Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-05

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)

Nowadays, the practice of decreasing number of flights or avoiding flights totally is seemed to be increasingly practiced by certain environment-conscious individuals. Personally, I think these small efforts for conservation of surrounding outweigh the cons that would have to be faced by both passengers and airlines.

While flying through planes facilitates you with a luxurious and time saving experience, it also emits hazardous gases which degrade the air quality of the earth. For instance, according to the research by an expert team of Tribhuvan University in Nepal in 2017, an average sized aircraft produces more harmful gases in a month than the amount which is produced by a bus in a whole year. Moreover, planes requires high maintenance which also leads to high waste formation. These wastes are mostly dumped in land which later on have adverse effects on health of citizens living nearby these landfills.

In addition, transportation of goods through aircraft is costly as well as complicated. It requires a lot of documentation and legal works. On the other hand, if the total flights in a year is reduced only by fifty percentage, it can assist our planet with less pollution.

In conclusion, development of habit of reducing number of flights genuinely helps in reducing environmental issue without doing considerable harm to the economy of businesses and individuals. Therefore, I firmly believes that environmental advantages of minimizing flights exceeds it's negative impact to individual and corporate economy.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that environmental benefits outweigh the disadvantages. However, the essay is under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of the argument. While the environmental impact is discussed with a specific example, the 'disadvantages for individuals and businesses' are only briefly mentioned as 'costly' and 'complicated' without sufficient development or concrete examples. To reach a higher band, you need to expand on the economic implications for businesses and the personal inconvenience for individuals to provide a more balanced and comprehensive discussion. The conclusion is clear, but the overall development remains somewhat superficial due to the length constraint.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices like 'Moreover', 'In addition', and 'On the other hand' to link ideas. However, the transition between the environmental argument and the economic argument is a bit abrupt. Some sentences feel slightly disconnected, and the flow could be improved by using more sophisticated linking phrases. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but the internal cohesion within the second paragraph could be strengthened by better connecting the point about aircraft maintenance to the broader argument about environmental impact.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'environment-conscious', 'hazardous gases', and 'corporate economy'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'is seemed to be' (should be 'seems to be') and 'development of habit' (should be 'developing the habit'). The phrase 'waste formation' is also slightly unnatural. While your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, you need to use more precise and varied collocations to move into the higher band range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'planes requires' (should be 'planes require') and 'I firmly believes' (should be 'I firmly believe'). There are also minor errors with articles and prepositions, such as 'in a whole year' (should be 'in a year') and 'health of citizens' (should be 'the health of citizens'). While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score.

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

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