Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Although there are many companies and organizations are available to work, most people try to be self-employed. There are several reasons for this. Also, there are various disadvantages of being self-employed. In this essey I will discusse both these points.

There are several reasons behind self-employement rather than work for a company or organisation. One of the main reasons is people can gain various kinds of knowledges with modern education system. People do not strictly specialised for only one skill. They can learn new things regardeless the age. Therefore, many people can start their own work rather than depend on anyone else. Furthermore, many reputed organizations do not offer a favourable salary for their employees. Alos, they do not give a proper value to the skills of their employees'. It makes people demotivate to join those organisations. As an exmaples, countries like Sri Lanka do not give a proper value for the medical workers. Because of this they try to establish their own clinics rather than joining for private and government hospitals.

Various disadvantages can be seen in being self-employed. Sometimes it is a risk that work alone. Because if there is a disaster our whole buisness can be break down. But if we are employed under a company it is not give much harm, because they have to give the salary at the end of the month regardless what happens in the country. And also, there is no any pension plan in a self-employement. We should get the responsibility entirely on our hands. It is very risky. As an example, during Covid outbreak more self-employed clinics were closed due to loss of income.

In conclusion, in these days more people tend to be self-employed because they can use their wider range of skills to earn more. But there are significant disadvantages include no pension plan, and need to take the full responsibility by one person.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both parts of the question and maintain a clear focus on why people choose self-employment and what risks it brings. The reasons—using a wider range of skills and dissatisfaction with pay or recognition—are relevant, and the Sri Lankan medical-worker example helps illustrate the latter. You also identify business vulnerability during disasters and the absence of a pension, with a Covid-related example. This covers the task well, but the development is uneven: the point about education and learning new skills is not fully connected to why this leads to self-employment, and the disadvantages could explain more clearly how these risks affect individuals. To strengthen the response, extend each main idea with a clearer cause-and-effect explanation and ensure examples directly support the point.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for reasons and disadvantages, and a conclusion that summarises the main points. Sequencing is generally easy to follow, and signposts such as “Furthermore,” “As an example,” and “In conclusion” help guide the reader. However, some linking is mechanical or awkward, particularly the repeated use of “Also” and the opening “Because” sentence in the disadvantages paragraph, which is not smoothly connected to the preceding idea. References such as “it” in “It makes people demotivate” are also not always clear. For stronger progression, connect each explanation directly to the previous claim and vary linking methods rather than relying on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “self-employed,” “favourable salary,” “pension plan,” and “loss of income.” There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “proper value” and “establish their own clinics.” However, spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable and sometimes make the reader pause: “self-employement,” “regardeless,” “buisness,” and “demotivate” are examples. Some combinations are also unnatural, including “various kinds of knowledges” and “a disaster.” This fits a developing but limited range, with meaning generally recoverable. Build accuracy by checking spelling and learning common collocations, such as “gain knowledge,” “recognise employees’ skills,” and “a natural disaster.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional explanation beginning “Because if there is a disaster” and a relative clause in “skills of their employees.” The main ideas are usually understandable, but errors occur across sentence structures, agreement, articles, and verb forms. For example, “Although there are many companies and organizations are available” contains an incorrect clause structure, while “they do not give a proper value” and “it is not give much harm” have faulty verb patterns. The sentence beginning “Because if” is also incomplete as written. These recurring problems sometimes make relationships between ideas harder to follow. Practise building accurate independent clauses first, then add subordinate clauses and check subject–verb agreement and verb forms.

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