Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-13

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 5.0)

Despite significant progress in agricultural technology, malnutrition remains widespread across the globe. This essay will examine two key causes of this problem the high cost of nutritious food and unequal access to farmland before discussing possible government solutions.

One major cause is that fresh vegetables are often prohibitively expensive for low-income urban families, even though rural farmers can grow their own at little cost. In cities, the price of vegetables reflects the labor, storage, and transport required to bring them from farms to markets, putting them out of reach for the poorest households. By contrast, people in rural areas who grow crops such as carrots, potatoes, and onions save money, but this comes at the cost of considerable time and physical labor a trade-off not available to city dwellers without land.

Turning to possible solutions, governments could subsidize the price of staple vegetables or distribute food directly to low-income families, as several developing nations, including South Africa and Nigeria, have piloted in recent years. Such measures would make nutritious food more affordable and directly address the immediate crisis of hunger. However, subsidies alone do not solve the underlying issue of unequal access to farmland and agricultural resources, so longer-term investment in rural infrastructure and small-scale farming support is also necessary.

In conclusion, food insecurity persists even in an age of agricultural advancement, driven largely by the cost and accessibility of nutritious food in urban areas. While government subsidies can offer short-term relief, lasting change requires addressing the structural inequalities in food production and distribution.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 0.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for reasons why people choose self-employment and the disadvantages of that lifestyle. However, your essay discusses the causes of malnutrition and government solutions for food insecurity. Because you did not address the task question at all, it is impossible to award a score for task achievement. In an actual IELTS examination, this would result in a score of 0 for Task Response as the content is irrelevant to the prompt provided. Please ensure you carefully read the specific question before beginning your writing.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

Despite the content being off-topic, the essay itself is well-structured. You have used clear paragraphing, and the logical progression of ideas within the essay is sound. You employ cohesive devices such as 'By contrast,' 'Turning to,' and 'In conclusion' effectively to link your points. The internal structure of the argument is coherent, even though the subject matter does not match the prompt. If the content had been relevant, this would have been a strong performance in terms of organization and flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate a good range of vocabulary, using terms like 'prohibitively expensive,' 'structural inequalities,' and 'food insecurity' with precision. The language is natural and appropriate for an academic context. You avoid repetition and show an ability to use topic-specific terminology effectively. While the vocabulary is strong, it is entirely misapplied to the wrong topic. If this vocabulary had been used to discuss self-employment, it would have been highly effective.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.5

Your control of grammar is excellent. You use a variety of complex sentence structures, such as conditional clauses and participial phrases, with high accuracy. Punctuation is used correctly to manage long sentences, and there are virtually no grammatical errors. The writing is fluent and demonstrates a high level of proficiency. Like the other criteria, the grammatical quality is high, but it is wasted on a response that does not answer the set task.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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