Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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 a fast-paced life, numerous individuals make themselves to be self-emplyed, not to do work for a firm or company or organisation. This essay will present the phenomenon and demerits for being a self-employed.

There are several reason for this notion. The first and faremost is that freelancer jobs have huge income souce of earning. Many people built their own businesses and reputation in the market in which they do what ever they want with no prussure from boss or supervisers. Moreover, they have freedom to do their favourate profession without any required qualification needed for joining any firm. Simultaneously, people needed to wait for umpteen time for promotion, salary increasing and power in their work which was not require in the self-employee work.

Another justification of this extent is that that type of work require inverstment and personal place such as rent property or personal place where people meet their work. Additionally, it is time consuming acitvity because making goodwill of work is not easy within days or months. It will need huge time which is not require in job. In addition, it is manage by a person which is difficuit for yougsters which do not have enough experience for management. Therefore, they have no fix salary or encome at the end of the month. They are totally depend on customersnot onb their time they consume in the work.

In the light of the above discussion, it is fair and justifiable to say that self-employement has much benefits but there is also have risk to startup the work. I reckon that this job is choosen on the basis on the investment, management and skills which are needed to become success in that work.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the reasons why people choose self-employment and the potential disadvantages. The introduction outlines the topic, and body paragraphs present ideas such as income sources, autonomy, investment requirements, and management difficulties. However, some ideas are underdeveloped or lack depth, such as the vague mention of 'huge income source of earning'. Furthermore, there are some sweeping generalisations regarding how jobs require waiting for promotions. Despite these limitations in full development, a clear position is maintained throughout the essay. This performance aligns best with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, reasons, disadvantages, and conclusion appropriately. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'The first and faremost', 'Moreover', and 'In addition', but their usage is occasionally mechanical or inaccurate, as seen with 'Another justification of this extent is that that type of work require...'. Paragraph transitions are present, but referencing can sometimes be unclear, such as pronoun shifts between 'people', 'they', and 'yougsters'. Progression is maintained, though the logical flow is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing. This warrants a Band 6 score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student attempts a range of vocabulary relevant to the topic, including terms like 'freelancer', 'reputation', 'investment', and 'goodwill'. However, there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'self-emplyed', 'faremost', 'souce', 'favourate', 'inverstment', 'acitvity', 'difficuit', 'yougsters', 'encome', and 'employement'. Word choice and collocation are also imprecise at times, for instance, 'make themselves to be self-emplyed' or 'salary increasing'. These errors occasionally cause strain for the reader, though communication is generally maintained, placing this squarely at Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional-like structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions. Examples include 'numerous individuals make themselves to be', 'jobs have huge income souce of earning', 'people needed to wait', 'work require inverstment', and 'there is also have risk'. Punctuation and article usage also show persistent flaws. While meaning can mostly be deciphered, the frequency of errors places the grammar score at Band 5.

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

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