Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-14

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)

It has been noticed that several people have either stopped to travel by air or reduced the number of times they travel by air every year. I believe this development has more disadvantages than advantages.

The main advantage of this development is on the environment side. It reduces the air pollution because on daily basis hundrends of plans fly and leave pollutants in air. With less plans flying the result is less source of air pollution. The another advantage of this change is people get to save some money, becasue plan tickets are expensive.

This development has negative effect on businesses. It affects both Air companies as well as other businesses. Air companies endure losses because maintaining the plans and airports is expensive job. Losses also affect the workforce working at the airport and in the whole company. Other business also face the problems if people don't use plans to travel. Delay in reaching out cause the problems for companies to conduct their business smoothly. For instance, meetings get delayed, and overall time loss also occured.

In conclusion, there are signigicant distadvantages of this development. Although it reduces the air pollution which is a good thing, but we should use technology to find the solution for it, and also facilitate people to use air plans more, as it saves time as well as support the thousands of people now.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you believe the disadvantages outweigh the environmental benefits, and you address both sides by mentioning reduced pollution, savings on tickets, and effects on airlines and other businesses. However, the discussion is only partly developed. The environmental benefit is explained briefly, while the disadvantages focus mainly on business disruption; the effects on individuals are not explored in comparable detail. The example of delayed meetings is relevant, but it would be stronger with a clearer explanation of how reduced flying causes those delays. The response also falls 21 words short of the required minimum, limiting the space available to develop your reasoning. Add specific support and explain why the disadvantages outweigh the benefits.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for benefits and disadvantages, and a conclusion. This makes your main position easy to follow. You also use basic linking expressions such as “The main advantage,” “For instance,” and “In conclusion” to signal the stages of your argument. Some connections are less clear or feel mechanical, however. For example, “The another advantage” introduces a point without smoothly relating it to the environmental benefit, and the shift from airline losses to delayed business meetings could be explained more explicitly. The conclusion repeats the position but introduces a recommendation about technology and encouraging air travel without developing that idea. Use clearer links between cause and effect and keep the conclusion focused on your comparison.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “air pollution,” “pollutants,” “maintaining,” “workforce,” and “conduct their business.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or repetitive, which makes parts of the response less natural. “Plans” is repeatedly used where “planes” is intended, and “air companies” would be more naturally expressed as “airlines.” Phrases such as “less source of air pollution” and “time loss” are also unclear or awkward. Spelling errors, including “hundrends,” “becasue,” and “signigicant,” are noticeable. Build a more precise set of topic vocabulary and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You communicate your main ideas using both simple sentences and some attempts at more complex structures, such as “Although it reduces the air pollution …, but we should use technology…” and the sentence beginning “because maintaining the plans and airports…”. However, complex sentences are not consistently controlled, and errors in articles, agreement, plurals, and sentence construction occur throughout. For example, “The another advantage” has an incorrect article, while “Other business also face the problems” has agreement and number problems. In “Although it reduces …, but we should…,” the two contrasting structures are combined incorrectly. These errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the overall argument, but they reduce accuracy. Practise building accurate subordinate clauses and checking articles and subject–verb agreement.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.