Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-05

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 various countries, this is observed that many people choose to not recycle their garbage . In this essay, we are going to discuss a few factors behind this problem and possible solutions, which may help to overcome it.

A lot of people do not recycle their rubbish, the reason for this habit could be the lack of awareness. They are might not aware of how useful their waste material could be. Moreover, The system and government might not be efficient enough to work on this area and manage it properly. There might not be enough resources that would collect garbage and recycle them. In addition to this, when the garbage is not recycled, it gathers up in the rivers and cause water pollution.

However, while people choose not to recycle their rubbish, the system should spread awareness regarding how important it is to recycle the waste material. The government should make better environmental policies and parties that would conduct seminars to let people know the importance of recycling. Furthermore, they should appoint more people for this purpose. This will create more employment opportunities. Although, this would be a little time consuming process but it will benefit the society in the long run both commercially and geographically.

To conclude, while people should responsibly recycle their garbage, they might not know what would be the side effects of neglecting this. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the system to spread awareness among their people for maintaining the harmony and balance in the enviroment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the causes of poor recycling habits and potential solutions, which places it in the middle tier of achievement. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and uneven across the paragraphs. For instance, the explanation of why people do not recycle mentions a lack of awareness and governmental efficiency, but these points remain under-developed rather than fully explored with specific supporting details. The consequences mentioned, such as water pollution, are touched upon briefly without being extended into a clear argument. To move to a higher band, the writer needs to provide more fully extended ideas with clear, concrete explanations and examples for each point raised.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used adequately to separate the causes from the solutions. However, the cohesion between sentences and within paragraphs is sometimes mechanical or repetitive, relying on standard transitional phrases like 'Moreover' and 'In addition to this' rather than more seamless referencing. Furthermore, the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun 'they' in the final paragraph, which creates minor confusion about whether it refers to the government or the people. To achieve a higher band, the writer should ensure that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and that logical progression is tightly maintained throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, demonstrating an acceptable range for communicating basic ideas about the environment and recycling. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items, such as 'environmental policies' and 'geographically', but these are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, such as using 'geographically' where an economic or societal term might fit better. There are also instances of awkward phrasing, such as 'this is observed that', which indicate a limited control over natural collocations. To reach the next band, the writer needs to expand their lexical range and use less common vocabulary with greater precision and awareness of natural word partnerships.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response displays a limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside a few attempts at complex forms that often contain errors. There are frequent grammatical errors in verb forms and phrasing, such as 'They are might not aware' and 'causes water pollution' following a plural subject mix-up ('it gathers up in the rivers and cause'), as well as article omissions and incorrect prepositions. Although these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader. To improve, the writer should focus on increasing the variety of error-free complex sentence structures and carefully checking basic agreements and modal verb constructions.

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