I am going to sit an IELTS exam next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't been spending any time working on IELTS materials at all for I was too busy with work.

Today, I spent all the morning writing this task-2 essay.

You experts here please evaluate and correct it as clearly and much as possible so that I will have a clearer look at what my writing must be. If you can, please tell me what scores I may earn with this writing.

Thank you so very much in advance.

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Write about the following topic:

In many parts of the world, families were larger in the past because people had more children.

Do you think there were more advantages or disadvantages to being part of a large family in the past?

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

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Modern families are much smaller than those in the past in lots of areas of the world. Back to the time in the mid-twentieth century, there were a variety of advantages and disadvantages of living in a big family.

From my point of view, the advantages of being a member of a big family were significant. Firstly, living in a multi-generation family, children were gradually developed social skills naturally. This was partly because they have a chance to communicate with people of all ages. For example, when children played together, they could argue, even quarrel with each other, and then they had to learn to defend themselves in such situations. In addition to that, there were games and activities requiring their co-ordinations. Joining these activities did help children with their teamwork which would be vital to their future careers. Secondly, living in a large family meant parents were busy working all day long to provide for the family’s needs. In these circumstances, children had to give a hand with the housework. This played a vital role in building their sense of responsibility. Moreover, the grandparents took care of the children and the house when the parents were not home, and the family benefited greatly from this because they didn’t have to hire a babysitter to look after the children. Also, the younger siblings could learn many things from their elder ones.

On the other hand, there were quite enormous disadvantages when living in a big family. Firstly, parents had to face many difficulties. For instance, having many children meant one of them had to stay at home to watch the children in case the grandparents were unable to do so. This led to less outcome and they didn’t have enough money to pay for their activities and needs, especially their kids’ education. And you know that the poorer education their children had, the less successful lives they would have in the future. Next, parents could not pay full attention to individual children for many reasons. As far as you know, they had to work so hard to provide for the family, otherwise they might encounter a shortage of everything, even food. Therefore, it was understandable that they neglected not only their children, but also themselves.

In my opinion, the benefits of a large family were greater than the difficulties. Though the families had less money, they tended to live a happier life due to their stronger relationships. They supported and helped each other when a member had a problem. Finally, they were never lonely because they were always surrounded by their relatives.