Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-26

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)

Recently, in many countries people observe family businesses are run altogether by family members. In my opinion, disadvanatges outweigh the advantages of in a family business, due to several reasons such as internal harmony, invisible risks and competing opponents.

To begin with, a family business provides a liberal working environment for many individuals as they know parents and others members are do work to run their institute successfully. Such mindset causes self-destruction instead of personal growth and success, therefore leads to internal family problems and family harmony. For instance, a trusted organisation is operated by siblings and all of them have childrens, it causes them to fight for ownership and destroys the company's growth, also leading to family conflicts.

Secondly, a person builds a successful business in many years and decides to retire by transfering ownership to their children. In such case, younger ones are hidden from risks that were discovered while establishing. It provides comfortzone for younger people and limit their boundaries for growth when they are just working towards family business. It limits their mind to work enough to operate at same pace rather than improving performance and efficiency.

Although, there are many advantages associated with working under family owned business such as a backup plan if personal career fails and mild-risk playground to innovate if anything does not succed.

Overall, disadvantages overpower the beneficial factors to a persons overall development and building good relationships within family. To sustain personal development, they could gain some valuable experience outside and then join again with family to improve the business.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of family businesses and clearly states a position that disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Ideas are presented regarding internal harmony and hidden risks. However, the development of these ideas is limited and at times unclear, such as the explanation regarding the working environment and self-destruction. The example provided about siblings fighting for ownership is somewhat vague and underdeveloped. While all parts of the prompt are addressed, the support lacks full extension and depth, which places this response comfortably in the Band 6 category.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is arranged coherently with a recognizable introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate distinct ideas, such as individual disadvantages and the counterargument. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty, as seen in transitions like 'To begin with', 'Secondly', and 'Although,' where punctuation and sentence linking are slightly awkward. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as pronoun usage in 'it causes them to fight'. Overall progression is present, but logical transitions between sentences could be smoother to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'internal harmony', 'invisible risks', and 'ownership'. However, there are notable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, including spelling errors like 'disadvanatges' and collocation issues like 'mild-risk playground' and 'competing opponents'. Word forms are also misused in places, such as 'transfering' and 'succed'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.5, reflecting a limited yet minimally adequate range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While there are some successful complex constructions, such as 'In such case, younger ones are hidden from risks that were discovered while establishing', there are frequent grammatical errors. Issues include missing articles ('is operated by siblings', 'in family business'), incorrect preposition usage ('outweigh the advantages of in a family business'), and subject-verb agreement errors ('others members are do work'). Punctuation errors also occur. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, aligning the grammar with Band 5.0.

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