Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-07-27

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 6.5)

These days, it is observed that most of the people show a tendency to become self-employed, instead of working under others. From my perspective, one reason for selecting self-employement is the underwage offered by the employers, while there remains some controversy regarding this. Throughout this essay, the answers to both of these questions will be explored.

Due to the advancement of education, most of the parents show a tendency to educate their children according to the conventional academic curriculum rather than vocational knowledge. As a result, the graduates lack of practical knowledge, which is necessary for many jobs. Consequently, the fresh graduates cannot manage to find a job, which is suitable for them. Most often the employers look for candidates who have previous experiences or at least few know how about the tasks that the candidates are going to take over. In this case, the freshers also lag behind and do not get adequate salary due to their inferior performance. For example, most of the companies or, organisations do not offer promotion to those workers who cannot update themselves with the trends. Therefore, the young generation gets frustrated and thinks of doing something according to their own decisions. This lead to the steam of self-employement. These factors can motivate a person to initiate some actions for creating self-service opportunitites.

In long run, the idea becoming an entrepreneur can be detrimental for a person who is not so much skillful or does not have genuine ideas. For example, if anyone wants to start a business, he must understand the market very well. But, if he does not pose a clear concept of running a business, then he might face a great loss. It can be devastating for his career, as his dreams of being self-employed may get shuttered down at the beginning. On the other hand, sometimes the young generation may be attracted by the lucrative advertisement of taking debt from some private firms and start a business of their own. However, there is a potential risk of running into debt, if the person does not know where it is safer to invest. All together, creating an employment opportunity of one's own step is quite challenging.

In conclusion, there are substantial reasons for getting demotivated while working under the control of employers who do not care about the employees and always try to exploit their potential. This drives the frustrated persons to think in a different way and prepare for something which is even more challenging. Consequently, he is likely to get involved in further difficulties, if he is not well-concerned about his strategies.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for self-employment and the potential disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, such as the mismatch between academic education and job market requirements, and the risks of financial loss. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The explanation regarding why graduates lack practical skills is a bit tangential to the core reasons for choosing self-employment, and the discussion on 'underwage' is not fully explored. The position is clear, but the supporting arguments could be more tightly focused on the specific motivations for self-employment versus traditional employment to reach a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, each with a clear central theme. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Consequently', 'For example', and 'On the other hand', which help the flow of ideas. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, and the referencing is occasionally unclear (e.g., 'the answers to both of these questions will be explored' is a generic filler). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two main prompts, but the internal progression within the second paragraph is slightly disjointed due to the shift from education to self-employment.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'detrimental', 'lucrative', and 'conventional academic curriculum'. However, there are several instances of awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'underwage' (should be 'low wages'), 'few know how' (should be 'little know-how'), 'shuttered down' (should be 'shattered'), and 'self-service opportunities' (which is misused here). These errors are noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the writer attempts complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'the graduates lack of practical knowledge' (should be 'lack practical knowledge'), 'This lead to' (should be 'This leads to'), and 'if he does not pose a clear concept' (should be 'possess'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are minor issues with comma usage. Despite these errors, the meaning is consistently clear, and the errors do not impede communication.

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