Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-21

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 the people want to their own bussines instead to work for a company or organisation. In my point of view that was naturally a good step to do there own bussines because i think that doing our own work is a good thing rather to work for someone. If we are doing our own bussines so we can come and go with our on will wish but if we are working under someone so we have to come with their time and the boss do taht things that he want if we are doing our self employment so we can close or open our shop whenever we want on the other hand working under a company we only do off when there was a holidays. I don't think that there was a lot of disadvantages to doing our self-employed but the problem we have face to starting our bussines clothes is that we not have a good expirence of working and we dose not have a good working staff so that time we have struggle much but weeks ago our bussines grow very well and the loss we have face in starting we recover it very fast and after that we haier a good staf and include alot of major need in our shop and now our bussines was running fast. So overall the knowledge or expirence i gain from doing self employed is that we should have a much knowledge about the bussines that we are starting if we dose not have any idea about our work so we will face much hurdles and losses.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion4.5
Lexical Resource4.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions and give a relevant personal example: you explain that self-employment offers control over working hours, then describe early difficulties with experience, staffing and losses. Your final point—that business knowledge is important—also gives the response a clear general message. However, the reasons for choosing self-employment are mostly limited to flexibility, and the disadvantages are not fully explored; the account quickly shifts to how the business improved. Develop the drawbacks more clearly, such as uncertain income, long hours or responsibility for costs, and explain their effects. A more consistently clear position and fuller support for each main idea would make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

There is an identifiable overall sequence: you discuss the appeal of setting your own hours, move to difficulties when starting a business, and finish with a lesson learned. Some linking expressions, including “on the other hand” and “So overall,” help signal these shifts. However, nearly the entire response is presented as one long paragraph, and many ideas are joined in extended sentences with repeated “so” and “but.” This makes the progression difficult to follow, particularly in the account of staffing, losses and later growth. Use separate paragraphs for reasons and disadvantages, and divide long sentences into clearer units. Choose linking words to show precise relationships rather than relying on the same few repeatedly.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

You use some task-relevant vocabulary, including “self-employed,” “working under someone,” “experience,” “staff” and “losses,” so the main topic is generally understandable. However, the range is limited and several words or phrases are repeated, especially “business,” “work” and “good.” There are also noticeable spelling and word-choice problems, such as “bussines,” “expirence,” “haier” and “hurdles,” as well as unnatural expressions like “come and go with our on will wish” and “include alot of major need.” These errors sometimes make the intended meaning harder to follow. Build a more precise range for discussing independence and business risks, and check spelling and collocations carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple statements and longer sentences with clauses, for example the contrast between working for yourself and working for a company. This shows an effort to connect related ideas, but the longer structures are often difficult to control, and frequent errors can make the reader work to understand the meaning. Examples include “most of the people want to their own business,” “we have face,” and “the boss do.” Verb forms, subject–verb agreement, articles and sentence boundaries need more consistent control. Practise writing shorter, complete sentences first, then combine them using accurate clauses. Check that each sentence has a clear subject and correctly formed verb, and use punctuation to separate complete ideas.

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