Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-15

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 undeniable that in many nations, family business running smoothly because of the support from all members of family. In my views, an own family business has more benefits such as, less risk of scams , commitment and better opportunities for new commers while, demerits are issue related to the favoritism and relationship.

To ponder upon the positive outcome of family enterprise is less chances of scams. Nowadays many frauds and online scams are happening in the market, because of the same blood people working in the business, loyalty and trust help to run business smoothly. Additionally, long term commitment and loyalty builds strength of enterprise. For instance, one of the family members can manage all the costs and sales with mutual understanding. Apart from this future generation or new youngsters have open doors for take over it and managing effectively. They do not need to face challenges for finding job and moving in to the different city. In short, the family cooperation keeps all members together with financially and emotionally.

On the other hand there are some drawbacks, favoritism is one of the most prominent demerit in the business. To expand , many times parents or seniors shows their love towards one child and give them all excess, in results many times individuals facing discomfort in the relationship. Consequently family members lose their interest in the business and it collapse drastically.

To conclude, many families working in the own cooperation in the many countries. Although there are negative consequences like favoritism and gap in relationship but, pros like commitment from loved ones, loyalty and trust are more.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of family businesses, taking a clear overall position in the introduction and conclusion that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Ideas such as trust, loyalty, long-term commitment, and potential issues with favoritism and relationship strain are presented. However, some arguments remain somewhat under-developed. For instance, the point regarding 'less risk of scams' is quite specific and could have been broadened to general business trust or operational security, and the examples provided are relatively basic. Nevertheless, a clear stance is maintained throughout, and the main tenets of the prompt are appropriately covered, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptor criteria for addressing all parts of the task with relevant ideas, even though some are slightly limited.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is arranged coherently with a logical overall progression from the introduction to body paragraphs discussing advantages and disadvantages, culminating in a clear conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different thematic ideas. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical, awkward, or inaccurately applied (e.g., 'To ponder upon the positive outcome...', 'To expand,...'). Referencing and transitions between sentences occasionally feel abrupt, such as the sudden shift from financial commitment to youth employment without a smooth bridging phrase. Additionally, internal sentence cohesion suffers from grammatical issues that obscure the logical relationships between clauses. Overall organization is present, but cohesive mechanics require more flexibility and precision, fitting a Band 6 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common lexical items such as 'favoritism', 'commitment', 'cooperation', and 'drastically'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'new commers', 'same blood people', 'give them all excess', and 'gap in relationship'. Spelling and morphological inaccuracies, such as 'demerits are issue' (subject-verb agreement/pluralisation) and 'take over it', occasionally detract from precision. While the vocabulary used allows the writer to convey their central message without completely impeding communication, the frequency of lexical inaccuracies prevents the score from reaching Band 6.5 or 7.0, making Band 5.5 a fair reflection of these limitations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical control is inconsistent, and frequent errors are present throughout the essay. Examples include tense and fragment issues in the opening sentence ('It is undeniable that in many nations, family business running smoothly...'), missing articles ('an own family business', 'in results'), and awkward phrasing causing syntactic confusion ('keeps all members together with financially and emotionally'). Punctuation errors, such as missing commas after introductory phrases and incorrect comma splices, also occur. These errors frequently cause difficulty for the reader and indicate that control over complex structures is still developing, which corresponds directly to the Band 5 descriptors.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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