Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-15

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)

Nowadays people are very sincere and careful about their career. They think about their future. People do not want to do work for a company or organization. They want to be an entrepreneur.

This may happen because as an entrepreneur or self-employed person, he can do anything according to his plan. He can create a new workplace and helps to reduce unemployment situation. By this, he can help to enhance economic stability of his country. Additionally, he can change his life by making profit from his business.

A self-employed person faces many difficulties. In the beginning of his business, a person cannot achieve success. He has to keep patience and does his work properly day by day. Besides this, he has to understand the business policy, analyze the whole market. Sometimes, he does not get proper feedback or does not make profit. At that moment he faces a lot of troubles. Some people decide to end his business that situations. But self-employed people's main factor is patience. Always has to keep patience and honesty. However, business loss is the biggest risk for self-employed people. For example, I had an uncle. He was a business man. He did an egg business. Some years ago, he bought one thousand egg for his business but on the way egg truck faced an accident and all eggs had broken. Because of this, he faced a huge loss and he could not make up. Consequently, he had to shut down his business.

At the end, I believe that choose self-employed is a positive side for our society. From this, unemployment rate reduces day by day, our country could earn money from export our product and become stronger in the economic sector.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both questions and maintains a clear overall view that self-employment can benefit individuals and society. It gives relevant reasons, including independence in planning work, creating jobs, and the possibility of making a profit. The disadvantages are also illustrated with the uncle’s egg-business loss, a specific example that makes the financial risk clear. However, some points are asserted rather than explained: for instance, the link between self-employment and national economic stability or export income is not developed, and the reasons people choose this path could be explored more fully. To strengthen the response, explain the motivations and drawbacks in more detail and connect each example directly to the question.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: it introduces the topic, presents reasons, discusses difficulties with an example, and ends with a conclusion. Paragraphing helps distinguish these stages, and signposts such as “Additionally,” “Besides this,” and “For example” make the direction of the discussion clear. At times, however, connections are mechanical or unclear. “At the end” is an awkward transition into the conclusion, while “Some people decide to end his business that situations” makes the relationship between the preceding difficulties and the consequence difficult to follow. The final paragraph also repeats earlier claims rather than drawing them together. Use clearer referencing and transitions, and organise the disadvantages so each point leads logically to its explanation or example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate to discuss the topic, with relevant terms such as “self-employed,” “unemployment,” “market,” “profit,” and “business loss.” The response also attempts more formal expressions, including “economic stability” and “faces a huge loss,” showing some range beyond basic everyday language. However, several choices are imprecise or repetitive, such as “keep patience,” “a lot of troubles,” and “positive side,” and “business policy” does not clearly express the intended idea of understanding how a business operates. These choices sometimes make the meaning less natural, although the main message remains understandable. Aim for more precise business-related collocations and vary repeated words such as “business” and “person.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response uses mostly simple sentences but also attempts longer structures, including “because” clauses and the sentence describing the accident and its consequences. Meaning is generally recoverable, but some errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction reduce accuracy. For example, “he can create a new workplace and helps” does not keep the verbs parallel, and “he has to keep patience and does his work” has an inconsistent verb pattern. “Always has to keep patience and honesty” is also an incomplete sentence, while “one thousand egg” and “all eggs had broken” show problems with number and verb form. Practise building accurate compound sentences and checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and past-tense forms before adding more complex structures.

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