Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-11-01

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, everyone have to work for their food and shillter. one such toipc is work togather with family mambers in their family business. While it it true that every topic has its own set of pros and cons. Doing a job in you family office dose has both benefits and drawbacks. This essay will explore the various advantages and disadvantages of this topic.

On the one hand, When people work in their family business ,they have easy cumnication with other workers as they know them personally. In othe words, in family business everyone willing to help each other and they learn more and grow togather. However employes work more energeticly as they feel they working for their own company. As a result,a company succeed in quick time of period.

On the other hand, there are few drawbacks work in a family business. Personal life and office life become mixed. To explain it, now your boss knows what is going on in your day to day life . you cannot easly move your job or cannot get promotion no matter how capeable you are as your family mambers are on higher positions.Thus you have to stick with same role and same work pattren .

In conclusion, although there are many cons to work in family office. people want freedom in work and personal life. Yet this is a good option to work with our famlies as collages and for big resluts they should keep personal life separate then work life.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address both advantages and disadvantages, and your position is broadly that working with family can be a good option if personal and work life are kept separate. The advantages—familiar communication, mutual help, and greater commitment—are relevant, as are the concerns about blurred boundaries and limited promotion. However, the position is not fully clear until the conclusion, and the ideas are only briefly explained. For example, “a company succeed in quick time of period” does not show how family members’ effort leads to success, while the promotion point would benefit from a specific explanation or example. The conclusion also introduces “freedom” without developing it. The response is one word below the required minimum, so ensure you meet the task length as well as developing your reasons.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. This makes the main direction easy to follow. You also use signposts such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” to guide the reader. However, some links are mechanical or unclear. The opening sentence about working for food does not connect smoothly to the topic, and “However” introduces a point that supports rather than contrasts with the previous idea. Some references, such as “this topic” and “this,” are vague, and the conclusion’s ideas about freedom and keeping work separate are not clearly connected. Use more precise links and make each paragraph’s reasoning progress step by step.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use a basic range of topic-related vocabulary, including “family business,” “personal life,” “promotion,” and “drawbacks,” which allows the reader to understand the main points. There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “day to day life” and “higher positions.” However, the range is limited and several spelling errors make the writing less clear, including “shillter,” “cumnication,” “energeticly,” and “capeable.” Some word combinations are unnatural or imprecise: “quick time of period” and “big resluts” do not express your meaning naturally, while “family office” may suggest a different kind of organisation. Build accuracy by checking spelling and learning common collocations for discussing workplace relationships, motivation, and career progression.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “as your family mambers are on higher positions” and a contrast between advantages and disadvantages. However, control is uneven, and errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles, and punctuation sometimes make the reader pause. For example, “everyone have to work” has incorrect subject–verb agreement, and “a company succeed” also needs an appropriate verb form. The sentence beginning “While it it true” is incomplete because the dependent clause is not joined to a main clause. There are also missing or misplaced commas and inconsistent capitalisation after full stops. Practise writing complete sentences and checking agreement and punctuation, while keeping some of your longer sentence attempts.

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.