Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-30

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)

Some individuls have decided to decreased the number of flights or stopped entirely.

I strongly believe that decreasing number of flight would be beneficial for environment.

In the air, flight causing pollution because of fossil fuel that is significantly contributing in climate change. If we travel less through air that we can protect our ecosystem from extra emission. Travelling through buses,cars and trains can reduce the emission of dangerous gases that causes diseases in human body. For instance, if we use motor bike which is emitt the smoke that not good for our lungs and other body parts. If fewer people fly, the demand for air travel may decrease, which could encourage airlines to reduce their operations and invest more heavily in fuel-efficient aircraft and cleaner technologies.

Moreover, due to fewer flights it would create difficulties for individuls and businesses who travel all over the world for their work and meeting.Travel through air is more convient for individals that they can travel easily and can reach safely and fastest. people may have limited oppertunities to meet their relatives and friends because of fewer available flights.Businesses could also suffer because flights are important for attending conferences, meeting overseas clients, and developing international partnerships. Companies that depend heavily on tourism and international travel could experience a decline in customers and revenue.

Despite these disadantages, reduce the number of flights can more significant for our environment climate change. however if we have few flights for travel thats ok because we can manage our work and meeting through video conference and other online applications.

In conclusion, although reducing air travel may limit personal freedom and create challenges for some businesses, I believe the environmental benefits outweigh these disadvantages because lower emissions are essential for addressing climate change and protecting the environment for future generations.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the environmental benefits and the disadvantages for individuals and businesses, and presents a clear position throughout. The arguments are generally relevant, but some ideas are slightly under-developed or repetitive, such as the discussion on alternative transportation like motorbikes which contradicts the prompt's focus on air travel. Main ideas are supported with reasons and examples, but the depth of development aligns closely with Band 6 descriptors. The writer successfully covers the core task requirements, though more sustained elaboration on the business impacts would elevate the score.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing distinct themes, and a concluding summary. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate advantages and disadvantages. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, with transitional phrases like 'Moreover' and 'Despite these disadantages' compensating for occasionally disjointed sentence-to-sentence links. Referencing is generally clear, but some abrupt shifts between ideas—such as jumping from global warming to motorbikes and back to flight demand—disturb the logical progression. Overall, the structural organization meets the requirements for a Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting less common items such as 'ecosystem', 'carbon emission', and 'international partnerships'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'individuls', 'decreased' instead of 'decrease', 'convient', and 'oppertunities'. Furthermore, awkward collocations like 'flight causing pollution because of fossil fuel' appear. While these errors do not severely impede communication because the writer's intent remains clear, the frequency of lexical inaccuracies prevents the response from achieving a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over conditional structures and relative clauses (e.g., 'If fewer people fly, the demand for air travel may decrease...'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues, such as missing articles ('for environment', 'in human body'), subject-verb agreement errors ('motor bike which is emitt'), and run-on structures ('...that we can protect... that we can travel...'). Although these errors occasionally cause strain for the reader, communication is rarely completely blocked, placing the response squarely within the Band 5.5 range.

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

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