Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-25

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)

In many nations, many people tend to not recycle their rubbish and just discard them which can affact our environment negatively. Irresponsible attitudes and inadequate enforcement can cause this problem. Goverments can reduce this type of tendency among people by implementing stricter penalties and providing better public education.

One major reason of why people do not recyle their wastes as must as they could is that people are too busy with their work to recyle and they are not much concern about their garbages as well. For example, when a person works for a whole week, he does not want to spend his free time on weekend to throw away their plastic bottle into a recyle bin. Furthermore, in many countries, lack of law inforcement can encourage this trait. If there is no such a law to reclyle waste product as much as people can, people will not spent their time to do that.

This problem can addressed by some several necessary steps of governments. They should implement laws to force people to recycle their garbage and create awarene

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response4.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You identify relevant causes—people being busy and weak enforcement—and suggest government action through penalties and education, so the response is on topic. However, the task is only partially addressed: the proposed solutions are not explained or supported, and the response ends mid-word at “awarene…”, leaving the second part especially incomplete. The example about a worker and a plastic bottle illustrates inconvenience, but it needs clearer development and a link to why this discourages recycling. The required minimum of 250 words is not met; at 179 words, there is too little explanation to develop the causes and solutions adequately. Complete the response and add specific examples of how the proposed measures would work.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on causes, and a paragraph beginning to discuss solutions. This helps the reader identify the main stages of the answer. Linking expressions such as “For example” and “Furthermore” also show an attempt to connect ideas. However, progression is limited because the final paragraph stops abruptly, and the solutions are not developed into a complete sequence. Some connections are unclear, particularly “If there is no such a law to reclyle waste product as much as people can,” which does not clearly express the relationship between enforcement and recycling behaviour. Use complete paragraphs, make each paragraph’s main point explicit, and connect each proposed solution to its expected effect.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “recycle,” “rubbish,” “penalties,” “public education,” and “law enforcement,” which makes the subject clear. There are also attempts to express more specific ideas, such as “irresponsible attitudes” and “inadequate enforcement.” However, the range is limited and several spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, including “affact,” “Goverments,” “recyle,” and “garbages.” Some combinations are unnatural, such as “spend their free time … to throw away their plastic bottle into a recycle bin” and “create awareness” being left incomplete. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations such as “sort household waste” and “raise public awareness” to express ideas more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional structure: “If there is no such a law …, people will not spent their time to do that.” This shows an effort to explain cause and effect. However, errors occur frequently and sometimes make relationships harder to follow. For example, “people tend to not recycle their rubbish and just discard them” has unclear pronoun agreement, while “people are not much concern” uses an incorrect verb form. In “This problem can addressed,” the passive construction is incomplete, and “people will not spent” has an incorrect verb form after “will.” Practise passive forms, subject–verb agreement, articles, and verb patterns, then proofread each sentence for a complete and accurate structure.

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