Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-01

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

We no longer need to have animals kept in zoos, so zoos should be closed.

Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.0)

It is often argued that keeping animals in zoos is no longer necessary and all that zoos should therefore be closed. While i understand the concerns about animal welfare, I disagree with this view because well managed zoos plays an important role in wildlife conservation and public education.

Zoos protect endangered species, provide breeding programs and helps to prevent extinction. The animals, left very few in numbers, or are near to extinction can be brought to zoos, breed them and reintroduce to wildlife. This helps in preventing the extinction of their species.Moreover, zoos are very important for the public education, especially for the children. The children will visit the zoos, sees the lifestyle and the habitat of the animals, which helps in the addition of their knowledge and awareness about conservation.

However, some of the people argue that animals suffer in zoos. They are kept in limited and artificial enviroment which causes disturbance in their living. Secondly, animals loose their ability to hunt as they are provided with food without facing any hardships. This is the valid concern about animals living in the zoos. The solution is that high welfare standards are needed to be enforced to maintain the quality life of the animals and to close all poorly managed zoos. It is not necessary to eliminate all zoos.

Zoos that are genuinely maintaining high welfare standards for animals and are contributing to conservation and public education should countine to operate. The zoos who are not maintaining or contributing must improve themselves or, otherwise, must be closed immidiately.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task, presenting a clear position throughout that zoos should not be entirely closed. The ideas are generally relevant, but some are more fully developed than others. For example, while the arguments regarding species conservation and public education are introduced, the explanation relies on somewhat repetitive phrasing and lacks deeper extension. Additionally, the counter-argument regarding animal welfare is acknowledged and addressed with a valid solution, but the overall development sits comfortably at this level because some points remain slightly broad and under-developed, preventing a more robust exploration of the topic.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression of ideas from introduction to conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, with each paragraph focusing on a distinct aspect of the argument, such as conservation benefits versus animal welfare concerns. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or slightly faulty. For instance, transitional phrases like 'Secondly' and referencing words like 'The zoos who' lack smooth integration. While referencing is generally understandable, the occasional awkward cohesive link keeps the organization from achieving a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'extinction', 'reintroduce', and 'welfare standards'. However, there are noticeable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and word form, such as 'well managed' lacking a hyphen, 'artificial enviroment' containing a spelling error, 'animals loose their ability' where 'loose' is used instead of 'lose', and 'quality life' missing a preposition. There are also occasional awkward formulations like 'close all poorly managed zoos immidiately' (spelling). These lexical slips and spelling errors are typical of this level and occasionally impede natural flow.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are some noticeable errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues such as 'zoos plays' and 'helps to prevent', capitalization errors like 'While i understand', article omissions like 'for the public education' and 'quality life', and punctuation slips. Although these errors are present, they rarely impede overall communication, and the sentence structures show sufficient variety to meet the criteria for this level.

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