Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18
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)
In recent years, more people have preferred fewer or stop flying altogether. Although this approach have some disadvantages for businesses, tourism
and for personal travel, I believe that long-term environmental benefits can outweigh the drwabacks.
On the one hand, reducing air travel can create problems for businesses and individuals. For multi-national companies, fewer flights can make it more difficulties to maintain business relations, attend meetings and deal with customers. Face-to face meetings are still have a fundamental role in building trust in trades. In addition, tourism industry suffers by reducing travel by air. This is especially for remote countries and islands that heavily depend on foreign tourists. For individuals, avoiding flights will stoping them to visit other countries, and to experience different cultures or meeting with relatives.
On the other hand, there are several benefits of reducing flights. One of the major advantages is that air travel produces a large amount of green house gases, including carbon dioxide which contributes to climate change.Unlike road transport, most of the old vehicles are replaced by new electric based vehicles while fully eco-friendly airplanes are not commercially available. Therefore, reducing the number of flights is the most practical way to control the pollution and to maintain the temprature.
Moreover, most of the hurdles faced by individuals and businesses can be solved by using advanced technology. For example, corporations can conduct online meetings with video-conferences and they can choose fast-speed trains for short-term travels. Individuals can communicate with their family members by electronic means.
In conclusion, there are some short-term disadvantages of reducing flights for tourism, corporations and for individuals. However, I believe that there are more environmental benefits because reducing air pollution and climate change will be important for world for a long term.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5
The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the disadvantages for individuals and businesses and the environmental benefits of reducing air travel. A clear position is maintained throughout, concluding that the environmental benefits outweigh the drawbacks. The ideas are generally well developed, such as mentioning the impact on remote tourism and the technological alternatives like video-conferencing. However, some arguments could be extended further with deeper examples to reach the highest band levels. Overall, the task response is well-structured and covers the prompt adequately.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5
The essay is logically organised with a clear progression of ideas from introduction to body paragraphs and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different viewpoints, such as disadvantages in the second paragraph and advantages in the third and fourth paragraphs. Cohesive devices like 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'Moreover' are utilised effectively to guide the reader through the text. However, occasional minor issues with referencing and transition flow prevent it from achieving a higher score.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate to sufficient range of vocabulary suitable for an academic task, attempting less common terms such as 'multi-national companies', 'eco-friendly', and 'green house gases'. However, there are notable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'drwabacks' instead of 'drawbacks', 'stoping' instead of 'stopping', and 'temprature' instead of 'temperature'. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they restrict the lexical score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating conditional ideas and relative clauses. However, there are several noticeable grammatical errors throughout the response, including subject-verb agreement issues ('this approach have', 'Face-to face meetings are still have'), incorrect preposition use ('tourism industry suffers by reducing'), and awkward phrasing ('make it more difficulties'). These errors indicate limited control over complex structures compared to higher bands, though meaning is rarely obscured.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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