Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 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 this day and age, trash become a major problem related to environment in every nation. In several nations, individuals do not prefer to recycle their garbage as much as possible. There are many reasons of this trend and it must be tackle by some definite actions.

To begin with, majority of people throw their garbage out of home on roads or in dustbins instead of recycle it. The major reason for avoiding to recycle is lack of awareness. Citizens do not know about the harmful consequences of detrimental environment. They throw their all trash consist of plastic bottles, paper, metal cans and various other items, in ordinary rubbish bins. Which might also increase the landfill waste material. Another reason is that recycling is inconvenient. Some cities do not have seprate bins or collective services, So people collect their garbage in one place.

Moving towards, this sensitive issue must be adressed by some definite actions. Firstly, government should start awareness camps through schools, television and digital platforms, Which assist them know about benefits of recycling. Secondly, local authorities should increase quantity of bins in residential areas and collect recyling waste regularly. Government should provide financial help such as reward the small families with money or providing discount to them. This measures make recycling easier and attract individuals.

In conclusion, due to lack of awareness and few recycling facilities, people avoid to reprocess the waste material. Government should address this issue by campaign camps, expand facilites and by provide some rewards.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the reasons why people do not recycle as much as they could and what can be done to change this. Your main ideas are relevant, such as pointing out the lack of awareness and the inconvenience of rubbish collection systems, and you offer logical solutions like awareness campaigns and improving infrastructure. However, some ideas remain under-developed or briefly stated. For instance, when you mention that recycling is inconvenient, you state that cities lack separate bins, but you could have extended this point further by explaining the psychological or systemic impact this has on everyday habits. Similarly, your solutions are listed rather than fully elaborated with specific examples from your own knowledge or experience. To reach a higher band, you need to ensure that every main idea is extended with robust explanations and concrete examples rather than summarized too quickly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, dedicating distinct sections to the introduction, reasons, solutions, and conclusion. You use basic cohesive devices to signal transitions, such as 'To begin with', 'Moving towards', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the phrase 'Moving towards' is non-standard for linking body paragraphs, and cohesive links within sentences are occasionally awkward, such as starting a sentence with 'Which might also increase' or 'Which assist them'. Paragraphing is present and logically separates different parts of the prompt, but the flow between sentences could be smoother. To achieve a higher level, you need to use a wider range of cohesive devices more flexibly and ensure that referencing words clearly and naturally connect back to the intended concepts without disrupting the progression of ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the main points about environmental issues and recycling. You attempt less common vocabulary items such as 'detrimental environment', 'landfill waste material', and 'financial help', showing an awareness of topic-specific lexical fields. However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word formation that prevent a higher score. For instance, phrases like 'trash become a major problem related to environment', 'avoiding to recycle', and 'expand facilites' contain awkward collocations or grammatical patterns. There are also occasional spelling errors such as 'seprate', 'adressed', and 'recyling'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but to move up, you must demonstrate greater precision and naturalness in your choice of words and collocations, minimizing stylistic slips and spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use relative clauses and compound-complex structures, such as sentences starting with 'Citizens do not know about' and 'Firstly, government should start awareness camps'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text. These include errors in articles ('trash become a major problem', 'increase quantity of bins'), verb forms and infinitives ('avoiding to recycle', 'by provide some rewards'), prepositions ('related to environment'), and sentence fragments or comma splices ('So people collect their garbage in one place', 'platforms, Which assist them'). While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to show an inconsistent control of grammar. To reach a higher standard, you need to produce a higher proportion of error-free sentences, particularly when attempting complex grammatical structures, and exercise better control over punctuation and subject-verb agreement.

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

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