Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18

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, it is comman for family members to work together in a family business. While this type of business. I believe that its advantages are greater because family menbers usually have trust, commitment and a comman goal.

One major advantage is trust. Family members often know each other well and can depend on one another, which make communication easier and reduces the risk of conflicts caused by a lack of trust. Another benefits is that relatives are often highly commited to the success of the business. They may be willing to work longer hours or accept lower profits when the business is facing difficulties. In addition, family businesses can pass valuable knowledge and experience from one generation to another.

However, there are also some drawbacks, family relationships can sometimes affect bysiness decisions. For example. an owner, may give an important position to a relative even if another employee is more qualified. Furthermore, Disagreement at work can create problems at home. which may damage both family relationships and the business.

For example, Many small restaurants and shops are successfully operated by parents and their children. Each person can have a different responsibility, such as managing finances, serving customers or purchasing products. This allows the business to operate efficiently while keeping strong family bonds.

In Conclusion, although family businesses can create conflicts and unfair decisions, I believe their benefits, particularly trust, commitment and shared experience, make them more advantageous overall.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of family businesses, presenting a clear position that the advantages are greater. Key points such as trust, commitment, and potential conflicts are mentioned and supported with brief examples, such as small restaurants and shops. However, the ideas lack deep extension and development. Crucially, the response falls short of the word count requirement, containing only 238 words against the minimum of 250 words. This under-length impacts the overall fullness of task completion, resulting in a penalty to the task response score. To reach a higher band, you must ensure you meet the minimum word count and expand further on your supporting examples.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is generally coherent and follows a logical organisational structure with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing advantages and drawbacks respectively, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points. Cohesive devices are employed to link ideas, such as 'One major advantage', 'Another benefits', and 'However'. However, there are some mechanical and faulty uses of cohesion, such as the grammatical error 'Another benefits' and punctuation issues like a period instead of a comma in 'For example. an owner,'. Referencing and logical progression are mostly clear, but the overall connective tissue could be smoother and more sophisticated to warrant a higher score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate main ideas about business relationships and conflicts. There are several spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'comman' instead of 'common', 'bysiness' instead of 'business', and the grammatical mismatch in 'Another benefits'. Some less common vocabulary is attempted, such as 'qualified', 'efficiently', and 'responsibility', but the presence of noticeable spelling errors ('comman', 'bysiness') and minor lexical slips prevents the score from reaching higher bands. To improve, focus on proofreading to catch basic spelling mistakes and try to integrate more precise academic collocation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating control over basic structures and clauses (e.g., 'While this type of business. I believe that its advantages...'). However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, such as sentence fragments ('While this type of business.'), subject-verb agreement issues ('family relationships can sometimes affect bysiness decisions' instead of 'be affected'), and incorrect comma splices. While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency means that error-free sentences are not in the majority, which is a key requirement for Band 7.

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

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