Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-13

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)

In recent times, majority of the people prefer doing a business instead of a job.

People opt for businesses as they see more chances of growth in it than being employed. For example, a person from Karachi will prefer owning a small restaurant than doing a job as the yearly increment in these heavily taxed economy will give him lesser return as compared to a small business with lower taxes applied on it. Adding on, people are now more concerned about standards of living and have started giving importance to time management due to which many people avoid working in a culture where extreme pressure and overtime is common without any benefits that leads to self employment. For example, people in India discourages jobs as employers exploit employees by giving extra work, encouraging late sittings with no extra benefits.

Although, most of the people does not look at the drawbacks before starting up a business. A business requires capital that is not feasible for everyone since each person have a distinguish level of wealth. For example, a factory owner might find it right to open up a shop since he have enough capital and can afford the loss if the business does not work well. However, an employee might feel the same to own a shop but he will limit himself from other expenses to gather capital while he might have left with nothing but regret if he faces a loss because he can not afford it at any cost. Moreover, self employment looks easy but it is one of the most difficult thing to do. Risk takers are more confident and have been successful over time around the world but a person who is unable to take a risk and have poor decision making power, might not be able t

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by explaining why people choose self-employment and outlining the potential disadvantages. The ideas are relevant and supported by examples, such as the comparison between job increments and small business returns in Karachi, and the mention of workplace exploitation in India. However, the conclusion is abruptly cut off mid-sentence, leaving the final argument underdeveloped. This slight truncation prevents the task response from reaching a higher band. Overall, the position is clear and the main prompts are adequately covered.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a clear overall progression and logical organisation. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, the reasons for self-employment, and the disadvantages. Cohesive devices such as 'For example', 'Adding on', and 'Although' are employed to guide the reader through the text, though some transitions like 'Adding on' feel a bit informal. Referencing is generally clear, and information is sequenced reasonably well. The primary structural flaw is the abrupt ending in the final paragraph, which disrupts the flow of the conclusion, but the essay remains coherent overall.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common phrases such as 'heavily taxed economy', 'standards of living', and 'risk takers'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, such as 'majority of the people' (missing an article), 'doing a business' instead of 'starting a business', and 'distinguish level of wealth' instead of 'distinct level'. Furthermore, grammatical errors stemming from word choice, such as 'people in India discourages jobs' (subject-verb agreement with plural nouns), mildly detract from the precision of the language, though communication is never impeded.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, incorporating subordinate clauses effectively in sentences like 'People opt for businesses as they see more chances of growth...'. However, grammatical control is inconsistent, with frequent errors in subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'most of the people does', 'each person have', 'he have') and article usage. There are also occasional prepositional inaccuracies and awkward phrasing. The most significant issue in this section is the incomplete final sentence, which stops abruptly. Despite these errors, the complex structures are attempted and the meaning remains clear throughout the majority of the essay.

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