Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-22
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)
Air travel has become an essential part of modern life,enabling people to travel long distances quickly and allowing business to operate across internation markets.Neverthless,growing awarness of aviations environmental impact has encouraged some reduce theeir relience on air travel.
In my view although this may create certain disadvantage of individual s and business, the evironmental benefits of reducing unncessary flights outweight these drawbacks.
The most important way to reduction in greenhouse gas emissionm . Aviation contributes substantially to climate change, particularly because long distanbnce flights require large quantities of fuel. it fewe people travel by air, demand flr flight would decrease,potenially reducing fuel consumptionand emissions and this could also encourage airlines and governments to invest heavily in cleaner technologies, such as substainable aviation fuels.Furthermore, avoiding unnecssary business meeting to adapt the video conferenes, and international realtionship with the clients and expand in global markets without causing cost to environment.Consequently , a substantial reduction in air travel could be limited oppurtunties.
Nevertheless,these disdavntages can be reduced people distinguish between the essentional and unnecessary flights.Indiviaduals could contive to fly when long distance travel is genuiely necessary while avoiding frequent short trips.Even the private airplane and jets cause more harm to the environment than any other.Rather prefer to do face to face meeting ot could be possible by online.
In conclusion, reducing air travel can create a massive changes to the environment. Although there are several benfits of former point of view such as less polluted climate, chemical and harmful
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student attempts to address both sides of the prompt regarding the environmental benefits and disadvantages of reducing air travel, taking a clear position in the introduction. However, the development of ideas is hampered by frequent typographical errors, awkward phrasing, and an incomplete conclusion that trails off mid-sentence. Crucially, as noted in the length check, the response falls just short of the 250-word minimum at 246 words, which impacts task completion and prevents the ideas from being fully expanded. While the main arguments regarding carbon emissions and business meetings are relevant, the under-length nature of the essay and the lack of a proper conclusion pull the score down to Band 5.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
Paragraphing is attempted, with distinct introduction, body, and concluding sections, though the final paragraph is abruptly cut off. Logical progression is visible in the transition from environmental impacts to business alternatives. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or awkwardly deployed, such as repetitive transitions or abrupt shifts between sentences. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in phrases like 'less polluted climate, chemical and harmful' where the text breaks down completely at the end. Despite these structural flaws, the overall arrangement allows the reader to follow the writer's general train of thought, fitting the Band 5.5 descriptor.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'international markets', 'greenhouse gas', and 'sustainable aviation fuels'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'awarness' instead of awareness, 'relience', 'unncessary', 'outweight', 'flr', 'potenially', 'substainable', and 'genuiely'. These lexical errors and frequent typos indicate a lack of precision and control, though the meaning is usually retrievable, which aligns well with the Band 5.0 criteria.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, incorporating subordinate clauses and conditional elements. However, grammatical accuracy is noticeably weak due to frequent errors in punctuation, missing words, and incorrect verb forms. Examples include 'if fewe people travel' and 'avoiding unnecssary business meeting to adapt the video conferenes'. Furthermore, sentence boundary issues and missing punctuation lead to run-on structures. These persistent errors frequently strain the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band, placing it firmly at Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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