Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-15

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 contemporary society, numerous individuals want to be self-employed instead of working in an organisation or corporate. This development has become an increasingly prevalent due to its influence on different areas of life and society. This essay will discuss both the positive and negative aspects of this progression with some reasons and multiple examples.

One of the main benefits of being self-employed is that many individuals select this way of occupation because of its flexibility. Furthermore, the employees who work as freelancers could generate more income since they become more independent by setting their own rules and regulations in their professional lives rather than working under the benchmarks of anycompany. For instance, crypto traders frequently earn dollars in reduced working hours by buying and selling distinctive coins such as bitcoin, etherium, and polkadot. Consequently, creating effective professional and personal life balance instead of working in pressure under someone's supervision.

On the other hand, the main disadvantage regarding self-employment is that workers can confront variable income which leads to financial instability. For example, the traders who purchase and sale various shares by performing technical analysis can occasionally deal with undesired outcomes which result in heavy losses. Moreover, self-employed persons can not recieve yearly bonuses, medical facilities, and other allowances. Subsequently, making their lives more uncertain and unpredictable because they can not predict economic recession and future crises.

In conclusion, self-employment brings several significant advantages such as autonomy and flexibility as compared to working for an organisation or company. However, there are also some challengesvwhich leads to financial instability and undesired repercussions. Therefore, with proper control and responsibility, these negative impacts can be significantly reduced.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for the rise in self-employment and the associated disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, focusing on flexibility and financial instability. However, the development is somewhat limited; the examples provided (crypto trading) are quite narrow and do not fully represent the broader spectrum of self-employment. While the position is clear, the analysis lacks depth in exploring the 'why' beyond simple autonomy. To reach a higher band, you should expand on the societal or economic drivers behind this trend and provide more varied examples beyond trading, such as the gig economy or consulting.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the benefits from the drawbacks. Cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'For instance', 'On the other hand', and 'Consequently' are used to link ideas. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, and the flow between sentences could be smoother. For example, the final sentence of the second paragraph is a fragment ('Consequently, creating effective...'), which disrupts the logical progression of the argument. Overall, the structure is clear and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'contemporary society', 'prevalent', 'autonomy', and 'unpredictable'. There are some minor errors in word choice and spelling, such as 'etherium' (Ethereum) and 'challengesvwhich'. Additionally, some collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'working in pressure'. While you attempt to use less common vocabulary, the range is somewhat limited, and the reliance on specific financial terminology restricts the breadth of your argument. Increasing your use of topic-specific collocations and ensuring precise word choice would improve this score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While you successfully use complex sentences, there are recurring grammatical errors that occasionally affect clarity. For instance, 'This development has become an increasingly prevalent' contains an unnecessary article, and 'the employees who work as freelancers could generate more income since they become more independent' is a bit clunky. There are also issues with sentence fragments and subject-verb agreement, such as 'self-employed persons can not recieve' (spelling error) and 'which leads to' (should be 'lead' to match the plural 'challenges'). More attention to proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy is needed.

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

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