Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays many large international companies offer their staff the opportunity to spend a period of time living and working in another country.

Why might this opportunity be good for employees?

What advantages does this development have for companies?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Employees working in many multinational organisations are offered to live and work overseas for a certain period of time. Not only does this practice benefit the staff but it also have a plethora of advantages for the companies. It is a great opportunity for the workers to learn and adapt to different environements. While companies use it as a means to expand their business.

Commencing with the most salient reasons, company's talent is its most valuable asset. Organisations want to invest in their training and education. Thus, they send them abroad to work and aquire knowledge from the experts in the field. Living and working among people from diverse backgrounds, they learn to respect and tolerate people from other cultures. Furthermore, the new challenges improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Therefore, it may serve as a great for them to excel in their career. For example, Uniliver Pakistan bestows its most eligible employees with an opportunity to pursue masters in the most prestigious universities in the world on 100% scholarship. They get full financial support from the government so they can become the best at their jobs.

Moreover, companies know the value of the courses and trainings they arrange for their employees. This approach definitely serves the organisations in the long run. When these talented staff members get trained in a particular field, they can take on the role of the leaders in the company and imply those strategies at their own workplaces. Rather than hiring external trainers to train other employees, they can take advantage of their own company's potential and grow their businesses. Hence, this development plays a signifcant role in the company's growth as well as an employee's career path.

To recapitulate,

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, exploring why international assignments are beneficial for employees and what advantages they offer to companies. In the introduction, the student outlines both perspectives clearly. The body paragraphs discuss skill acquisition, cultural tolerance, and leadership development for employees, as well as talent retention and cost efficiency for companies. However, there are some minor logical inconsistencies in the development; for example, the mention of 'financial support from the government' in the Unilever example is slightly off-topic since the prompt specifies companies offering these opportunities. Nevertheless, the main ideas are relevant and sufficiently extended, warranting a solid Band 6.5 or 7.0 for Task Achievement. The student maintains a clear position throughout the text.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at logical organisation and progression. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the introduction, employee benefits, company benefits, and a (cutoff) conclusion. The writer employs cohesive devices such as 'Commencing with the most salient reasons', 'Furthermore', and 'Moreover' to guide the reader through the arguments. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen with sentence fragments like 'While companies use it as a means to expand their business' in the introduction. Furthermore, the essay abruptly stops at the conclusion with 'To recapitulate,', showing an incomplete final paragraph. These organisational and cohesive flaws place the essay firmly at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'multinational organisations', 'plethora of advantages', 'salient reasons', and 'critical thinking'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('environements', 'aquire', 'Uniliver', 'signifcant') and word-form or collocation inaccuracies ('imply those strategies' instead of 'apply those strategies', and treating 'great' as a noun phrase in 'serve as a great for them'). Despite these slips, the errors do not impede communication, and the vocabulary used is sufficient to convey the intended meaning, aligning with the Band 6 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. The writer attempts complex structures effectively at times, such as 'When these talented staff members get trained in a particular field, they can take on the role...'. However, there are noticeable grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('it also have') and sentence boundary errors, such as starting a sentence with a dependent clause ('While companies use it as a means to expand their business.'). Punctuation and minor structural slips are present throughout, but they rarely impede overall comprehension. This balance of mixed structures and persistent errors reflects a Band 6.0 performance.

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