Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-23

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)

Presently, most people choose to have their own work instead of working for other organisation and company. This is mainly because the work burden and limited incomes, that could lead to social and domestic difficulties. There could be some advtanges regarding this, but being self-employed also requires substantial funds in order to support oneself. In this essay, I am going to explain the probable causes of people choosing to be self-employed and what disadvantages they can face.

To answer the first question, in many companies and organisations people tend to recieve a very little amount of income, despite the workload. With all the social pressure, this certainly demotivates them and they start developing their own ideas to become self-employed. But I believe, there is a relief of recieving the monthly salaries while working for a company, which is a big advantage.

Moving on, there are some great disadvantages of self-employment. One of the significant disadvantage is that people will no longer have monthly funds to survive every month easily, if the self-employment didn't work. Futhermore, the social pressure and the family pressure might become more stressful as this could require more funds and trust to build own work. For example, starting from a zero would require a trust factor among community that can help with the building a new empire.

In conclusion, self employment requires a great deal of money to survive and people choosing self-employent due to the insufficient funds they get from the company, working day and night and not recieving as much as they are demanding. I believe the cost of self employment is too high as it has no certainity in the income every month.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions and give a relevant overall view: low pay relative to workload may encourage people to work independently, while uncertain income and the need for funds are disadvantages. However, the causes are only briefly explained, and the discussion of disadvantages is clearer than the explanation of why people choose self-employment. The point about “social and domestic difficulties” is introduced but not developed, and the example of building “a new empire” does not clearly show how family or community pressure creates a disadvantage. The reference to regular salaries is relevant, but it interrupts the explanation of the reasons for leaving employment. Develop each main idea with a clear explanation and a specific, directly relevant example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two questions, and a conclusion. Signposts such as “To answer the first question” and “Moving on” help readers follow the discussion. However, some connections between ideas are not fully clear. For example, the sentence about the relief of monthly salaries shifts away from why people become self-employed, and the final example about trust in the community is not clearly linked to the preceding point about pressure and funding. The conclusion also repeats earlier claims rather than drawing them together. Use more precise links between each claim and its explanation, and ensure that examples directly support the paragraph’s main point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “workload,” “self-employed,” “monthly salaries,” “substantial funds,” and “uncertainty.” These choices make the main ideas understandable. However, the range is somewhat limited, and several word-choice and spelling errors reduce precision: “own work” is vague, “a very little amount of income” is unnatural, and “building a new empire” is an unsuitable expression for starting a business. There are also misspellings such as “recieve,” “Futhermore,” and “self-employent.” Aim for accurate collocations and more precise terms, such as “start a business,” “low wages,” and “financial security,” and proofread carefully for spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a conditional clause in “if the self-employment didn't work” and a relative clause in “that could lead to social and domestic difficulties.” The overall meaning is generally understandable, but errors in agreement, articles, and sentence construction remain noticeable. For example, “One of the significant disadvantage” needs a plural noun, while “other organisation and company” needs appropriate plural forms and articles. The opening sentence also has an awkwardly attached clause after “incomes.” Review subject–verb agreement, singular and plural nouns, and how dependent clauses connect to complete sentences. More accurate control of these patterns would make your ideas easier to follow.

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