Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-17

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 time, large population gravitates there intrest to be self employed rather than choosing a salaried employed by a company or organisation.this trend will discuss the various factors , such as the desire of independence as well as fexible workimg hours.However, self employed also have certain disadvantage which includes financials uncertainty and lack of job security.

One major reason why people choose self-employment is the freedom and flexibility it provided.This is because self employed individuals can decide their own working hours and have the greater control over their workwithout being directly supervised by an employer.For example. freelancers and small business owners can choose when and where they had to work , which allow them to maintain their personal and professional life easily.This flexbility is particular attarctive to the person who want to maintain their work life balance or avpid fixed schedules .As a result, many people are increasingly attracted towards self employed because it gives them greater independences and control over their working lives.

One major disadvantage of being self employed is financial uncertainty and lack of job security . this is because self employed people do not usually received a fixed amount and their income can depend on the number of consumers or the success in the business.For example, a small business man may earn a high income during a busy season but experiences a sharp decline in revenue during the economic downturn.Moreover , they are often responsible for paying their business expenses, taxes by themselves, which can put addtional financial pressure on them.As a result , self empoyess may faces greater financials stress.

In conclusion, althought self employment offers a greater freedom, flexibility and independences but it also invlve the financial uncertainty .Therefore,people should choose very wisely consider both the pros and cons.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt successfully by discussing both the reasons for choosing self-employment and its disadvantages. The writer outlines the desire for independence and flexible working hours in the introduction and first body paragraph, and details financial uncertainty and job security in the second body paragraph. Ideas are relevant, clear, and adequately supported with examples, such as freelancers managing their schedules and small business owners facing economic downturns. However, the development of ideas tends to remain somewhat general rather than deeply explored, placing this performance at a Band 6.5 or solid Band 6. To reach a higher band, the student should expand further on their examples with more nuanced arguments.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a clear logical organisation and progression. There is a discernible introduction, two main body paragraphs focusing separately on advantages and disadvantages, and a brief conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'For example', 'Moreover', and 'As a result' are used to connect ideas, though referencing can sometimes be slightly mechanical (e.g., repeating 'One major reason' and 'One major disadvantage'). Paragraphing is appropriately utilised to separate distinct themes. However, punctuation slips and spacing issues around punctuation marks affect the overall flow. Overall, the structural progression is clear enough to meet the requirements of Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, attempting less common items such as 'financial uncertainty', 'economic downturn', and 'professional life'. However, there are frequent word-formation errors and spelling mistakes throughout the text, including 'gravitates there intrest', 'fexible workimg', 'finanicals', 'attarctive', and 'empoyess'. While these vocabulary errors and typos do not completely impede communication because the context remains clear, they restrict the lexical score. To achieve a higher band, the student must demonstrate greater accuracy in word choice, spelling, and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in articles, prepositions, subject-verb agreement, and tense consistency. Examples include 'salaried employed', 'it provided', 'have the greater control', 'they had to work', 'does not usually received', and 'althought... but' (a double-marking redundancy). Punctuation and spacing errors are also prominent, such as missing spaces before capital letters or after commas. These errors require some effort from the reader to untangle, which points firmly to a Band 5.0 for grammatical control.

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