Some people spend a lot of money celebrating personal family events, such as weddings and birthdays. How important is it to celebrate such events? Do you think people spend too much money on these events?
Sample Response
It is common for individuals to spend heavily on important family celebrationsinvest heavily in celebrating important family events. In my opinion, such celebrations are vital to healthy family life and the associated costs are reasonable in most cases.
Events that bring together the whole family encourage stronger familyinternal cohesion. This is best illustrated through the counter-example of families that rarely meet for large social gatherings. These families are likely to grow distant and become family members in name onlyremain family members in name rather than actuality. Family members whothat often meet, such as in many Asian nations where familial bonds are prioritised, are closer to both their immediate and extended familiesfamily. The result of such closeness is that they canThe result of such closeness is they can ask for advice, lend a helping hand, and feel the unconditional support and love that is essential for mental health.
Generally, for these events, families spendfor these events families spend only as much as they can reasonably afford. There are rare exceptions, such as when a newly married couple spends excessively on theirthe wedding. However, most families follow an internal budgetabide by an internal calculus that keeps their spending under control. A wealthy family may stage lavish reunions, family dinners, and weddings, but they are able to afford them and only appear excessive from the perspective of less privileged spectators. A less affluent family, on the other hand, will tend to hold more modest events and, in the case of weddings, may be able to recoup a substantial proportion of the costs throughfrom gifts. For example, giving money in an envelopethe giving of an envelope containing money at a wedding is common in Vietnam and helps couples begin their marriage on solid financial footing.
In conclusion, family gatherings play a key part in strengthening bonds and their costs are justifiable and moderatetheir cost is justifiable and moderate. Families should therefore strive to maintain their traditions in an increasingly insular society.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response is strongest in its confident, consistent position and its well-organised development of both the social value and financial reasonableness of family celebrations. Its main limitation is that the broad claim that most families spend within their means is treated as generally true; qualifying this claim and analysing possible financial pressure more critically would make the reasoning more balanced and persuasive.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions are fully addressed through a clear position, developed reasoning, and relevant supporting examples.
Qualify the affordability argument by acknowledging circumstances in which social expectations may encourage excessive spending.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically organised, and each paragraph develops one clear stage of the argument with well-managed cohesion.
Strengthen the transition into the spending discussion by explicitly linking affordability to the stated position.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and often sophisticated, with only isolated wording that feels slightly overstated or abstract.
Prefer the most natural precise phrase when discussing social inequality and family closeness.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentence forms are varied and controlled, and the great majority of sentences are error-free.
Polish the occasional compressed clause, such as result constructions, by adding the required complement marker.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people spend a lot of money celebrating personal family events, such as weddings and birthdays. How important is it to celebrate such events? Do you think people spend too much money on these events?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.