Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-29

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)

Commercial flights are one of the primary contributors to environmental pollution. A few number of individuals have made a choice to protect the environment by taking less number of flights anually or restricting the use of airplane for transportation altogether which can also negatively impact personal, social and economic factors of the society. I believe that advantages of this decision are not sufficient enough to overcome the threats associated with socio-economic implications for the community.

Various states of the world are working individually and collectively to mitigate the detrimental risks of climate change. Raising awarness among public about air pollution caused by aeroplanes is one of the initiatives lead at national and international level. Consequently, some people are avoiding to take meaningless airplane flights. For instance, the decline in the number of flights anually will cause less emissions of carbon dioxide in air, thus keeping the air safe from harmful hazards linked with carbon gases. Nevertheless, this practice requires a collective response by the society to be efficient.

On the other hand, downfall in number of annual flights can have adverse effects on individual and professional life of the society's population and refusing to take flights can have even more negative impact on the individuals and businesses as well. For instance, professional and corporate life of a market employ requires a person to have national and international meetings monthly and anually. The refusal to attend those meetings by refusing airplane flights can affect personal and economic values of society's members.

To conclude, I believe that there is a crucial need to promote sustainable efforts for climate protection. The individual choice made by a few number of people for declining airplane usage will have less impact on environmental security than community level efforts made by governments of the world individually or collectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing the environmental benefits and weighing them against the disadvantages for individuals and businesses, clearly stating a position in the introduction and concluding remarks. The ideas are relevant, such as reduced carbon emissions versus the necessity of business travel. However, some arguments lack full extension and tend to generalise. For instance, the discussion on corporate meetings is slightly repetitive and under-developed. Despite these minor limitations, the main aspects of the prompt are covered sufficiently, aligning with the Band 6.5 or solid Band 6 descriptors, which are rounded to a 6.0 here due to the slight under-development of supporting examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is generally coherent with a clear overall arrangement. The text is divided into four distinct paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader, such as 'Consequently', 'For instance', 'Nevertheless', and 'To conclude'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes a bit mechanical or slightly repetitive, as seen with the recurring use of 'for instance' and phrases like 'refusing to take flights'. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but overall logical progression between sentences could be smoother in the body paragraphs. These features fit the Band 6 descriptor well.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'detrimental risks', 'socio-economic implications', and 'sustainable efforts'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and phrasing throughout the text. Examples include 'A few number of individuals' (should be 'A small number'), 'taking less number of flights anually' (should be 'fewer flights annually' with correct spelling of annually), and 'market employ' (should be 'employee'). Spelling errors like 'awarness' and 'lead' (instead of 'led') also occur, placing this response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional-style constructions. There are, however, several grammatical errors and awkward structures present. For instance, 'avoiding to take' should be 'avoiding taking', and 'downfall in number of annual flights' lacks a necessary article. Punctuation is mostly acceptable, but some long sentences become slightly convoluted. While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from reaching a higher band. This performance is characteristic of Band 6 grammar.

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

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