Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-22

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, many people prefer to work with their family members in family business. Some believe that this has several benefits, while others believe that it can create problems. In my opinion, family businesses have more advantages than disadvantages because family member can trust and support each other.

To begin with, one of the main advantages of a family business is trust. Family members know each other skills and take it with their responsibilities that's make business beneficial. Family business can more affective because every person knows each other capabalities and how to handle business in good way. For example, if parents own a restaurant, their children can help them manage customers and daily activities. Sometimes family business can make more profit then working on own way. As a result, business can run smoothly and reduce employee costs.

On the other hand, working with family members can also create some conflicts that affect the family business. Sometimes disagreements with family memebers can affect decisions. If two brothers running a shop, they do not agree spending money and expanding the business. Eventually, it can create a problem between family members and business performance. Also, these conflicts can affect their mental health and even sometimes peoples do not talks each other for rest of life.

In conclusion, althought family business can create disagreements and personal problems, I believe that their advantages outweigh their advantages. This is because family memebers can trust each other and support whenever any people need help, it can make business successful.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and you address both sides of the question. Trust and mutual support are relevant reasons, and the restaurant example helps illustrate how relatives can share daily responsibilities. You also explain a plausible drawback through the brothers’ disagreement about spending and expansion. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained: for instance, the claim that family businesses make “more profit” is not supported with a clear reason or example. The conclusion also says “advantages outweigh their advantages,” which contradicts your intended comparison. Develop each main point with a clearer explanation and ensure the final judgement accurately compares benefits with drawbacks.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for benefits and drawbacks, and a conclusion. Signposts such as “To begin with,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” make the direction of the argument easy to follow. The examples are placed near the points they support. However, connections between some ideas are mechanical or unclear. In the advantages paragraph, trust, capability, profit, and lower employee costs are introduced in quick succession without showing how each follows from the previous point. The conclusion’s comparison is also confusing. Use clearer links to explain cause and effect, and make pronouns and references precise so readers can follow who is acting and what each claim refers to.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “family business,” “trust,” “conflicts,” “decisions,” and “business performance.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “manage customers” and “expanding the business.” However, noticeable spelling and word-choice errors reduce precision: “capabalities,” “memebers,” and “affective” make the intended wording less reliable, while “take it with their responsibilities” is not a natural expression. Some phrases are also vague, such as “working on own way.” Build accuracy by checking spelling and learning common collocations for business topics. Choosing precise expressions will help your relevant ideas sound clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including conditional examples such as “If parents own a restaurant” and “If two brothers running a shop.” The overall meaning is usually recoverable, but some grammatical errors affect clarity. For example, “family member can trust” needs plural agreement, and “If two brothers running a shop” is missing a finite verb (“are running”). The sentence beginning “Family members know each other skills” also has an incorrect possessive structure, and “people do not talks” has subject–verb agreement and verb-form problems. The conclusion contains a long sentence whose clauses are not joined clearly. Practise possessives, verb forms, agreement, and sentence boundaries, while retaining your attempts to use subordinate clauses.

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