Advantages and disadvantages: working from home
You can weigh the advantages against the disadvantages and give an answer that the whole essay supports.
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? is a question, and your essay has to answer it. Describing both sides does half the job. You also say which side is greater, and why.
For band 7, the descriptors ask that the main parts of the prompt are appropriately addressed and that a clear and developed position is presented. Here the main parts are the two sides, and the position is your answer. The topic is working from home.
Warm-up
Does it answer the question?
The question is: Do the advantages of working from home outweigh the disadvantages? Read three possible sentences from an essay.
Which sentence gives an answer?
How it works
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
In many countries, a growing number of employees now do their jobs from home for some or all of the working week.
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Some Task 2 questions ask only what the advantages and disadvantages are. This one asks you to weigh them. A description of both sides is a start, and the essay also has to say which side is greater. That answer is your position, and it decides how you build the essay.
Before you write
- 1List both sides
Note two or three advantages and two or three disadvantages, a few words each.
- 2Keep the best of each
Choose one or two ideas on each side that you can explain with a result and an example.
- 3Weigh them
Decide which side is greater, and put the reason in one line: the benefits come every day, the problems can be managed. That reason makes your position clear.
- 4Order the paragraphs
The weaker side first, the stronger side second. The essay then moves towards your answer.
- 5Write the position
One sentence at the end of the introduction. The conclusion says it again in new words.
Watch me do one
I plan this in the first five minutes, starting with both sides in note form. Advantages: no commute, so time and money saved; fewer interruptions; people can live further from the city.
Disadvantages: new staff learn less from colleagues; some people feel lonely; work and home life mix.
Now the best idea on each side. Time saved on the commute is the strongest advantage, because it comes back every working day. The strongest disadvantage is that new staff learn less.
Then I weigh them. The learning problem is real, but a company can reduce it, for example with fixed office days. So I decide the advantages are greater.
That decides the order: disadvantages in the first body paragraph, advantages in the second, so the essay ends on my answer.
My position in one sentence: Although this change has real drawbacks, its advantages are greater, because the time saved benefits workers every day, while most of the problems can be managed.
| Best idea | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| Weaker side: disadvantages | New staff learn less from colleagues | A quick question becomes a message they hesitate to send |
| Stronger side: advantages | No commute, so time and money are saved | An hour each way is ten hours a week |
| Position | The advantages are greater | The learning problem can be managed with fixed office days |
Three rows, filled in during the planning minutes. The essay follows them from top to bottom.
A model answer
In many countries, a growing number of employees now do their jobs from home for some or all of the working week. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
In many countries, it has become normal for office staff to spend part or all of their working week at home. Although this change has real drawbacks, I believe its advantages are greater, because the time saved on travel benefits workers every day, while most of the problems can be reduced by good management. The main disadvantage is that employees at home have fewer chances to learn from their colleagues. In an office, a new employee can listen to how experienced staff handle a difficult client, or ask a quick question across the desk. At home, the same question needs a message or a call, and many young workers hesitate to interrupt someone who is busy. Some people also find it hard to separate work from private life when both happen in the same room. However, these problems can be managed, whereas the benefits are felt every working day. An employee who no longer commutes for an hour each way gains ten hours a week, which can be spent with family or on exercise. Staff also save money on fares and fuel, and fewer cars at rush hour mean less traffic and pollution in cities. As for the lack of contact, many companies now ask whole teams to come in on one or two fixed days a week, so that new staff can still learn from colleagues face to face. In conclusion, working from home has some weaknesses, but in my view its benefits are clearly greater. The time and money it saves are gained every week, while its main problems can largely be solved by sensible arrangements such as regular office days.
- TaskThe position and the reason for it, at the end of the introduction.
- CoherenceA topic sentence: the paragraph's point, stated in its first sentence.
- TaskA picture the reader can see, so the idea is supported as well as stated.
- CoherenceTurns to the stronger side and says in one sentence why it is stronger.
- GrammarA relative clause, who no longer commutes, puts the example and its result in one sentence.
- CoherenceGoes back to a disadvantage to show how it can be managed. This is the weighing the question asks for.
- TaskThe same position in the conclusion, in new words.
Coloured text shows what the examiner is looking for.
Practice with Elita6 questions
First, four short questions on how the essay is built. Then a new question for you to plan, and one paragraph of it to write.
A topic sentence
The first body paragraph covers the weaker side, the disadvantages. Which sentence opens it best?
Choose the best topic sentence.
Developed or listed?
Read this part of a body paragraph. Are its ideas developed, or only listed?
Working from home saves time. It also saves money. It is quieter. It is more flexible.
Two sides in one sentence
Complete the sentence with one word that sets the two sides against each other.
working from home saves time, it can leave new staff feeling isolated.
Write no more than 1 word.
The conclusion
The position is that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Which conclusion matches it?
Choose the best conclusion.
Plan your own
You have five minutes to plan this new question. Notes are fine: a phrase in each box.
More and more people now choose to be self-employed and work for themselves. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Write the stronger paragraph
Now write the second body paragraph from your plan: the stronger side, with one idea explained and an example.
Write the body paragraph for the stronger side of this question: More and more people now choose to be self-employed and work for themselves. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
0 / 70 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Words to keep
A disadvantage or problem. Working from home has some real drawbacks.
Be greater or more important than something else. In my view, the benefits outweigh the costs.
Wait before doing something because you are unsure. New staff may hesitate to interrupt a busy colleague.
The times of day when roads and trains are busiest. Fewer cars at rush hour mean less traffic.
In the same place, in person. Some skills are easier to learn face to face.
Alone, with little contact with other people. Some staff feel isolated when they work from home every day.
Before you go
Decide which side is greater before you write, and put the reason in one line.
Put the weaker side first and the stronger side second, so the essay moves towards your answer.
Develop one or two ideas on each side, each with a result and an example.
End with your answer again, in new words.
Next: General Training candidates finish the unit with a formal letter to a company's Human Resources department about changing their working hours. Academic candidates go on to Unit 3, on technology.