Writing Task 2: Advantages & Disadvantages Essay: Question 4
Syllabus W.task2
In several major cities, co-living developments are becoming more common: residents rent a private bedroom within a larger property and share communal spaces such as kitchens, lounges and laundry facilities with other tenants.
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 (“the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, particularly for young people and newcomers”) that is sustained through to the conclusion’s explicit verdict. Both sides are developed with a specific example (the cousin’s move to the capital for the advantage, and the friction over shared appliances for the disadvantage) giving the two sides genuinely comparable depth before the final judgement.
Coherence & Cohesion
Topic sentences clearly flag each side of the argument (“The most significant advantage is…”, “The principal disadvantage is…”), and “While” in the final paragraph signals the concession before the verdict is restated. Reference chains such as “this arrangement” and “these frictions” tie ideas back to earlier points without relying on a mechanical string of linking words.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is precise and natural throughout: “unattainable”, “vetting process”, “built-in community”, “constant contact with housemates”. Near-synonyms avoid repetition (e.g. “co-living developments”, “this arrangement”, “co-living”), and collocations are accurate (“financial saving”, “loss of privacy and control”).
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The response shows confident control of complex structures: a non-defining relative clause (“a resident who works irregular hours…”), a fronted concessive clause (“While these frictions are real…”), and varied sentence openings across paragraphs. 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 discussing the affordability advantage in detail while reducing the loss of privacy to a single sentence. A band 9 outweigh essay must give both sides genuinely comparable depth before reaching its verdict.