Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-01

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)

In recent years, some individuals have become self-employed instead of working for any corporation or a firm because of flexibility offered by self employment and freedom of choice regarding project selection. However, the drawbacks are financial uncertainty and procrastination in work can be seen.

Self-employment is becoming popular in recent decades. Many individuals are leaving their full time job in order to work as freelancers which offers openness and convenience to people. Being self-employed means, a person can choose working hours, on which task they want to focus on and the most viable advantage is getting recognition of efforts invested in a project.

Meanwhile, entrepreneurship can be risky in many cases. Working independently demands an individual's time and effort in order to be successful. Starting a new business can be stressful and require a huge amount of investment while work for a company or organization offers stability and financial security at the same time. Freelancing can be challenging in many fields where there is tough competition. For instance, new generation people have started creating content on instagram platform where not everyone gets success because of competition. Some individuals from IT departments are trying to find freelance projects to get flexibility of work.

In conclusion, working for a business owner or an organization provides mental peace and financial stability, meanwhile working as a free agent offers growth opportunity and flexibility of working hours at the same time it build up stress and responsibility for a person.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The essay addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for self-employment and the disadvantages. However, the response is slightly under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of development. While the ideas are relevant, they are somewhat brief. For instance, the discussion on 'financial uncertainty' and 'procrastination' is mentioned in the introduction but could have been expanded with more detailed examples in the body paragraphs. The position is clear throughout, but the lack of length prevents a more thorough exploration of the arguments, resulting in a slightly underdeveloped response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, body, and conclusion. There is a clear progression of ideas, moving from the benefits to the drawbacks. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Meanwhile', 'For instance', and 'In conclusion', though some transitions feel a bit mechanical. The referencing is generally clear, although the flow between sentences could be improved to create a more natural, sophisticated connection between ideas. Overall, the structure is sufficient to guide the reader through the argument without confusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There is an attempt to use topic-specific terminology like 'freelancers', 'entrepreneurship', and 'financial security'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are occasional inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'new generation people' or 'build up stress', which sound slightly unnatural. To reach a higher band, the student should focus on more precise collocations and a wider variety of academic vocabulary to express complex ideas more fluently.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, such as 'while work for a company' (should be 'working') and 'it build up stress' (subject-verb agreement error). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some missing articles and minor phrasing issues. The control of grammar is sufficient to communicate the message, but the frequency of these small errors prevents a higher score. Increasing the variety of complex structures while ensuring accuracy would improve this score.

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