Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-26

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)

An environment is getting polluted by the plastic products such as bags,bottles and packaging material. This material puts adverse impact on soil and water ,but negative impacts of this material can be reduced by collective measured steps of individuals and the government.

The primary adverse impact of pastic on environment is to pollute soil and water. It is not deniable that when people through plastic waste in environment , it stays in soil and in water for years. It generally takes thousands of years to degrade. Not only does it mitigate the soil properties, but it also enter into the food chain through marine life after putting negative effect on them.

What government should do is to impose ban on plastic usage for the sake of environment. If the government does make policy against the usage of plastic,manufacturing of plastic products such as bags and bottles would reduce automatically.Instead of plastic products, the government should make a law to use paper product . Consequently, the more strict law against plastic usage, the lesser people use it.

Education among residents about the negative impacts of plastic can reduce the usage of plastic. To educate people ,government should arrange semminars, lectures and some policies such as price money to those who inform authority about the business or organization which use pastic. In this way , this kinds of the policies would create fear among the pastic users and eventually, they would automatically drop the usage of it.

To conclude,Although plastic has big role to pollute water and soil, education among people as well as government's price money policies and ban on pastic can help to reduce this problem.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the environmental damage caused by plastic and potential solutions involving governments and individuals. The student maintains a clear stance throughout the essay. Ideas are extended with relevant explanations, such as how plastic persists in soil and water for thousands of years and enters the food chain. However, some arguments lack deep development and remain somewhat general. For instance, the discussion on solutions could benefit from more specific real-world examples. Despite these limitations, the task is successfully covered, earning a solid Band 6.5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a clear overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, moving from an introduction to the environmental impacts, then governmental solutions, individual actions, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used throughout the text, such as "The primary adverse impact," "Consequently," and "To conclude." However, some cohesive links and referencing feel a bit mechanical or repetitive. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different main ideas, but overall cohesive control aligns best with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as "adverse impact," "degrade," and "marine life." There are, however, several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as "pastic" instead of "plastic," "through" instead of "throw," and "semminars." Additionally, phrases like "price money" are unnatural and represent awkward collocations. While these lexical errors do not impede overall communication, their frequency prevents the score from reaching a higher band. The vocabulary deployed is minimally adequate, fitting the Band 6 profile.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures ("If the government does make policy...") and inversion ("Not only does it mitigate..., but it also enter..."). However, the text contains several grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, such as missing articles ("An environment is getting polluted," "in environment"), subject-verb agreement issues ("it also enter"), and incomplete phrasing ("this kinds of the policies"). Punctuation and spacing errors (e.g., missing spaces after commas) are also present. These errors occasionally disrupt the flow, but simple sentences are generally accurate, supporting a Band 6.0 rating.

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