Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-04

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)

People nowadays choose to be self-employed, rather than to work for a company or organisation. This is because people want to be self-dependent and prefer flexible working hours. However, there are also some disadvantages like, financial uncertainity and responsibility.

One of the main advantages of self-employed is freedom. Self-employed people do not have fixed working hours. They can decide what kind of work they want to do and finish when they want to. People become independent and grow both personally and professionally. They learn skills about how the business runs and become more confident as they have to deal with so many people. For example, a content creator choose to work by themselves because they can choose their own clients and brands.

Despite these benefits, it has some disadvantages also. When people get self-employed, there is a greater chance of financial insecurity. This is because people who are working for a company get paid every week which is not possible sometimes in own business. This will make people stress and depressed. They often have to bear heavy loss as they have to pay taxes, rent and salaries eventhough the company is in loss.

In conclusion, people prefer to be self-employed for responsibility and financial security while, other people believe being self-employed create financial insecurity.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt only partially, and the length requirement is not met as the essay contains 201 words (with 14 words copied from the task prompt not counted), falling well short of the 250-word minimum. The writer manages to touch upon both why people choose self-employment and the disadvantages associated with it, but the ideas remain limited and under-developed. For example, the point about content creators is briefly stated without sufficient elaboration. The position in the conclusion contradicts earlier points, stating that people prefer self-employment for 'financial security', which confuses the overall argument. To reach a higher level, the response must fully meet the minimum word count and extend all main ideas with relevant explanations and specific examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some organisation in the essay, with basic paragraphing used to separate advantages and disadvantages, but there is no clear overall progression. Cohesive devices are sometimes inaccurate or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on simple connectors like 'This is because' and 'However'. Paragraph transitions lack smooth linking, and referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the sentence 'Despite this benefits, it has some disadvantages also'. To improve, the writer needs to employ a wider range of cohesive devices more flexibly and ensure logical progression from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph, building a cohesive and unified argument throughout the essay.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate for the task. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'self-dependent', 'content creator', and 'financial insecurity', but there are noticeable errors in word choice and word formation, including 'financial uncertainity', 'disadvantages of being self-employed' phrased as 'one of the main advantages of self-employed', and 'make people stress and depressed' instead of 'stressed and depressed'. These lexical inaccuracies occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. To achieve a higher score, the writer must expand their lexical range, demonstrate more precise control over word forms and collocations, and eliminate spelling and word-choice errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response exhibits a very limited range of structures, relying mostly on simple sentences with occasional attempts at complex forms that are often faulty. Frequent errors in grammar are present, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('a content creator choose'), pluralisation errors ('heavy loss' instead of 'heavy losses'), and prepositional or structural inaccuracies ('eventhough the company is in loss'). These frequent errors can cause some difficulty for the reader. To progress to the next level, the writer should incorporate a wider variety of complex sentence structures while improving grammatical accuracy to ensure that the majority of sentences are error-free.

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