Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-09

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 6.0)

Recently, many people prefer self-employment over working for a company. In this essay, I will discuss what might be the cause for this trend and what could be the disadvantages of self employment.

The today's generation wants to be their own boss. People want to work flexibly and on their own terms. For example, when you work for others, you have to depend on them for different life decisions. You have to work when they want you to work. But, with self employement, you can run on your own calender. Choose to work whenever and wherever while maintaining work life balance.

In contrast to that, there are many disadvantages of freelancing. Firstly, it does not promise a steady source of income unlike, being a permanent employee. which pays you a fixed stipend every month. For example if someone runs a cloud kitchen, they may get hundred of orders in one month and less than 50 in the other. Second downside is that there is no accountability for your actions which can backfire. It is hard to maintain punctuality and discipline, and you may end up not meeting deadlines when no one is overseeing you. This can cause accumulation of tasks and even financial loss in some cases. The third disadvantage is overwork. When people are their own bosses, they may end up investing in their work to toxic levels. There are no fixed timings of work like it is in a traditional 9 to 5 job. No time bound leads to overworking which can cause several health issues and increased stress levels.

To conclude, in contemporary world people choose to be self employeed because of high flexiibilty but it has many downsides including no fixed income, no accountability, and overwork.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses both questions and maintains a clear focus: flexibility and independence are given as reasons for self-employment, while unstable income, reduced accountability, and overwork are identified as disadvantages. The cloud-kitchen example makes the income point more concrete, and the conclusion summarises the main ideas. This meets the task well, but the explanation of why people choose self-employment is less fully developed than the discussion of its drawbacks. For instance, the claim that employees depend on employers for “different life decisions” is broad and could be clarified with a specific example. To strengthen the response, explain the causes in more depth and support each main point with precise, relevant examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, separate discussion of the reasons and disadvantages, and a conclusion. Sequencing is easy to follow, and signposts such as “Firstly,” “Second downside,” and “To conclude” help readers track the argument. However, some linking is mechanical, particularly the repeated listing of disadvantages, and “In contrast to that” does not express the relationship as naturally as a direct transition to the drawbacks would. The paragraph on disadvantages also contains several ideas that could be grouped and connected more smoothly. Use a wider range of linking methods, including clear references between sentences, and make transitions reflect the precise relationship between ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas, and phrases such as “steady source of income,” “fixed timings,” and “financial loss” are relevant to the topic. There are also attempts at more specific language, including “cloud kitchen” and “accountability.” However, noticeable spelling and word-choice problems reduce precision: “self employement,” “calender,” “employeed,” and “flexiibilty” are misspelled, while “fixed stipend” is not the most natural phrase for regular employee pay. Some wording is also informal or imprecise, such as “run on your own calendar” and “investing in their work to toxic levels.” Check spelling carefully and choose more natural collocations to express these ideas accurately.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response uses a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including conditional examples (“when you work for others”) and cause-and-effect structures (“This can cause accumulation of tasks”). Most ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors and punctuation problems are evident. For example, “The today's generation” has an incorrect article construction, and “which pays you a fixed stipend every month” is incorrectly separated from the preceding sentence after a full stop. The sentence beginning “Choose to work whenever and wherever” is a fragment, while “No time bound leads to overworking” lacks a clear grammatical structure. Work on complete sentences, article use, and punctuation, and proofread sentence boundaries while retaining the variety of structures attempted.

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