Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-27

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)

Many people chose to be self-employed or run their own business, rather then working for other organisations. There are multiple reasons which we are going to discuss.

Many people don't like working for organisations instead they choose to be self-employed because low wages, strict rules, extra working hours, lack of freedom, and lack of opportunities. Many people have realised working in such organisations have no outcome these companies offer low wages and people don't have freedom to do anything. It creates a sense of slavery among the working class.

Instead people chose to be self-employed where they are free to do anything they can earn how much they want they can work under contracts, provide services to the costumer, work as a freelancer, and can run their own business. People can work according to their desire and needs can spend time with their families and self-employment can turn out to be a better source of entertainment then working under a company or organisation.

But there can be few disadvantages like most people have a little or no experience of what they are doing, they waste time, opportunities, and energy on useless things and there is no surety about income. Many can't find work for days even for months. Then there the ones who plans to do business, most of have no experience and they end up loosing all their money in losses.

One of my friends who had a perfect job decided to start his own business he worked pretty hard but still failed because he lacked experience and bad advertisement. Moral is that jobs or working under some organisation is more stable but self-employment can be beneficial if you have big capital and experience.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for choosing self-employment and the potential disadvantages. However, the development of ideas is somewhat superficial. For example, the reasons provided (low wages, lack of freedom) are listed rather than explored in depth. The argument regarding 'slavery' is an over-generalisation that lacks nuance. While the response covers all parts of the task, the supporting arguments, such as the anecdote about a friend, are brief and could benefit from more detailed analysis to reach a higher band. The conclusion is clear, but the overall development remains at a basic level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the progression of ideas. However, the use of cohesive devices is quite mechanical and sometimes repetitive. For instance, the transition between paragraphs is abrupt, and the use of linking words like 'Instead' or 'But' at the start of sentences is basic. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'Then there the ones who plans to do business', where the grammatical structure hinders the flow. Improving the variety of transition signals would enhance the logical flow between sentences and paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. The student relies on common words like 'people', 'work', and 'business'. There are some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'entertainment' to describe the benefits of self-employment, which is not the most appropriate term in this context. Additionally, there are spelling errors like 'loosing' (losing) and 'costumer' (customer). To improve, the student should aim to use more sophisticated collocations and topic-specific vocabulary related to employment and economics to demonstrate a wider range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede readability. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'many people chose' instead of 'choose'), missing prepositions, and run-on sentences. For example, 'Many people don't like working for organisations instead they choose...' lacks proper punctuation. The use of articles and pluralisation is also inconsistent. While the meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of errors in basic sentence construction prevents the essay from reaching a higher band score.

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