Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

In the modern era, plastic products such as bags, bottles and packaging is widely used which cause lots of problems to the ecosystem. Plastic items has numerous affects on environment and wildlife, while if the higher authorities and individuals take necessary steps then this problem will be mitigate. This essay will discuss about the type of damages a plastic can do and what steps needed to solve this problem.

One major environment problem caused by the plastic is to the wildlife. Plastic waste mostly ends up in rivers or oceans, which cause health issues or injuries to the marine animals. For instance, water animals like fishes or turtles thinks plactic items as food, when they eat it then this cause serious health problems to them. Furthermore, disposing a plastic takes too long, when it mix in the soil it will decrease the soil fertility and when it burns its smoke cause air pollution. Therefore, use of plastic is not good for our ecosystem.

There are several measures that can be taken to address this issue. One effective approach would be ban or restrict on the use of plastic products. Governments needs to put heavey fines on the use of plactic bags or packaging, by which people will affraid and try to use the alternatives of these harmful products. For example, in Himachal, every shopkepper sell their items in paper bags becuase the government put fines on the use of plastic bags. Hence, when the usage of plastic products will dcrease then this problem would be mitigated.

To conclude, plastic items not only cause soil and air pollution but also harmful for the wildlife. So, ban on the use of plastic will solve many problems.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by identifying both the environmental damages caused by plastic, such as threats to wildlife and soil fertility, and offering solutions from governments and individuals. The writer maintains a clear position throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive in places, particularly in the second and third body paragraphs where examples lack depth and sophistication. For instance, the example about Himachal is brief and contains generalizations. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.0, as it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, but some points remain under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is divided into an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing a clear overall arrangement and logical progression. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'Furthermore', 'Therefore', and 'To conclude'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in awkward transitions like 'while if the higher authorities...' in the introduction. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different main ideas, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs can feel slightly disjointed due to grammatical errors. These features align well with the Band 6.0 descriptor, representing a coherent overall arrangement with occasional faulty cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using topic-specific terms such as 'ecosystem', 'wildlife', 'marine animals', 'soil fertility', and 'air pollution'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'affects' instead of 'effects', 'mitigate' instead of 'be mitigated', 'thinks' instead of 'think', 'plactic', 'heavey', 'affraid', 'shopkepper', 'becuase', and 'dcrease'. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.0 because the noticeable spelling and morphological inaccuracies cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent achievement of Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional and relative clauses ('when they eat it then this cause...'). However, the text contains frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding subject-verb agreement ('plastic products... is widely used', 'Plastic items has', 'Governments needs') and tense consistency. Punctuation and sentence structures also display persistent errors that require the reader to re-read certain sentences to grasp the meaning. Because errors are frequent in both simple and complex structures, the performance reflects the Band 5.0 descriptor, where attempts at complex sentences are often faulty and cause some difficulty.

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