Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-14
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 5.0)
Non degradable items are becoming one of the major issue for many nations. Some people neglect to take responsibilty of waste management, which can cause pollution and health issues. In order to reduce pollution individuals shoould reuse the items, also govenments can take strict actions.
Education is one of the major issue in this matter. People are not aware of how much world will affect by their action. To expalin this, lot of people through their waste without knowing that some materials can be reusable and it can recycle through process. This increases pollution in the world which also affects global warming. For example, people uses plastic bags which is non-biodegradable item.
Individuals should avoid using things which is non recycling such as plastic bottles, bags, etc. Additionally, government should take strict action on using non recycling items and in some cases they should banned such items which is harmful for environment. Ruling part should arrange compaign and commercial with photographs for recycling items to aware society. For instance, some people are using jute bags for their daily uses in many nations. Therefore, it is everyone's responsiblilty to reduce waste which can not recycle.
In conlcusion, Individuals and government should reduce use of such items which can not recycle.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the reasons why people fail to recycle, such as a lack of education and awareness, and suggesting solutions like government action and public campaigns. However, the ideas remain somewhat limited and under-developed, lacking depth and specific real-world examples beyond brief mentions of plastic bags and jute bags. Furthermore, the response is only 209 words long, falling well short of the mandatory 250-word minimum specified for Task 2. This negative impact on task completion pulls the score down, as the arguments are not fully extended. Therefore, it meets the criteria for Band 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay displays a basic overall organisation with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes disjointed, and paragraphing is poorly handled, particularly with the conclusion consisting of just a single, very short sentence. Cohesive devices are used awkwardly or repetitively, such as the abrupt transitions between paragraphs and misuse of referencing words like 'such items'. While the text remains generally understandable, the inadequate management of cohesion and paragraph structure places this firmly in the Band 5.0 category.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is a mix of basic and minimally adequate terms suitable for discussing environmental issues, such as 'non-degradable items', 'pollution', and 'global warming'. There are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, including 'Education is one of the major issue' (instead of issue), 'through their waste' (instead of throw), and 'banned such items' (instead of ban). Additionally, spelling errors such as 'responsibilty', 'shoould', 'govenments', 'expalin', 'compaign', and 'conlcusion' occur frequently. This limits the lexical range and causes some difficulty for the reader, fitting Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control is weak. There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors that cause strain for the reader, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('individuals shoould reuse the items', 'people uses plastic bags which is'), incorrect relative clauses ('things which is non recycling'), and tense inconsistencies. Complex structures are often faulty rather than error-free. Because errors are frequent and recurrent across various sentence types, the performance aligns with Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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