Would you prefer to live in a traditional house or in a modern apartment building? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.
Sample Response
If I werewas asked whether I would preferwhere I would I prefer to live in a traditional house or in a modern apartment building, I think I wouldI think, I would hesitate to answer. This question, from my point of view, is a difficultcontroversial one. In the following paragraphs, I will analyse both these options and present my view.
On the one handFrom the one side, living in a modern apartment building brings many benefits. First of all, it is cheaper than living in a traditional house and paying various home-ownership costsdifferent kinds of fees I am not familiar with. For instance, my friend, who recently bought a new house for his family, toldsaid me that it is much easier to live in an apartment and I tend to believe him when I see his bills. So, living in an apartment will definitely help me to save some money. SecondlySecond of all, since I live alone, Isince I live alone I do not need a big house with many rooms. I just need a bedroom and a living room where I can receivetake my guests and set up my workspacehave my workplace. Another important benefit of living in an apartment is that I will not have to buy a lot of cumbersome furnituremuch cumbersome furniture in order to furnish all rooms.
However, living in a modern apartment building can have a few disadvantagesa few disadvantages too. Firstly, it can be noisy and, secondly, I will not have any privacy outside my apartment, for example, in a pool or gym.
On the other handFrom the other side, living in a traditional house has some advantages too. For example, I can have my own pool, gym and a garden where I can relax and be alone. However, living in a house is usually more expensive and requires more time to maintainrequires more time to maintain a house. For instance, I will most likely have to hire someone to mow my lawn and clean my pool, not to mentionmy pool not to mention all household tasks inside the house.
In conclusion, I think at this moment I would prefer to live in an apartment. It can help me save some money and allowallows me to spend more time studying because I will not have to do many household tasks.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response reaches a clear preference and supports it with specific, logically arranged comparisons involving cost, space, privacy, and maintenance. Its main limitation is language control: several awkward collocations and recurring grammatical slips reduce fluency despite a useful range of sentence forms. The highest-priority improvement is to revise conditional structures, verb patterns, agreement, and common phrases so the well-developed argument reads more naturally and accurately.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The final preference is clear and supported by specific, relevant reasons developed through comparison of both housing options.
State the preferred option earlier and deepen the strongest reasons rather than briefly listing minor disadvantages.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are logically ordered in focused paragraphs, and the comparison is easy to follow despite some mechanical transitions.
Use more natural transitions than from the one side and from the other side, and integrate the short disadvantage paragraph more smoothly.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficient and sometimes flexible, but several awkward collocations and verb choices limit precision.
Replace unnatural phrases such as said me, take my guests, and much cumbersome furniture with standard idiomatic alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied sentence structures, but errors in conditionals, word order, verb patterns, and agreement recur.
Review hypothetical forms and verb complements, then proofread each compound sentence for consistent verb forms and punctuation.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Would you prefer to live in a traditional house or in a modern apartment building? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.