"Telecommuting" refers to workers doing their jobs from home for part of each week and communicating with their office using computer technology. Telecommuting is growing in many countries and is expected to be common for most office workers in the coming decades. How do you think society will be affected by the growth of telecommuting?
Sample Response
The spread of telecommuting is sure to have far-reaching effects on society. In this context, telecommuting refersBy itself, telecommuting refers to office workers spending much of their time working from home and using electronic technologytechnologies to communicate with their employers. The broader implications of telecommuting, however, may involve changes to corporate structure, workers' lifestyles and even urban planning.
The most obvious changes may be apparent in traditional officesthe `normal' offices of companies, governments and other organisations. If even half the working week is spent telecommuting from home, we might initially seethen we would initially expect many empty desks in the office. As offices grow smaller, workers coming in for the day would be expected to use desks assigned to absent colleaguesshare desks with their absent colleagues. This, in turn, may affect the social atmosphere of an organisation, asorganisation, however, as less social contact with one's colleagues could harm morale and loyalty.
For the individual office worker, telecommuting would mean spending more time at home. For a parent with young children, this may be a blessing. Moreover, many telecommuters would be able to choose the hours they workedwork the hours they wished: having a nap in the afternoon, for example, but working some hours in the evening. One substantial benefit for all telecommuting workers is that there wouldwill be no need to travel to work, allowing more free time.
The structure of urban life is also likely to be affected by telecommuting. We would expect to see fewer cars on the road during peak hours and, eventually, fewer officesa smaller concentration of offices in cities' central business districts. In short, people will have less reason to travel to city centres from outlying areas. As more people work and live in the same location, shops and cultural events will likely relocate away fromrelocate themselves out of the city centre.
In conclusion, telecommuting will serve not only to change the way we work but also the way we live.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response’s strongest feature is its comprehensive, logically developed account of how telecommuting may reshape workplaces, individual routines, transport, and urban centres. Its main limitation is that a few expressions are slightly awkward or less precise than the otherwise sophisticated language; the highest-priority improvement is to refine those collocations so every claim sounds fully natural and exact.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response directly explores several significant societal effects and develops each with relevant consequences and examples.
Deepen the evaluation slightly by acknowledging conditions that might affect whether these predicted changes occur.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress clearly through well-focused paragraphs that move from workplaces to individuals and then urban life.
Make the concluding paragraph more substantive by briefly synthesising the main workplace and urban consequences.
Lexical Resource
A broad and precise vocabulary supports nuanced discussion, with only occasional awkward choices such as “relocate themselves.”
Refine a few collocations and register choices so all expressions sound consistently natural and formal.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately and flexibly, with errors rare and non-impeding.
Polish minor punctuation and clause-linking details to achieve even more consistently effortless control.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
"Telecommuting" refers to workers doing their jobs from home for part of each week and communicating with their office using computer technology. Telecommuting is growing in many countries and is expected to be common for most office workers in the coming decades. How do you think society will be affected by the growth of telecommuting?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.