Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-14
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)
In some countries, household members work and manage their family business together. I believe working together as a family have more positive outcome than negative side. This essay will discuss both advantages and disadvantages of family working together in family business.
One of the advantages of working closely as a family in family business is bonding. It create time for household bonding. Relatives tries to labour together to achieve one goal and improves the love among them. This bond strengthen the progress of the company. Global, for example, most companies are manage by blood relatives which is passed down to them by their parents. Another important benefits is it minimize fraud in the firm. This reduces loodholes experienced by most institutions run by different people. Every siblings put in their best to invest and finanace the company for a better outcome.
On the other hand, there are many disadvanteges that come with that. Firstly, it encourages jealousy among sibnlings, fight eachother for a higher position more than than tge other.During that it brings about separation and betterness unnecassary,which could lead to distroying the organisation.Anothger demerit is division in the company's shareholder. Shareholder use the opportunity to support who the prefer whether good or bad for the company because one the family member is fighting against the other.
In conclusion, family business has more benefit when managed closely by blood relations because it is beneficial to the family and the company. However, it is worse when not managed properly by the executives. Although, when managed well the company brings more profits.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| 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 working in a family business, presenting a clear overall position in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas such as family bonding and reduced fraud are introduced as advantages, while jealousy and internal division are discussed as disadvantages. However, some arguments lack full extension and suffer from underdeveloped explanations. For instance, the point regarding shareholders needs a clearer connection to the overarching theme. Despite these minor limitations, all parts of the prompt are addressed, supporting a Band 6.0 performance under the Task Achievement descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into four paragraphs, following a standard essay structure with an introduction, body paragraphs for pros and cons, and a conclusion. Logical progression is attempted; however, transitions between ideas can be abrupt, and cohesive devices are sometimes faulty or repetitive, such as the frequent use of 'family business' and sequential markers. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly with pronouns like 'it' and 'that' referring to vague antecedents. Paragraphing is present and generally appropriate, though paragraph boundaries and internal cohesion require tighter management. These features align closely with Band 5.5 to 6.0, warranting a solid Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'beneficial', 'organisation', and 'executives'. However, there are notable lexical errors and spelling mistakes throughout the text, including 'disadvanteges', 'sibnlings', 'betterness', 'distroying', and 'Anothger'. Collocations and word choices are occasionally unnatural or incorrect, such as 'minimize fraud' or 'blood relatives'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.0, as the frequency and nature of the inaccuracies prevent it from reaching the higher band descriptors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over basic sentence construction. However, grammatical errors are frequent and pervasive throughout the response. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('family working together... have'), incorrect verb forms ('Relatives tries', 'Every siblings put'), and missing or incorrect articles. Punctuation errors also occur, such as comma splices and run-on structures. These persistent errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, placing the grammar performance firmly at Band 5.0 according to the official criteria.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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