Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-14

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)

Nowadays, with the rise of societies' awareness to protect the environment, people are claiming insufficient waste recycling from residential zones. They are advocating for governments to take immediate action in this matter by introducing new laws. These regulations enforce increased recycling to become an integral part of citizen's daily life and enterprises concerned in this waste management field.

Overall, people's endorsement of cleaner environment and eco-friendly gestures has been becoming increasingly influential on the politiical views , more manifestations have been occuring within the last couple of years about this regard. This highlights the importance of this subject and the willingness of citizens to call for laws that change their lifestyle and adapt it to the ever-climate while respecting the nature, and doing least harm possible.

Next, not only people want financial penalties for every harmful action commited to the nature, but want a global transformation of how people think towards the nature. they want laws that push them to be able to audit themselves for the kinds of things they do, such as thinking of recycling old electronics instead of dumping them in the trash bin.

Moreover. People have seen the environmental impact of industrial revolution, they are living in a time where severe weather such as storms and hurricanes become more violent and destructive, and global temperatures keep rising. Their driving force is to limit the impact, try to reduce their emissions and emphasize on more recycling practices. By resorting to legislations, they think they can ensure that whatever they are doing to protect the nature, gets applied to largest number of people in their country

To sum it all up, the application of laws allow for effecient recycling measures, and influence citizens to become more self-aware of their waste.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether governments should make recycling a legal requirement, presenting a clear position in favour of such laws. The ideas are generally relevant, covering topics such as environmental awareness, penalties, and industrial impacts. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the second and fourth paragraphs both reiterate the public's concern over climate change and severe weather without introducing distinct sub-arguments. While a clear stance is maintained throughout, the supporting arguments lack depth and clear progression. The response aligns best with Band 6, as it addresses the task and presents a clear position, but some ideas remain under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement, and the student uses basic paragraphing to structure the response. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical. For example, transitioning phrases like 'Next,' and 'Moreover.' are either awkward or punctuation errors disrupt the flow. Furthermore, referencing is sometimes unclear, such as in the phrase 'in this regard' or 'about this regard,' which lacks a precise antecedent. While the logical progression is generally understandable, the mechanical use of cohesive devices and awkward transitional phrases pull this criterion down to a Band 5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'integral part', 'endorsement', and 'legislations'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'societies' awareness', 'manifestations have been occuring', and 'ever-climate'. Spelling and word-form errors, like 'politiical' and 'effecient', appear throughout the text. These errors do not entirely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score. This performance corresponds to a Band 6, reflecting an adequate vocabulary with some noticeable errors and attempts at less common phrasing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambition with relative clauses and participial phrases, as seen in 'people are claiming insufficient waste recycling...' and 'By resorting to legislations, they think they can ensure...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation flaws, including fragment sentences like 'Moreover. People have seen...', missing articles ('to protect the nature' instead of 'nature'), and incorrect verb tenses or voices ('has been becoming', 'commited'). While these errors do not completely obscure the message, they cause occasional difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from reaching a higher band. A score of 5.0 reflects this mix of structures accompanied by frequent errors.

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