Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-23

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 6.0)

In recent years, people are preferring self-employment, instead of working for any company or firm. There is tremendous increase in small-scale business among young generation. More shops of hand made item are established in past 5 years.

Some people believe that it is significantly beneficial trend as it tends to increase economy of our country, leading to decrease in unemployment, especially among skilled persons.

What is more captivating about this is that boosts creativity among new minds, they are trying to look for more innovative and unique ideas. Had the government supported such entrepreneurs , it would have driven considerable success of our country.

Others show criticism to this view as self-employment is entirely depended on the person's own traits. Lazy and lethargic person cannot work by themselves. The people who procrastinate a lot are not feasible for this opportunity. Moreover, It tends to cause decline in social framework. The punctuality and discipline they learn from strict office environment is not available for them.

For intance, the person working for his own software house will be much more vigilant about profit and losses than the person who work at someone's company. Neverthless, it solely depends on one's own abilities. It not an easy task to run all by your ownself. Sometimes a person need assistance to work better.

To conclude, it has both advantages and disadvantages . There should be balance between the numbers of self-employment people and the persons who have conventional jobs. Government should support all of them so that both play their roles in the progress of the nation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for the rise in self-employment and the potential disadvantages. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the benefits regarding creativity and economic impact are mentioned, the explanation of disadvantages—such as the lack of discipline—is a bit superficial. The example provided about a software house is slightly confusing, as it seems to argue that self-employed individuals are more vigilant, which contradicts the earlier point about laziness. To reach a higher band, ensure that each point is fully extended with clear, logical support and that examples directly illustrate the specific disadvantage or advantage being discussed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organised into paragraphs, and there is a clear attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'What is more', 'Moreover', and 'To conclude'. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the logical progression within paragraphs is occasionally disrupted by abrupt shifts in focus. For instance, the transition from the benefits of creativity to the criticism of self-employment lacks a smooth bridge. Referencing is generally clear, but the use of cohesive devices could be more sophisticated and varied to improve the overall readability of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'captivating', 'lethargic', and 'procrastinate'. However, there are also instances of awkward word choices and minor errors, such as 'increase economy of our country' (should be 'boost the economy') and 'not feasible for this opportunity' (should be 'not suited to'). The range is sufficient to communicate ideas, but more precise collocations and a wider variety of academic vocabulary would be needed to move into the higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, including issues with articles ('the young generation', 'the progress of the nation'), subject-verb agreement ('person need assistance'), and word order. Some sentences are slightly ungrammatical, such as 'There is tremendous increase in small-scale business among young generation.' These errors are noticeable and occur throughout the text, though they do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points. Increasing the frequency of error-free complex sentences would improve the score in this criterion.

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