Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-14
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic packaging are bad for the environment.
What damage does plastic do to the environment?
What can be done by governments and individuals to solve this problem?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
Nowadays the use of plastic bags , plastic bottles and plastic packaging is more and it is bad for the environment. To reduce this government and individuals have to give some solution or they to stop using plastic in their day to day life.
To begin with, many people are using plastic in their daily routing and every shopkeeper have plastic bags they provide to the customer. Apart from this many water company sell water bottle, which is made from plastic this increase plastic waste and it cannot decomposte in soil. For example, if a boy buy water bottle from a shop and through in garbage, then it go to dump yard stay there for 100 years.
Secondly, governments and individuals has to start campane about plastic and their side effect. So people had a knowledge about it and they can stop using plastic things. Moreover, governments has to banned the company how makes plastic bags and other plastic related thing. If their will be no plastic in market, people will not use it. For example, In my area Indiana company make plastic bags for shopkeeper and if government banned these types company their will be no supply of plastic bags in an area.
In conclusion, government is doing best from their side but now it time for people not to use plastic in their day to day life. Furthermore, Individuals has to start using paper bags and let their friend and family member know about these. These will make environment pollution free and keep city clean and tides as well as health of people will be also good because of less pollution.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the environmental damage caused by plastic and the potential solutions from governments and individuals. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat basic. For instance, the explanation of environmental damage is limited to the fact that plastic does not decompose, and the solutions provided, such as banning companies, lack depth or nuance. While the position is clear, the ideas are not fully extended or supported with sophisticated reasoning. The response meets the requirements of the task, but the arguments remain at a surface level, which is characteristic of a Band 5.5 or 6.0 performance.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To begin with', 'Apart from this', and 'In conclusion', though some are used mechanically or incorrectly (e.g., 'These will make environment...'). The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the referencing is sometimes weak, making the flow feel slightly disjointed. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the different aspects of the prompt, which helps the reader follow the argument despite the linguistic limitations.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks range and precision. There are frequent errors in word choice and word formation, such as 'decomposte' (decompose), 'routing' (routine), and 'campane' (campaign). The student relies on basic, repetitive vocabulary, such as 'plastic bags', 'plastic bottles', and 'plastic things'. While the meaning is generally conveyed, the lack of variety and the presence of spelling errors prevent the essay from reaching a higher band. To improve, the student should focus on learning topic-specific collocations and ensuring correct spelling of common academic terms.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Common issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'governments and individuals has to', 'every shopkeeper have'), incorrect verb tenses, and missing articles. For example, 'if a boy buy water bottle' should be 'if a boy buys a water bottle'. While these errors are frequent, they rarely impede the reader's ability to understand the main points. The student needs to focus on basic grammatical accuracy, particularly with pluralization and verb conjugation, to improve their score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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