Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-04

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)

In many countries, people do not recycle their rubbish as much as they can. I think because of lack of awareness and time. This essay will give answers of both questions with relevant examples.

One major reason people do not recycle their rubbish is that lack of awareness among them. They do not know cosequencies of rubbish and how they can negatively affect people's health. For example, many citizens do not have enough knowledge how rubbish cause different diseases if they are not properly disposed or recycled.In addition, many people do not aware that litter can lead to environmental pollution so they can constantly throw them anywhere.For instance, some community do not know about environmental impact and waste can be thrown on roads instead of recycling them.

Another reason is that lack of time. Nowadays, people do not have time to recycle their waste due to their busy work or study scedule. people may spend too much time working or studying, they do not have energy to do some extra works.As a result, they do not spend their valuable time for recycling.

There are several ways to change this habit. Firstly, Governments should organise campaigns to bring awareness about recycling. they should also impose fine if individual throw dumping anywhere. For example, policymakers can organise recycling campaigns or workshops for providing kowledge to community people about importance of recycling. Secondly, they should also provide proper waste management, so people may encourage to use them accurately. To illustrate, governments should develop propler waste management method by providing different bins for recyclable material.

In conclusion, in many nations, people do not recycle their rubbish as much they should. This is mainly due to lack of kowledge and time among people. This change can be brought by providing proper kowlegdge about recycling by organising campaigns and providing kwoledge about disposbale waste methods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing why people fail to recycle and offering solutions such as government campaigns and improved waste management. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For example, while the solutions regarding bins and fines are supported with clear examples, the discussion on lack of time relies on broad generalisations such as "people do not have time to recycle their waste due to their busy work or study scedule" without sufficient extension. The student maintains a clear position throughout, but to reach a higher band, all main ideas require equal depth of explanation and thorough elaboration rather than repetition of points.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing each part of the task, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and repetitive, relying heavily on transitional markers like "Firstly," "Secondly," and "In conclusion." Referencing is occasionally faulty, as seen in sentences where pronouns like "they" lack clear antecedents or refer ambiguously to groups like governments and individuals. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to employ a wider and more flexible variety of cohesive devices while ensuring smoother transitions between sentences and clearer referencing throughout the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating the main points, but the range is limited. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items such as "consequences," "environmental pollution," and "policymakers," but these attempts are frequently marred by word-form and spelling errors like "cosequencies," "aware" instead of "aware of," and repeated misspellings of "kowledge" and "disposbale." While these lexical errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the score. To improve in this area, the writer needs to expand their control of word choices, collocations, and accurate spelling of academic terms related to environmental issues.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting constructions with conditional and modal structures like "governments should develop proper waste management method by providing different bins." However, there are noticeable errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ("lack of awareness," "lack of time"), preposition errors ("throw dumping anywhere"), and subject-verb agreement issues ("some community do not know"). Although these errors rarely impede overall communication, they occur regularly. To move up to a higher band, the writer must produce a greater frequency of error-free sentences and demonstrate tighter control over articles, plurals, and basic grammatical patterns.

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

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