Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-05

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)

There has been a new trend nowadays, where more and more young professionals are choosing to be self-employed, rather than working for an organization. There are multiple reasons as to why this might be a prevalent case.

People are choosing to be self employed for possibly one major reason, which is flexibility. In today's day and age, where there is much political, economical, and social uncertainty, individuals are beginning to understand the value of flexibility in workplace. By being self- employed or a freelancer, they can make living according to their own pace, comfort and convenience. Another reason is freedom. Self employment allows people to be free and unrestricted regarding the nature of their work. They are free to choose when, what and how they want to work, and how much they expect to earn in return. For example, a freelance photographer can set his own criteria for the client and the nature of his work, as well as how much he expect to profit in his work. This removes the hesitation, inconvenience and restrictions can comes with working with a company, under the order of some authority. People value their autonomy in making decisions for themselves.

However, this comes with its own disadvantages as well

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, reaching only 206 words. Consequently, the development of ideas is significantly curtailed. While you identify reasons for self-employment (flexibility and freedom), the second part of the prompt—the disadvantages—is barely introduced before the essay ends. This results in an incomplete response that does not fully address all parts of the task. To improve, you must ensure you provide a balanced discussion and extend your arguments with more detailed examples and analysis to meet the length requirement and demonstrate a deeper exploration of the topic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay shows a basic logical progression. You use some cohesive devices, such as 'Another reason is' and 'For example', to link ideas. However, the paragraphing is problematic; the essay is essentially one long block of text, which hinders readability. The transition to the disadvantages section is abrupt and incomplete, leaving the reader without a clear conclusion or a structured argument. To reach a higher band, focus on creating distinct paragraphs for each main idea and ensure that your cohesive devices are used to connect sentences and paragraphs more fluidly.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'prevalent', 'uncertainty', and 'autonomy'. However, there are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'make living' (should be 'make a living') and 'can comes with' (should be 'that comes with'). The vocabulary is generally functional but lacks the sophistication or precision required for higher bands. To improve, try to incorporate more topic-specific collocations and ensure that your word forms are grammatically accurate in context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, such as 'self employed' (missing hyphen), 'in workplace' (missing article), and 'he expect to profit' (subject-verb agreement error). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the missing full stop at the end of the final sentence. To improve, focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles. Proofreading your work for these small but frequent errors will significantly improve your accuracy score.

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