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)

Nowadays alot of people have the opnion that self-emplyment is much better then being employee of a company. while there are advantages to this not everyone has the same exprience with it. I believe that self-employment is better then joining a company.

On the one hand the believe that self-employment is a good option comes to mind when we consider how an employee is treated in a organization. You are working for the people that can replace you when ever they want. There are also companies that donot treat their employee very well and donot help them improve. this leads them to the option of self-employment, where you can work at your own pace at your desired location. Self-emplyment is mainly done online on an order or contract bases.

On the other hand not everyone has the same luck in self-employment, because it requires a bit of luck as you need to get clients to work, but there are people that perfer to work as a full time employee. Reason being that you get a fixed salary no matter what, and they also different types of benfits. This is also the reason many walk away from being self-employed.

In my opnion a person should be a full time employee as well a self-emplyed. This is the best of both worlds, if they are replaced at their work place they still have a secondary source to keep them going untill they find a new job some where else. This way a person is protected with a stable income and a backup plan as well.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task, examining both the reasons why people choose self-employment and the potential disadvantages. The student takes a clear position throughout, suggesting in the conclusion that combining both approaches is the ideal solution. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and occasionally repetitive. For instance, the reasons given for self-employment focus primarily on escaping poor treatment by employers and working at one's own pace, but these points are not fully extended with concrete examples. Similarly, the discussion of disadvantages mentions lack of clients and the benefit of a fixed salary, yet these points remain brief. This places the response comfortably at Band 6, as it addresses the prompt adequately but lacks the deeper extension and support required for higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into introduction, body paragraphs addressing advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and basic, relying heavily on simple transitions like 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand'. Furthermore, referencing and logical progression are occasionally strained; for instance, the transition between sentences within body paragraphs can be abrupt, such as shifting from poor employer treatment directly to online work modalities without a smooth connective link. Punctuation errors, such as missing capitalisation at the start of sentences like 'this leads them', also detract from the flow. These features align the response with Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating key concepts related to employment and self-employment, such as 'secondary source', 'stable income', and 'full time employee'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'alot', 'opnion', 'emplyment', 'then' instead of 'than', 'exprience', 'organization', 'donot', 'bases' instead of 'basis', and 'perfer'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but their frequency prevents the lexical score from reaching Band 6.5 or 7. The vocabulary attempts are generally common and lack the precision or less common items characteristic of higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as 'While there are advantages to this not everyone has the same experience with it.' Grammatical control is variable. There are frequent errors in punctuation and sentence boundaries, particularly run-on sentences and missing capital letters after periods, as seen in 'organization. You are working...' and 'improve. this leads them...'. Additionally, article usage and subject-verb agreement show occasional flaws, such as 'they also different types of benfits'. Despite these errors, the meaning is generally clear and communication is rarely impeded. This balance of mixed structures and persistent errors corresponds to a Band 5.5 score.

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

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