Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-08

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 numerous nations, family businesses are becoming more popular than individual business. According to my persecpective, this scenerio pros outweigh the cons as different work experience and more helping hands. My eassy will explain reasons in upcoming paragraphs.

To begin with, one of the main advantage work in family businesses is diferent people have different work experiences. To elaborate it, if more individuals will involve in business, they can give more ideas for trade productivity. For example, some people have their accountant background, they can help in financial problems. Secondly, more partners means more helping hands. To explain it, work load can divide easily in family business. Not only one person have to face stress. If employees are short, they can easily manage their work. To explicate it, during festivals there are always employee shortage but it does not affect to family buisnesses. Hence, more members can easily boost productivity and income in family businesses.

On the other side, family businesses have some drawbacks too. One of the main disadvantage is misunderstanding. Sometimes, they have misunderstanding about money, decisions etcetra. Due to this, they can also face distractions at home. For example, according to BBC guidelines, 90% families have weak bond among each other because of misunderstanding in businesses. Hence, working in a family businessses can spoil important relations.

In conclusion, although family businesses have few disadvantages such as disturbing relationships but there more advantages that cannot be ignored like different past experience and more people to help.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You answer the question directly and maintain a clear view that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The two benefits—combining different experience and sharing the workload—are relevant, and the accountant example helps illustrate the first. You also acknowledge a genuine drawback, explaining that disagreements over money or decisions can damage family relationships. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained: the festival staffing example, for instance, could show more clearly how family members keep the business operating. The claim about “90% families” is unsupported and weakens the example; use a credible, specific illustration or explain the point without a statistic. The response is also two words below the required minimum, so ensure future answers meet the stated length.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on advantages, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. The progression from one benefit to another and then to the counterargument is easy to follow. You also use signposting such as “To begin with,” “Secondly,” and “On the other side,” which helps readers see the organisation. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent arrangement and shows some of the stronger control associated with more flexible cohesion. However, several transitions are formulaic, and repeated phrases such as “To elaborate it” and “To explain it” make the links feel mechanical. Some references are also unclear, particularly “this scenario” and “it does not affect,” whose meaning could be stated more precisely. Use fewer stock linkers and connect each example directly to the claim it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “productivity,” “financial problems,” “work load,” and “misunderstanding.” There are also attempts to use less common expressions, such as “boost productivity” and “drawbacks.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors reduce accuracy: “persecpective,” “scenerio,” “diferent,” “eassy,” and “buisnesses.” Some combinations are unnatural, including “different work experience” and “more helping hands,” while “individual business” does not clearly express the intended comparison. These errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the overall argument, but they make the writing less precise. Build a reliable set of collocations for business topics and proofread spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including conditional phrasing (“if more individuals will involve in business”) and a contrast structure (“although family businesses have few disadvantages…”). The meaning is generally recoverable, but control is inconsistent, especially in longer sentences. For example, “one of the main advantage work in family businesses” is missing grammatical elements, and “Not only one person have to face stress” has an incorrect verb form and word order. There are also agreement and article problems in “more partners means” and “one of the main disadvantage.” The conclusion’s “there more advantages” omits a verb, and punctuation spacing is uneven. Practise complete clause patterns, subject–verb agreement, and accurate use of articles; then check each sentence for a clear subject and finite verb.

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.