Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-17

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)

Non-biodegradable materials that includes plastic bags, bottles, and packaging creates a negative effect on the natural world. Plastic pollute every ecosystem on earth, and responsible for climate change. Administrations and citizens can solve this issue collectively, as government can impose rules and public can follow it.

Nowadays, plastic has become a major issue for the environment and this issue has become increasingly important in modern society. The environmental damage occurs across several areas, including destruction of marine and wildlife. For instance, more than 1500 species of wildlife regularly eat plastic for food leading to internal injuries and starvation. Apart from this, burning plastic releases toxic chemicals into atmosphere, directly accelerating global warming. As a result, it leads to negative outcomes for nature.

Furthermore, the power of authorities can make right decisions, and impose strict rules and regulations with penalty to solve this environment issue and people must follow it with honesty. To explain it, government can encourage usage of more paper bags instead of plastic one, and pass laws related to recycling process and public should follow these rules because collective efforts will definitely prove to be beneficial our environment. For example, many developed countries have implemented this approach successfully. Therefore, this issue can be solved by both authorities and people efforts.

To conclusion, surely plastic is responsible for affecting earth negatively by polluting our ecosystem and changing temperature on earth. However, both government and public efforts can solve this menace

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by identifying environmental damage such as wildlife consumption and toxic emissions, and suggesting roles for both governments and individuals. However, the word count is 241 words, which fails to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length impacts the full development of ideas, keeping the task response limited. While the position is clear, some examples remain slightly generalized. The writer identifies key problems and solutions, but because the length requirement is not met, a penalty must be applied, placing the performance at a Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. There is a clear logical progression from identifying the environmental damage to discussing solutions. Cohesive devices such as 'For instance', 'Apart from this', and 'Furthermore' are used to connect ideas, though some transitions like 'To conclusion' are awkward and grammatically incorrect. Paragraphing is handled adequately, but the overall cohesion sometimes feels a bit mechanical. Referencing is generally clear, supporting a Band 6.0 performance under this criterion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, incorporating topic-specific terms such as 'non-biodegradable', 'ecosystem', 'starvation', and 'recycling process'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'Plastic pollute' instead of 'Plastics pollute' and 'plastic one' instead of 'plastic ones'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with some inaccuracy, but the meaning is generally clear throughout, aligning well with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The text contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. While there are some successful complex structures, frequent grammatical errors are present. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'materials that includes', missing articles such as 'to our environment', and preposition errors like 'with penalty'. Furthermore, the final sentence is incomplete ("this menace"). These errors occur frequently and occasionally impede communication, positioning this response firmly at Band 5.0.

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

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