The working week should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend. Do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
Many today make the argument that the average work week should be shortened in order to allow for longer weekends. In my opinion, though there would be potential economic drawbacks, this approach is both sensible and advisable.
Critics of reduced working days point to the repercussions for productivity. Shortening the number of workdays in a week would logically entail a decline in the amount of work a person can complete. In the majority of industries, this would result in lower sales and earnings figures. The result for the entire economy of such a drastic step could be potentially disastrous as companies would have to reduce profit forecasts and revisit investment models. In developed nations, such a sacrifice for the sake of more free time might be feasible but developing countries would certainly struggle to compete on a global scale.
Nonetheless, there are more significant advantages to a longer weekend related to quality of life. Current weekends make it challenging for individuals to enjoy enough free time to take trips, engage in long-term projects outside of work, and spend enough time with family. An additional day would allow for greater flexibility in all these respects. For instance, the average worker who is occupied at an office or company for the majority of the week, might only think of resting and relaxing on the weekend. Given an extra day on the weekend, this person might be more encouraged to take a more active role in family life or develop an interest outside of work, such as making art or playing a sport, that requires more energy and commitment.
In conclusion, despite the possible implications for productivity, a shorter working week would engender a variety of significant benefits for the average person and should therefore be considered by policymakers. In an age of increased automation, longer weekends are becoming a more realistic possibility.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Add missing noun Original: Many today Suggested revision: Many people today Why it matters: 'Many' needs a plural noun when referring generally to people.
- 2. Use concise phrasing Original: shortened in order to allow for Suggested revision: shortened to allow Why it matters: The shorter infinitive expresses the same purpose more directly.
- 3. Remove repetition Original: Shortening the number of workdays in a week Suggested revision: Reducing the number of weekly workdays Why it matters: This avoids repeating the ideas of days and a week in the same phrase.
- 4. Remove unnecessary noun Original: lower sales and earnings figures Suggested revision: lower sales and earnings Why it matters: 'Figures' is unnecessary because sales and earnings already denote measurable amounts.
- 5. Add clause comma Original: feasible but developing Suggested revision: feasible, but developing Why it matters: A comma should separate the two independent clauses joined by 'but'.
- 6. Clarify modifier Original: advantages to a longer weekend related to quality of life Suggested revision: quality-of-life advantages to a longer weekend Why it matters: Placing the modifier beside 'advantages' removes ambiguity about what it describes.
- 7. Clarify the reference Original: Current weekends Suggested revision: The current length of weekends Why it matters: This specifies that the argument concerns weekend duration rather than weekends generally.
- 8. Strengthen the link Original: In an age of increased automation Suggested revision: As automation increases Why it matters: The causal connector links automation more directly to the growing feasibility claimed in the sentence.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: The result for the entire economy of such a drastic step could be potentially disastrous as companies would have to reduce profit forecasts and revisit investment models. Suggested revision: Such a drastic step could have disastrous consequences for the entire economy, as companies would have to lower profit forecasts and revisit investment models. Why it matters: The rewrite removes the awkward chain of prepositional phrases and uses the natural collocation 'lower forecasts'.
- 10. Sentence rewrite Original: For instance, the average worker who is occupied at an office or company for the majority of the week, might only think of resting and relaxing on the weekend. Suggested revision: For instance, the average worker who spends most of the week at an office or company might only think of resting and relaxing during the weekend. Why it matters: The rewrite removes the incorrect subject-verb comma and improves the awkward description of the worker's schedule.
- 11. Sentence rewrite Original: Given an extra day on the weekend, this person might be more encouraged to take a more active role in family life or develop an interest outside of work, such as making art or playing a sport, that requires more energy and commitment. Suggested revision: Given an extra weekend day, this person might be more inclined to play a more active role in family life or develop an interest outside work that requires more energy and commitment, such as making art or playing a sport. Why it matters: The rewrite uses natural collocations and places the example beside the activity it illustrates.
Suggested Rewrites
- Many today Many people today
- shortened in order to allow for shortened to allow
- Shortening the number of workdays in a week Reducing the number of weekly workdays
- lower sales and earnings figures lower sales and earnings
- feasible but developing feasible, but developing
- advantages to a longer weekend related to quality of life quality-of-life advantages to a longer weekend
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response presents a clear position, weighs the economic drawback against quality-of-life benefits, and develops both sides through logical explanation and a relevant example. Its main limitation is that a few claims, particularly about national competitiveness and automation, remain somewhat broad or briefly supported. The highest-priority improvement is to qualify these claims and connect them more directly to the proposed shorter working week.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response directly answers the question with a consistent position and develops both the principal drawback and the stronger benefits.
Support the broader economic and automation claims with a more concrete explanation of how a shorter week would affect productivity.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses clearly from the counterargument to the preferred position, with well-focused paragraphs and controlled cohesion.
Tighten the final link between the automation point and the main conclusion so the closing rationale feels fully integrated.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a wide and precise range of vocabulary to discuss productivity, investment, competitiveness, and quality of life.
Replace a few slightly awkward expressions, such as reduced working days and Current weekends, with more natural alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are varied and well controlled, with only occasional minor punctuation or phrasing lapses.
Review comma placement and relative-clause attachment in the longest sentences to maintain consistently effortless readability.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
The working week should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend. Do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.