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)
As we are now living in a digital era, numerous individuals prefer to be an entrepreneur instead of working as an employee under the control of any authorities. Excessive working stress from employer makes the people to take initiative to be self-employed where individuals have the freedom to do work with their own perspectives without obeying the rules of any authorities. The tendency of people towards entrepreneurship may lead to unwanted consequences such as failure of organizations or lack of opportunity to make a successful identity for the representation of own country in a global stage as well as there will be loss of interest in study among students.
When people work in any organization, they have to strictly follow the rules and regulation and also obey the order of their employer. Some people prefer to give priority of their own interest without any interference because they want freedom at their working environment which will lead them to bring positive outcome. Again, there are excessive stress in working under someone control and also have to maintain fixed schedule. As a result, a large proportion of people want to be an entrepreneur because they will have the power to run their own business which will provide the flexibility of work and freedom where no one will dominate over others. Bangladesh is the prime example where the housewives are now more engaged in self-employment where can run their business staying at home at the same taking care of their of the family which enable them to do work without any stress.
Due to high tendency towards self-employment, the organization is at risk because of insufficiency in employee which leads to organization failure as a result, the drop in the national development and economical growth. Again, organization is the sector through which a country can represent its success in a global stage by the achievement with successful contribution of skilled employees which actually decrease for self-employment as people utilizing their talent in their own business. The attitudes towards entrepreneur make the students to loss concentration on their students as they assumes that they do not need to work in office so they can skip their degrees. In Bangladesh, the literacy rate dropped to 50% because most of the people prefer to self-employed as it is easy to achieve and they do not need any university degree for that and they can do anything they want without studies.
In conclusion, the increasing tendency, towards self-employment is just because of having freedom at working environment without anyone interference, is leading to organizational failure as well as declining literacy rate.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
You address both questions and maintain a clear overall focus: you explain that people seek freedom and flexibility, then discuss possible effects on organisations and students. The example of Bangladeshi housewives running businesses from home helps illustrate the appeal of self-employment. However, some consequences are not fully explained or convincingly linked to the topic. For instance, the claim that self-employment causes organisational failure and reduces national development needs a clearer explanation of why enough people leaving employment would produce this outcome. The literacy-rate example is also presented as a definite national trend without support, and the link between entrepreneurship and students abandoning their studies is underdeveloped. Develop these points with more careful reasoning and relevant, credible examples.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for reasons and disadvantages, and a conclusion that restates the main ideas. This gives the reader an overall route through the answer. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes difficult to follow because several claims are joined together without clearly showing how one leads to the next. In the final body paragraph, organisational risk, national development, and students’ education are introduced in quick succession. Linking phrases such as “Again” are repeated and do not always clarify the relationship between ideas; the long sentence beginning “Due to high tendency” also combines several points. Organise each paragraph around one main idea, explain it, and then add a clearly connected example.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
You use a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “self-employed,” “flexibility,” “entrepreneurship,” and “national development,” which allows you to discuss both benefits and drawbacks. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “global stage” and “contribution of skilled employees.” However, word choice and collocation are often unnatural or imprecise, sometimes making the intended meaning less clear. Examples include “make a successful identity for the representation,” “excessive working stress,” and “the achievement with successful contribution.” Some words are also used in the wrong form, as in “loss of interest in study” and “loss concentration.” Aim for simpler, natural combinations and check whether each noun, verb, and adjective fits its context.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “because,” “where,” and “as a result,” and the overall meaning is generally understandable. Some sentences are controlled, but errors in agreement, articles, verb forms, and sentence construction remain. For example, “there are excessive stress” should use a singular verb, while “the students to loss concentration” needs a correctly formed verb pattern. The sentence about housewives contains several clauses that are not joined accurately, and “as they assumes” has a subject–verb agreement error. Punctuation also needs attention, particularly where a comma joins independent clauses. Review sentence boundaries and agreement, and simplify sentences when several ideas are being expressed at once.
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.