Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-07-26

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)

People choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organization because of time, be independent, low income earning, lacking autonomy and job insecurity.

Firstly, people prefer to be self-employed because serving/working for an organization/company gives one a limited time to care for themselves, career growth and be financially free as one doesn't have to grow in career wise because there's no time for such as well as exercising authority or giving order on how to regulate or do certain things that maybe of help and contribute to the individual growth.

Secondly, because of lack of career growth, one is bound to be earning a small amount of money that may take care of his needs and that his family and one will work and retire without reaching his level of actualization in life which will give way for regret.

Further, the practice of entrepreneurship gives time for other activities. However, there are consequences of being an entrepreneur which includes the following: lack of finances to fund the business which will make an entrepreneur to borrow much money and when the capital is not coming out from the goods because it's not growing as result of not having selling what will entice the customers or lack proper strategy for the business will make the business to collapse leaving the entrepreneur in debts

Again, when an entrepreneur has no sales person to be selling and help in advertising the product, the business center will always be closed sending customers away if the entrepreneur is not around to sell it and it will limit his career growth as well because there's no time for other activities order than his business. For example, when I was selling satchet water, due to my consistent absence from the shop when I went for surgery, I lost all my customers and when I started again, many of them will pass my shop and go to other people's own and purchase and this makes me to stop selling it because I'm not always there because of work as well and business requires constancy

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, identifying reasons for self-employment and discussing disadvantages. However, the development of ideas is inconsistent. The first paragraph is a list of points rather than a clear introduction. The arguments regarding 'time' and 'career growth' are somewhat repetitive and lack clarity in their expression. While the personal example about selling sachet water is relevant, the explanation of the disadvantages is slightly muddled, particularly in the long, run-on sentence describing business collapse. To improve, ensure each paragraph focuses on a single, well-developed idea with clear supporting evidence.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay uses basic cohesive devices like 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Further', which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the paragraphing is problematic; the second and third paragraphs are very long and contain multiple ideas that could be better separated. Some sentences are overly long and lack internal punctuation, making them difficult to follow, such as the sentence starting with 'However, there are consequences...'. The referencing is occasionally unclear, and the flow between ideas is sometimes mechanical rather than logical. Improving sentence structure and paragraph breaks would significantly enhance the coherence of the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There is some repetition of words like 'business', 'growth', and 'time'. Some phrasing is awkward or non-idiomatic, such as 'career wise' or 'actualization in life'. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of variety and occasional misuse of collocations limit the score. To reach a higher band, focus on using more precise academic vocabulary and synonyms to avoid repetition and to express complex ideas more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay relies heavily on simple and compound sentences, with some attempts at complex structures that are often grammatically flawed. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement, article usage, and sentence construction. For example, 'many of them will pass my shop and go to other people's own' is grammatically incorrect and awkward. Punctuation is also a significant issue, particularly the lack of commas in long, complex sentences, which causes confusion. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence structures and ensuring that complex sentences are punctuated correctly to avoid run-on errors.

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