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)

Nowadays, most of the people incline towards owning the business instead of doing job at others' workplace. As a result, most of the family members join in the same business and run it together. I believe that this trend has more benefits rather than its drawbacks, which have been explained in the following paragraphs.

To begin with, the first and foremost advantage of working together in same family buisness is that getting great support in terms of manpower, less mental stress and finance. To illustrate, as most of the family members have their children who pose good educations in different professions like engineering, accountant, management etc. As they start working with their business, there is no additional need to hire employees for this kind of higher positions. Moreover, during crises or slow business time periods, family members support each other to fight back the situation and they can provide funding either from their personal investment or from their other contacts.

Additionally, trust can be another benefits of sharing business. For example, if a person know their family member very well since longer time, so it is very easy to trust him or her while giving some responsibilities related to their business. Hence, sharing business with family is really beneficial.

On the negative side, the biggest disadvantage of working with their close one is that there are often chances of a small fight between two persons while taking some decisions. To explain, everybody has different choices or their perception of thinking which might be disadvantageous while taking some important decisions for their company. Hence, this can be drawbacks in family business that one can not follow solely their choices or decisions regarding business.

In conclusion, although working in family business has a few disadvantages, it can be negligeble in comparision of its advantages as supporting and trusting each others.

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 and presents a clear personal position in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are relevant, such as financial support, manpower availability, and potential interpersonal conflicts. However, some arguments are underdeveloped or lack specific, concrete examples; for instance, the mention of family members having professions like 'engineering, accountant' is slightly vague and generalized. While the position is clear throughout, the development of ideas aligns best with Band 6 descriptors, as certain points remain somewhat repetitive or lack deeper elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is coherently arranged into an introduction, clear body paragraphs addressing advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The student uses a range of cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Additionally', 'On the negative side', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing is sometimes imprecise, as seen in phrases like 'if a person know their family member... so it is very easy to trust him or her'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points, but occasional mechanical transitions and repetitive phrasing ('sharing business with family', 'working in family business') prevent the essay from achieving a higher band. Overall, the organization demonstrates clear logical progression corresponding to Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common phrases such as 'manpower', 'additional need', and 'interpersonal conflicts' (though implied). There are several noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'pose good educations', 'buisness' (spelling error), 'slow business time periods', and 'small fight'. Furthermore, grammatical forms of words are occasionally misused, as in 'negligeble in comparision of its advantages'. These vocabulary limitations and spelling/word-formation errors cause some slight strain for the reader, fitting comfortably within the Band 5 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'if a person know their family member... it is very easy to trust him'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('most of the people incline', 'a person know'), preposition errors ('doing job at others' workplace'), and article misuse ('in comparision of its advantages'). While these errors do not completely impede overall communication, their frequency means the text does not sustain error-free sentences long enough to reach Band 6. Thus, a Band 5 score is appropriate.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.