Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-11-09

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 5.5)

Currently, numerous people prefer to be self-employed, rather than focusing on a comapny or organization for work. This favortism has many pros and cons, I will dicuss both in this essay and also decribe why people choose self-employment.

On the one hand, nowadays people usually love to do thier own work or run their own business. As this is an era of inflammation and people have large families, those who are recent graduates companies hire them and thier salaries are not good enough to meet the expanses of thier families. So, they always tried to run thier own businesses to earn more. For instance, now-a-days youth do online works like invest into trade websites like Crypto, just to earn more.

On the other hand, self employment also cause many disadvantages. Because you are only responsible for benefits and loss. For example, if a person run his own business and suddenly his bussiness gets downfall, he is the only one how have to face this alone but if he worked in a company all the loss will be covered by the management. There is also a drawback for companies themselves may the adoltory individuals who brings innovations doing thier own small businesses and companies could not find the better employees.

In short terms, running own business have financial advantage but it may be led to loss due to which many people may depressed. If companies provide pretty salary to thier employees and also provide opportunities, discounts, bounses and promotions. Many people got attracted to that and will join the companies.

AI examiner evaluation

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

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: you suggest that low salaries and family expenses encourage people to start businesses, and you identify financial risk as a disadvantage. These points are relevant, but the explanation is only partly developed. The example of young people investing in crypto websites is brief and does not clearly show how this represents self-employment or reliably leads to higher earnings. The point about companies losing innovative employees is also introduced without explaining its impact, and the conclusion shifts to what companies could do rather than clearly summarising the reasons and disadvantages. Develop each main idea with a clearer explanation or a specific, relevant example, and maintain a consistent focus on both parts of the question.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs signposted by “On the one hand” and “On the other hand,” and a concluding paragraph. This helps the reader follow the broad contrast between reasons and disadvantages. However, some connections are mechanical or unclear: “As this is an era of inflammation” does not establish a clear link to the point about salaries, and “There is also a drawback for companies themselves may…” makes the relationship between ideas difficult to follow. The conclusion also introduces several new suggestions. Use clearer links between each claim and its explanation, and keep each paragraph focused on one developed line of reasoning.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You attempt vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “self-employed,” “run their own business,” “management,” and “innovations.” However, the range is limited and several spelling, word-choice, and collocation errors make parts of the response difficult to understand. For example, “inflammation” appears to be an unsuitable word for the intended economic context, while “this favortism” and “his bussiness gets downfall” are not natural expressions. There are also repeated basic terms such as “work,” “business,” and “loss.” Build a more accurate range for discussing employment and financial risk, and check spelling and collocations carefully. More precise phrasing would make your ideas clearer and more convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt some longer sentence forms, including a conditional example beginning “if a person run his own business,” but control is inconsistent and errors sometimes make the meaning hard to follow. For instance, “self employment also cause” has a subject–verb agreement error, and “those who are recent graduates companies hire them” has an unclear clause structure. The sentence beginning “If companies provide pretty salary” is also incomplete as written, while “running own business have” shows problems with articles and agreement. Most sentences rely on simple patterns, with complex clauses often not controlled successfully. Practise building complete sentences with clear subjects and verbs, and check agreement, articles, and punctuation when combining ideas.

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