Many employees are now required to wear a uniform as part of their company policy and this has many significant advantages. What is your viewpoint on this issue? Do the advantages of it outweigh the disadvantages?
Sample Response
One of the rules of a certain institution is the necessity of their employees to wear a company's designated clothes since the dawn of time. Throughout the history, employees have been wearing a uniform of their organisations. However, wearing a uniform has pros and cons as I will now discuss in this essay. It is believed that wearing a uniform can improve confidence and detects intruders. Firstly, wearing company clothes can improve employee's self-confidence. For instance, I was a very shy lady before I was hired as an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) nurse in a tertiary level and the private hospital called the Urdaneta Sacred Heart Hospital situated in Pangasinan, Philippines. As time passed at my working area with my colleagues, now I confidently do my duties. Secondly, trespassers and burglars alike can easily notice such as in the Philippine military field situated in Loakan, Baguio City where a hostile NPA (New People's Army), a militant group of the country, has been captured for spying the troops of the nation. These are some of the benefits of having a uniform. On the other hand, a company clothes can hinder performance and sense of individuality might be lost. For one, in a tropical country like mine, wearing a thick uniform is unnecessary. For example, the chief of exclusive restaurants in the country has layered by layered white uniforms which inappropriate in their work area and can make their cooking less palatable. In addition to this, because of same designated institutional clothes, a sense of individuality will be lost. One situation is in the hospital where I am working, all are wearing white clothes especially for us nurses with the same hairdo in a white dress, stockings and caps on top of our heads, so we cannot be easily distinguished by our workmates and our supervisors. In conclusion, wearing uniforms can enhance confidence and noticed detractors easily, but it can also lessen the quality of work performance, as well as the sense of uniqueness, might be lost. So this has advantages and disadvantages. However, I certainly believe that having a uniform has more good things than those of the drawbacks.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use the requirement structure Original: necessity of their employees to wear Suggested revision: requirement for their employees to wear Why it matters: Requirement for someone to do something is the correct structure.
- 2. Avoid exaggerated timing Original: since the dawn of time Suggested revision: for many years Why it matters: The original idiom inaccurately suggests that company uniforms have always existed.
- 3. Remove the article Original: Throughout the history Suggested revision: Throughout history Why it matters: History takes no article in this general expression.
- 4. Use the possessive form Original: a uniform of their organisations Suggested revision: their organisations' uniforms Why it matters: The plural possessive directly shows that the uniforms belong to the organisations.
- 5. Use parallel verbs Original: detects Suggested revision: detect Why it matters: Both verbs follow can and therefore need the base form.
- 6. Use the plural possessive Original: employee's self-confidence Suggested revision: employees' self-confidence Why it matters: The claim refers to employees generally, so a plural possessive is required.
- 7. Use natural workplace wording Original: at my working area Suggested revision: in my workplace Why it matters: In my workplace is the natural expression for the setting.
- 8. Use uncountable clothing Original: a company clothes Suggested revision: company clothing Why it matters: Clothing is uncountable and does not take a in this use.
- 9. Add the article Original: and sense of individuality Suggested revision: and a sense of individuality Why it matters: Sense is a singular countable noun and needs an article.
- 10. Name restaurant workers accurately Original: the chief of exclusive restaurants Suggested revision: chefs at exclusive restaurants Why it matters: Chef is the occupation intended, while chief means a leader.
- 11. Correct the modifier Original: layered by layered Suggested revision: multi-layered Why it matters: Multi-layered is the natural adjective for clothing made of several layers.
- 12. Add the missing verb Original: which inappropriate Suggested revision: which are inappropriate Why it matters: The relative clause needs the verb are.
Suggested Rewrites
- necessity of their employees to wear requirement for their employees to wear
- since the dawn of time for many years
- Throughout the history Throughout history
- a uniform of their organisations their organisations' uniforms
- detects detect
- employee's self-confidence employees' self-confidence
Why this response received Band 5.5
The essay discusses both benefits and drawbacks of workplace uniforms and clearly concludes that the advantages are greater, with personal and workplace examples supporting the structure. Its main limitation is that several examples are unclear or weakly connected to the claimed effect, especially the military, restaurant, and hospital cases. The priority is to explain each cause-and-effect link directly and use one convincing example for each side before comparing their relative importance.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both sides are addressed and the final viewpoint is clear, but several supporting examples are confusing or do not convincingly prove the stated benefits and drawbacks.
Explain how uniforms improve identification and how discomfort harms performance, then compare why those benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
Coherence and Cohesion
The advantages-before-disadvantages structure is recognizable, but the single long block, mechanical signposting, and unclear internal links weaken progression.
Use distinct introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion paragraphs, with one controlling idea and clearly linked example in each body paragraph.
Lexical Resource
The response attempts a reasonable range of workplace and uniform vocabulary, but frequent inaccurate collocations and word choices limit clarity.
Replace phrases such as “company clothes,” “notice trespassers,” “layered by layered,” and “noticed detractors” with precise natural expressions.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Frequent errors in agreement, articles, clauses, word forms, and sentence boundaries reduce control and sometimes make relationships difficult to understand.
Practise complete subject-verb clauses and check agreement in phrases such as “uniforms can improve,” “company clothing can hinder,” and “individuality may be lost.”
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Many employees are now required to wear a uniform as part of their company policy and this has many significant advantages. What is your viewpoint on this issue? Do the advantages of it outweigh the disadvantages?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.