Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

In this modern era many people choose to be self employed, Instead of to work for a company or organization.

People believe that self employed have many benefits, Also they are the owner of business and are independent. Majority of Young generation prefer to start their own business or company but they do not want to work in any other company.

There are some reasons behind this case.

Firstly, The people who work in any organization or in any organization they have to do work hard for long time and they do not get high salary. Also they are working under someone's guidance and they treated them as slaves. For example some workers work from morning to night in the company and they received a salary of normal labour, then they do not do work in the company.

Secondly, They are bond with time table of work and follow the instructions and restrictions of company and it become a cause of stress and depression for the eorkers. For example when workers always follow the time schedule of company and other rules, By chance if they get late their Boss will treat them as criminal. It disturb the worker and his family also.

These are the some negative interfayof private companies and organizations due to ehich people focus on their own business.

There are cons of self employed in this time.

There are many risks of own business, Initially lack of capital amount and lack of experience. When people have low budget and started business without any experience it becomes a reason of loss.

Furthermore when people starts own business they can not go to any where else, they have to focus on their business and give time to it.

In conclusion, before starting own business you must have the experience of that business and for experience people should work in different companies and organizations. Otherwise business must be on risk.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing why people choose to be self-employed, such as independence and avoiding corporate restrictions, and identifies disadvantages like financial risk and lack of capital. The position is clear throughout, and the main ideas are extended and supported with relevant examples, such as workers being treated poorly by bosses or starting a business with limited experience. However, there is a tendency to over-generalise in parts, such as claiming workers in companies are treated as slaves, which places this response comfortably at Band 6.0 in terms of task coverage and idea development.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The text demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear progression of ideas from reasons for self-employment to disadvantages, followed by a conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate the different sections of the prompt adequately. However, cohesive devices are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in repetitive transitional phrases like 'Firstly,' 'Secondly,' and 'Furthermore.' Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as ambiguous pronoun use ('they treated them as slaves'). These cohesive weaknesses place the response at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'independent,' 'capital amount,' and 'restrictions.' However, there are noticeable word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors that occasionally detract from the reading experience, such as 'self employed' instead of 'self-employed,' 'bond with time table' instead of 'bound to a timetable,' and 'negative interfay' instead of 'negative interference.' These lexical limitations and errors indicate a solid Band 5.5 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors involving article usage, prepositions, subject-verb agreement, and tense consistency (e.g., 'People believe that self employed have', 'they are bond', 'people starts own business'). Punctuation errors, such as unnecessary capitalization after commas and periods, are also present. While communication is not severely impeded, the frequency of these errors keeps the grammar score at Band 5.0.

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