Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-08-06
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Nowadays, many medical research projects are funded by private companies. In your opinion, do you think that research should be carried by private companies, individuals or government?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
private companies -> more motive ->more fund -> more money they can burn -> better R&D department.
government -> better support of rules -> do not focus on money making opportunities -> try to implement research as cheap as possible -> vaccine
individuals
In recent times, private companies fund many research projects in the medical field. However I strongly argue that government should carry these medical researches because government will not try to maximize profit from the discoveries made from these types of research. Research projects done by separate individuals should not be promoted because of low chance of gaining success due to financial and technical constraints.
On one hand, research done by government will be beneficial to all people in the country due to the fact that government tries to make the discoveries accessible to the regular members of the society by making it cheap and openly available. The main aim of these government backed projects is to find something that ordinary people in the country need. However private companies try to earn as much money as possible from these projects because their main goal is to find a new product or a new method which they could sell and get more profits. For example, during Corona, a private company found the vaccine of Corona named Pfizer and sold the vaccine around 2000 rupees in India which was not affordable to many Indian people. However Indian government also discovered the vaccine and gave it free of cost to every Indian.
Independent research is least beneficial amongst all 3 because the failure percentage is quite high. Government has huge funding because of tax money paid by people as well as money earned by offering services. Similarly private companies are either profitable or they are backed by big venture capitalists giving them enough funds to run medical research. However individuals have no such funds whenever they need a expensive resource necessary to continue the project. Due to this reason the research carried by individual suffers a very low success rate.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, clearly stating a position in favor of government-funded research. The ideas are relevant and supported by examples, such as the comparison between Pfizer and the Indian government's vaccine distribution. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The section on individual research is less developed, and the initial bullet-point notes are unnecessary. To reach a higher band, ensure that all arguments are fully expanded into cohesive paragraphs rather than listing ideas. The position is consistent throughout, and the essay provides a clear rationale for the chosen stance.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'On one hand', 'However', and 'Due to this reason' are used to guide the reader. While the flow is generally smooth, some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The referencing is clear, and the progression of ideas from the role of government to the limitations of private and individual research is logical and easy to follow throughout the text.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their opinions clearly. There is an attempt to use topic-specific terminology like 'venture capitalists', 'financial and technical constraints', and 'medical field'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are occasional inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'carry these medical researches' (should be 'conduct' or 'carry out') and 'found the vaccine of Corona' (should be 'developed' or 'discovered'). Expanding the range of synonyms and collocations would improve the score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is always clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('the government', 'the research') and minor issues with verb agreement and preposition usage. For instance, 'research carried by individual suffers' should be 'research carried out by individuals suffers'. Despite these errors, the grammar does not impede communication. To improve, the student should focus on article usage and ensuring subject-verb agreement in more complex sentence constructions.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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