Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Access to clean water is a basic human right. Therefore every home should have a water supply that is provided free of charge.
Do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The availability of clean water is a fundamental and basic human right. Thus, water should be supplied free of charge to every home. I completely disagree that supplying clean water free of charge is the key to providing basic human right.However, a transparent distribution should be taken into consideration.
The first reason why I hold this opinion is that supplying water free of charge can lead to careless use of water.In other words, Access to free unlimited water can cause people to not use it wisely but carelessly which can lead to various global water resources problem. For example, if a individual have access to unlimited free water he/she might waste it on unnecessary things even though it is unintentionally. So human's careless nature makes it difficult to provide water for free.
Furthermore, access to free clean water can lead to many water provider industry to be closed due to which it directly affects the economy. Many people working on clean water providing industries might get unemployed due to this approach which makes the idea of providing free water a troublesome approach. For instance, many individual might be directly making their living working on these type of industries, if we gave free water access then they will end up being unemployed. So this approach ends up creating problems of mass unemployment and so on.
In conlusion, I believe the best approach to provide clean water is to just to make reduction in their prices and make their distribution equally accessible to every region including remote areas.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by clearly stating a position against making clean water entirely free of charge. The writer presents two distinct main ideas: the potential for water wastage due to a lack of financial accountability, and the negative economic impact on water provider industries leading to unemployment. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive, particularly in the supporting examples. While the overall stance is clear, the expansion of arguments lacks deeper nuance or external perspectives, placing it firmly within Band 6 territory where relevant ideas are present but under-developed in places.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. There is a logical progression of ideas, moving from the introduction of the thesis to resource conservation arguments, economic consequences, and finally a concluding summary. Cohesive devices such as 'The first reason why', 'Furthermore', and 'In conlusion' are used to structure the text, though some transitions feel a bit mechanical. Paragraphing is handled appropriately, and referencing is mostly clear despite minor mechanical errors in punctuation and spacing throughout the text.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range sufficient to communicate ideas related to water access and economic impacts. Words such as 'fundamental', 'transparent distribution', 'unemployment', and 'accessible' show an acceptable level of resource. However, there are notable word choice and collocation issues, such as 'water provider industry to be closed' instead of 'industry collapsing', and 'making their living working on these type of industries'. Additionally, there is a spelling typo ('conlusion') and minor grammatical word-form errors like 'an individual have' instead of 'has'. The range is adequate for the task, but lacks flexibility.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using conditional clauses ('if an individual have access...') and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues, such as missing spaces after periods, incorrect subject-verb agreement ('an individual have', 'many individual might'), and awkward phrasing ('even though it is unintentionally'). While these errors do not severely impede overall communication, they occur regularly enough to prevent the writing from reaching a higher band. Complex structures often contain minor faults.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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