Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-11-01

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)

In recent years, freelancing has become significantly rise which leads to be a cause of self-employed, as an impact certain individuals choose to work independenly rather than to work with some company or organisation. I firmly believe that, they are multiple factors which involves in this stage.

To begin with, why people choose to work independenly? Well ,certain elements need to be noted. Let's take an example from an regular office employee, they had to followed strict office timing instead of self employed worker their timings are flixible. In addition, they also save quite handsum amount of money as compared to regular employee because their transportation, food expenses are almost equal to zero.

However, they are also negative impacts of self employement which faced by majority of people. For instance, they become lazy because they don't have any regular timetable to follow . As a result, this laziness converted into different type of diseases like obesity, depression and many more. On other hand, most of time self-employed are freelancers or remote workers they are hired on temporary contracts, which results in their economic unstability also they don't have any facilites like medical insurance , house rent and incentives etc.

In conclusion, I always prefer to work with a company or organisation because it gives as exposer, different skill sets and motivation to make ourself more shine. Meanwhile , i also felt in company culture we become more active and sharp which results us to boost our creativity and learning skills . Now it's up to us which path we choose rether working indepedently or with an organisation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both questions and gives a relevant overall position: it explains that flexible hours and lower commuting and food costs can attract people to self-employment, then identifies health and financial drawbacks. These points are appropriate to the task, and the office-worker comparison helps illustrate the first reason. However, some ideas are asserted rather than fully explained. For example, the link between having no timetable and developing obesity or depression needs clearer reasoning or a more specific example. The financial disadvantages—temporary contracts and lack of benefits—are more directly relevant, but could be developed further. The conclusion mainly states a personal preference for company work rather than drawing together the reasons and disadvantages discussed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for reasons and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The reader can follow the main progression, and signposts such as “To begin with,” “However,” and “In conclusion” help indicate the stages of the argument. Cohesion is sometimes mechanical or unclear, though. The opening sentence is difficult to follow, and “they” in “they are also negative impacts” does not clearly refer to the disadvantages. Some links between ideas are abrupt: the health effects are listed without explaining the connection, while the final paragraph introduces benefits of company culture that were not developed earlier. Use clearer references and connect each example explicitly to the point it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “self-employed,” “flexible,” “temporary contracts,” “medical insurance,” and “incentives.” This is enough to communicate the main ideas, and there are attempts to use more specific terms. However, inaccurate word forms, spelling, and collocations are noticeable and sometimes make the phrasing awkward, as in “significantly rise,” “economic unstability,” and “make ourself more shine.” Several expressions are also imprecise, such as “their transportation, food expenses are almost equal to zero,” which overstates the likely savings. Aim for accurate, natural combinations and check spelling carefully; this will make the argument clearer without requiring more complicated vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

There are attempts to use both simple and more complex sentences, including a comparison with “as compared to” and a result clause beginning “which results in.” The main message is generally understandable, but errors in sentence structure, verb forms, agreement, articles, and punctuation occur across the response. For example, “they had to followed” uses an incorrect verb form, while “there are multiple factors which involves” has an agreement error. The opening sentence also joins several ideas in a way that makes the grammatical relationships unclear. Improve control by building shorter, complete sentences first, then adding subordinate clauses accurately. Check articles and punctuation, especially around introductory phrases and clauses.

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