Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Write about the following topic:

In many countries, family members work together in their family business.

Do you think family businesses have more advantages than disadvantages?

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

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Now a days, employing family members in a family business has become increasingly common practice in many countries. Although working together in a family business, has certain drawbacks. I believe that advantages, perticularly high level of trust and flexibilty, outweigh the disadvantages.

On the one hand, there are some drawbacks associated with employing close relatives in business. The major problem is that personal and professional relationhsips get mixed. In other words, a disagreemet at work can easily destroy the relationship at home. Moreover, there may be a favouritism, where qualifying employees are given no priority over a relative with lack of qualification for certain promotion. In addition, it is may be difficult for a manager to disciplin, dismiss or critisie a family member. This can reduce fairness and affects the perfoemance of business.

On the other hand, the advantages are more significant. The main benefit is that family member often has a high level of trust. To explain this, family members can clearly communicate and take better decisions together. Moreover, another advantage is flexibilty, which means may be a relative is willing to help during busy hours and take extra responsibilties. Family businesses can also preserve experience and knowledge by passing it from one to next generation.

In conclusion, although hiring family members in a business has disadvantages, I believe that advantages of flexibilty and proven trust between relatives, outweigh the drawbacks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of family businesses and presents a clear overall position in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas presented are generally relevant, such as trust and flexibility as advantages, and personal conflicts and favouritism as drawbacks. However, some ideas are somewhat underdeveloped due to the brevity of the response. Furthermore, the text falls short of the 250-word minimum requirement, containing only 232 words. This under-length issue negatively impacts the overall development and completeness of the task, limiting the score under Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure. Standard cohesive devices are utilized to signal transitions, such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different facets of the argument, with introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion clearly delineated. Although referencing is occasionally repetitive and some sentences are disjointed, the progression of ideas is generally easy to follow, supporting a solid Band 6 performance for cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'favouritism', 'professional relationships', and 'preserve experience'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'Now a days' instead of 'Nowadays', 'perticularly', 'flexibilty', 'disagreemet', 'qualifying employees' instead of 'qualified employees', 'disciplin', and 'critisie'. Despite these noticeable lexical and spelling inaccuracies, communication is rarely impeded, which aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over clause structures through the use of subordinate clauses introduced by 'although', 'which means', and 'where'. However, the text contains several noticeable grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, such as 'Although working together in a family business, has certain drawbacks. I believe that...' (incorrect punctuation splitting a dependent clause), 'there may be a favouritism', and 'it is may be difficult'. Punctuation and article usage show inconsistency, but the errors do not severely impede understanding, placing the grammar performance securely at Band 6.

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