Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-13

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 the contemporary world, people are shifting their professional carrer towards being a self employed rather than being involved in a company or a institution autonomously. There are several reasons for this phenomenon including new generations do not want be captative in one thing, the accessibility of self employment fosters becoem that. However, there are different pitfalls for that shift like individuals sometimes become bankrupt by lossing all the money they invest in their personal initiatives. In this essay i will explain both of of the aspects and reach to a conclusion.

The switch of people's mind towards being entrepreneurs are provoked by it's convenient. Entreneurship offers individuals a great ambience to work flexibly, they can choose thier professional livelihood according to their preferences . For instance, if a person wants to become a photographer, he or she can established a studio and work peacefully , but which is impossible if he or she is hired by a company where they can hardly follow their passion. Futhermore, in the developing counries, there are scarcity of jobs for the job seeker, country like Bangladesh has a large amount of unemployed individuals , where the workplace is very low compared to the demand. That's why being independently employed is a wise action.

In contrast, there are some disadvantages too, sometimes unexperienced people spent too much on establishing a personal business farm or a small institution, thus , without having proper knowledge they exposed to fianancial loss and some may become bankrupt, that's why proper knowledge is essential.

In conclusion, although there are some down side of self-employment like financial decrement, the positive perspective of that fosters people to become distinctly employed.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: you explain flexibility and personal choice as reasons for self-employment, and identify financial loss or bankruptcy as a disadvantage. The examples of a photographer and limited job opportunities in Bangladesh make the response relevant. However, the discussion is uneven: the reasons are explained with examples, while the disadvantage is covered briefly and mainly repeats the risk of losing money. The opening also refers vaguely to younger generations not wanting to be “captative in one thing,” and the conclusion does not clearly summarise the reasons or establish a precise overall position. Develop the disadvantages with another consequence, such as irregular income or lack of employee benefits, and explain how it affects workers.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, a paragraph explaining reasons, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. Connectors such as “Furthermore,” “In contrast,” and “In conclusion” help signal the direction of the discussion. However, progression is sometimes weakened by unclear references and mechanical linking. For example, “the positive perspective of that” does not clearly refer to a specific idea, and “that's why” is repeated to connect claims that need fuller explanation. The disadvantage paragraph is much shorter than the reasons paragraph, so the essay feels unbalanced. Use clearer topic sentences and link each example directly to the point it supports; ensure pronouns and phrases such as “that” have an unmistakable reference.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You attempt vocabulary suited to the topic, including “entrepreneurship,” “flexibly,” “unemployed,” and “financial loss.” However, the range is limited by repeated or imprecise expressions, and several word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make parts difficult to interpret. Examples include “professional carrer,” “captative,” “financial decrement,” and “distinctly employed”; these do not express the intended ideas naturally. “Personal business farm” is also an unclear phrase for a business or enterprise. Build a reliable set of topic vocabulary and check spelling and collocations carefully. Prefer precise expressions such as “self-employed,” “financial risk,” and “limited job opportunities,” and avoid using ambitious words unless their meaning and grammatical form are certain.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional example about a photographer and a clause beginning “although” in the conclusion. However, complex structures are often faulty, and errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, and sentence construction sometimes make the meaning harder to follow. For example, “The switch … are provoked” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “they can established a studio” uses the wrong verb form. In “there are scarcity of jobs,” the noun phrase and agreement are not controlled. Capitalisation and punctuation are also inconsistent, as in the lowercase “i” and spaces before commas or full stops. Practise checking one sentence at a time for subject–verb agreement, articles, and the correct verb form after modal verbs.

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