IELTS TASK 2: Open plan office no walls, no barriers. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

open-plan offices evaluation

Do open-plan offices bring more benefits than harm, or the other way around? Nowadays, many companies have their employees to work in an open-plan office without any wall or barrier between the seats. Although there are obvious drawbacks, I believe that advantages of open-plan offices outweigh its disadvantages.

Firstly, I believe that open-plan offices can help to improve working efficiency and environment. Especially for companies where its employees are usually involved in group projects, the absence of wall or barrier can make group discussion much easier and increases working efficiency. Open-plan offices also promote socialising between colleagues, unlike the traditional-styled offices where employees often only focus on their own work without communication with others which may lead to increase in stress levels. A recent study done by University of Japan have shown that employees working in open-plan offices work 70% faster than workers who work in the traditional-styled offices.

However, there are some disadvantages that come with open-plan offices too. One of the main drawbacks is that it acts as a form of distraction. The absence of wall or barrier means that random noises or conversation between colleagues will be transmitted directly to the ears without any obstacles to lower the volume. For individuals who have a hard time concentrating in a noisy environment, open-plan offices will worsen the situation.

All in all, I believe that open-plan offices bring more advantages than disadvantages to the table. The issue of distraction can be solved easily by wearing earphones, whereas the benefit of improvement in working efficiency cannot be neglected.

You cannot use a rhetorical question to represent the restatement of the original prompt. Use a direct statement format because you are expected to inform the reader, not ask a question. The second sentence sounds too much like the original presentation for it to be scored. It might just be considered a cut and paste of the original statement. The first paragraph seems to suffer from a problem in presentation originality.


Scores are not provided for paragraphs that do not support the original opinion of the author. Single opinion essays, those that do not require a discussion of both opinions or, a comparison of 2 opinions, should never stray from the single opinion defense. Defending both sides will fail your TA score since you no longer have a clear opinion and, your essay will also meet word deductions for not meeting the minimum word count anymore. No score will be awarded for opposing reason defense discussion paragraphs. You cannot contradict yourself in your own opinion presentation.That is like saying, "I am right, but I am also wrong." Does that kind of discussion defense make sense to you? Exactly. it is a foolish way of proving your point. It is incorrect.