Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-11-10

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)

For the past decades people have been more interested in being self-employed than in working for a company or organization. The main cause behind this trend is the robustness of the technology. After the invention of the internet, the whole world turned into a village, which can be called a global village. Now anybody can use their freedom to achieve themselves as self-employed. People use Facebook and other social media platform as well as the internet to start their own business where they can also recruit other people. Also getting a fund for their own startup is now easier than the previous time. Another important point is that, people want more freedom than the previous times. So they don't want to work under others. Now there are several disadvantages. One example is; being self-employeed, there's no guarantee of being successful. Everyone can be self-employeed. But not everyone can be successful. And after a few attempts, some people fail and become depressed. There is no security in their investment. Many people do freelancing nowadays and earn a lot of money. But the problem is, there's no guarantee of their employment. They may not get any job after a certain time. Whereas, if they had worked for a company or organisation, they would have gotten a fixed amount of salary at the end of the month. Hence, we can say that there are both advantages and disadvantages of being self-employed. And it is one's own choice. If a person can take risks, then they might succeed in their own arena.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both questions and gives a relevant explanation for the trend: internet access and social media make it easier to start a business, while some people value greater freedom. It also identifies genuine disadvantages, including uncertain success, investment risk, and the lack of a regular salary. These points are understandable, but they are not developed equally: the technology explanation is broad, and the claim that people “want more freedom” would benefit from a specific reason or example. The disadvantages are somewhat clearer, though the discussion of freelancing repeats the idea of insecure work. To strengthen the response, explain how one factor leads to self-employment and illustrate each main disadvantage with a concrete example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The ideas follow a generally clear order: the opening introduces the trend, the response then explains possible causes, moves to disadvantages, and ends with a conclusion. Linking expressions such as “Also,” “Another important point,” and “Whereas” help signal these stages. However, the response is presented as one continuous paragraph, so the shift from reasons to disadvantages is less clear than it could be. Some connections are also mechanical, particularly the repeated use of “Now” and “But,” and “One example is” does not introduce a fully specific example. Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, reasons, disadvantages, and conclusion, and vary transitions while making references between ideas more precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for discussing the topic, with relevant terms such as “self-employed,” “global village,” “startup,” “freelancing,” and “investment.” The meaning is generally clear, and the writer attempts some less common expressions. However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural, including “robustness of the technology,” “achieve themselves as self-employed,” and “getting a fund.” There are also spelling and form errors in “self-employeed,” and “social media platform” should be plural in this context. Repetition of “people,” “successful,” and “guarantee” limits flexibility. Aim for more precise collocations, such as describing technology as enabling remote business, and proofread spelling and singular/plural forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response uses a mix of simple and more complex structures, including a conditional sentence (“If a person can take risks, then they might succeed”) and a past unreal conditional (“if they had worked… they would have gotten…”). Most ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors and awkward constructions persist. For example, “After the invention of the internet, the whole world turned into a village” uses an unsuitable tense for a continuing change, and “people want more freedom than the previous times” has an unclear comparison structure. The sentence beginning “One example is;” also uses punctuation incorrectly. Work on accurate comparisons, tense choices, and punctuation, while retaining the variety of sentence forms already attempted.

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