Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

There are some people who have taken decision to decrease the number of times they take flights for traveling every year or stop flying at all. Though their decision has negative impact over individuals and businesses, the environment is greatly benefitted by saving it from pollution.

People usually take flights when it comes to cover long distances in short period of time. Even people sometimes take flights in order to save time for shorter distances too. In fact, people use flights for comfort, at the same time, businessmen are seen using them for commuting between countries for their work purposes. So, when it comes to reducing the flight usage, even to zero, it surely brings about much challenges. People would take much longer time to visit a place which will have impact over health. Similarly, businesses will get affected as flights could save the time when it comes to emergency work in different cities.

However, planes are actually detrimental for the environment. Planes work on burning jet fuels, which in turn produce carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and many toxic fumes in the upper layer of the air directly. Problems, such as global warming, depletion of the ozone layer are the results of such poisonous gases in the air. As a result, if the number of the flights can be reduced, it is very much beneficial for the environment.

In conclusion, even though the decision of using flights less or stopping flying altogether has created problems in individuals and businesses, these problems are nothing in compared to what the planes are doing to this environment. The environment will be greatly saved from the air pollution which outweighs any demerits faced by the people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, clearly stating a position that the environmental benefits outweigh the disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, though the development is somewhat basic. For instance, the discussion on the impact on businesses is a bit repetitive, focusing primarily on time-saving. To reach a higher band, you should provide more specific examples or nuanced arguments regarding the economic implications of reduced air travel. However, the position remains consistent throughout, and the conclusion effectively summarizes the main argument.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph has a central topic, such as the disadvantages for individuals and businesses in the second paragraph and the environmental benefits in the third. Cohesive devices like 'However', 'In fact', and 'As a result' are used to link ideas. While the progression is clear, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the referencing could be more sophisticated to improve the flow between sentences.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task. You use some topic-specific terms like 'detrimental', 'depletion', and 'carbon dioxide'. However, there are some awkward collocations and word choices, such as 'taken decision' (should be 'made a decision') and 'nothing in compared to' (should be 'nothing compared to'). The vocabulary is generally sufficient to convey your meaning, but it lacks the precision and flexibility required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is always clear, there are frequent minor grammatical errors, such as 'much challenges' (should be 'many challenges'), 'impact over' (should be 'impact on'), and 'the environment' (often used with unnecessary articles). These errors do not impede communication, but they demonstrate a lack of full control over complex structures. Increasing the variety of sentence types and ensuring subject-verb agreement would improve this score.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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