Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

In recent years, much people have decided to mitigate the number of travelling using plans per year or to stop flying altogether. This idea has both advantages and disadvantages, which will be discussed in this essay.

One major advantage of reducing the number of times people fly every year or to stop flying altogether is that the the environment will become more clean. This is because the wide number of plans that fly every year will reduce, which that mean the engines gaz will reduce as well. For example, in the covid periode the fly companies are stopped working, which that lead to a clean environment where the air is became clean.

However, reducing number of flys every year or stop it altogether also has some disadvantages. One significant drawback is that individuals will lose the ability of travelling whatever the reason of it. For instance, individuals how have their loved ones out the country will be not able to visite them. Furthermore, the fly companies will lose millions of dollars that they earn every year. Therefore, individuals will miss there loved ones and companies lose their only money source.

In conclusion, although this idea of mitigatting the number of travelling using plans per year or to stop flying altogether has some disadvantages, I believe that its advantages are greater because the environment is more important than money and love, and losing it become a really problem that human can not solve by using money or its emotions which means environment deserve the price of reducing or even stop flying altogether.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task, presenting arguments regarding both the environmental benefits and the disadvantages for individuals and businesses. A clear position is maintained throughout, concluding that the environmental advantages outweigh the drawbacks. However, the ideas are somewhat limited and repetitive, especially in the body paragraphs and the conclusion, where arguments are stated rather than deeply extended. For example, the point about loved ones living abroad is introduced but lacks further elaboration, and the explanation of economic impacts on airlines remains quite basic. Consequently, the development of ideas aligns best with Band 6 descriptors, as the main points are relevant and address the prompt, but remain under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is divided into a clear four-paragraph structure comprising an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, which provides a coherent overall arrangement. Logical progression is attempted; however, the flow is frequently disrupted by awkward referencing and mechanical cohesive devices. For instance, phrases such as 'which that mean' and 'which that lead to' create grammatical clunkiness and impede smooth transitions. Furthermore, pronoun referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the final paragraph with 'losing it become a really problem'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs suffers from repetitive phrasing and unnatural linkage, fitting the Band 5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'mitigate', 'disadvantages', and 'significant drawback'. However, there are numerous word choice, collocation, and spelling errors that detract from the quality of the writing. Examples include 'much people' instead of 'many people', 'travelling using plans' instead of 'planes', 'covid periode', 'fly companies' instead of 'airlines', 'gaz' instead of 'gases', and 'mitigatting'. Additionally, confusion between homophones or incorrectly formed words like 'became clean' and 'miss there loved ones' is frequent. These errors reflect a Band 5 level, where vocabulary is minimally adequate but noticeable lexical errors cause some difficulty for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at relative clauses and conditional-like structures, such as 'One major advantage of reducing... is that the environment will become more clean.' Nevertheless, the writing is heavily marred by frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding verb forms, articles, and sentence construction. Examples of errors include 'the wide number of plans that fly every year will reduce', 'individuals how have their loved ones', 'will be not able to visite', and 'losing it become a really problem'. The high frequency of basic and structural errors means that error-free sentences are the exception rather than the majority, placing the grammar firmly at Band 5.

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

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