Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-28

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)

Nowadays, many countries around the world do not recycle their rubbish as they could, due to many reasons. This essay will discuss the main reasons for this development, its impact on people's lives, and what can be done to change this phenomenon.

To begin with, several countries around the world do not recycle their rubbish very offten, due to the lack of strick rules set by authorities, the poverty, and the lack of awareness between people. For example, in the third world, many countries suffer from the amount of rubbish in the street, and its affecting people's health negatively, causing serious chronic illnesses such as breathing issues, auto immune dieases such as MS, Lups, and many others. Additionally, all these problems, due to the lack of awarness bewteen individuals, they eat and throw plastic trash in the street, without being controled by the government, or knowing the risk of this attitude. Second reason, is the government rules are not strict enough to punish this category of individuals.

There are several solutions to change this development. For instance, governments all over the world, must set up strict rules to punish people who throw garbage in the street. Secondly, authorities need to raise awarness between people of the importance of clean and healthy environment.

In conclusion, although many countries suffer from the amount of rubbish that are not recycled, others tend to change this phenomenon, by setting new rules for the public to recpect the environment, and improve its garbage collection system, by creating new machines with high-technology to recycle the trash.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: why people do not recycle as much as they could, and what can be done to change this. However, the introduction mistakenly mentions discussing 'its impact on people's lives,' which is not requested by the prompt, leading to some digression in the first body paragraph where health issues are discussed. Ideas are presented such as a lack of strict rules and poverty, but they are under-developed and lack clear extension. For example, mentioning 'the poverty' is not fully connected to recycling habits. The position is generally clear, but the inclusion of unprompted impact elements prevents a higher score. This aligns best with Band 5.5 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay is divided into four standard paragraphs (introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion), providing an overall framework. However, the logical progression is flawed. In the first body paragraph, the writer attempts to explain the causes of poor recycling but abruptly transitions into health impacts without clear linking. Cohesive devices are used, but sometimes inaccurately or repetitively, such as 'Second reason, is the government rules...' and 'There are several solutions to change this development.' Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion within the body paragraphs is occasionally faulty, leading to a mechanical feel. This performance fits the Band 5.0 descriptor well.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'authorities,' 'chronic illnesses,' and 'high-technology.' However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'offten' instead of 'often,' 'strick' instead of 'strict,' 'awarness' instead of 'awareness,' 'bewteen' instead of 'between,' 'dieases' instead of 'diseases,' 'Lups' instead of 'Lupus,' and 'recpect' instead of 'respect.' These lexical inaccuracies and persistent spelling errors occasionally cause strain for the reader, which places the response firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over complex forms is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors, such as 'due to the lack of awarness bewteen individuals, they eat and throw plastic trash...' which results in a run-on or dangling modifier structure. Other errors include article misuse ('the poverty') and subject-verb agreement issues ('the amount of rubbish that are not recycled'). While basic meaning is usually conveyed despite these errors, the high frequency of grammatical slips prevents the response from reaching Band 6.0.

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

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