Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-16

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)

It is true that many people are choosing to be self employed thesedays , rather than working for a company .This situation has ample of reasons , and there are some diaadvantages of being self - employed which I will discuss in upcoming paragraphs.

There are maltiude of reasons that why people are opting to become self employed nowadays. The primary reason is that people like to work independently without any botheration of the boss. People are educated and they do not like to work under someone. For instance - in India

people are opening their own shops and cafes to become independent. Secondly, the companies or oraganistions give minimum wages per month but in case of self employement all the profits go to the owner. So for becomimg moare self sufficient people are choosing to open up thier own firms. As, if they work hard in their own organsation they can get more profits, this is not so in working at the other organisations.

There can be some demirts of being self employed as the whole risk will be on the indiviual. Initially, having job give people salary but if indiviuals have own firn in case of loss people have to bear it all alone. As a result, people have to give salary to their employes from their pocket . Moreover, its is very difficult to choose the employees who will work for the organisation in a good way . And people have to spent a lot of fund and resources without any surity of the profits, long term losses in the busniess can lead to the serious health hezards in people such as heart attack and stress. Eventually, finding the good self employement idea which will work is the difficult task.

In conclusion , although there are some reasons that people choose self employement , there are some disadvantages of being self employeed.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt by explaining why people choose self-employment and discussing the disadvantages, such as financial risk and stress. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. However, some ideas are a bit repetitive and under-developed, falling short of the extended explanations expected at higher bands. For example, the point about health hazards is introduced briefly without much elaboration, and the examples provided (such as opening shops in India) are quite basic. Overall, all parts of the task are addressed, which aligns well with a Band 6.0 descriptor.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical paragraph structure, with an introduction, body paragraphs for reasons and disadvantages, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitions like 'Secondly' and 'Moreover' are used, but referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'this is not so in working at the other organisations.' Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the main themes, but the flow between sentences could be smoother. This level of organisation and cohesive control sits comfortably within Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words such as 'independently', 'self-sufficient', and 'hezards'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('thesedays', 'diaadvantages', 'maltiude', 'oraganistions', 'becomimg', 'thier', 'demirts', 'indiviual', 'employes', 'surity', 'busniess', 'hezards') and inaccurate word choices ('botheration', 'fund and resources'). While the vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main points, the frequent spelling mistakes place this response at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional structures ('As, if they work hard...'). There are frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, and article usage, including missing articles ('having job', 'in case of loss'), faulty punctuation around commas and periods, and awkward phrasing ('There are maltiude of reasons that why people are opting'). Although these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to restrict the score to Band 5.5.

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

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