Advantage disadvantage essay IELTS band 7: a marked sample on globalisation

A band 7 answer to an advantage/disadvantage question is rarely lost on vocabulary or grammar. It is lost when the candidate answers a question the paper did not ask, treating a prompt that demands a verdict as if it were an invitation to write two lists. What follows is an advantage disadvantage essay IELTS band 7 in full: two near-identical globalisation prompts placed side by side, a 281-word answer to the harder of the two, and an integer score with a one-line reason for each of the four criteria. Nothing here is an official model answer, so treat a band label on any sample, including this one, as a marker's judgement rather than a published standard.

Two prompts that look the same and are marked differently

Both prompts below were written for this article. They are not taken from a past paper or copied from another site.

Prompt A. Globalisation has made it easier for companies to move their operations to other countries. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this trend.

Prompt B. Globalisation has made it easier for companies to move their operations to other countries. Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

The topic sentence is identical. The instruction is not. Prompt A asks you to present both sides, and an essay that explains two advantages and two disadvantages and then stops has done everything that task requires. Prompt B asks a question, and questions have answers. An essay that lays out the same four points without ever saying which side is heavier has left the instruction unanswered, however well those four points are written.

That is why one piece of writing can score differently under two prompts that differ by a single clause. Task Response rewards covering what was asked and developing a clear position where the task calls for one. When the position never appears, that criterion is held well below the level the rest of the language would support, and because the four criteria are averaged, the whole task score comes down with it. If the distinction between this criterion and its Task 1 equivalent is still fuzzy, Task Achievement vs Task Response sets the two apart.

Two habits protect you. Before planning, underline the instruction verb and write your one-sentence answer to it at the top of your notes; that sentence becomes your thesis and your conclusion. And if the instruction contains "outweigh", then "outweigh", "greater", or some equivalent comparison should appear in your introduction — not as a formula, but as evidence that you read the question rather than the topic.

The sample answer: a verdict on globalisation

The answer below responds to Prompt B, the version that demands a decision. It runs to 281 words, comfortably past the 250-word minimum without padding, and it was written from scratch for this article. British spellings are used throughout; American spellings are equally acceptable, provided you do not mix the two systems inside one essay.

As trade barriers have fallen, firms can now relocate factories, offices and support services to almost any country that offers the right conditions. In my view, the benefits of this freedom are greater than the drawbacks, although the drawbacks fall on a predictable group of people and should not be ignored.

The main argument against relocation is the damage done to communities that lose the work. When a manufacturer closes a plant and reopens it abroad, the skills of the local workforce often become worthless overnight, and older employees in particular struggle to find comparable jobs. A second concern is that firms may move precisely because labour laws and environmental rules are weaker elsewhere, which allows them to cut costs in ways that would be illegal at home.

These problems are real, but they are outweighed by two broader gains. First, relocation creates stable, paid employment in countries where formal jobs are scarce, and those wages tend to circulate through local economies rather than disappear. A region that attracts an assembly plant usually gains suppliers, transport firms and training providers as well, so the effect reaches far beyond the factory gate. Second, producing goods where they can be made most efficiently keeps prices down for ordinary consumers everywhere, which matters most to households with the least money to spend.

The strongest objection — exploitation — is also the most solvable, since it depends on regulation rather than on relocation itself. Governments can enforce minimum standards, and buyers increasingly refuse to deal with suppliers who ignore them.

Overall, while the loss of jobs in wealthier economies is a genuine cost, the wider gains in employment and affordability make this trend more positive than negative.

Notice what the answer does not do. It does not open with a dictionary definition of globalisation, it does not announce its own structure, and it does not hedge in the final line. It concedes the strongest counter-argument openly, twice, and still finishes where it started. It also contains no figures at all — no share of trade, no wage comparison — because invented data earns nothing and reasoning is what the task asks for.

Why this is an advantage disadvantage essay IELTS band 7 answer, not a band 6

Each criterion is scored as a whole number, and those four whole numbers are averaged. The criteria are described here rather than quoted from the published descriptors: the public Band Descriptors (updated May 2023), available through ielts.org, set out what each band is looking for, and what follows is my paraphrase of those requirements, not their wording.

Criterion	Score	Why it sits here
Task Response	7	The verdict is stated in the introduction, defended at the turn of the argument, and repeated without contradiction at the end; both sides are developed, and the strongest objection is answered rather than left hanging.
Coherence and Cohesion	7	Each paragraph carries one idea, and the sequence builds towards the decision; the links are mostly done by the sentences themselves rather than by connectors bolted onto the front of every line.
Lexical Resource	7	Topic vocabulary is precise and collocationally sound — "trade barriers", "formal jobs", "minimum standards", "comparable jobs" — with some flexibility, but little that a reader would call genuinely uncommon.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy	7	Concessive clauses, relative clauses and fronted time clauses are handled cleanly, the majority of sentences are error-free, and no error interferes with meaning.

The arithmetic is plain: 7 + 7 + 7 + 7 = 28, and 28 ÷ 4 = 7.0. Half bands are not a separate judgement; they fall out of the four integers disagreeing. A script marked 7, 7, 6, 6 gives 26, and 26 ÷ 4 = 6.5. Your overall Writing band then comes from (Task 1 + Task 2 × 2) ÷ 3, rounded, so a 6.0 on Task 1 alongside this 7.0 on Task 2 produces (6.0 + 14.0) ÷ 3 = 6.67, reported as 6.5. Task 2 carries twice the weight of Task 1, which is why an hour spent fixing Task 2 habits moves your Writing score further than the same hour spent on charts.

What separates this answer from an 8 is not the argument but the language. Lexical Resource would need more range in the abstract vocabulary rather than more topic nouns, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy would need an error rate low enough that a reader stops noticing sentence-level slips at all. For the narrower question of what sits immediately below this line, see band 6.5 vs band 7; for the criteria themselves, IELTS Writing band descriptors explained.

The verdict has to be visible in three places

No one goes hunting for your position. A marker reads a paragraph at a time and registers whether it is there. In the sample it appears three times and never moves: the introduction says the benefits "are greater than the drawbacks"; the third paragraph turns on "these problems are real, but they are outweighed by two broader gains", so the ranking is restated at the exact moment the essay changes sides; and the final sentence concedes a cost before repeating the ranking one last time.

The common failure is not a missing verdict. It is a verdict that decays. The introduction commits, the body then gives both sides identical treatment and forgets which one it preferred, and the conclusion reverses everything with a line about how both sides have merit and it depends on the situation. That essay reads as undecided, and an undecided answer to a question that asks for a decision is an incomplete response — which is a Task Response problem, not a style problem.

Conceding is not the danger. Admitting that a drawback is real, serious and worth naming strengthens an argument, as long as the ranking survives the sentence. The test is simple: if your final line could be pasted onto an essay arguing the opposite position, it is not a conclusion, it is a shrug.

Rules candidates invent that examiners never apply

"You need the same number of advantages and disadvantages." No balance rule exists. The sample gives two drawbacks, two benefits and a rebuttal, but three-to-one would be just as acceptable — in an "outweigh" question, an unequal split is often the clearest way to show which side you think is heavier. What is assessed is whether each point is developed, not whether the two columns match.

"Longer is safer." The task sets a minimum of at least 250 words, and an under-length answer is penalised under Task Response. That is a floor, not a target. Past the low three hundreds, most extra sentences are paraphrase of earlier ones, and each of them is a fresh opportunity for the error that Grammatical Range and Accuracy will count.

"It has to be four paragraphs." The sample has five: introduction, drawbacks, benefits, rebuttal, conclusion. Coherence and Cohesion asks whether the order is logical and whether each paragraph has a centre, not whether you hit a paragraph quota.

"Never write 'I'." There is no ban on the first person. When the question asks what you think, "In my view" is the shortest honest way to say it, and burying the same claim in "it can be argued that" only makes the position harder to find.

"Rare words score higher." Lexical Resource rewards precision and natural collocation. A low-frequency word used slightly wrongly costs more than a plain word used exactly right earns, and a paragraph stuffed with memorised phrases reads as a rehearsal rather than a response.

What to do with your own answer

Write Prompt B under timed conditions, then check three things before you look at anything else. Does the introduction contain an explicit comparison? Does the paragraph where the argument turns restate that comparison? Does the last sentence agree with the first paragraph? Three yeses and you have removed the most common cap on this task type; what is left is language work, which is slower but far more predictable.

If you want the four integers rather than a guess, paste your answer into Bandly: it marks each criterion separately, applies the same arithmetic used above, and shows you the sentences that held each score down.

FAQ

How is "discuss the advantages and disadvantages" different from "do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages"?

The first asks for both sides; the second asks a question, and a question needs an answer. Four well-written points with no ranking leave an "outweigh" instruction unanswered, and that is a Task Response problem.

Do I need an equal number of points on each side?

No. There is no balance rule. An unequal split is often the clearest way to show which side you think is heavier — what is marked is whether each point is developed.

Can I write "I" in the essay?

Yes. When the question asks what you think, "In my view" says it in the fewest words. Hiding the same claim inside "it can be argued that" only makes your position harder to find.

Does writing more than 250 words raise my band?

No. The 250 is a floor, not a target. Beyond the low three hundreds you are mostly paraphrasing yourself, and each extra sentence is another chance for an error.

What would take this essay to a band 8?

Language, not argument: wider abstract vocabulary rather than more topic nouns, and an error rate low enough that the reader stops noticing sentence-level slips.

Related reading

• Task Achievement vs Task Response — which criterion marks which task, and why it matters here
• Band 6.5 vs band 7 essay — the half band below this one, scored side by side
• IELTS Writing band descriptors explained — all four criteria, band 5 upwards
• How to get band 7 in IELTS Writing — the four criteria as conditions to meet

Official task requirements and test information are on ielts.org.