Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-25

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 6.0)

Over the recent years it has been an increaing debate that individuals are preffering self-employement over being employed by companies. There might be several reasons for this shift and this change in trend may have multiple negative consequences. Reasons for this shift and disadvantages of self-employment will be adressed in this essay.

Over the past few years technological advancements have made significant changes in employments. New industrial technologies, for instance, work automation and use of AI tools have equiped employers with power to run industries with lower labour. This have resulted in reduction of new jobs development. Percentage of new jobs creation is significantly lower then young people getting graduated each year. That said individuals have started to consider self-employment over hustle for job search. On top of that, slef-employment is quiet convinient than working in industry. For example, It is easy for one to work in his/her CNC workshop with flexible hours as compared to fix hour 8 to 5 company job. Stress of poor work environment is also a main reason for people to consider self employment options.

Although, self-employment is an easy option considering degree of freedon in working hours and independency, it comes with some disadvantages as well. For instance, consequences of business loss that was started with loan from bank may lead to bunkruptcy. Another disadvantage could be the slow adaptation to change in market that will definitely lead to customer loss. While the world changes fastly nowadays, businesses must adapt accordingly. For example, a person with own resturant fails to accomodate hygiene principles or renovate the restaurant as per modern trend, he or she might face customer churn and subsequently shutting restaurent.

In conclusion, People choose self-emplyment over work for organization for their freedom from 8 to 5 work hours and to live independently. This may lead to several disadvantage of losses in different forms but people preffer to bear that instead of poor working environment.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses both questions and gives a clear overall explanation: limited job opportunities, flexible hours and dissatisfaction with workplace conditions are offered as reasons, while financial loss and failure to adapt to market changes are identified as disadvantages. The examples of a CNC workshop and a restaurant help make the points relevant. This meets the core requirements, but the development is uneven. The job-shortage argument is supported with a comparison between graduates and new jobs, yet the claim is not explained with a specific context or evidence. The point about poor work environments is mentioned but not expanded, and the disadvantages could be linked more explicitly to the risks of working independently. Further explanation of these ideas would make the response more fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph explaining reasons, a paragraph on disadvantages and a conclusion. Ideas generally progress in a sensible order, and signposts such as “On top of that,” “Although” and “For instance” help readers follow the discussion. However, some connections are mechanical or unclear. “That said” does not clearly express the relationship between the job-market comparison and the choice of self-employment, while “Although” begins a contrast but the sentence does not clearly set up the following disadvantages. The conclusion repeats the main points but introduces “people prefer to bear that” without a precise reference to what “that” means. Use more exact linking and referencing, and make the relationship between each example and its main point explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “technological advancements,” “work automation,” “flexible hours,” “bankruptcy” and “customer churn.” These choices allow the writer to discuss employment and business risks, and some less common terms are attempted. However, noticeable spelling and word-choice errors reduce precision, including “increaing,” “preffering,” “employement,” “equiped” and “restaurent.” There are also awkward or inaccurate combinations such as “new jobs development,” “degree of freedom in working hours” and “adaptation to change in market.” Aim for accurate forms and natural collocations, for example “the creation of new jobs,” “flexibility over working hours” and “adapt to changes in the market.” Proofreading spelling would also improve clarity.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

There is a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional example (“If a person… he or she might face…”) and a concession introduced by “Although.” Most ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors occur in both clauses and sentence construction. For example, “This have resulted” has incorrect subject–verb agreement, and “Percentage of new jobs creation is significantly lower then young people getting graduated” lacks a clear grammatical comparison. In “a person with own restaurant fails to accommodate…,” the article and possessive structure are incomplete, and the sentence would be clearer with a conditional form. Review agreement, articles and complete comparative structures. More consistent control of these patterns, while retaining varied sentence forms, would strengthen accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.