Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-18

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)

At present in the society majority of the individuals choose to be self-employed, instead of work for a company or an organisation. This trend can cause a great desire of independence and financial growth in every individuals. Although, working by self might give a bit relief in the begaining but there is some disadvantages for being self-empolyed in the future.

One of the major reason to work by themselves is that they want more freedom from the workforce. Unlike company employees, self-employed person can usually choose to work at their time and compelete their project at their own space without any workforce. Many individuals working at multipurpose organistation tend to face pressure to finished before deadline. In result, young adult follow their dream to success. For exmaple, there are some individuals who start bussiness, also work as a freelencers and have earned thier success in life.

Although, working independently can help a person to gain achivements, but have several drawbacks. The most obivous disadvantage is the lack of a stable income. There may be times when businness is slow, making an individuals to cover their dialy expenses. In addition, self-employed person are responsible for every aspects happening in the bussiness like not able to full the coustmer need, have to learn marketing for sealing a products and in such time face it the market rate is down, then an will feel stress. For instance, a person who has a small bussiness with no popularity will have less coustmers and these can lead to financial crisis and make the situtaion more mentally strees.

In conculsion, been self-employed might benifit a person with good financal support will influnce for greater opportunitiy to earn more money. Nevertheless, there might be some disadvantages for working by self.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both questions: it explains that independence and control over working time can attract people to self-employment, and identifies unstable income and responsibility for business operations as disadvantages. These are relevant points, and the examples of freelancers and a small business help illustrate them. However, the reasons are not equally developed: the freedom argument is clearer, while the financial-growth point in the introduction and conclusion is not explained with a specific mechanism or example. Some disadvantages are also difficult to follow, particularly the sentence about meeting customer needs, marketing and falling market rates. Develop each main idea with a clearer explanation of how or why it affects self-employed people, and make the conclusion summarise the response more precisely.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure, with an introduction, one paragraph on reasons, one on disadvantages and a conclusion. This gives the reader a coherent route through the answer, and transitions such as “Unlike company employees” and “In addition” help connect points. However, some linking is mechanical or confusing: “Although” is used at the start of both the introduction and the disadvantages paragraph, and the latter sentence then adds “but,” creating an awkward contrast. Within the disadvantages paragraph, several different responsibilities are packed into one sentence, so the relationship between them is unclear. Use clearer topic sentences and divide long, crowded explanations into shorter steps, with pronouns and references that make it obvious which person or business is being discussed.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The response uses relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “independence,” “stable income,” “financial crisis” and “marketing.” It also attempts some less common expressions, but inaccurate word choice, collocation and spelling are noticeable and sometimes make meaning harder to understand. Examples include “work at their time,” “complete their project at their own space,” “multipurpose organisation” and “sealing a products”; these do not express the intended ideas naturally. Spelling errors such as “begaining,” “freelencers” and “coustmers” further reduce clarity. Build a reliable set of phrases for work and business, and check spelling and word forms carefully. Prefer precise, familiar expressions over ambitious wording that does not fit the context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

There are attempts to use both simple and complex sentence forms, including contrast clauses beginning with “Unlike” and “Although,” and a result clause introduced by “making.” The overall meaning is usually recoverable, but errors in sentence construction and agreement occur in several places. For example, “the society majority of the individuals choose” lacks a clear grammatical structure, while “self-employed person can” and “an individuals” show problems with articles and singular/plural agreement. The sentence beginning “In addition, self-employed person are responsible” becomes difficult to control as more clauses are added. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement, articles and plural forms, and make complex sentences shorter so that each clause has a clear subject and verb.

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