Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-30

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 contemprory era, an increasing number of people choose's the be self-employed, instead of working in an organisation or a company. This essay discusses the possible causes of this norm and then explains the disadvantages of being self-employed.

In this fast forward era, people want instant success, and it is belived that being your own boss is the key to success. People believe that having your own company means, being a CEO, the higher the authority, the heigher financial gains. An other major factor is the belief that working under an organization or a company means being a servent of someone. A number of people take it as a disgrace and dont want to work under someone else. For instance, today's youth believes that being a leader is equal to being a protagonist, the more people you control the more inspiring and cool you are.

In addition contemprory era has turned into a digital village, creating new jobs and new resources. For example, content-creater has became a well known profession. Statistices demonstrates that almost one third of youth is self employed in this profession. An significant amount of people prefer this profession due to numerous reasons. Initially, there is no boss to order you arround. Secondery, one can post their daily rountines, hobbies or even thoughts and get paid for it. Lastly, it is much more easier than working in a 9 to 5 job with a fix limited income.

However, self-employment is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it provides all these advantages, one the other hand it comes with more disadvantages. Being your own boss also comes with the risk of huge loss. The one in positions, are often personalities with experience. In addition, If everyone is a leader, there is no one working under, as a result organisation wont be able to meet required expectations. Furthermore, modren self-employed positions are prefered for the benefits they carry but they also come with lots of cons. For instance, people are more focussed on being uniqe to grab attention, instead of learning an actual skill that can provide benefits for the society.

To sum up, nowadays more people are being self-employed, that leads to significant negative affects on both society and individual personal develpment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task, examining both the reasons why people choose self-employment and the potential disadvantages. The student introduces relevant ideas, such as the desire for autonomy, the perceived higher financial gains, and the rise of digital careers like content creation. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed or rely on broad generalisations, such as the claim that working under an organisation is seen as being a 'servent.' While the main prompt questions are covered, the arguments could be pushed further with deeper analysis or more concrete personal examples. Overall, the performance aligns well with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the writing is divided into logical paragraphs. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitions between sentences feel abrupt at times, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the phrase 'The one in positions, are often personalities with experience,' which disrupts the logical flow. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion requires better linking expressions to guide the reader smoothly from one point to the next. These characteristics place the response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'double-edged sword,' 'protagonist,' and 'digital village.' However, there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including 'contemprory' instead of contemporary, 'choose's' instead of chooses, 'belived' instead of believed, 'heigher' instead of higher, 'servent' instead of servant, 'Statistices' instead of statistics, 'arround' instead of around, 'Secondery' instead of secondary, 'rountines' instead of routines, 'modren' instead of modern, 'prefered' instead of preferred, 'uniqe' instead of unique, 'affects' instead of effects, and 'develpment' instead of development. While communication is generally maintained, these frequent spelling inaccuracies prevent the lexical score from reaching Band 6.0, as they interfere with precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. Nevertheless, grammatical and punctuation errors are frequent throughout the response. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('an increasing number of people choose's the be self-employed'), incorrect article usage ('an significant amount of people'), and punctuation errors in compound sentences ('To sum up, nowadays more people are being self-employed, that leads to...'). Although these errors do not completely obscure the intended meaning, they occur frequently enough to impact readability and prevent the score from exceeding Band 5.0.

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