WRITING TASK 2 : Shopping malls too much - Agree/Disagree

Today, many young people spend too much of their free time at shopping malls. This can be considered negative for young people and society generally.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Nowadays, the fact that the young spend most of their free time going shopping can be considered negative for themselves and also our society. To the best of my knowledge, I strongly approve of that statement for those reasons that will be discussed below.

Advocates of this base their arguments on the fact that being for more than one hour at the shopping malls can make teenagers waste much money on unnecessary commodities. Due to the attractive arrangement of goods in the shops, most people would be encouraged to pay for whatever they are impressed with and those are usually not essential. According to some reports about trading, people, especially women who go to the shopping malls buy up to seventy-five percent of things that are not needed because of the announcement as well as their appearance than those who go shopping online. As a result, it has made common thinking in others that shopping too much is usual even when they do not have enough money for living well.

Moreover, instead of wasting money meaninglessly, they can use that money for helping other people. Up to this year, the COVID 19 has made millions of people unemployed and homeless, however, others who can still earn living spend their time and money more and more on shopping. For example, the homeless can afford for their eating and many young people still buy food to use only a half. Thus, It is not a surprise that the gap between the rich and the poor is bigger, the rich are still rich and the poor are still poor.

To sum up, going shopping is not bad but young people should only consider shopping as a hobby and limit the time that they go. Likewise, they can use their free time and money to help those who are needed.

Going shopping and spending their free time at the shopping mall are 2 different activities. The writer was confused by the phrase


This could mean any activity ranging from shopping, going to the game center, watching a movie, and a host of other activities. It does not automatically translate as "going shopping". While that is the common thought that comes to mind when one hears of a shopping mall, the reference should have been more in general reference as in the original. For example: "spend most of their free time doing activities at the mall." This would be more aligned with the original statement of spending free time at the mall. The writer has thus, misrepresented the original thought and its subject reference.


The writer provided a clear statement, but did not provide any topical reference to support his claim. The supporting topic subjects mentioned at the end would have provided a clear thesis statement in support of his opinion. Doing so would have concretely established his opinion as needed for the strength of this paragraph restatement.


Again, the discussion reference focuses only on shopping as the discussion point. The activities that the mall goers spend on are varied and expansive. The writer must not focus only on shopping because th

at is only one of many activities. Rather than a focused discussion, this should be a general discussion covering various mall activities instead. This is a weak argument due to the incorrect focus.

The second paragraph is more acceptable in the social sense. The problem with this presentation is the sudden change of discussion focus with the closing sentence being :


That is a totally unrelated reference point and should not be included in the discussion. It alters the discussion topic from the original.


Again, the focus is not on shopping but on spending time at the mall. The test taker has misunderstood the requirements of the discussion.