Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-02

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)

Now days, ingreasing number of people have to choose work as a self employed instead of being employed by a company. However, there are both pros and cons to deciding to do this. In this eassy, i will discuss some of the reasons that why people are becoming increasingly interested in self employment and some of the challanges to be overcome.

Lets begin by looking the advantages of self employment. One of the main main positive aspect that it offer freedom. For instance, free launcer or small business owners can choose their working hours and projects. Whst i mean by this that individuals can decide everything without any strict company rules or pressure of manager. This can make a person stress free and provide relax environment.

Secondly, growth of technology and internet has made it easy for everyone to start online bisinesses which encourage people to work independently.

Turning to the other side of the argument, self employed also comes with certain drawback. Unlike regular job with a fix salary, self employed persons may have unstable some time very low or no income especially when starting out. Furrhermore they do not recieve benefits like paid holydays, medical insurance or pensions. Another issue is that self employment can be stressfull because individual have to manage averything alone and manage all aspects of their work including finance and dealing with clients.

In conclusion, main reason why people prefer self employment is the freedom and flaxibility. However, this life style also involve financial risks and lack of job security which can make it challanging.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing why people choose self-employment and outlining the associated disadvantages. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, which is characteristic of this level. For instance, the advantage of freedom and flexibility is explored with relevant examples like choosing working hours and avoiding strict company rules. On the other hand, the point regarding the growth of technology is introduced rather briefly without sufficient extension. Similarly, the disadvantages are mentioned clearly, such as unstable income and lack of benefits, but the explanation remains somewhat limited rather than fully elaborated. To move to a higher level, the writer needs to extend all main ideas with deeper elaboration, richer explanations, and more specific supporting examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a recognizable introduction, body paragraphs addressing each part of the prompt, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used logically to separate the advantages from the disadvantages. However, cohesion at times feels mechanical or slightly faulty. Transitional phrases like 'Lets begin by looking the advantages' and 'Turning to the other side of the argument' are used to guide the reader, but referencing and logical flow between sentences occasionally falter, as seen in abrupt shifts between ideas in the second body paragraph. To achieve a higher band, the writer should ensure that cohesive devices connect ideas more smoothly and subtly, and that referencing within and across sentences is consistently clear.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'self-employment', 'freelancer', 'flexibility', and 'financial risks'. There are, however, noticeable spelling mistakes ('Now days', 'ingreasing', 'eassy', 'challanges', 'free launcer', 'bisinesses', 'holydays', 'stressfull', 'averything', 'flaxibility') and word-choice errors, such as 'unstable some time very low' and 'life style also involve'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to restrict the score. To improve lexical resource, the writer needs to expand the range of less common vocabulary used with greater precision and eliminate basic spelling and word-formation errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and relative clauses. There are, however, frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ('work as a self employed', 'offer freedom', 'provide relax environment'), pluralisation issues ('certain drawback', 'paid holydays'), and subject-verb agreement errors ('individual have to manage'). Although these errors rarely impede overall communication, they persist throughout the text. To reach a higher band, the writer must exercise greater control over grammatical structures, ensure accurate article and plural usage, and increase the proportion of error-free sentences when attempting complex grammatical forms.

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