We all work or will work in our jobs with many different kinds of people. In your opinion, what are some important characteristics of a co-worker (someone you work closely with)? Use reasons and specific examples to explain why these characteristics are important.
Sample Response
Having good co-workers makes our professional life meaningful while bad colleagues can make our life miserable. Since people spend a considerable amount of their time in their workplaces, characteristics of their co-workers greatly affect the level of job satisfaction. Friendly behaviour, team spirit, helpfulness and professionalism are some important qualities that make someone a great colleague. To begin with, friendly behaviours of an employee would make things easier for other workers. When someone joins a company, the first thing he looks for among his colleagues is the friendly behaviours. Second, team spirit is another important aspect the make worker's life easier in a company. Without it, some employees would suffer greatly to produce the expected output. This is why companies these days look for this trait among the employees. Third, helpfulness of an employee makes the life of other employees lot easier. A helpful colleague would share his knowledge, help finish a project and amiable to others. For instance, during my three years professional life, I have always liked the people who have raised their helping hands whenever needed. My experience taught me that those are good people to rely on. Finally, the professionalism is a quality that drives people to work closely to attain a common goal. Thus those sorts of people would value others opinion, criticism and feedback. They would also advise junior employees and would guide them in difficult times. Alfred Stuart, a former colleague of mine, had a great professionalism and that is why he was reliable, a great team lead and a person to seek advice. All things considered, good qualities like friendliness, helpful mentality, professional attitude and team spirit among co-workers make our working environment healthy and enhances our job satisfaction.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Match plural subject Original: makes Suggested revision: make Why it matters: The plural subject “good co-workers” requires the plural verb “make”.
- 2. Use plural noun Original: our professional life Suggested revision: our professional lives Why it matters: The plural possessive “our” refers to the separate working lives of multiple people.
- 3. Separate contrasting clauses Original: meaningful while Suggested revision: meaningful, while Why it matters: A comma helps separate the two independent clauses linked by “while”.
- 4. Use natural phrasing Original: friendly behaviours of an employee Suggested revision: friendly behaviour in an employee Why it matters: “Behaviour” is normally uncountable here, and “in an employee” expresses the quality more naturally.
- 5. Use present tense Original: would make Suggested revision: makes Why it matters: The sentence states a general fact, so the simple present is appropriate.
- 6. Use consistent pronouns Original: he looks for among his colleagues Suggested revision: they look for among their colleagues Why it matters: Plural gender-neutral pronouns make the general reference more inclusive and consistent.
- 7. Fix noun agreement Original: is the friendly behaviours Suggested revision: is friendly behaviour Why it matters: “Behaviour” is uncountable in this meaning and does not need the definite article.
- 8. Fix relative clause Original: the make Suggested revision: that makes Why it matters: A relative pronoun and a singular verb are required to link “aspect” to the clause.
- 9. Use plural possessive Original: worker's life Suggested revision: workers' lives Why it matters: The statement concerns workers generally, so both the possessor and the noun should be plural.
- 10. Choose precise verb Original: suffer greatly to produce Suggested revision: struggle to produce Why it matters: “Struggle to produce” accurately expresses difficulty in achieving the expected output.
- 11. Use natural collocation Original: among the employees Suggested revision: in employees Why it matters: Companies look for a trait “in” prospective or current employees.
- 12. Add article and plural Original: the life of other employees lot easier Suggested revision: other employees' lives a lot easier Why it matters: The phrase needs the possessive plural and the fixed expression “a lot easier”.
Suggested Rewrites
- makes make
- our professional life our professional lives
- meaningful while meaningful, while
- friendly behaviours of an employee friendly behaviour in an employee
- would make makes
- he looks for among his colleagues they look for among their colleagues
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response’s strongest feature is its clear selection of four relevant qualities, with personal examples illustrating helpfulness and professionalism. Its main limitation is that the whole essay appears as one paragraph, while friendliness and team spirit receive only brief, repetitive explanations. The highest priority is to organise the qualities into focused paragraphs and develop each one through a specific workplace situation that demonstrates its practical value.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Response
The response directly identifies important co-worker qualities and gives relevant reasons and examples, although development is uneven across the four traits.
Add a concrete workplace example for friendliness or team spirit and explain the effect on collaboration or productivity.
Coherence and Cohesion
The numbered sequence makes the progression easy to follow, but the absence of paragraph breaks and repetitive transitions substantially weaken organisation.
Create an introduction, two body paragraphs grouping related qualities, and a conclusion, with each paragraph built around a clear central idea.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate for workplace qualities and relationships, but repetition and several awkward collocations reduce precision and flexibility.
Use natural alternatives for phrases such as ‘friendly behaviours’, ‘helpful mentality’, ‘raised their helping hands’, and ‘a great professionalism’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of sentence forms is used, but frequent errors in articles, agreement, possessives, and parallel structure remain noticeable.
Check each noun phrase and verb sequence, especially ‘an aspect that makes workers’ lives’ and ‘share knowledge, help, and be amiable’.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
We all work or will work in our jobs with many different kinds of people. In your opinion, what are some important characteristics of a co-worker (someone you work closely with)? Use reasons and specific examples to explain why these characteristics are important.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.