Which would you choose: a high-paying job with long hours that would give you a little time with family and friends or a lower-paying job with shorter hours that would give you more time with family and friends? Explain your choice, using specific reasons and details.
Sample Response
If I werewas asked to make a choice between a high-paying job with long hours and a lower-paying job with shorter hours, I wouldshorter hours I would hesitate to answer. I did not decide for myself yet what I want in my life more my family or my career. I think that these options are very differentoptions are very different ones and one needs time to make thea right decision.
On the one handFrom the one side, a high-paying job with long hours gives one more opportunityopportunities to build a successful careermake a great career and succeed in life. Another important aspect of this is that one can earn more money for theirhis family. In addition to these practical benefits, a person can get satisfaction and self-realisation, which areself-realisation that are very important in one's life. I think that it is a very great and essential feeling to be a part of the progress, make differences and be satisfied with the job. However, a high-paying job with long hours also has many disadvantagesbrings many disadvantages too. For example, a person will have less time for theirhis family and friends. Secondly, the job will be more stressful and entailbring more responsibilities. A person will have to sacrifice many things for their jobsacrifice many things to his job.
On the other handFrom the other side, a low-paying job with shorter hours can bring many benefits. One can spend more time with his family and have many enjoyable momentsmany pleasant and beautiful moments together. Also, a job will be less stressful and not require one to sacrificenot require to sacrifice one's spare time to complete the workspare time to get it done. However, a person most likely will not be able to build a career or earn much moneymake a career and make much money. Moreover, one's salary may not be enoughsalary may be not enough to pay for his children's education.
To sum up, I think that every person at least one time in his life realize this and make a decision whether he or she wants a career or great family. And I did not make this decision yet.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response explores the benefits and drawbacks of both job options in a clear, logically ordered discussion, and its meaning remains accessible throughout. Its central limitation is that it never makes the choice explicitly required by the question, while several ideas and expressions remain general or awkward. The highest priority is to state a definite preference and develop two supporting reasons with precise explanations and examples.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response discusses relevant advantages and disadvantages of both options, but it does not make the required choice and develops several points only generally.
State a clear preference in the introduction and conclusion, then support it with two fully explained reasons and specific examples.
Coherence and Cohesion
The four-paragraph structure and two-sided progression are easy to follow, although linking is sometimes mechanical and sentences within the body paragraphs are loosely connected.
Organise each body paragraph around one controlling idea and use logical referencing instead of repeated signposts such as 'From the one side'.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient vocabulary to discuss work, family, stress, and achievement, but recurring awkward collocations reduce precision and naturalness.
Replace combinations such as 'make a great career' and 'bring more responsibilities' with accurate collocations such as 'build a successful career' and 'involve greater responsibility'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mixture of simple and complex structures communicates the argument, but frequent errors in articles, word order, agreement, and verb patterns weaken control.
Proofread complex sentences for complete clause structure, article use, and correct verb patterns, especially after verbs such as 'require' and 'decide'.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Which would you choose: a high-paying job with long hours that would give you a little time with family and friends or a lower-paying job with shorter hours that would give you more time with family and friends? Explain your choice, using specific reasons and details.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.