Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-29

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)

Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation.

I think the self-omployed have many benefits for every owner because self-employed are very helpfull for owner in ready files, ready projects, ready documents, ready appoinment, ready meeting, and ready everything for own owner. So, this is the advantage of self-employed.

Secondly, I think the self-employed sometimes did not work on time, sometimes the self-employed some day off from duty sometimes the self-employed have make many mistakes on work, sometimes they did not focus on work. So, this is the disadvantage of self-employed.

On the other hand, I don't have experience for the self-employed job. So, I think the self-employed job sometimes good and sometimes not.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, containing only 122 words. Consequently, the task is addressed only partially. The candidate attempts to explain the reasons for self-employment and its disadvantages, but the ideas are extremely limited and under-developed. For instance, the reasons given are repetitive and vague, stating that self-employment is helpful for 'ready files, ready projects', which does not adequately address the prompt. Furthermore, the discussion of disadvantages lacks depth and clear examples. Because the length requirement is not met and the development of ideas is severely restricted, the response falls into the lower band categories. To improve, the candidate must expand their ideas significantly, provide concrete examples, and ensure all parts of the prompt are fully discussed within the word limit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The text demonstrates a basic attempt at organisation, using simple transitional markers such as 'Secondly' and 'On the other hand'. However, the overall progression of ideas is weak. The paragraphs are very short, often consisting of just one or two repetitive sentences, which fails to show skilful paragraphing. Cohesive devices are used mechanically and sometimes inaccurately, such as the repeated use of 'sometimes' in the second body paragraph ('sometimes the self-employed did not work on time, sometimes the self-employed some day off'). Referencing is also unclear in places, making the flow disjointed. To achieve a higher band score, the candidate needs to group related ideas into well-developed paragraphs and use a wider, more natural variety of cohesive devices to link sentences and paragraphs smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.0

The vocabulary used throughout the essay is very basic, repetitive, and restricted in range. Words like 'self-employed', 'work', and 'ready' are repeated excessively, demonstrating a lack of lexical flexibility. There are also noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'have make many mistakes on work' instead of 'make mistakes at work', and 'experience for the self-employed job'. These limitations mean the vocabulary is barely adequate to communicate the intended message. To improve lexical resource, the student should build a broader vocabulary related to employment, business, and daily work activities, and learn how to use synonyms and less common lexical items accurately to avoid constant repetition.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The grammatical range is extremely limited, relying almost entirely on simple sentence structures and repetitive patterns like 'I think the self-employed...'. There are frequent grammatical errors that impede clarity, including missing auxiliary verbs ('the self-employed some day off from duty'), incorrect prepositions ('on work' instead of 'at work'), and morphological errors such as 'self-omployed'. Complex sentence forms are absent, and basic subject-verb agreement is sometimes problematic. To improve this score, the writer must practice constructing a wider variety of sentence structures, including complex sentences with subordinate clauses, while paying closer attention to basic grammatical accuracy, verb forms, and prepositions.

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

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