Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-06

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 5.0)

Today most of people choose to be self-employed rather than to be work for a company or an organization.

Most of people are self-employed due to lack of jobs there are not a greater amount of jobs to be achived in self-employment they earn their living rather then staying free. but some how others are joining business due to flexible work hours there is such a mojor issue of time managent in jobs then in self-employment.

There are also many dissadvantages of self-employment such as not sureity of proper earning theres a fix sallery in jobs thats you will achive in the end of your month but theres no clarity either you will be in loss or in profit,thats why jobs are considered more safer way of earning then self-employment.

Self employment also increses a major risk of stress and axiety then in jobs.As in jobs the work is divided and you can take help from the other employees thats divide the work and causes a less stressfull enviroment but in business as you are self-employed you have to handle everyting and manage every thing that caused a bigger ammount of stress and axiety.

It can also be a reason of rudeness and bad behaviour as in jobs you went out go in a place where there are also many other people you got to know each other make new friend get comfortable with then that makes you a good person but living alone at a place not having any social links makes you rude and aggressive thats why I would not preffer you self-employness if you can achive a good place in a organization.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource4.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy4.5
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt regarding the reasons for self-employment and its disadvantages, such as financial uncertainty and stress. However, the ideas remain limited and under-developed, preventing a higher score. For example, the explanation regarding job scarcity is simplistic, stating that people earn a living rather than staying free without deeper elaboration. Similarly, the points raised about stress and social isolation are stated rather than fully explored or supported with detailed examples from personal experience. The position is somewhat evident, but the lack of thorough development and extension of ideas keeps the task response at this level. Note that the nine words copied from the prompt were excluded from the official word count, but the response successfully met the minimum length requirement overall.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The text shows some overall organisation by attempting to separate reasons and disadvantages into distinct paragraphs, but there is no clear overall progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are frequently inadequate, inaccurate, or overused, with frequent run-on sentences and inadequate punctuation connecting separate thoughts. For instance, sentences like 'Most of people are self-employed due to lack of jobs there are not a greater amount of jobs to be achived in self-employment they earn their living rather then staying free' string multiple clauses together without proper logical links or full stops. Furthermore, paragraphing is poorly handled, and referencing within and between sentences is often unclear, causing the reader to navigate a repetitive and disjointed flow of information.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for the task, with noticeable errors that occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. There are frequent spelling and word choice inaccuracies, such as 'achived' instead of achieved, 'mojor' instead of major, 'sallery' instead of salary, 'increses' instead of increases, and 'axiety' instead of anxiety. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary related to employment and business, but these attempts are marred by inaccurate word forms and collocations, such as 'not sureity of proper earning' or 'preffer you self-employness'. Basic and repetitive words are common throughout the response, and the lexical control is not strong enough to meet the criteria for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The response demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences or poorly constructed complex forms that are frequently faulty. There are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'most of people choose', missing articles, incorrect prepositions, and a severe lack of punctuation where run-on sentences are formed. For example, the sentence 'As in jobs the work is divided and you can take help from the other employees thats divide the work and causes a less stressfull enviroment' contains multiple clauses linked incorrectly. These frequent errors in sentence structure and punctuation cause noticeable difficulty for the reader and prevent the grammar score from improving.

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

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