Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation.

Why might this be the case?

What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed?

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

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Certain individuals want to be self-employes instead of working for any other firm. This is because they want freedom, flexiability, and convenience. Some drawbacks could be loss in business, lack of discipline, and management.

To begin with, a number of individuals want to start their own businesses, pursue their careers as a freelancer, trader and many other similar professions. There are some advantageous concepts associated with this trend. Firstly, it provides them freedom, they are not bound to any supervision but all the other people are dependent on them. Subsequently, it offers flexiability, self-employed person can work at their own pace. They can work for longer or shorter hours because there are not bound to respond any authority and they are not restricted to anything. So, it provides them mental peace. Moreover, They can expand their businesses whenever they want by investing money; consequently, they can earn a significant amount of money which cannot be earned if they work for any organization or company. For instance, I have been working as a freelancer for 1 year, at the start I faced some challenges but at the moment, I get a lot of orders on weekly basis and I manage them according to me.

In contrast, there could be some drawbacks. It is not guranteed that all the self-employed individuals will be successful because it requires proper planning, strategies, and connections. If someone lacks these things, being self-employed may be futile and results in discrepancies in a business. Furthermore, discipline plays a crucial role in success, but in self-employment maintaining a work-life balance is challenging because you work at you own pace and procastination happens most of the time. Ultimatly, management is headache, certain people face severe difficulties in managing their time, work and sometimes their whole businesses which leads to stressful life.

To conclude, concept of self-employment is trendy because of it easiness. Individuals live a stressful free lives but some drawbacks such as time management, daily routine, and risk are also associated.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both parts of the question and give a clear overall explanation: people value freedom and flexibility, while risks include business failure, procrastination, and management difficulties. The personal example about gaining freelance orders helps make the reasons concrete. This meets the task well, but the development is uneven: the benefits are explained in more detail than the disadvantages, which are mostly listed rather than illustrated or explored. For example, explain how irregular income or responsibility for costs can affect a self-employed person, and support the point about work-life balance with a specific consequence. The conclusion restates the main ideas, though “stressful free lives” does not clearly express the intended benefit. More balanced development and a sharper summary would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, a paragraph explaining reasons, a contrasting paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. Sequencing phrases such as “To begin with,” “Firstly,” “Moreover,” and “In contrast” help readers follow the main progression. However, some linking is mechanical, and connections between ideas are occasionally unclear. For instance, “they are not bound to any supervision but all the other people are dependent on them” combines two points without explaining their relationship. The sentence beginning “Furthermore” also moves quickly from discipline to work-life balance and procrastination. Use fewer formulaic transitions and make each paragraph’s ideas build more explicitly on one another; clearer referencing would also help readers identify who “they” refers to.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to discuss the issue, including “freelancer,” “strategies,” “work-life balance,” and “time management.” There are also attempts at more precise expressions such as “significant amount of money” and “proper planning.” However, noticeable spelling errors and awkward word choices reduce accuracy and naturalness: “self-employes,” “flexiability,” “guranteed,” and “procastination” are misspelled, while “management is headache” and “stressful free lives” are unnatural. Some wording is also imprecise, such as “discrepancies in a business” for the problems that may result from poor planning. Build a reliable range of collocations for business risks and personal benefits, and proofread spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including clauses with “because,” “which,” and “if,” and most of the main ideas remain understandable. Some grammatical errors nevertheless recur. Examples include “self-employed person can work” (missing an article), “because there are not bound” (incorrect subject and verb form), and “work at you own pace” (incorrect possessive). There are also problems with agreement and sentence construction in “Individuals live a stressful free lives,” while “management is headache” needs an article. Punctuation and capitalisation are inconsistent, as in “Moreover, They.” To improve, check articles, subject–verb agreement, pronouns, and sentence boundaries, then reread each sentence to ensure its clauses connect grammatically.

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