Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-22
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 citizens claim that household do not recycle the waste material but they argue that government should introduce law and legal requirement to increase recycling. I partly agree that laws are necessary to increase recycling, but I believe that education, convenient recycling facilities and financial incentives are also important.
Some people do not have facilities to recycle. For example, some people are financialy very weak so thay are not able to buy equipments like bins. Government should focus on this. Thay should provide bins in every house and people used them. Moreover, some products like plastic bottles, plastic bages and plastic boxes are able to used more. People should used them until its come to recycling process. Additionally, from my prespactive, government also panished people who increase pollutions. For example, most people are uneducated so, thay throw waste material here and there. Government must be operate a institute to solve this big problem.
On the other side, people claim that, governments makes some legal requirnment to increase recycling process. I also agree with this statement. Government must be focused on this For example, to decreasing pollution, government need to introduced a spacific place where people throw their waste material. Moreover, government also introduce a law to control this problem. For example, Pakistan government intruduced a law name Suthra Punjab. According to this law, government give a specific place where people throw their garbage otherwise government panish or fine then but government also give prices that keep their area clean more then others.
In conclusing, people need to recycle some basic products instead of throwing abd government also need to fullfill basic needs requirments and tools to control pollution. In my opinion, government and public must be coperate togather.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The student addresses all parts of the task by expressing a partial agreement regarding the necessity of laws for recycling while also emphasizing education, facilities, and financial incentives. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive in places. For instance, the discussion on providing bins and punishing polluters touches upon relevant points, but these arguments lack depth and extended support. The examples provided, such as 'Pakistan government intruduced a law name Suthra Punjab', offer some local context, but overall, the ideas remain somewhat under-developed, aligning best with a Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion. Paragraphing is attempted, with distinct body paragraphs addressing different aspects of the prompt. However, the logical progression is frequently disrupted by mechanical or faulty cohesive devices, such as 'On the other side' and 'In conclusing'. Referencing is not always clear, and the transition between ideas can feel abrupt. For example, moving from financial weakness to plastic bottles and then to uneducated people in the second paragraph lacks smooth logical linking. These issues place the response firmly at Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'financialy very weak', 'financial incentives', and 'pollutions'. However, there are numerous word choice, collocation, and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'bages' instead of bags, 'used' instead of reuse, 'prespactive', 'panished', 'coperate', and 'togather'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to restrict the score to Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response features a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as 'I partly agree that laws are necessary to increase recycling, but I believe that education...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and article usage. Examples include 'household do not recycle', 'people used them', 'its come to', 'governments makes some legal requirnment', and 'government give a specific place'. These errors occur consistently throughout the essay and cause some difficulty for the reader, matching the criteria for a Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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