Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-19
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)
Recycling waste is one of the best thing we can offer to Earth. But people of many nations still do not understand the need of recycling to an extent of which they should be aware of otherwise. There can be various reasons be this which i will discuss in this essay as well as i will also give some ideas to promote recycling.
Firstly, we will be exploring the reasons which are behind it. Reasons like lack of responsibilty and awareness, Economic conditions of countries, Careless nature of people. The most important reason is that the people are least concerned about the degradation of our planet which is first because of the waste created by the people and then not being recycled to extent which is required. For example many people just throws the waste while walking anywhere like the place itself is a dustbin, many factories and also large scale industries lack behind in treating the waste produced by them before releasing it. Hence, these are the causes behind this problem of not recycling.
Although, we can change this by spreading awareness camps, promoting various communities working for the pollution free nature, decrease usage of things which do not tends to be recycled like palstic, children's should be taught importance cleanliness and recycling since childhood which lead to less waste produces and also when they grew up they will be in businesses as well where they will reuse and recycling things which can be. To give you an example, Japan is a country where pupils are taught cleanliness and they themselves are responsible for cleaning their school as well as home which also brings a sense of responsibilty in them which will directly reflect in their nature of saving the nature by resusing and recycling.
To conclude, whatever the reasons are people can still make it up and be resposible towards the environment and there are ways which can lead to increase the process of recycling.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing reasons why people do not recycle as much as they could and suggesting measures to change this behavior. The position is generally clear, though ideas are somewhat repetitive and under-developed, particularly in the second paragraph where reasons like lack of responsibility and careless nature are stated with limited expansion. While examples are provided, such as factories lacking waste treatment and Japan's educational approach, they lack the depth expected for higher bands. Overall, the content is relevant to the task and covers all requirements adequately, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing that separates the introduction, causes, solutions, and conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in repetitive transitional phrases like 'Hence, these are the causes' and 'To give you an example'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical progression is disrupted by sentence-level clumsiness, such as linking multiple disparate ideas in single long sentences ('Reasons like lack of responsibilty and awareness...'). While paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the text, the overall flow meets the criteria for Band 6.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'degradation', 'industries', and 'responsibility'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('responsibilty', 'palstic', 'produces', 'grew', 'resposible') and word choice inaccuracies ('pollution free nature', 'decrease usage of things which do not tends to be recycled'). These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score. The range of vocabulary is sufficient to convey the basic message, fitting the Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile, and is best placed at Band 6 due to successful communication of ideas despite errors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation slips throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('children's should be taught', 'waste produces'), pronoun errors ('one of the best thing'), and missing articles. Complex structures are often awkward or faulty, such as 'to an extent of which they should be aware of otherwise'. Although these errors occasionally require the reader to re-read a sentence, they rarely completely impede overall communication. This reflects a solid Band 5.5, rounded to 5.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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