Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-11

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,some individuals are choosing to reduce the number of time they fly in every year or stop flying altogether. However, it may have a disadvanages among some individuals and businesses, I beleive that environment benefits of this development can outweigh the drawbacks.

There are several advantages of reduce flights. Firstly, there will be less pollution which can be benefical for the environment because lesser the people, so the number of flights will also reduce which will emmit low gases from the planes and there can be better air quality. Secondly, reduces air travel will emmit lower carbon dioxide which can help us to fight against the climate change. For example, if thousands of people replace there flight travels with train transports, the total emission will be reduced.

However, fewer the flights can effects the indivduals who often go by plane because airline companies will increase the price of the flights for the travels.This can also effect the employees which are working as a pilot, air hostess or airports employees. In addition, it will also harm the buisness individuals because they often have there clients meeting and because of the fewer flights they need to moved to online meeting or they can loose the clients. For example, a company that regularly meets there overseas clients may need to use online meeting instead of face to face meetings.

In conclusion, althrough individuals and buisnesses may face inconvenience but these problem can be solved by online meetings. However, the environment damage that caused by aeroplanes cannot be reversed.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, providing a clear position that environmental benefits outweigh the disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, such as reduced carbon emissions and the impact on business travel. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding the economic impact on employees is mentioned but not fully explored. The conclusion is brief and could have better synthesised the main points to strengthen the overall argument. To improve, ensure that each body paragraph provides a more detailed explanation and a more robust example to support the central claim.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'However', and 'In addition' are used to link ideas. However, some transitions feel mechanical, and there are instances where the flow is slightly disrupted by grammatical errors, such as 'fewer the flights can effects'. The referencing is generally clear, but the progression of ideas could be smoother. Improving the variety of cohesive devices and ensuring they are used more naturally would help elevate the coherence of the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks range and precision. There are several spelling errors, such as 'disadvanages', 'beleive', 'emmit', 'buisness', and 'althrough'. Additionally, there are word choice issues, such as 'lesser the people' instead of 'fewer people' and 'there flight travels' instead of 'their flight travel'. While the student attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'carbon dioxide' and 'environmental benefits', the frequent spelling and collocation errors limit the score. Focusing on accurate spelling and learning common collocations related to environmental and business topics will be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('fewer the flights can effects'), incorrect pronoun usage ('there' instead of 'their'), and awkward phrasing ('the environment damage that caused by aeroplanes'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with missing spaces after commas. While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors impact the overall accuracy. To improve, the student should focus on basic sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, and proofreading for common grammatical slips.

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