Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-04

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 the contemporary era, a lot of people prefer to be self-employed and independent instead of being employed in companies or organizations, particularly because people nowadays are mostly unable to commit to be punctual and responsible while working under other people and secondarily because a number of them prefer to have a variable income instead of a fixed one. Although, there is some sort of relaxation and comfort that can be looked at while choosing a self-employed career but there are certain disadvantages associated with it as well. For instance, self-employed career requires a huge self-discipline in order to have a successful operation of the business. This is what a number of people lack in life and hence end up facing difficulties in their careers. Likewise, self-employed people have to be risk-takers. With risk, comes responsibility, which is deficient in many people, hence they are unable to continue for a long time in a self-employed career. Most importantly, self-employed people have to be resilient competitors and not mere soft-hearted couch potatoes who cannot survive in a tough multi-faceted and hard environment. Due to this, a huge cohort of self-employed businessmen end up losing competition and their valuable assets in the process. For example, my elder brother is a born sluggish person. Few months ago, he started working on an idea called "Load and Sell". He made a plan that he will load the worn out stuff in front of people's house and sell them up on Ebay and Etsay appropriately. As it included heavy weight lifting and difficult work, so he could do it only for few days and then left it behind. Unfortunately, for this he had resigned from his original job as a salesperson as well. So, he ended up being jobless.

Conclusively, a lot of people think that being self-employed is super comfy and relieving but it has a number of disadvantages that harbour harms and loss.

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 disadvantages involved. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. The reasons provided—punctuality issues and a preference for variable income—are stated but not fully explored. The disadvantages section is more detailed, though the personal anecdote about the brother is slightly informal and anecdotal rather than analytical. To reach a higher band, you should aim to provide more balanced, academic arguments rather than relying on personal stories, and ensure that the reasons for the trend are as well-developed as the disadvantages.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is generally coherent, and the progression of ideas is logical. You use some cohesive devices such as 'For instance,' 'Likewise,' and 'Conclusively' to link your points. However, the paragraphing is weak; the entire body of the essay is contained within a single paragraph, which makes it difficult for the reader to follow the transition between the reasons for self-employment and the disadvantages. Improving your paragraph structure by separating these two distinct parts of the prompt would significantly enhance the flow and clarity of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'contemporary era,' 'multi-faceted,' and 'resilient.' However, there are some instances of imprecise word choice and informal phrasing, such as 'super comfy,' 'sluggish person,' and 'worn out stuff.' These choices slightly lower the academic tone of the essay. To improve, focus on using more formal, precise collocations and avoiding colloquialisms. While your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning, it lacks the sophistication and precision required for higher band scores.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While you attempt complex sentences, there are several grammatical errors, such as 'a lot of people prefer to be self-employed... particularly because people nowadays are mostly unable to commit to be punctual,' where 'commit to being' would be more accurate. Additionally, there are issues with article usage and prepositional phrases (e.g., 'in front of people's house'). While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. Focus on subject-verb agreement and consistent verb forms after prepositions.

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

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