Writing Task 2: Advantages & Disadvantages Essay: Question 3
Syllabus W.task2
An increasing number of working-age adults are choosing to earn their living as freelancers or through short-term gig-economy platforms rather than taking up a permanent position with a single employer.
Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Response
The introduction states a clear, qualified position (“for most people, its disadvantages ultimately outweigh its advantages”) that is sustained through to an explicit final verdict. Both sides are developed with a specific, extended example (the freelance graphic designer for the advantage, and the unwell food courier for the disadvantage) giving the two sides genuinely comparable depth before the candidate’s judgement is reached.
Coherence & Cohesion
Topic sentences clearly flag each side of the argument (“The main advantage of…”, “Against this must be weighed…”), and “While” in the final paragraph cleanly signals the concession before the verdict is restated. Reference chains such as “this flexibility” and “this precariousness” tie ideas back to earlier points without relying on a mechanical string of linking words.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is precise and topic-appropriate throughout: “autonomy”, “precariousness”, “financial risk”, “long-term financial planning”. Near-synonyms avoid repetition (e.g. “freelance or gig work”, “this way of working”, “such work”), and collocations are used accurately (“guaranteed minimum income”, “secure a mortgage”).
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The response shows confident control of complex structures: a fronted passive (“Against this must be weighed…”), a non-defining relative clause (“an arrangement that a salaried position… would rarely permit”), and coordinated clauses with parallel structure (“no guaranteed minimum income, no employer pension contribution and no paid sick leave”). There are no errors of tense, agreement or word form anywhere in the response.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is praising the flexibility of freelance work at length while giving the loss of income security only a passing mention. A band 9 outweigh essay must give both sides comparable depth before reaching a genuine verdict, not the one the candidate personally finds more appealing to write about.