Task 2 · Advantages and disadvantages · Government
Moving government offices out of the capital
An outweigh question on relocating public bodies to the regions, where the band 9 answer makes its verdict depend on whether decisions move with the desks.
The question
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Some governments are moving ministries and other public bodies out of the capital city to smaller towns and regions. Do the advantages of this policy outweigh the disadvantages?
A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The 6.5 sets new jobs against moving costs without comparing them; the 7.5 weighs one-off costs against a permanent imbalance; the 9 argues that the answer depends on whether authority moves with the jobs, and gives a verdict for each case.
The three answers
Band 6.5
279 words (the task asks for at least 250)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
In recent years, some governments decided to move their ministries and offices from the capital city to the smaller towns. This policy has both advantages and disadvantages, but I believe the advantages are more than the disadvantages3.
The first advantage is that it creates jobs in the small towns. In many countries all the good jobs are in the capital, so the young people leave their hometown and move to the big city. For example, in my country most of the graduates from the small towns go to the capital and they never come back. If the government offices move to the regions, the people can find a good job near their family. Moreover, the capital city will have less traffic and less pollution, and the house prices can become lower. Another advantage is that the rent of the offices is cheaper in the small towns, so the government can save the money.1
However, there are also some disadvantages.2 Firstly, moving a whole ministry is very expensive, because the government has to build the new buildings and pay for the transport. Secondly, many workers do not want to leave the capital, because their family, their children school and their friends are there5. So some experienced workers will resign and the department will lose their knowledge. Also, the ministers and the parliament are still in the capital, so it will be difficult to have meetings.
In conclusion, I think the advantages of this policy is more important than the disadvantages4, because it helps the small towns to develop and it reduces the problems of the capital city. The government should move the offices step by step to reduce the cost.
What an examiner notices
1. Task response
“Another advantage is that the rent of the offices is cheaper in the small towns, so the government can save the money.”
A saving on rent here, a large moving cost in the next paragraph, and no attempt to compare them. On an outweigh question, that comparison is the task.
2. Coherence and cohesion
“However, there are also some disadvantages.”
A category label rather than a topic sentence. The paragraph then numbers its points, and the most serious of them, the loss of experienced staff, is never referred to again.
3. Lexical resource
“I believe the advantages are more than the disadvantages”
The prompt supplies 'outweigh', and the essay avoids it in favour of 'more than' here and 'more important than' in the conclusion. Evaluation throughout depends on 'good', 'more' and 'less'.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“I think the advantages of this policy is more important than the disadvantages”
The verb agrees with 'policy', the nearest noun, rather than with the head noun 'advantages'. A long subject is exactly where agreement slips at this band.
5. Grammatical range and accuracy
“their family, their children school and their friends are there”
The possessive is missing: 'their children's school' is required. The meaning survives, as it does throughout the essay.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
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