Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-07

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 4.5)

Some people have decided to reduce the number of times they fly every year or to stop flying altogether. This is indeed a great idea of saving on money from travelling , as the travelling increases the expenses of not only the transportation , but other factors such as clothes according to the weather condition of the visiting country/city , medicines , safety kit and packaged food items .

The new items they buy from the places are sometimes very well spent money as they keep using that product often but mostly it is a waste of money most of the peple because they later generally do not use the items they bought from the places they had visited .

Most of the people while travelling , prefer to eat in the restaurants or carry packaged food items , which are not good for health . Eating in a restaurant is not a problem but continous 15 to 20 days of eating in a restaurant is not good for health . The quality of food is not as healthy as the food cooked at home.

There is one more reason of people reducing the travelling as the business meetings can be now done online also as most of the people now know to use the devices for online meetings and conferences. The benefit of the online meeting is that the people can save their money on travelling ,food and the accomodation expenses, and can be easily scheduled in a weekend also while they are on a weekend with their family or friends for a trip. It is also a massive boost in increasing the company sales as they can fix meetings more than once in every week or month according to their needs . They just have to make sure of the time zones if the person is in another country. There is also the facility of sending couriers which is very helpful in businesses. For example: A businesman wants to send an individual a sample of the new product he made for the testing or any other purpose.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

The response is only minimally relevant to the central question. It discusses savings from travelling less, food and health, online meetings, and courier services, but does not explain the environmental benefits of reducing flights or directly decide whether those benefits outweigh the disadvantages for individuals and businesses. The opening calls the change “a great idea,” yet this is linked to saving money rather than to the environmental comparison, and the position is not developed across the response. Some examples, such as online meetings replacing business travel, could support a relevant argument, but their environmental significance is not explained. To improve, address both sides of the comparison explicitly and support a clear judgement with reasons about emissions and the practical costs of reduced flying. The 19 words copied from the task prompt were not counted.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The response has visible paragraph breaks and a generally understandable sequence: personal travel costs and eating habits are followed by online business meetings. Basic links such as “There is one more reason” and “For example” help signal additions and an example. However, the overall progression does not build an answer to the question, and the first two paragraphs overlap in their focus on travel-related spending and habits. Connections between points are sometimes unclear; for instance, the claim that online meetings can be scheduled “in a weekend” does not clearly follow from the preceding savings argument. The final example about sending a product sample is also left without a concluding link to the main issue. Organise paragraphs around the environmental benefits, disadvantages, and your overall judgement, using clearer links between each claim and its relevance.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate several everyday ideas, including “transportation,” “accommodation expenses,” “online meetings and conferences,” and “time zones.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “massive boost” and “packaged food items.” However, much of the wording is repetitive or imprecise, and some collocations are unnatural: “saving on money from travelling,” “very well spent money,” and “fix meetings” do not express the intended meanings naturally. Spelling errors such as “peple,” “continous,” “accomodation,” and “businesman” are noticeable. Build a more precise range for the actual topic, including terms such as “carbon emissions,” “flight frequency,” and “business travel,” and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response attempts both simple and longer sentence forms, and the main meaning is usually recoverable. For example, the sentence beginning “The benefit of the online meeting is that…” uses a subordinate clause, while the final example attempts to explain a business situation in more detail. However, control is uneven in longer constructions. In “as the travelling increases the expenses of not only the transportation, but other factors,” the structure is incomplete and the relationship between the items is unclear. There are also errors in articles, agreement, and sentence construction, as in “A businesman wants to send an individual a sample of the new product he made for the testing.” Punctuation around commas is inconsistent. Practise building accurate complex sentences and check that each clause has a clear subject and verb.

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