Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-19

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 4.5)

Plastic bags, plastic cans and plastic things are bad for the environment.

Now a days, plastic things take an important role in our daily life. People buy things that almost packed in plastic bags, cans and boxses. Plastic bags, cans and boxes are more harmful it may cause many diseases. People threw plastic bags where they stand, This habbit cause land pollution and air also. Plastic bottels also harmfull for environment. People threw them at anywhere they do not think that they take an important role to pollute the environment. The main thing that pollute the environment is to burn the plastic. People burn the plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic pakaging that are more harmfull for the environment.

Governments and individuals could solve that problem. Our government should solve that problem by planting and cleaning the footpaths.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response attempts to address all parts of the prompt by identifying environmental damage caused by plastic and suggesting government and individual solutions. However, the ideas are severely underdeveloped due to the extremely short length of the text, reaching only 138 words against the 250-word minimum requirement. Phrases like 'Plastic bags, cans and boxes are more harmful it may cause many diseases' touch upon the issues, but lack the depth and supporting examples expected. Because the length requirement is significantly unmet and many points remain underexplored, the task achievement is heavily impacted.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The text suffers from poor paragraphing and structural organisation. The response consists of a single lengthy middle block and a very brief concluding sentence, failing to develop clear topical paragraphs. Cohesive devices are minimal, repetitive, and at times mechanical. For instance, the repetition of phrases like 'Plastic bags, cans and boxes' and 'People threw' disrupts the natural flow and logical progression of ideas. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as jumping abruptly from land pollution to air pollution and then to burning plastics without smooth transitions. Overall progression is lacking due to the fragmented nature of the sentences.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive throughout the essay. The student frequently recycles common words and phrases, such as 'plastic things', 'plastic bags, cans and boxes', and 'environment'. There are notable lexical errors and unnatural collocations, such as 'take an important role' instead of 'play an important role', 'almost packed' instead of 'mostly packed', and 'boxses' (spelling error). While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey a basic message about pollution, the limited range and frequent inaccuracies constrain the lexical score significantly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The text demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors, punctuation flaws, and spelling mistakes that occasionally impede readability. Examples of errors include 'Now a days' (word spacing), 'People threw plastic bags where they stand, This habbit cause' (comma splice and spelling error of 'habit'), 'bottels also harmfull' (spelling and missing verb), and 'at anywhere' (incorrect preposition usage). Complex sentence forms are absent, and control over basic subject-verb agreement and tense consistency remains weak.

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

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