Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-13
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 5.5)
It is true that the inclination of most people towards the family business in many nations. Although this brings some positive development, i believe that it has some downsides for families due to some reasons.
On the one hand, there are certain advantage attached with this phenomenon. First and the foremeost, if people work with family business, they have no need to find job anywhere and no need to compete with others. Morever, when family members work together in business, they have no need to hire other person which helps to save their labour. Along with this, people can easily trust on the family members but if they recruit other person, it is impossible for them to trust on them which helps to reduce conflicts between them.
On the other hand, i opine that there are several disadvantages attached with this trend. Firstly, when familiy members work together, it put adverse impact on their relationships because sometime as they work together, some conflicts arise between them regarding money and roles. Apart from it, sometime people face lose in their family business because sometime downsides occur in buiness so they can lose their business which adverse influence on the money.
To conclude, while this phenomnon has few merits, i believe that demerits can not be ignored of this trend.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of family businesses, presenting a clear overall position that the disadvantages outweigh the merits. Ideas such as job security, saving on labor costs, and potential family conflicts are introduced. However, the development of these points remains somewhat repetitive and lacks depth, relying on general statements rather than well-supported examples. Furthermore, the length requirement has NOT been met: the response contains only 218 words, falling short of the 250-word minimum. This under-length impacts the overall task response and prevents the score from reaching higher levels. Consequently, the score reflects an adequate attempt that covers the prompt but suffers from under-development and word-count penalties.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs representing opposing views, and a conclusion. Basic cohesive devices are used to signal progression, such as 'On the one hand', 'First and the foremeost', and 'To conclude'. However, referencing and transitions are at times mechanical and repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on 'some' and 'sometime'. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion feels formulaic rather than flexible. While the overall arrangement allows the reader to follow the writer's line of thought without extreme difficulty, the repetitive structural patterns limit the score to a solid Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The lexical range is limited and repetitive. The student relies heavily on basic vocabulary and simple phrasing throughout the essay, repeatedly using words like 'business', 'family', 'person', and 'work'. There are several noticeable word-choice and spelling inaccuracies, such as 'foremeost', 'Morever', 'lose' (used instead of 'loss'), and awkward collocations like 'save their labour' and 'face lose in their family business'. While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the basic message, these frequent slips and the lack of less common lexical items prevent the writing from achieving a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though complex structures are often repetitive or mechanically constructed, such as 'when family members work together in business, they have no need to hire other person which helps to save their labour.' There are numerous grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('this brings', 'it put adverse impact'), missing articles, pronoun confusion ('trust on the family members'), and incorrect verb forms. Capitalisation errors also occur, such as the lowercase 'i' used for the personal pronoun. Although meaning is generally preserved despite these errors, their frequency places the grammar firmly in the Band 5.0 range.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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