Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-04

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 6.5)

In recent years, a particular group of people decided to reduce the number of times they fly every year or to stop flying altogether, in hopes to help our planet. This decision comes with all kinds of advantages and disadvantages, and one must consider all to form an opinion. Most people know by now that any type of vehicle which emits greenhouse gasses is bad for the environment. However, the real question is "Do the environmental benefits outweigh the disadvantages for someone to fly less or stop flying altogether?". There is no simple answer to this, as that is a question that changes person to person.

I believe that in certain situations, flying is necessary for the benefit of the environment. To give you an example from my life, I live in Canada, and to visit my family, I have to fly all the way to Turkey. If I were to stop flying altogether, I would have to travel by a ship, which is way worse for the environment than flying. In addition to that, it is much more expensive as well. This renders flying as the better option both for the environment and myself.

When it comes to the top 1% of the population who fly frequently with their own plane, it becomes a different story. Public planes, much like public transportation on land, is far better for the environment than private jets and planes. With that being said, disadvantages for an individual who prefers private planes over public ones cannot outweigh the importance of the environment. Especially if that person has multiple means of travel. Self-interest and being mindful of the environment should be in balance when picking the right transportation. Convenience stops being acceptable as an excuse when there are viable options at hand that are far better.

Of course there are also times when it's not so black and white. Some people love to travel, and travel by plane multiple times a year. Another example would be an traveling nurse or a humanitarian worker, flying to help patients all across the world. Whatever it may be, the way to assess if the reason outweighs the environmental benefit is to decide if its reasonable. If there is a time or budget constraint that no other travel method can provide for, then one might think the benefits are greater in value.

In conclusion, there are many situations that change the answer. In some cases flying is the better option, and in some cases it's not. It all boils down to how reasonable it is to pick flying over any other method of transportation. There must be balance assessing what to pick when it comes to personal benefits, without ignoring the environment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the environmental benefits and the disadvantages for individuals and businesses, presenting a clear position throughout. However, some ideas are developed more fully than others, which places the response firmly at this level. For instance, the discussion regarding private jets and the top one percent in the third paragraph touches upon disadvantages for individuals, but the impact on businesses is largely overlooked or only superficially integrated. Furthermore, the personal example about travelling to Turkey relies on an impractical hypothetical alternative—travelling by ship—which slightly weakens the logical support of the argument. Ideas are generally relevant, but certain sections tend to generalize rather than extending the argument with deeper analysis or concrete business-related examples. Note that 16 words copied directly from the task prompt were excluded from the official word count, but the response comfortably met the minimum length requirement overall.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and a concluding summary. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, with each body paragraph focusing on a distinct sub-theme, such as personal long-distance travel, private aviation, and professional or humanitarian travel needs. Cohesion within and between sentences is generally functional, but referencing and cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or slightly repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on transitional phrases like 'In addition to that' and 'When it comes to'. While the organizational structure successfully guides the reader through the writer's arguments, transitioning between ideas could be smoother and more sophisticated to fully achieve a higher band descriptor.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating a sufficient range of everyday and semi-formal terms to communicate ideas about the environment, transportation, and personal choices. The writer attempts less common vocabulary items and phrases, such as 'greenhouse gasses', 'humanitarian worker', and 'budget constraint', though there is occasional inaccuracy in word choice and collocation, such as 'an traveling nurse' (an article error linked to spelling/word form) or phrasing like 'change person to person'. Spelling and word-choice errors are present, but they do not impede communication, allowing the reader to easily follow the argument. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to demonstrate more precision in less common lexical items and reduce minor slip-ups in word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a reasonable mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures reasonably well, as seen in sentences like 'If I were to stop flying altogether, I would have to travel by a ship...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text, including article misusage ('emit greenhouse gasses', 'travel by a ship'), subject-verb agreement issues ('Public planes... is far better'), and minor punctuation lapses. However, these errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear. The grammar shows good control in places, but the persistence of noticeable structural slips and a limited variety of highly complex sentence patterns prevent the writing from achieving a higher classification.

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