Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-23
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)
Thesedays,owning business and working under any organisation has become a significant issue in many part of the world.This essay will highlight the main reasons behind this problem and the drawback of starting the business are ellaborated in the ensuring paragraphs.
There are several factors that contribute to self empolyment.One major cause is freedom and flexibility. By this i mean that people can choose and select their working hours according to their desire, which can help them to show their productivity.Another important factor is higher earing potential.As the person can earn the grater income than the fixed salary that improve their living standered. Better work and life balance is also the main reason that contributre to this issue.
Discussing the demerits,The formost one is financial risk.In other words , in self employment there no income stability when the business is new beacuse a person cannot have the surity whether it work or not.Moreover,in this case owner of the company have the higher responsilities like dealing with custmors, employees and marking techniques. In which they have to show more interest in their work to encourage their workers.Lastly, stressed and pressure are the otgher disadvantage of the same.
In conculsion ,i would say that self employment is the best option for the people as it have many benefits where person donot have to bond by rules and regulations and they have the full right to take any kind of the risk to uplift their business.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The student addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the reasons for choosing self-employment and its disadvantages, such as financial risk and added responsibilities. However, the response falls short of the 250-word minimum requirement, containing only 242 words. This under-length issue prevents the ideas from being fully extended and supported, leading to a penalty in Task Achievement. While the position is clear, the development remains somewhat superficial because of the brevity.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay is divided into logical paragraphs covering the introduction, reasons, disadvantages, and conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Another important factor' and 'Discussing the demerits,' which help structure the text. However, referencing is sometimes awkward, and spacing/punctuation issues around commas and full stops (e.g., 'words , in', 'other words , in') detract from the flow. Overall, the arrangement is coherent, but the mechanical faults in punctuation limit the score to a 6.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student attempts a range of vocabulary appropriate for the topic, including terms like 'productivity,' 'financial risk,' and 'responsibilities.' However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'Thesedays,' 'empolyment,' 'earing,' 'grater,' 'standered,' 'surity,' 'custmors,' 'marking,' and 'otgher.' These errors demonstrate a lack of control over less common vocabulary and spelling, though communication is generally maintained.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'By this i mean that people can choose and select their working hours...' and '...when the business is new beacuse a person cannot have the surity whether it work or not.' Grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in articles, capitalization, subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'stressed and pressure are the otgher disadvantage'), and conjunctions. Complex structures often contain faults, which restricts the overall grammatical score.
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