Some people prefer to live in a house, while others feel that there are more advantages to living in an apartment. Are there more advantages than disadvantages of living in a house compared with living in an apartment?
Sample Response
Everybody dreams to have a comfortable and beautiful place to live in with their family that they would like to call "home". In fact, home is not just a dream, it is our fundamental right. But when it comes to choosing what type of place to live in, many people like to live in a house while others prefer an apartment. In my opinion, there are both advantages and disadvantages to living in a house or apartment, and the choice depends on our preference and capacity. A house is a large accommodation facility that comes with many large rooms, garden, access to the rooftop, open space and so on. The owner can go up vertically to have more rooms or can plant trees whenever he wants. That's the kinds of freedom that make houses more desirable to most people. There is no restriction on how a landlord can design or paint the house or how large he wants the lawn to be. Finally, the price of land increases every year and investment in a house is profitable. However, these freedoms do not come cheap. The soaring real state price makes it impossible for most people to even think of owning a house in a city. Furthermore, the maintenance of a large house requires employees and money and the owner has to ensure the safety of the house on his own. On the other hand, an apartment is a relatively modern accommodation arrangement for small families and are built by real state developers keeping modern facilities in mind. The customers can get everything readymade, sometimes even fully furnished rooms and kitchen. This eliminates the hassle of building a house and decorating it. The security and utility facilities are maintained by the building authority. However, an apartment owner has many restrictions, especially about how to renovate it, paint it, extent living areas or make more rooms. Besides, most flats have depreciation and not always a good investment. In conclusion, choosing a perfect place to live is in not just about advantages or drawbacks. Preference, modern amenities, return on investment and economic power are also related.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Verb pattern Original: Everybody dreams to have Suggested revision: Everybody dreams of having Why it matters: "Dream of having" is the standard verb pattern.
- 2. Article/plural Original: many large rooms, garden Suggested revision: many large rooms, a garden Why it matters: Use an article before the singular count noun "garden".
- 3. Agreement Original: That's the kinds of freedom Suggested revision: That is the kind of freedom Why it matters: "Kind" should be singular after "that is".
- 4. Spelling Original: real state price Suggested revision: real estate prices Why it matters: The correct phrase is "real estate", and prices should be plural.
- 5. Natural phrase Original: accommodation arrangement Suggested revision: housing option Why it matters: This sounds more natural in the context.
- 6. Agreement Original: small families and are built Suggested revision: small families and is built Why it matters: The subject is "an apartment", so the verb should be singular.
- 7. Spelling Original: real state developers Suggested revision: real estate developers Why it matters: Use the correct spelling of "estate".
- 8. Standard form Original: readymade Suggested revision: ready-made Why it matters: The compound adjective is usually hyphenated.
- 9. Parallel plural Original: fully furnished rooms and kitchen Suggested revision: fully furnished rooms and kitchens Why it matters: Use parallel plural nouns.
- 10. Natural collocation Original: utility facilities Suggested revision: utility services Why it matters: Utilities are usually called services rather than facilities.
- 11. Wrong verb Original: extent living areas Suggested revision: extend living areas Why it matters: The intended verb is "extend".
- 12. Missing verb Original: not always a good investment Suggested revision: are not always a good investment Why it matters: The clause needs the verb "are".
Suggested Rewrites
- Everybody dreams to have Everybody dreams of having
- many large rooms, garden many large rooms, a garden
- That's the kinds of freedom That is the kind of freedom
- real state price real estate prices
- accommodation arrangement housing option
- small families and are built small families and is built
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Response
The essay discusses advantages and disadvantages of houses and apartments and gives a clear final view that the choice depends on circumstances. However, it does not fully answer whether houses have more advantages than disadvantages compared with apartments.
State a clearer comparative judgement: for example, houses offer more freedom and investment value, but apartments may be better overall for urban families because of cost and convenience.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are logically sequenced, but the response is one long paragraph, so the contrast between houses and apartments is not visually or structurally clear. Some transitions are implicit rather than explicit.
Use separate paragraphs for house advantages, house disadvantages, apartment advantages and final comparison.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally clear, with relevant terms about accommodation, ownership and investment. Some spelling and collocation errors affect precision, such as "real state", "readymade" and "extent living areas".
Review housing collocations: "real estate", "extend living areas", "property value", "maintenance costs" and "shared facilities".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is generally understandable but contains frequent article, agreement and word-form errors. Long sentences sometimes become awkward, especially in the apartment comparison.
Break the one long paragraph into shorter controlled sentences and check plural count nouns such as rooms, facilities, restrictions and drawbacks.