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Task 2 · Advantages and disadvantages · Work

A four-day standard working week

An outweigh question on the four-day week, where the band 9 answer refuses to average a hospital and an office into a single verdict.

The question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

Some countries are considering reducing the standard working week from five days to four, with no reduction in pay. Do the advantages of this change outweigh the disadvantages?

A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.

What separates the three answers

The 6.5 says workers would be happier and companies would lose money; the 7.5 asks whether output would actually fall; the 9 notices that the answer is different for a ward and for an office, and declines to average them.

The three answers

Band 6.5

268 words (the task asks for at least 250)

The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.

The answer

In some countries, the government is thinking to reduce the working week from five days to four days, and the workers will get the same salary. There are some advantages and disadvantages of this idea. In this essay I will explain both of them.1

The main advantage of the four days week is that the workers will have more free time. They can spend the time with their family, do the exercise or learn a new hobby, so they will be more happy and more healthy4. Another advantage is that the stress will be reduced.3 Nowadays many people suffer from the stress because of the long working hours, and this cause many health problems.5 If they work only four days, this problem will become less. Moreover, there will be less traffic on the roads because people travel one day less, which is also good for the environment.

On the other hand, there are also disadvantages. The main disadvantage is for the companies, because they have to pay the same salary but the employees work less. This will increase the cost and some small companies can not survive. Another disadvantage is that some services must work every day, for example the hospitals and the police, so they will need to employ the more staff. Also some workers will do the same amount of the work in four days, so they will be more stressed than before.2

In conclusion, the four days week has the advantages for the workers and the disadvantages for the companies. Both of them should be considered carefully by the government before making this big decision.

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Task response

    “In this essay I will explain both of them.”

    The prompt asks for a verdict, not an explanation. The conclusion then hands the decision to the government, so the question is passed on twice.

  2. 2. Task response

    “Also some workers will do the same amount of the work in four days, so they will be more stressed than before.”

    The sharpest point in the essay, and it flatly contradicts the stress argument made in the paragraph before. Neither is adjusted in the light of the other.

  3. 3. Coherence and cohesion

    “Another advantage is that the stress will be reduced.”

    Every idea is introduced by naming its category. Delete the category labels and the essay loses its structure entirely, because the sentences themselves are not doing that work.

  4. 4. Lexical resource

    “so they will be more happy and more healthy”

    'Happier' and 'healthier' are the standard forms; the comparative is being built by rule rather than by ear. 'Do the exercise' and 'the same amount of the work' show the same pattern.

  5. 5. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “Nowadays many people suffer from the stress because of the long working hours, and this cause many health problems.”

    Definite articles before uncountable and generic nouns, plus a missing third-person ending. The sentence still communicates perfectly, which is the signature of this band.

One honest caveat

Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.

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