Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people claim that not enough of the waste from homes is recycled. They say that the only way to increase recycling is for governments to make it a legal requirement.

To what extent do you think laws are needed to make people recycle more of their waste?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Some people declared that there is not enough waste from home is recycled. They say that government should make it legal requirement to improve the productivity of the recycling. I believe that there should be a law which makes people to recycle more of their waste. Thus, this will be discussed in this essay.

In today's era, people believe that some residents are not providing enough waste from home for recycling. There are few reason behind that. Firstly, they throw the home waste in street or nearby to their home which led health related issues. Secondly, some people also transfer their waste into water for instance, people often throw the toilet paper into washroom right after the flush. It can create a problem in drainage and also for water bodies.

I do agree that government should take strict and benificial action towards their citizen which can makes people to submit their garbage for recycling. Government should provide minimum amount of money for recycling the bottles and cans. This will led people to recycle over throwing on other place. There are several countries like Germany, France, Italy and UK had already implimented and results for clean and safe environment in their country. These countries are providing 0.50 cents for each bottle. They had also placed a vending machine for dispose in each supermarkets. Additionally, the people who are not disposing the waste government should take strict action on them and should charge large amount of fine to avoid the same mistakes.

In conclusion, Some people claim that not enough of the waste from homes is recycled. They say that the only way to increase recycling is for governments to make it a legal requirement. There are several points discussed in this essay to increase recycling via different steps.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, expressing a clear position that governments should implement laws to encourage and enforce recycling. The writer attempts to support their position with reasons, such as littering and drainage issues, and provides examples like financial incentives and fines used in European countries. However, some ideas are slightly confused or underdeveloped; for instance, the description of waste disposal into water includes inappropriate examples like 'throw the toilet paper into washroom right after the flush,' which confuses household waste recycling with general sewage management. Furthermore, the final paragraph is repetitive, merely restating the prompt rather than providing a strong summary. Overall, the task is addressed, but the development lacks precision and clarity in places, placing it firmly at a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay has a recognizable overall structure with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, satisfying the basic requirements for paragraphing. Cohesive devices are used to signal progression, such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the sentence 'Thus, this will be discussed in this essay' is an awkward and formulaic transitional phrase. Additionally, pronoun reference is occasionally unclear, as seen in 'toward their citizen which can makes people'. While the essay is coherent enough to follow, the mechanical use of cohesive devices and clunky transitions prevent it from reaching a higher band, justifying a score of 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'productivity of the recycling', 'financial action', and 'vending machine'. However, there are frequent word choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'Some people declared' instead of 'claimed', 'home waste' instead of 'household waste', and 'over throwing on other place' instead of 'instead of littering'. Spelling and morphological errors also occur, such as 'benificial' and 'implimented'. These lexical inaccuracies do not severely impede communication, but they restrict the score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. However, grammatical errors are frequent and pervasive throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'there is not enough waste from home is recycled' and 'government should make it legal requirement', as well as incorrect verb complements such as 'makes people to recycle' instead of 'make people recycle'. Preposition and article errors are also common, such as 'in street' and 'large amount of fine'. While meaning is generally conveyed despite these errors, the high frequency of inaccurate complex structures prevents the writing from achieving a Band 6.0, resulting in a score of 5.0.

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

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