Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-18

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 6.0)

Nowadays using plastic products such as tote, polythene, water of bottle are damaging atmosphere and also marine species. Government and public should take some actions against using plastic products. In this essay I will provide what kinds of damage happens through the plastic wastage and what steps have to take.

Most of the individuals are using plastic products and these products are hard to recycle. As a result it is damaging the environment. People throw plastic waste on land these items consumed by animals and small insects who is helping famers to protect their land from weeds. Plastic does not only damaging land but also harmful for marine species such as, fish, turtles and even whales. Few animals and species are becoming disappear nowadays because they eat plastics along with the food that causing deaths and numbers of animals decrease overtime.

To protect our environment government and local public needs to take actions to save them. In few countries government banned on using plastic items such as, India. If anyone using plasctic bags, bottles and doing trade of items which used plastic wrappers needs to pay high tickets to the govenrmrnt and in some cases their shops might be sealed by the local authorities. Doing volunteering work can be a good reason to clean local lakes, river and ocean.

To conclude, using plastic products can damaging environment on both the places land and marine. However, government should creating new law and high panalties on using such products and local citizens also be aware of these kind of activities that damaging the environment.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

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 limited. For instance, the explanation of how plastic affects animals is brief and lacks specific detail. While the position is clear, the arguments could be extended with more depth to reach a higher band. The mention of India as an example is relevant, but the explanation of the 'tickets' (fines) and the impact of volunteering is slightly underdeveloped. To improve, ensure each point is supported by a clear explanation or a more detailed example.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. There is a clear progression of ideas. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'To protect our environment government and local public needs to take actions to save them.' Referencing is occasionally unclear, for example, 'save them' refers back to the environment, but the phrasing is slightly imprecise. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but the transition between ideas could be smoother to improve the overall flow of the argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There are several instances of awkward word choice or non-standard collocations, such as 'water of bottle' instead of 'plastic water bottles', 'doing trade of items' instead of 'trading items', and 'pay high tickets' instead of 'pay heavy fines'. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of variety and the presence of these errors limit the score. To improve, focus on learning topic-specific collocations and more sophisticated synonyms for common words like 'bad' or 'damaging'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('government... needs', 'government should creating'), incorrect verb forms ('Plastic does not only damaging'), and awkward phrasing ('who is helping famers'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are errors in article usage and word order. While the meaning is usually understandable, the frequency of these errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for subject-verb agreement would be beneficial.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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