Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-06

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 6.0)

There is ongoing debate about whether government should make recycling complusory in order to reduce household waste. While some people believe that strict laws are the only effetive way to encourage recycling, I believe that legislation can play an important role, but education and awarness are equally necessray.

Environmental degredation is one of the biggest crisies, that we face today and a huge part of the problem comes down to what we throw away in our daily life. However, making recycling a legal requirement can encourage people to change their habits. Many people are aware that recycling is important, but they may not make an effort because it takes extra time or they do not see any immediate benefit. If government introduce rules requiring household to seperate recycable material such as plastic, paper, and glass. For example, some big cities provide seperate bins for different types of waste and impose fine on household that repeatedly fail to follow the rules. Such measures can significanty increase the amount of waste sent to landfills.

On the other hand, law alone may not solve the problem. People are more likely to recycle when they understand why it is important.Therefore, government should invest in environment education and make recycling facilites easily available. In school, teachers should teach them about waste management, while in public campaigns should arranged that can explain how to recycling helps to reduce pollution and save natural resourses.

In concluison, I strongly belive that government should introduce laws to encourage recycling. Moreover, these laws should be supported by public awareness, education and convenient recycling facilities.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position on whether laws are needed to make people recycle. The introduction outlines your stance that legislation is useful but must be paired with education and awareness. In the body paragraphs, you provide relevant ideas regarding how government rules, fines, and separate bins can increase recycling rates, while also discussing the counter-argument that laws alone are insufficient. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed; for instance, the explanation of how schools and public campaigns should operate lacks deeper elaboration or specific real-world evidence beyond general statements. To reach a higher band, you should extend and fully support all main arguments with more thorough examples and deeper analysis of the underlying issues.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and conclusion. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, starting with the role of legislation and moving onto the necessity of education and public awareness. You successfully use cohesive devices and transition signals, such as 'While some people believe', 'However', and 'On the other hand', to guide the reader through your arguments. Nevertheless, referencing and cohesion are occasionally mechanical or slightly faulty, as seen in the incomplete sentence structure 'If government introduce rules requiring household to seperate recycable material' which leaves a dependent clause dangling without a main clause, disrupting the flow. To achieve a higher score, ensure smoother logical transitions between clauses and maintain accurate referencing throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task and demonstrates an attempt to incorporate less common items relevant to the topic, such as 'legislation', 'landfills', and 'waste management'. You successfully convey your message despite several spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'complusory', 'effetive', 'awarness', 'necessray', 'degredation', 'crisies', 'recycable', 'significanty', 'environment', 'facilites', 'concluison', and 'belive'. Furthermore, there are minor collocation and word form slips, such as 'impose fine' instead of 'impose fines' and 'environment education' instead of 'environmental education'. These inaccuracies do not impede communication, but they prevent the response from achieving a higher lexical band. To improve, focus on mastering spelling and selecting the correct word forms and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures such as 'While some people believe that...' and 'People are more likely to recycle when they understand why...'. There are several errors in grammar and punctuation, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'government introduce' instead of 'governments introduce', missing articles such as 'in school, teachers should teach them' and 'public campaigns should arranged', and prepositional or pluralisation slips like 'household' instead of 'households'. Additionally, the sentence starting with 'If government introduce...' is a fragment because it lacks a main clause to complete the conditional thought. While these errors occur, they rarely impede communication. To reach the next band, you need to produce a higher frequency of error-free sentences and exercise better control over complex clause structures and article usage.

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