Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-05

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)

In my opinion, it is actually a great fact that private companies are funding many medical research projects.

Over the years research has became the part and percel of human civilization. Many great discovery involves years of dediacted research. The most phenomenal field of research is in medical sector. In the past most medical research projects were funded by the government or in some cases by the individuals. But in recent years private companies are funding in medical research. It is a pretty good thing beacuse the goverment itself can not always fund research projects. A government funding will always have some limitations. Due to which many necessary medical research projects would not have been carried out unless other funding paths are opening. Again, individual funding can not be cosidered as an option either due to the fact that most of the people are not quite solvent to fund research. So when private companies decided to fund medical research, it was welcomed by most researchers. Due to the funding by the private companies, many revolutionary drugs were discoverd. For instance, during covid pandamic in 2019 many private companies funded medical research projects for inventing the vaccine against corona virus. Thanks to their funding many vaccines were discovered all over the world and had been used on people sucessfully.

So it is clear that undoubtebly private funding is proven to be beneficial for carrying out medical research projects over the years. Most medical projects would not have seen the light of sucess if it in not for private funding.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position that private companies are the best choice for funding medical research. The writer covers the prompt adequately, discussing government limitations and the inadequacy of individual funding. However, some ideas remain under-developed. For instance, the mention of government funding having limitations is introduced but lacks a deep explanation or specific illustration. Similarly, while the example of the COVID-19 pandemic is relevant, its connection to private funding could be further extended to fully satisfy higher band requirements. The overall position remains clear throughout the essay, but ideas require greater depth and extension.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical progression from introducing the topic to discussing government and individual funding, and finally examining private contributions with an example. Paragraphing is used, though the main body forms one very long paragraph, which affects the clarity of the overall structure. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'In the past', 'But in recent years', and 'For instance', but some transitions feel mechanical or repetitive, such as starting multiple sentences with 'Due to' or 'So'. Referencing is generally clear, but dividing the text into distinct paragraphs for different funding sources would greatly improve the organisational flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used provides an adequate range for the task, allowing the writer to convey their main arguments. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'phenomenal field', 'solvent', and 'revolutionary', but these are accompanied by noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, including 'became' instead of 'become', 'percel' instead of 'parcel', 'dediacted' instead of 'dedicated', 'beacuse', 'pandamic', and 'sucess'. Additionally, collocation issues arise, such as 'funding in medical research' instead of 'funding medical research'. While these lexical errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the score because they occur with some frequency throughout the text.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at varied structures through subordinate clauses and conditional ideas. However, there are some errors in grammar and punctuation that persist. Examples include tense inconsistencies such as 'research has became', article errors like 'during covid pandamic', and prepositional or structural awkwardness in phrases like 'unless other funding paths are opening' and 'if it in not for private funding'. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to produce a higher frequency of error-free sentences using a wider variety of complex grammatical structures with precise control.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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