Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-14
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 5.5)
In fast-pace era, most people choose to be an entrepreneur instead of working for companies or organizations. This vogue is mainly caused by the desire for greater independence and flexibility, although it can also bring several disadvantages.
One major reason for choosing self-employment is the freedom. Self- employed people generally decide their working hours independently, select their client and how to complete task without any interferences. Second reason is that it provide flexibility. It helps to balances work life and personal life. Another reason is that it provide high income instead of working any organizations. Self-employed take professional decision independently. Successful businessman can increase their income and company growth, rather than depending salaries. For example, a skill graphical designer may work with many international companies online than their conventional job.
However, entrepreneur also has some drawbacks. The first and foremost reason is financial insecurity. Unlike regular employed, self-employed cannot take fixed salaries, paid holiday and other employ benefits. Their income can be fluctuate base on market situation and availability of clients. Furthermore, they most handle responsibility single hand while business make sustainable. A having business also increase taxes, managing financial resources, paying money their employees. These can leads to increase stress and long working hours. For instance, a small business owner may work long working and some time faces big loss, at a same moment, they can manage customers and employees.
In conclusion, although, people increasingly choose self-employed because of it provide more flexibility working hours, greater financial stables and get more time for kith and kins. While, there are some risk also present.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for choosing self-employment and the associated disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, such as flexibility and financial insecurity. However, the development is somewhat uneven. While the reasons are listed, the explanation for some points is brief and lacks depth. For instance, the mention of 'kith and kins' in the conclusion is a sudden addition not previously developed in the body paragraphs. The position is clear, but the overall argument would benefit from more detailed examples and a more cohesive link between the ideas presented. The response meets the requirements of the task but remains at a general level of discussion.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'One major reason', 'However', and 'In conclusion'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly inaccurate, such as the awkward transition 'While, there are some risk also present' in the final paragraph. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and the flow between sentences is sometimes interrupted by grammatical errors. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the advantages from the disadvantages, which helps the reader follow the progression of ideas.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'entrepreneur', 'financial insecurity', and 'sustainable'. However, there are several instances of word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'fast-pace era' (should be 'fast-paced era'), 'vogue' (used incorrectly here), and 'kith and kins' (an idiom that does not fit the formal tone). Spelling is generally accurate, but the range of vocabulary is limited, and the lack of precision in word choice prevents the response from reaching a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('it provide', 'Self-employed take', 'These can leads'), article misuse ('a skill graphical designer'), and awkward phrasing ('A having business'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to be noticeable. The control over complex structures is inconsistent, and the punctuation is occasionally faulty. To improve, the student should focus on basic grammatical accuracy, particularly verb forms and pluralisation, before attempting more complex sentence patterns.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.