Some people prefer to plan activities for their free time very carefully. Others choose not to make any plans at all for their free time. Compare the benefits of planning free-time activities with the benefits of not making plans. Which do you prefer - planning or not planning for your leisure time? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your choice.
Sample Response
Nowadays, peopleNowadays people have so many things to do that they rarely have enough time for everything they need to doalmost always do not have enough time for it. When we go to bed we carefully think and plan our next day and it continues day in and day out. We wake up, review our to-do listrecollect our checklist with things to do and within minutes, we are already in the carin a few minutes, we are already in a car on our way to the office. People oftenOften people do not have time for themselves. So, when people have some spare time, they wantsome spare time they want to use it wisely.
Why this response received Band 5.0
The response’s strongest feature is a readable opening that establishes how limited time can make leisure choices important. Its decisive limitation is that it ends before answering the task: it neither compares the benefits of planning and spontaneity nor states and supports a preference, and it is substantially under length. The highest priority is to complete the essay with two comparative body paragraphs, a clear choice, and specific examples.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The paragraph offers only general background about busy lives and does not address either requested comparison or give the writer’s preference.
State a clear preference, explain benefits of both planned and unplanned leisure, and support the choice in a response of at least 250 words.
Coherence and Cohesion
The short paragraph has a basic chronological flow, but it does not develop into an organised argument and relies on repetitive references to time and people.
Build a full introduction-body-conclusion structure with one paragraph for each approach and a clear logical comparison between them.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for everyday routines, but the very short response demonstrates limited range and includes awkward phrases such as “recollect our checklist”.
Use more natural and topic-specific expressions such as “review our to-do list”, “schedule leisure activities”, and “act spontaneously”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses both simple and complex sentences with generally clear meaning, though reference, punctuation, and phrasing errors remain.
Add commas after introductory clauses and ensure pronouns agree with their antecedents, for example replacing singular “it” after “so many things”.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people prefer to plan activities for their free time very carefully. Others choose not to make any plans at all for their free time. Compare the benefits of planning free-time activities with the benefits of not making plans. Which do you prefer - planning or not planning for your leisure time? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your choice.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.