Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-11
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
In many countries, people do not recycle their rubbish as much as they could.
Why do you think this is?
What can be done to change this?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
It is an irrefutable fact that, most of the people don't recycle their goods because they think the most of the goods are useless to them. Other reject this notion, while some believe that recycling the goods is waste of time and money. This essay will discuss my views before explaining why people do not recycle their waste junk.
On the one hand, due to lack of awareness. Many of the individuals do not know which items are recyclable and or understand the long-term enviormental damage caused by overflowing landfills. for eg., in metropolitian cities people throw the plastic bags, bottles and paper etc, in dustbins which is recyclable. Moreover, there is no proper infrastructure maintain by government to classified the recyclable or non-recyclable waste.
On the other hand , government should make proper rules that every person has follow. If someone is not following the conditions so, they have to punish strictly. for instance, In foreign countries if any person do not throw their recyclable garbage in recycle dustbin, it should be heavily fined by ministry. With the help of that, each and every person follow the rules. Furthermore, ministry of the country have to give proper knowledge to humans about recycling.
In conclusion, recycling process plays vital role in economy so, it is necessary to provide education and spread awareness among people about reuse. This is necessary not only for our country but also for the health of humans too.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The essay addresses both parts of the prompt, identifying reasons for low recycling rates and suggesting solutions. However, the response is under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of development. The ideas are somewhat generic, such as 'lack of awareness' and 'government rules,' and could benefit from more specific, nuanced examples. The introduction is slightly confused, as it mentions 'discuss my views' when the prompt asks for reasons and solutions. The conclusion is also quite brief. To improve, ensure you meet the word count requirement and expand on your arguments with more detailed explanations and concrete examples to fully develop your points.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For example, 'On the one hand' is used, but the corresponding 'On the other hand' is followed by a paragraph that discusses solutions rather than a contrasting point about recycling. There are also issues with sentence-level cohesion, such as 'If someone is not following the conditions so, they have to punish strictly.' The progression of ideas is sometimes disjointed, making the flow feel slightly unnatural in places.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward phrasing or incorrect word choices, such as 'waste junk,' 'maintain by government,' and 'classified the recyclable.' The student relies on basic vocabulary and struggles with collocations. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of a wider range of sophisticated or less common lexical items keeps the score in the lower range. Improving your control over word forms and learning more topic-specific collocations would significantly enhance your lexical score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Common issues include subject-verb agreement ('most of the people don't recycle'), article usage ('the most of the goods'), and sentence fragments or run-on sentences ('for eg., in metropolitian cities people throw...'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to lower the score. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for subject-verb agreement would be a good starting point for improvement.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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