Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-11-02

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)

Individuals tend to be self-employed, rather than work for a firm or an enterprise, because people are fed up bossy managers or supervisors that give them loads of work and expect the work done in shork period of time, waking up early in the morning for there office which is another battle that an employee fight daily and other problems associated with the jobs.

This is the case because of the issues related with the work place nad might be the people working there.Employee want relaxed and comfortable work environment where they can work and discourse with their collegues, but on the contrary the find stress, strict deadlines, insults from there managers and have to cope many things that tend to build up and ultimately burst up in quitting the job or changing there employment.Self-Employed sounds like a good and catchy term that you have to work from home no deadlines , no stress from the manager or no worry to get up early for the job this sounds very good and comforting because you have no one to answer, you have to work for youself and freelance your services to other people or companies that require your expertise.

Being self-employed also comes with some hiccups because its not easy to work from home or be of any services or freelance, because it require set of skills , a freelancer is an highly skilled or qualified individual who has experience in there respective fields and know how to handle clients and provide the best service there is.If you are a business owner who sells made from home products, then it requires resources ,experince and manpower to execute all those things and for singular person it becomes precarious to run a business with so much activites involved in it.

From my own personal experince it is bit of a risk and matter of luck being self-employed, because sometimes it works and sometimes not and it also depends on the person, on their ability, how willing they are and are they ready to bare consequences.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses both questions: it explains why people may leave employment, citing demanding managers, strict deadlines and commuting, and it identifies challenges such as needing skills, resources and help to run a business. These are relevant reasons, and the personal reflection adds a viewpoint. However, the two parts are not developed equally. The reasons for choosing self-employment receive several examples, while the disadvantages are stated more briefly and could be explained through clearer consequences, such as irregular income or difficulty finding clients. Some claims, such as self-employment meaning “no deadlines” or “no stress,” are too broad and need qualification. Develop each main point with a specific explanation or example to make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is an overall progression from reasons for choosing self-employment to its disadvantages and a personal comment, so the reader can follow the broad direction. However, the first two paragraphs overlap: both discuss dissatisfaction with managers and workplace conditions, rather than each having a distinct focus. Several sentences are very long and contain multiple ideas joined with commas, which makes relationships between points less clear. Linking phrases such as “on the contrary” and “because” are used, but connections can feel mechanical or imprecise. Organise the response into clearly focused paragraphs, use one main idea per paragraph, and make references such as “this is the case” and “those things” more specific.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The response uses a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “strict deadlines,” “freelance your services,” “expertise,” “resources” and “manpower.” These choices help communicate the subject, and some less common terms are attempted. However, several informal or imprecise expressions reduce the academic tone, such as “loads of work,” “hiccups,” “catchy term” and “burst up.” There are also noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, including “shork,” “collegues,” “experince” and “bare consequences.” Some collocations are awkward, for example “be of any services” and “freelance your services.” Choose more precise, formal expressions and check spelling and common word partnerships during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response attempts both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses with “because,” “where” and “if,” and the main ideas are generally understandable. However, many sentences are overloaded, and errors in sentence boundaries, agreement, articles and verb forms make the writing difficult to read in places. For example, “an employee fight daily” has an agreement error, while “it require set of skills” needs a correctly formed verb and article. The opening sentence also runs through several ideas without clear punctuation, and “no deadlines, no stress from the manager or no worry” is not structured as a complete sentence. Use shorter, controlled sentences and proofread for agreement, articles and punctuation.

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