Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-13

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 5.0)

Flying is detrimental for environment and also very costly. Many individuals argued to reduce the number of times they fly ever year and some believe to completely stop flying. I largely agree with the statement, its surplus the advantages of flying in long term, why this essay will explain about it.

Airlines flights consume a huge amount of fuel, which directly detrimental for environment rather than other modes of transportation. Especially, private flights which are unnecessary, it play a vital role to promote more utilization of fuel, produce emissions, and conduct air pollution. For example, a single use a substantial amount of gas which produce roughly 2.5kkg of CO2, which effect the environment in long-term. Furthermore, flying are relative costly then other modes transportation and passenger also faced comfortable with the services.

On the other hand, flights promote inequality and costly, which provide facility according to their economic states and based on their flight categories such as economy and business. It demonstrates harmful impression in society, and be judged by people. For instance, a person who can't afford business and humiliating by people about their financial condition can lead to depression. In addition, despite of environmental effect, it also causes society through inequality and promote more consumption emissions gases, which considerable harmful for human beings and other living creatures through air pollutions.

In conclusion, although its numerous benefits such time saving, faster service and convenient, disadvantages outweigh it. Hence a balance approach could beneficial for flying and environment by using other alternatives such as water way or road way.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing the environmental benefits and weighing them against disadvantages for individuals and businesses, presenting a clear position that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on inequality and social judgment lacks a clear connection to the main prompt regarding business and individual disadvantages. While the writer attempts to support the arguments with examples, such as the CO2 emissions from private flights, some points are under-developed and lack precision. This places the response comfortably at Band 5.5, as it addresses the prompt adequately but suffers from superficial idea expansion and slight blurring of the main arguments.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay has a basic organizational structure with clear paragraphing, including an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, the overall progression is hampered by awkward transitional phrasing and mechanical cohesive devices, such as 'Furthermore, flying are relative costly' and 'In addition, despite of environmental effect'. Paragraphing is used to separate ideas, but internal paragraph cohesion is occasionally faulty, making it difficult to follow the logical thread of the argument. Referencing is also unclear in places, such as pronoun use referring back to abstract concepts. These features reflect the Band 5.0 descriptor, where there is some organization and paragraphing, but cohesive devices are frequently inaccurate and progression is disrupted.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary range is limited and minimally adequate for the task. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items like 'detrimental', 'surplus', and 'utilization', but these are often misused grammatically or collocational errors occur, such as 'its surplus the advantages' and 'conduct air pollution'. There are also frequent noticeable word-choice and form errors, including 'relative costly', 'comfortable with the services', and 'considerable harmful'. Spelling and word formation are mostly fine, but the density of lexical inaccuracies causes some difficulty for the reader, aligning the response with Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but attempts at complex structures are frequently faulty. There are persistent grammatical errors throughout the text, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Many individuals argued', 'flying are relative costly'), preposition misuse ('detrimental for environment', 'despite of'), and awkward phrasing ('why this essay will explain about it'). Punctuation is also problematic in places. While the meaning can generally be understood, the frequency of errors places strain on the reader and prevents the writing from reaching a higher band, making Band 5.0 an accurate descriptor due to frequent grammatical errors and faulty complex structures.

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