In the past, many people had skills such as making their own clothes and doing repairs to things in the house. In many countries, nowadays, skills like these are disappearing. Why do you think this is happening? How far is this situation true in your country?
Sample Response
In the past, people tendedtend to make hand-made clothes or repair items at home so that they can earn a living. Many people believe that this trend is declining sharplythis trend is dropping tremendously today. I agree that people no longer use these skills to earn a living and in fact, this phenomenon is also happening in my country. In the following discussionparagraph, I will explain my views and the reasons why the skills are vanishing around the world. Many people remain convinced that rapid technological developmentthe vast technological development has brought the disappearance of these skills. Take the case of computers, for example. It is true that the development of a trend of sending emails through computers take place in recent decades and these developments have replaced the traditional practice of writing letters with pens or pencils. Similarly, after the inventioninventions of a cloth making the machine or repair machinesrepairing the machine, the majority of people have become more reliantrelied on these machines rather than human labourrather than the manpower. Since these inventions make the whole manufacturing or repairing process become more time and cost effective, it is easy to see why more and more businessmen choose to build factories with machines while hiring fewer and fewer people who have the skill of making clothes or repairing items. At the same time, I think that similar situations are happening in my country. Considering the fact that more and more people are switching jobsswitching the jobs from manufacturing or repair workfrom a manufacturing or repairing worker to a machine technician in the past few years, this cannot be denied. Given that the trend of industrialisation is still growing in my country, people eventually forget all these skills through disusesecondary to disuse. In employees' mindsIn the employees' mind, new factories with machines have higher profits and if they quit the job as a worker, they will be more likely to get a better-paid job and thus increase their living standards in future. Therefore, there is no doubt that the technical advances in my home country result in the disappearance of these skills as fewer people are willing to continue working in their original jobsworking for their original job. 20–30 years ago20-30 years earlier, people did not have the technological advancements and that's why they were taught from their childhood how to do certain household things like repairing a tool or making clothes. Nowadays, parents do not focus that much on teaching their children those skillsteaching their children of those skills. People mostly rely on machines, technological tools and skilled professionals for such things while they focus on education and getting specialised on their own field rather than gaining those short of skills. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that the technical development has brought the disappearance of these skills as the whole process has become efficient whereas in many employees' perspective, the incentive of not adopting these skills by switching their job nature allows them to become wealthierbecome more wealthy and successful in future and this phenomenon is also commonly seen around the world including my country.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response gives a clear explanation based on technological change and confirms that the trend is widespread in the writer's country, with several relevant supporting points. However, it often shifts from household skills to factory employment, repeats ideas, and presents the entire discussion as one paragraph. The highest-priority improvement is to answer each question in a distinct paragraph and focus examples specifically on why individuals no longer learn or practise domestic skills.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions are answered, but substantial discussion of factory workers and industrial production only partly addresses the loss of personal household skills.
Develop reasons directly tied to individuals learning, using, or replacing clothes-making and home-repair skills in the named country.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence of technology, national change, and generational habits is broadly traceable, but the single-paragraph format and repetition weaken progression.
Divide the response into an introduction, one paragraph for causes, one for the national situation, and a concise conclusion.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary shows some range for technology and employment, although frequent awkward collocations and imprecise word choices reduce clarity.
Use natural phrases such as declining practice, labour-saving machinery, and household skills, and avoid strained expressions.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is generally understandable, but frequent errors in tense, agreement, articles, prepositions, and sentence construction limit control.
Edit each sentence for consistent tense and subject-verb agreement, then shorten overloaded sentences to improve accuracy.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In the past, many people had skills such as making their own clothes and doing repairs to things in the house. In many countries, nowadays, skills like these are disappearing. Why do you think this is happening? How far is this situation true in your country?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.