Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-12

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)

In recent times, most of the large international companies offer their employees the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time living and working in another country because it allows employees to learn the marketing strategies. This development can be advantageous for companies in many aspects such as understanding the need of the buyers and correction of the current products.

To begin with, some large international companies offer their employees to work and live in another country because it allows the employees to understand latest marketing strategies. This is because, while working and living in a different country, an employee may learn the working culture of the country. It includes the office hours, quality assurance techniques and the overall strategies behind the product. Therefore, the staff may learn the foreign working culture and implement it to their own countries for the better growth of the company. For example, some companies' employees tend to work in China to learn their sales techniques. As a result, the staff may implement those strategies in their own company and develope a blue print for the overall company's growth.

Moreover, this development can be advatageous for the companies in various aspects. Firstly, the employees may learn the most demanding services that buyers are looking for. Secondly, they may find some advancements into their current products or strategies to foster the sales. For instance, the American marketing strategies has the most number of buyers. Therefore, understanding their sales techniques might help other nations to improve their current sales. As a result, employees can develop similar techniques and help their own company to reach a high number of sales.

To conclude, offering their staff the opportunity to spend and work in another country may allow their staff to understand their root cause and bring solution to foster growth of their companies.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both questions: it explains how overseas work may expose employees to marketing and workplace practices, and how companies could use this knowledge to understand buyers and improve sales. These are relevant ideas, but they are only partly developed. For example, the China example mentions learning sales techniques without explaining what might be learned or how it would benefit employees personally. The company advantages also overlap and remain general, particularly the claim about American marketing strategies. The conclusion refers vaguely to understanding “their root cause” rather than clearly summarising the benefits. To strengthen the response, explain employee benefits such as professional development or cultural awareness separately from the company’s gains, and support each with a specific, clearly explained example. (Eight words copied from the task prompt were not counted.)

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate body paragraphs for the two questions, and a conclusion. Sequencing phrases such as “To begin with,” “Moreover,” and “To conclude” help signal the stages of the argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes repetitive: the first body paragraph repeats that employees can learn and implement foreign strategies, while the second uses “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “As a result” without clearly distinguishing the ideas. Some references are also unclear, as in “their root cause” in the conclusion. Improve cohesion by making each paragraph’s main point explicit, linking examples directly to that point, and using pronouns only when their reference is unmistakable.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary is sufficient to discuss the topic, and phrases such as “working culture,” “quality assurance techniques,” and “demanding services” show attempts to use topic-related language. However, the range is limited by repeated use of “employees,” “strategies,” “company,” and “sales,” and several choices are inaccurate or unnatural. For example, “understand the need of the buyers” and “find some advancements into their current products” do not express the intended ideas naturally. There are also spelling errors, including “develope” and “advatageous.” Aim for more precise collocations and check spelling: for instance, describe identifying “customer needs” and “opportunities to improve existing products.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response attempts both simple and complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “because,” “while,” and “therefore,” and the main ideas are generally understandable. However, errors in agreement, articles, and sentence construction occur often enough to make the writing less controlled. Examples include “the latest marketing strategies” without the article, “the American marketing strategies has,” where the subject and verb do not agree, and “some companies’ employees tend to work in China,” which is awkwardly structured. The final sentence, “understand their root cause and bring solution,” also has unclear grammatical relationships and missing articles. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and article use, and revise complex sentences to ensure each clause has a clear subject and meaning.

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