Some people prefer to live in a house, while others feel that there are more advantages to living in an apartment. Are there more advantages than disadvantages of living in a house compared with living in an apartment?
Sample Response
With the rapid rapid population growthpopulation explosion, an increasing number of properties have been built in many bustling cities. However, a recent poll shows that people prefer living in apartments to livingprefer dwelling in apartments than to living in houses. I also think that living in an apartment has more advantages overall, althoughmore advantages though houses also have some benefitsliving in houses has some benefits as well.
As for finding an ideal locationhunting an ideal vocation, living in an apartment near the commercial centre is the best choice. First, we are offered more choices on transporttransportations and we can save commuting timewe can save time on commuting. Moreover, we don't need to worry about any burglaryhousebreaking burglary when being away for a period of timeleaving for a certain time, since our apartments are protected by the management company. Furthermore, there are fewer cockroaches and mosquitoes if we live on the higher floorshigher floors.
By contrastNevertheless, people who tend to live in a house have a desire to enjoy the tranquillity. We are given more free space such as rooms, car parking, and a gardenrooms, car parking, and garden. In the meantime, we can also invite friends to hold a big party without worrying that we may botherworrying that may bother the neighbours.
One disadvantage of apartment living is thatHowever, when living in an apartment, it's hard for us to rent a parking spot. We need to pay a monthly parking feepay parking fee monthly which costs a considerable amount of their incomeconsiderable amount of income. At the same time, it is stressfulHowever, it's stressful for the middle-class familiesfamily to buy a house since it's pricey.
All in all, it depends on current personal situationspersonal current situations to consider whether we should buy a house or an apartment, but in my opinion, I have to say apartments are more suitablethe apartment is more suitable for people who live in a modern city.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The essay’s strongest feature is its generally clear paragraphing and reasonably varied language while comparing houses and apartments. Its main limitation is that the position favours apartment living rather than directly answering whether a house has more advantages than disadvantages, and some contrasts are unclear; prioritise stating a precise position on the question and organising each paragraph around an explicit, directly developed comparison.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The essay discusses advantages and disadvantages of apartments and houses, but the prompt asks whether living in a house has more advantages than disadvantages compared with an apartment. The position leans toward apartments, so the response only partially matches the exact question.
State clearly whether a house has more advantages than disadvantages, then compare house benefits and drawbacks directly with apartment living.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is divided into clear paragraphs and generally progresses logically. However, the contrast between houses and apartments is sometimes unclear, especially in the parking paragraph.
Use explicit comparison language such as "By contrast", "Compared with a house", and "This advantage is stronger because...".
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied enough for the topic, including commercial centre, management company, tranquillity, and considerable amount. Some lexical choices are inaccurate or unnatural.
Check word choice carefully where a similar-looking word has a different meaning, such as "vocation" versus "accommodation".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Most sentences are understandable and there is some complex grammar. Errors with prepositions, plurals, and clause structure appear but do not usually block meaning.
Proofread preposition patterns after verbs such as "prefer" and noun phrases such as "parking fee".
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people prefer to live in a house, while others feel that there are more advantages to living in an apartment. Are there more advantages than disadvantages of living in a house compared with living in an apartment?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.