Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-13

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)

It is noticed from few decades that plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic packaging are bad for the environment. It is proved through diffrent researches now.

First of all it has been observed that plastic materials are causing serious diseases e.g. cancer. It is also responsible for diseases of lungs.It is commonly used to put cooked food in restaurants in developing counteries. some particles of polythene bags are expected to dissolve in hot food. when people eat the same food it impacts badly on their health.

Secondly, plastic materials are effecting environmrnt badly. It is one of the big cause of environmental pollution. Plastic does not dissolve easily , in developing counteries there is barely any system to recycle. All plastic made items accumulate in sea water eventually. It is not only damaging sea water but also sea creature. It is becoming life threating of sea creature now.

Government should take serious actions regardingly.

Unnecessary plastic materials should be banned compeletely. Polythene bags should be strictly prohibited. Freshly cooked food items should not be allowed to deliver in plastic bags. Plastic shopping bags should be banned by government because they are not environment friendly.

There shoul be proper bins for plastic items. So the people can put plastic there. Plastic materials should be recycled. More factories should be made to recycle plastic materials.

The factory owners who delibrately through plastic material in sea water should be highly fined.

in my opinio all these steps can be highly benificial to protect our environment and earth

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the damage plastic does to the environment (and human health) and solutions by governments and individuals. The writer presents a clear position and offers several relevant ideas, such as health impacts from hot food in polythene bags, environmental and marine damage, and regulatory measures like bans and recycling facilities. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed or simplistic in their explanation, placing the response comfortably at Band 6.0 according to the criteria where all parts are addressed but some areas lack full extension.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with basic paragraphing to separate ideas, such as health impacts, environmental damage, and government solutions. However, cohesion is often mechanical and sometimes faulty. For instance, transitional phrases like 'First of all' and 'Secondly' are used, but referencing and linking within paragraphs are weak, and paragraph breaks are somewhat fragmented, particularly in the solution section where single-sentence paragraphs appear frequently. These issues correspond to a Band 5.0 or 5.5, but due to clear overall progression, Band 5.5 is awarded.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating key concepts regarding pollution and plastic waste. However, there are numerous spelling errors ('diffrent', 'counteries', 'effecting', 'environmrnt', 'threating', 'compeletely', 'shoul', 'delibrately', 'through', 'benificial') and minor word choice issues (e.g., 'life threating of sea creature', 'through plastic material'). These errors occasionally cause strain for the reader, though they do not completely impede communication. This performance aligns with Band 5.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are frequent errors in article usage, prepositional phrases ('regardingly'), tense consistency, and sentence structures (e.g., 'So the people can put plastic there', 'It is noticed from few decades'). Punctuation and capitalization are also erratic, with missing full stops and lowercase sentence starts. Because errors are frequent and sometimes cause difficulty for the reader, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.

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

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