Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-15

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)

Our environment is under a bad condition due to the use of various plastic materials like bottles, bags and othe kind of packing material. This have an accute adverse effect towards our environment, as it is polluting the air and water. Also, disturbing not only the marine life but also human beings by giving various kinds of diseases. This complication can be solved only if the legal bodies take strict legal actions and the people should learn their responsibility towards nature.

This thermoset can harm the earth in many ways. While burning these Synthetic resins the fume that comes out of it and can pollute the air and increase the cause of deadly disease like asthma. Other than this, if polymer is dumped under the land or in the water it will poison the water and land and soil fertility will be reduced and drinking water will also cause disease like Cancer.

To reduce this destruction, the government and people should take steps hand in hand. The government should ban this and give alternative products in the market, for instance, paper or cloth bags instead of Polly bags. Glass bottles instead of plastic bottles. The public should help the government in imposing these legal rules and also understand their responsiblity by properly using the alternatives and recycling the products. For example,

Citizens should use cloth packing again and again while going to buy groceries or other products from the market.

In a nutshell, government can only help the nation only if the society themselves wants to help themselves and to end the use of plastic the people of the country themselves should stop using it and help governing bodies to encourage use of environmentally friendly products.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both parts of the question and maintain a clear position that government action and public cooperation are needed. The environmental damage is relevantly explained through air pollution from burning plastic, harm to soil and water, and risks to marine life and people. Your proposed measures—banning plastic, offering alternatives, reusing cloth bags and recycling—also answer the task, with practical examples. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained: for instance, the link between plastic pollution and cancer needs careful support, and the effects on marine life are mentioned but not developed. Extending a few key ideas with clearer cause-and-effect reasoning would make the response more complete and persuasive.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on environmental damage, a paragraph on solutions, and a conclusion. This makes the main line of argument easy to follow. You also use linking expressions such as “Other than this,” “For instance,” and “In a nutshell” to signal relationships between ideas. At times, however, cohesion is mechanical or unclear. The opening paragraph contains several ideas joined in a way that makes their relationship difficult to follow, and “This complication” has an unclear reference. The example beginning “For example,” is also separated awkwardly from the preceding sentence. Use clearer sentence boundaries and refer explicitly to the idea each pronoun or transition connects.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “marine life,” “soil fertility,” “recycling,” and “environmentally friendly products.” These choices help communicate the subject and show attempts to use less common language. However, several inaccurate or unnatural expressions reduce precision, such as “under a bad condition,” “packing material,” “imposing these legal rules,” and “cloth packing.” There are also spelling errors, including “othe,” “accute,” “Polly,” and “responsiblity.” Some technical terms, such as “thermoset” and “Synthetic resins,” are not used naturally in context. Aim for accurate, conventional collocations and check spelling; precise everyday environmental vocabulary is more effective than technical terms used uncertainly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure in “the government can only help … if the society themselves wants to help themselves.” However, some sentence structures are incomplete or difficult to control. “Also, disturbing not only the marine life but also human beings” is a fragment, while “the fume that comes out of it and can pollute the air” has an unclear structure. Agreement errors also occur, as in “This have” and “the society themselves wants.” In the final paragraph, “government can only help the nation only if” repeats a structure and makes the sentence cumbersome. Work on complete clauses, subject–verb agreement, and punctuation, while keeping complex sentences manageable and checking that each clause has a clear subject and verb.

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