IELTS Writing Task 2 - In some countries people spend long hours at work. Why does this happen?

Question: In some countries people spend long hours at work. Why does this happen? Is it positive or negative development

Answer:
In most countries, the amount of time people spends at work averages around 8 hours per day. Longer hours can be observed in some areas or part of the labor force in each country. In my opinion, there are two main reasons.

The first reason mostly relies on the workers personally. The wage they receive in the standard working hours may not be sufficient to cover their living expenses, resulting in that they have to have side jobs or work overtime. Their expenses can vary, depending on their circumstances or purposes in life. Most of them are trying to provide the best life as possible for their family, like paying for their house mortgage or rental, daily groceries, their children's tuition fee and so on. Some people have other ambitions such as world traveling, owning a business, which requires an adequate amount of savings.

The second reason is longer hours are required by the industry or the company that they are working for. If the industry encounters an upward trend in the market which requires extra outcomes, it requires the same from its labor force in order to meet the needs. For example, people working in retails or production may have to spend extra hours at work when it's Christmas shopping season.

This reality can bring both positive and negative impacts. The industry obtains the required development and the workers earn more income, which is positive for their country's economy. The downside is the workers can encounter some health issues if they push themselves too hard, which can be avoided when they are attentive to their health and have a proper schedule.

Your prompt restatement omits important aspects of the original topic and does not properly respond to the guide questions. As such you have changed the prompt discussion topic from:

OT: In some countries people spend long hours at work
YT: the amount of time people spends at work averages around 8 hours per day. Longer hours can be observed in some areas or part of the labor force in each country.

The additional information of an 8 hour work day is irrelevant and not represented in the original presentation. Therefore, points will be deducted due to the alteration and additional, but unsupported information. You also did not establish if this, in your opinion is a positive or negative development. The result of this paragraph will be a failing preliminary TA score. That means, the essay will not receive a passing score, no matter how well you discuss your established opinions. Full scores cannot be given because the discussion is not based on the expected discussion points.


You can only choose one opinion. This is not a compare and contrast essay. This will be another reason the discussion essay will receive further penalties.

Since there is no closing summary, the essay will be provided with a total non passing score since the discussion format does not follow the required discussion representations.