Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-30

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)

Self employment is a trend in younger generation in today's world, some individuals prefer to work as freelancer rather than to work in an organization, In my perspective, as most people prefer to work for themselves rather than work under someone else, it gives them a sense of freedom and no worries of being in constant pressure of getting fired if a mishap happened by them at work.

A big advantage of being self employement is not having a fixed schedule of working hour, means if an individual happened to has some personal work they can easily take time for it during their work, but as for a person working in a company it is very difficult to take time of off in between working hours, another advantage would work from home, mostly freelancer works from home, some companies also have work from facilities but it far lesser than commpared to self employed.

Disadvantage of being self employed, i would say it is no job security, or fixed income, as most freelancer works when a project is given to them, and projects and their pay depends on the time it would take to complete and dependency of it, if a freelancer doesn't get regular clients for the project his income would be unstable, some week it could be lesser than the expenditure, as in employees at the company doesn't have to worry about their pay even if sometime there is no work in the company since they would get there full pay at their start of the month.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both parts of the question: you explain that self-employment offers freedom, flexible hours and the possibility of working from home, then identify insecure work and variable income as disadvantages. The examples about taking time for personal commitments and relying on regular clients are relevant. However, the reasons are not developed evenly: the opening claim about avoiding pressure from being fired is brief, and the work-from-home point is asserted rather than explained. The response also lacks a clear concluding summary. To strengthen the answer, explain why these benefits matter to people and develop each disadvantage with a specific consequence or example, while keeping your position clear throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a generally understandable order: it introduces the trend, discusses advantages, and then turns to disadvantages. This gives the reader a coherent overall arrangement. However, the first paragraph combines several ideas in one long sentence, and the body paragraphs rely heavily on linking expressions such as “another advantage” and “as for.” Some connections are unclear, particularly the comparison between working from home and company facilities, and the final sentence is difficult to follow because several points are joined together. Use clearer paragraphing and divide long sentences so each paragraph develops one main point. More precise referencing and transitions would make the progression smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “self-employed,” “freelancer,” “job security,” “fixed income,” and “regular clients.” These terms help communicate the main ideas, but the range is somewhat limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or repetitive. For example, “a trend in younger generation” and “fixed schedule of working hour” are not natural expressions, while “dependency of it” makes the meaning unclear. Spelling and word-form errors such as “employement,” “commpered,” and “lesser” also reduce accuracy. Build a wider set of precise phrases for employment conditions and financial uncertainty, and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “if a freelancer doesn’t get regular clients” and comparisons between freelancers and company employees. However, complex sentences are often faulty, and errors sometimes make the reader work to understand the meaning. Examples include “if an individual happened to has,” “some week it could be lesser,” and the long opening sentence, which joins clauses without appropriate punctuation. There are also problems with articles, agreement, and sentence boundaries. Practise forming conditional clauses and checking subject–verb agreement, then break long sentences into shorter units. Greater control of these patterns would make your ideas clearer.

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