Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-21

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 4.0)

yeah now a days many people choose to be self employed and i think so it is good idea because at this you own your own bussiness not to work as a employer you are the boss and directly find clients according to own self. i think so it has no any disadvantage because if we work as a employ person we got a fixed salery at the start of the month and some times they delayed our salery which causes a various disadvantages like house rents delay if we have no our own house and other groceries and house bills are delay. but if we work as a self employ then this problems will solve if we work hard and make our international clients.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The student attempts to address both parts of the task by discussing why people choose self-employment and outlining a perceived advantage over traditional employment, such as avoiding delayed salaries. However, the prompt specifically asks for the disadvantages of being self-employed, which the student explicitly dismisses by stating, 'i think so it has no any disadvantage.' Consequently, this part of the prompt is completely ignored, resulting in an incomplete task response. Furthermore, the response is only 125 words long, which severely falls short of the mandatory 250-word minimum. This major under-length issue heavily penalises the task achievement score, as ideas cannot be fully developed or supported within such a brief text. To improve, the writer must ensure every part of the prompt is answered and meet the word count requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text lacks proper paragraphing entirely, presented as a single, run-on block of text containing multiple long, convoluted sentences. Cohesive devices are basic and repetitive, heavily relying on conjunctions like 'and' and 'because' to link clauses. For example, sentences such as 'i think so it has no any disadvantage because if we work as a employ person we got a fixed salery at the start of the month and some times they delayed our salery...' demonstrate a lack of control over discourse markers and logical progression. While there is a basic train of thought connecting self-employment to financial independence, the overall organisation is weak and fails to guide the reader smoothly through the argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is very basic, repetitive, and informal. The writer relies heavily on everyday words such as 'good idea', 'boss', 'house', and 'money' equivalents. There are several noticeable word choice and word formation errors, such as 'self employ' instead of 'self-employed', 'employ person' instead of 'employee', and 'salery' instead of 'salary'. Furthermore, terms like 'international clients' are attempted, but the range remains far too limited for an academic task, causing noticeable strain for the reader. To achieve a higher band, the student needs to build a wider range of lexical items related to business and employment and improve spelling accuracy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The grammatical range is extremely limited, consisting almost entirely of lengthy, coordinate clauses strung together with conjunctions rather than a balanced mix of simple and complex structures. There is a complete lack of punctuation, with no full stops or capitalisation used to demarcate sentences properly, as seen in the continuous lowercase flow throughout the text. Numerous grammatical errors are present, including subject-verb agreement issues and word form mistakes like 'this problems will solve' instead of 'these problems will be solved'. These persistent errors and the absence of basic punctuation cause significant difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from reaching a higher band.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.