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Task 2 · Positive or negative development · Work

Permanent jobs giving way to gig and contract work

A positive-or-negative essay on insecure work, where the band 9 answer argues that the change transfers risk rather than creating flexibility.

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.

In many countries, companies are employing fewer permanent staff and are using more short-term contractors and gig workers. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

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 lists two sides and declines to judge, which is the standard way this question type is failed. The 9 identifies what the change actually moves, which is not work or flexibility but risk.

The three answers

Band 6.5

255 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 today's world, many companies are not giving the permanent jobs to the workers. Instead of this, they are hiring the people for the short time or as a gig workers, for example the drivers and the delivery boys. This development has the positive as well as the negative sides.

On the positive side, the workers are getting the flexibility.5 They can choose their own timings and they can work for the two or three companies at the same time, so they can earn more money. Also, for the students and the housewives, this type of the work is very suitable because they are having other responsibilities also4. From the company side, they can save the money because they do not have to give the pension, the insurance and the paid holidays.

On the negative side, there is no the job security2. If the company is not giving the work in some month, the person will not get any income. Also they are not getting the medical benefits and it is very difficult for them to take the loan from the bank, because the bank is asking for the permanent job. Moreover, they can be removed anytime without any notice period. And if they are becoming sick, nobody is paying them for that time, so they are losing the money.

In conclusion, this development has both the advantages and the disadvantages.1 It is good for the flexibility but it is bad for the security3, so the governments should make some rules to protect these workers.

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Task response

    “In conclusion, this development has both the advantages and the disadvantages.”

    The question asks which one predominates. Restating that there are two sides is the commonest way this question type is failed.

  2. 2. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “there is no the job security”

    An article inserted after 'no'. The same over-use of 'the' appears before every abstract noun in the essay.

  3. 3. Lexical resource

    “It is good for the flexibility but it is bad for the security”

    'Good' and 'bad' do all the evaluative work in the essay, and both appear here in a single sentence.

  4. 4. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “they are having other responsibilities also”

    'Have' is stative and does not take the continuous, and 'also' is left stranded at the end of the clause.

  5. 5. Coherence and cohesion

    “On the positive side, the workers are getting the flexibility.”

    A heading rather than a connection. Nothing in the following paragraph answers it, so the essay never weighs one side against the other.

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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