Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-01

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)

Many people consider that the recycling of waste produced from houses in not sufficient. They suggest that government can enhance recycling process by implementing it as a rule. I strongly agree, that there should be involvement of authorities to improve recycling habit among people.

A large quantity of unused material is discarded from houses on daily bases, resulting in stocking of garbage at roads eventually leading to smell and pollution in the environment. This can be tackle with the recycling. For instance, agricultural waste from a home's kitchen contains plastic bottles, bad odoured fruits and vegetables as well as their peels. This waste is thrown on roads and in water bodies, leading to fouling smell and death of aquatic animals.

To deal with this problem, goverment should be active and make some effective legistlations for people to get involved in recycling while, working against the rule breakers. For example, there should be a law to put plastic botlles into the bottle recycler and ,to avoid throwing them in water bodies or puting them on fire. Recycling of kitchen waste can involve crushing the waster and mixing in into the soil of a garden to imrove its fertility and mineral values.

In conclusion, i strongly agree that to decrease the environmental pollution, bad smells found on raods due to accumulation of waste products and fatalities of aquatic living organisims, government should emphasize the recycling process in a sustainable manner by making rules on the use and recycling of certain things. Eventually, the people who break these recycling steps should be warned, given a money penalty or imprisioned.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear stance agreeing with the need for laws regarding recycling, which satisfies the basic requirement of presenting a position. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and uneven across the essay. For instance, the discussion on household waste largely focuses on the negative consequences of littering, such as bad odours and pollution, rather than directly exploring the complexities of whether legal mandates are truly the best or only solution. Additionally, some arguments are under-developed, such as the brief suggestion on kitchen waste composting, which is not fully tied back to the core question of government legislation. To move to a higher band, the response would need to extend and support all ideas more thoroughly, exploring different facets of the debate rather than relying on general assertions.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used generally appropriately, with each paragraph focusing on a distinct aspect of the argument. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. Cohesive devices such as 'For instance', 'To deal with this problem', and 'In conclusion' are present, but referencing and transitions between sentences can feel abrupt. For example, the transition from discussing household waste to the specific examples lacks smooth integration. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to ensure that logical progression is maintained throughout and that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and seamlessly to connect ideas both within and between paragraphs.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, providing enough range to convey the writer's basic points about environmental pollution and recycling. The student attempts to use less-common lexical items, such as 'accumulation', 'fertility', and 'legislation', showing some awareness of style. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors that detract from the precision of the writing, including 'bas' instead of 'base', 'tackle' instead of 'tackled', 'botlles', 'puting', 'waster', 'imrove', 'raods', and 'imprisioned'. Furthermore, some collocations are awkward, such as 'bad odoured fruits'. While communication is not severely impaired, these frequent lexical inaccuracies prevent the response from reaching a higher band. A wider control of precise vocabulary and greater attention to spelling and word forms are necessary for further improvement.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in articles, prepositions, and punctuation, such as missing articles ('the recycling of waste produced from houses in not sufficient', 'government should be active') and incorrect comma placement ('I strongly agree, that there should be...'). Other structural issues include subject-verb agreement errors ('the recycling process... are warned'). While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they persist throughout the text and restrict the variety of error-free complex sentences. To improve, the writer needs to exercise better control over punctuation, article usage, and complex sentence patterns to ensure higher accuracy.

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