Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-26

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)

Nowadays, it is considered that clean water is the basic necessity of human. It is argued that every household should have a free water supply to maintain their basic activities. I partly agree with this statement because eveyone needs clean water for their daily life activities but there should be charges for using excessive water.

To begin with, clean water is essential for maintaining good health. Water is required for drinking, cooking, cleaning and washing. If people do not have clean water, they may suffer from different diseases. Poor people face difficulty in maintaing their basic needs. Providing a free of cost water supply at evey house would be beneficial for eveyone. This will reduce burden on poor families. For example, low-income families spend money to buy clean water in completion of their basic household's works.

On the other hand, there will be an increased requirement of money for free water supply. Governments have to build water treatment plants and clean water pipes to ensure that clean water is supplied to everyone. In addition, people may use excessive water for their work. For example, during car wash or watering garden, people can use water in a large amount. This leads to less supply of water towards poor families. Account for this, people should be charged of using excessive water.

In conclusion, access to clean water is a basic human right. I partly agree that while there should be a water supply for free of cost for their work but people should be charged for excessive use.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you partly agree, supporting free water for basic needs while arguing that excessive use should be charged. You address both sides with relevant points about health, low-income households, infrastructure costs and wasteful use. However, several ideas are only briefly explained: for instance, the claim that free provision would reduce the burden on poor families could be developed with a clearer explanation of how charges affect access. The conclusion also repeats your position without adding much. The response is 247 words, so it falls three words short of the 250-word minimum; the nine words copied from the prompt are not counted. Develop your examples and explanation further to cover the task more fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting different considerations, and a conclusion. The paragraphing helps the reader follow your argument, and signposts such as “To begin with” and “On the other hand” make the shift between points clear. Some connections are less smooth or precise, however. “Account for this” does not clearly express the intended conclusion from the example, and “This leads to less supply of water towards poor families” leaves the relationship between excessive use and unequal access somewhat unclear. The conclusion also repeats the introduction closely. Use linking expressions that show the exact relationship between ideas, and make references between sentences more explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main points, including “water treatment plants,” “low-income families,” “basic needs” and “excessive water.” There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “maintaining good health.” However, the range is somewhat limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or repetitive. Phrases such as “free of cost,” “in completion of their basic household’s works” and “charged of using” are not natural in this context, while “water” and “basic” recur often. Spelling errors such as “eveyone” and “maintaining” misspelled as “maintaing” also affect accuracy. Build a wider set of natural collocations for discussing access, costs and consumption.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mixture of simple sentences and some longer structures, including the contrast in “I partly agree … but there should be charges” and the conditional sentence “If people do not have clean water, they may suffer from different diseases.” Meaning is generally understandable, but errors occur in sentence construction and grammatical patterns. For example, “clean water is the basic necessity of human” needs a plural or possessive form, and “I partly agree that while there should be a water supply … but people should be charged” combines structures that do not fit together. In “every household … their basic activities,” the reference is also inconsistent. Practise articles, agreement and balanced contrast structures, then proofread longer sentences for completeness and punctuation.

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