Writing Task 2: Two-Part (Direct) Question Essay: Question 7
Syllabus W.task2
Across many cities, a growing number of families are choosing to live in smaller houses or apartments than earlier generations typically occupied, even when they could afford a larger property.
Why are families increasingly choosing to live in smaller homes? Is this a positive or negative development?
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
Task Response
The introduction paraphrases the prompt and states both a clear cause and a clear stance in one sentence, and each body paragraph is devoted to exactly one question (the first explains why families downsize, the second evaluates whether the trend is positive) before the conclusion restates both without drifting. The single named example, the Whitfield family, is developed with enough specific detail (a four-bedroom house, a compact two-bedroom apartment, a postponed holiday) to support both the reason and the evaluation convincingly.
Coherence & Cohesion
Topic sentences clearly flag which question is being addressed (“The main reason behind this change is…”, “As for whether this development is positive…”), and the semicolon in paragraph two links two closely related ideas without an abrupt break. The phrase “in the Whitfields’ case” ties the general evaluation back to the specific example already introduced.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is natural and precise (“practical burden”, “unused rooms”, “environmental footprint”, “genuine drawback”), and the essay avoids repeating “small” and “house” through varied phrasing (“compact… apartment”, “reduced space”, “downsizing”).
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The essay shows accurate control of complex structures: a non-defining relative clause, a comparative construction (“less… than”), an appositive (“the one genuine drawback, reduced space… is…”), and consistently varied sentence openings, with no grammatical errors.