Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-26

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 times, many people prefer to be self-employed, rather than working for an enterprise. One major reason behind this trend is that some individuals prefer flexibilty, which many corporate organisations do not offer.The main demerit of being self-employed is that some individuals are not responsible and knowledgeable to run a business effectively.

To begin with, owning an organisation gives business owners autonomy and ensures a flexible work schedule. This means that entrepreneurs can choose to run their business according to their will without seeking permission from their superiors or boss. Also, it allow them to have adequate time for other activities and pursue their interests due to a flexible work schedule. For example, business owners can easily make decisions such as restocking more goods and increasing workers salaries without consulting anyone.

One of the downsides of being self-employed is that, running a business comes with a lot of responsibilities and dedication. If a business owner is not investing right, monitoring the organisation and making reasonable decisions to foster the company's growth consequently, the business is at a high risk of crashing and running into debts. To illustrate, many small businesses in Lagos, Nigeria have crashed because the owners failed to monitor their business efficiently.

In conclusion, people choose to be self employed because it allows them to have a good work life balances, ensure they have time to pursue other activities and improve their quality of life. The negative impact of this trend is that some business owners do not have adequate knowledge to make strategic decisions that will support the growth of their business. Hence, the business fails.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for the rise in self-employment and the potential disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, such as the desire for autonomy and the risks of financial instability. However, the development is somewhat limited. The explanation regarding why people choose self-employment is clear, but the discussion on disadvantages is slightly underdeveloped. For instance, the point about 'not being responsible' is a bit vague and could have been expanded with more specific examples of the challenges involved in business management. Overall, the position is clear, and the response covers all requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two main ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Also', 'For example', and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader through the argument. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the flow between sentences could be smoother. The referencing is generally clear, though the connection between the lack of knowledge and business failure in the final paragraph could be more tightly linked to the previous points to improve the overall progression of ideas.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task and allows for clear communication. There is an attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary such as 'autonomy', 'entrepreneurs', 'strategic decisions', and 'financial instability'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there is some repetition of basic terms like 'business' and 'organisation'. Some collocations are slightly unnatural, such as 'investing right' or 'crashing and running into debts'. To reach a higher band, the student should aim to incorporate more precise academic vocabulary and demonstrate a more sophisticated control of word choice.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some accurate complex sentences, such as 'If a business owner is not investing right... the business is at a high risk of crashing'. However, there are several grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('it allow them') and minor punctuation errors, such as missing spaces after periods. While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. Increasing the variety of complex structures and ensuring consistent proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would improve the score.

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