Reflecting a mix of sentence structures with frequent errors that remain understandable, the grammar is awarded a band score of 5.5.

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