Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people have decided to reduce the number of times they fly every year or to stop flying altogether.

Do you think the environmental benefits of this development outweigh the disadvantages for individuals and businesses?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Air transportation had been considered unreal advancement of technology since it has been invented. Considering environmental threats, a notion emerges out in the world that people will reduce the air transportation annually or totally cut it down. I personally do not share the same opinion due to several reasons which dominated the benefits of not using the air transportation. In this essay reasons will be justified in the upcoming paragraphs with relevant examples.

One of the major factor is that increase in land transportation. To explain, people will start transporting through private car, bus or motorcycle will ultimately emits out the pollution in a huge ratio than earlier. For example, public use to fly in a flight were every standard of people were together having category of economy class, business class and others too. Such public transportation is not available in land transportation and in result higher standard people prefer their private luxurious vehicle for their work or business transportation. Eventually, stopping the air flow will lead to congestion and heavy traffic on the roads and railways.

Furthermore, the speed of transportation will also effect the environment. To elaborate, cargo flights take minute amount of time to travel a longer area whereas eliminating such advanced transportation will take huge amount of time to transport and will affect an individuals business economy. In fact, it increases the expense of export and import duties. On top of it, vehicles will pollute several places as they move forward and it directly harm humans with a very close contact.

However, there is positive side for not using air transportation which is that there will be help to the environment in the clouds which will not affect in a rapid speed. Moreover, it will reduce the risk of plane crash and lost of life.

In conclusion, although eliminating the air flow will reduce the lost of life and help the environment in cloud will get overshadowed by the advantages of using them such as private vehicle will be used less and longer period of travel will be in a limit also large tax duties will not be an issue.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the environmental benefits and the disadvantages for individuals and businesses. However, the development of ideas is somewhat superficial. For instance, the argument that people would switch to private cars if air travel were reduced is a valid point, but it lacks specific evidence or logical depth. The position is clear, but the explanation of the 'disadvantages' is occasionally muddled by unclear phrasing, such as the mention of 'pollution in a huge ratio'. To reach a higher band, you should provide more concrete examples and ensure that the link between your arguments and the prompt is more explicit and logically sound.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into paragraphs, each with a central theme. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. Phrases like 'To explain' and 'To elaborate' are used, but the sentences that follow often lack clear logical progression. There are also issues with referencing; for example, in the second paragraph, the transition from discussing public transport to 'higher standard people' is abrupt and confusing. The conclusion attempts to summarize the main points but suffers from grammatical errors that obscure the intended meaning, making the overall flow feel somewhat disjointed.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and sophistication. There are several instances of awkward collocations and word choices, such as 'unreal advancement of technology', 'emits out the pollution', and 'lost of life' (instead of 'loss of life'). The phrase 'environment in the clouds' is imprecise and does not reflect academic tone. While you attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary related to transport and economics, the frequent errors in word formation and collocation prevent the expression of ideas with the necessary clarity and nuance required for a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there is a high frequency of grammatical errors. Common issues include subject-verb agreement ('One of the major factor is'), incorrect verb forms ('public use to fly'), and awkward sentence construction ('where every standard of people were together'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, and some sentences are difficult to parse due to these errors. While the meaning is generally understandable, the persistent grammatical inaccuracies interfere with the reader's experience and demonstrate a lack of control over complex structures.

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