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IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

In the past, many people had skills such as making their own clothes and doing repairs to things in the house. In many countries, nowadays, skills like these are disappearing.

Why do you think this is happening?
How far is this situation true in your country?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer 1:
In the past, people tend to make hand-made clothes or repair items at home so that they can earn a living. Many people believe that this trend is dropping tremendously today. I agree that people no longer use these skills to earn a living and in fact, this phenomenon is also happening in my country. In the following paragraph, I will explain my views and the reasons why the skills are vanishing around the world.

Many people remain convinced that the vast technological development has brought the disappearance of these skills. Take the case of computers, for example. It is true that the development of a trend of sending emails through computers take place in recent decades and these developments have replaced the traditional practice of writing letters with pens or pencils. Similarly, after the inventions of a cloth making the machine or repairing the machine, the majority of people have become more relied on these machines rather than the manpower. Since these inventions make the whole manufacturing or repairing process become more time and cost effective, it is easy to see why more and more businessmen choose to build factories with machines while hiring fewer and fewer people who have the skill of making clothes or repairing items.

At the same time, I think that similar situations are happening in my country. Considering the fact that more and more people are switching the jobs from a manufacturing or repairing worker to a machine technician in the past few years, this cannot be denied. Given that the trend of industrialisation is still growing in my country, people eventually forget all these skills secondary to disuse. In the employees' mind, new factories with machines have higher profits and if they quit the job as a worker, they will be more likely to get a better-paid job and thus increase their living standards in future. Therefore, there is no doubt that the technical advances in my home country result in the disappearance of these skills as fewer people are willing to continue working for their original job.

20-30 years earlier, people did not have the technological advancements and that's why they were taught from their childhood how to do certain household things like repairing a tool or making clothes. Nowadays, parents do not focus that much on teaching their children of those skills. People mostly rely on machines, technological tools and skilled professionals for such things while they focus on education and getting specialised on their own field rather than gaining those short of skills.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that the technical development has brought the disappearance of these skills as the whole process has become efficient whereas in many employees' perspective, the incentive of not adopting these skills by switching their job nature allows them to become more wealthy and successful in future and this phenomenon is also commonly seen around the world including my country.

[by Angela]

Sample Answer 2:
Many years ago people used to make everything themselves and from scratch. Everyone's main duties included building a home, working in the field, cooking and making clothes. Most of the jobs we know today did not exist. There were no lawyers, bankers, journalists and many more. Nowadays, however, it's different.

With the introduction of technology in our daily lives and in the production of many goods, the world has changed. People no longer learn how to make their own clothes or repair their houses. In modern days you either hire someone to do the job for you or use technology. As for clothes and food, you can just pop to the nearest shopping centre and find everything you need.

In my country, things are more or less the same. It's not common for people, especially younger ones to have skills like these. Some years ago kids were taught how to sew and use machinery at school but this does not happen anymore. Of course, there are people who still know how to make things by themselves but they are usually doing it because they have no other choice - they either live in the countryside or are not particularly wealthy.

In general, I believe that less and fewer people rely on themselves to do such work. It is a good thing that nowadays everything is so easy to get and technology is so advanced but thinks about it - if all of our machines broke, who would know how to do their job?

[by Evgeniya]

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