Some people regard work as the most important thing in life and have little interest in anything else. Other people are more enthusiastic about their hobbies and leisure interests than their jobs. Discuss both these attitudes and give your own opinion.
Sample Response
Work-life balance is a concept that emphasises both professional and personal aspects of lifethe professional and personal life and in my opinion, personal interests are as important asas much important as work isthe works are. I believe that we should focus on both our careers and our hobbiesfocus both on our career and hobbies to maintain balance in our livesa balance in our life and to lead a happy and meaningful life. With regard toIn regards to work or career, I think that it defines who we are and how we contribute to societycontribute to the society we live in. Perfectly executing our job responsibilities would ensure steady career growtha steady career growth and contentment in our livesa contentment in our life. It is quite reasonable that when we find our workworks interesting, we can perform exceptionally wellexcel in our performance as we work passionately. Undeniably, devotion toon our jobs would bring out the best in us and let us realise our hidden potentialreinvent our hidden potentials. To cite an example, many scientists, throughout historythroughout the history, have completely devoted themselves to their work and have brought marvellous inventionsinvention for the rest of humanitythe rest of the humanity. Thus, to a certain groupThus to a certain group of people, work is far more important than any other thing in life. In contrast, another group of people find their hobbies and leisure activities more interesting and focus more on these activities than their career and work. I believe, to a certain extent, they are prudent to place more emphasis onemphasise more on things they feel attracted to as we have got only one life to live and being happy and contented is the mantra of life. However, their prioritiespriority in life often lead to negligence in professional life and as a consequence, they suffer from financial hardship later in lifeeconomic disaster in later life. To conclude, we are the ultimate architect of our life and how we lead our life would define our future. An intelligent person would focus both on work and hobby as he knows the work-life balance is the key to a joyful and prosperous life.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The essay gives both attitudes fair attention and maintains a clear, balanced position that work and leisure should support each other. Its strongest development is the explanation of professional commitment, while the leisure side relies more on broad claims and the response is presented without paragraph breaks; recurring collocation and agreement errors also reduce polish. Develop the second view with a concrete example, separate the argument into paragraphs and edit phrases such as "as important as" and "devotion to work."
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both attitudes are addressed and a clear balanced opinion is maintained, though the leisure-focused view is supported less fully than the work-focused view.
Add a specific example showing how serious engagement with hobbies can improve well-being without undermining professional responsibilities.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses logically from position to the two attitudes and conclusion, but the absence of paragraph breaks weakens its visible structure.
Use distinct paragraphs for the introduction, work-centred attitude, leisure-centred attitude and conclusion.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range for work, fulfilment and leisure, but several ambitious collocations are unnatural or imprecise.
Use standard forms such as "work," "devotion to one's job," "develop hidden potential" and "financial difficulty" rather than exaggerated alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of complex structures conveys meaning clearly, but agreement, article, comparative and preposition errors recur throughout.
Proofread patterns such as "as important as," "focus on both," "devotion to" and plural agreement in "their priorities lead."
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people regard work as the most important thing in life and have little interest in anything else. Other people are more enthusiastic about their hobbies and leisure interests than their jobs. Discuss both these attitudes and give your own opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.