Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-03
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Some people think that it’s a good idea to socialise with work colleagues during evenings and weekends. Other people think it’s important to keep working life completely separate from social life.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 6.0)
In today's professional world, many employees spend a significant portion of their time with their colleagues. As a result, some people believe that socializing with coworkers outside working hours helps strengthen relationships, while others argue that personal and professional lives should remain separate. This essay will discuss both perspectives before explaining why I believe maintaining a balance between the two is the most beneficial approach.
On the one hand, spending time outside the office hours helps employees to connect better with each other. If employees socialize together by having dinner on weekend, playing sports, or just hanging out with each other help them to know each other better. This activities develops tight bonding between employees, which help them to coordinated better and even help each other in their work leading to better team work and improved productivity. Moreover, having a good relation with colleagues also improves work environment, thus reducing stress.
On the other hand, most employees spend a significant time in their workplace leaving only weekend for the friends and family. If People spend those weekend with their colleagues it will disturb their work life balance potentially leading to problem related to social life. Furthermore, deep friendship between the employees will eventually create biasness between teams and in the business decisions . For example if the employees have very strong bonding, they will not report their friends for breach of any policies or any mistake creating favoritism in workplace.
In my view, extreme of either will disturb the work culture and will create numerous problem. Thusly, maintaining balance between work life and social life.
In conclusion, spending extra time with colleagues outside working hours have its benefits like better connectivity between employees, calm and enjoyable work environment and improved productivity. However, It will destroy individuals social life leading to stress, favoritism. I believe that maintaining balance is the best option for maintaining work life and getting benefits of spending time with employees.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The essay addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both perspectives and providing a clear personal opinion. The ideas are relevant, such as the benefits of team bonding versus the risks of favoritism and work-life imbalance. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The second body paragraph is well-supported with a specific example regarding policy breaches, but the first paragraph relies on general statements. To reach a higher band, ensure that all arguments are equally extended with specific examples or logical consequences. The position is consistent throughout, though the conclusion could be more nuanced to reflect the complexity of the topic.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two opposing views. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand,' 'Moreover,' and 'Furthermore' are used to guide the reader. However, there are instances where the flow is slightly mechanical, and some referencing is imprecise, such as 'This activities' (which should be 'These activities') and the abrupt sentence structure in the fourth paragraph: 'Thusly, maintaining balance between work life and social life.' Improving the variety and naturalness of linking words would enhance the overall flow.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There is an attempt to use topic-specific language like 'professional world,' 'work-life balance,' and 'favoritism.' However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'biasness' (which is non-standard; 'bias' is preferred) and 'connectivity' (which is often used for technology; 'rapport' or 'cohesion' would be better). The range is sufficient to communicate, but more precise and sophisticated vocabulary would be needed to reach a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally distract the reader. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('This activities develops,' 'spending extra time... have its benefits') and missing articles ('the' weekend). Additionally, the sentence 'Thusly, maintaining balance between work life and social life' is a sentence fragment lacking a main verb. While these errors do not impede communication, they indicate a need for more careful proofreading and a stronger grasp of complex sentence construction.
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