Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-27

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)

Few people considered to reduce the number of air travels or completely avoid travelling by air. From my prespective, disadvantages of this are more as compared to advantages as other means of transport may result in more pollution and this can also effect businesses on large scale.

Commercial planes carry large number of people to different part of the countries or across the borders, producing lesser enviornmental damage and accidents as compared to other transports such as cars or buses. For instance, ten peope avoid travellimg by plane will still take off even with less number of pessengers. Now those people, who have decided to avoid going by plane may use some other mean take car. If there are 10 people, who have avoided going by plane, are going to leave their carbon footprints contributing more to enviornmental damage. Accident is the other major concern. The probability of accidents on road are much more than that in air.

Businesses and individual can be negatively impacted by this decision aswell. The far meeting locations are the main concern, if businessmen avoid travelling by plane they have to travel large distance by cars or other means that is less convinient and time taking aswell. These issues can decrease overall working quality as it is quite tiring. Although for some individuals travelling with family, it is enjoyable as they can enjoy diffrent locations travelling by road. But for others it can be over whelming.

To conclude this, I am of the opinion that there are very little benefits on enviornment by people avoiding air travels as compared to the disadvantages. The enviornment is more negatively effected by other means of transport used in contarst to aeroplanes. Delays due to covering of long distances for meeting and other job related responsibilities can effect overall business and individuals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing the environmental benefits and weighing them against the disadvantages for individuals and businesses, presenting a clear position throughout. The main ideas, such as comparing air travel emissions to road transport and the impact on business travel, are extended with reasons and examples, such as the comparison of 10 people taking cars instead of a plane. However, the development of ideas tends to be slightly repetitive, particularly around the arguments involving road transport pollution. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the Band 6 descriptor well.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct ideas, such as environmental aspects in the second paragraph and business impacts in the third. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, phrases like 'To conclude this' are a bit rigid, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'that is less convinient', where the antecedent is slightly vague. Transitional devices are used, but they lack flexibility, placing this response firmly in Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'carbon footprints', 'overwhelming', and 'commercial planes'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'prespective' instead of perspective, 'enviornmental' instead of environmental, 'travellimg', 'pessengers', 'convinient', and 'contarst'. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they occur with enough frequency to restrict the score to Band 5.5, showing a mix of adequate control and noticeable inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional structures like 'if businessmen avoid travelling by plane they have to travel large distance'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, and article usage, such as 'Few people considered to reduce', 'produce lesser enviornmental damage', 'accidents on road are much more', and 'effect overall business'. These errors sometimes create minor difficulties for the reader, but communication is generally maintained, aligning well with the Band 5 descriptor.

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

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