Do the Advantages Outweigh the Disadvantages? – Advice About This Question Type

A few days ago, one of the people using my writing correction service e-mailed me with a question about advantage and disadvantage questions, and it was an interesting question, so I thought I’d share my response here.

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? – What does this question really mean?

Here’s what my student wrote me last week:

Whenever I’m asked if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, do I mention one of each or more than one?

Do I give my opinion too?

And here is my reply to here (lightly edited for this website):

Let’s break this into two issues:

do I mention one of each or more than one?

No, you do not need to mention more than one of each. I understand why you think that you would, and why many people teach that we must. First of all, the question itself uses plural form. It is “advantages and disadvantages,” not “the advantage and the disadvantage.” However, that is for grammatical and logical reasons. It would be wrong to suggest there is only one possible advantage of a situation.

Also, the fact that it’s about whether one outweighs the other or not shows that we actually don’t need to mention both, so if you were only to mention one side (let’s say advantages), then obviously we’d probably talk about two or three or four of them. Remember, though, that these essays are all about the development of ideas and you only have to write about 250-300 words, so you can’t talk about lots of ideas and sufficiently develop them.

Sometimes, I will say that the advantages (for example) totally outweigh the disadvantages and then only talk about the advantages. I will, however, make a point of saying that the disadvantages are few and minor. Sometimes I will do the opposite and say that they are both equally weighted. In that case, I might give one of each or two of each. But remember that it’s about “outweigh” — i.e. are they more important, not more numerous.

This is an important thing to keep in mind. Some students interpret the question as being a matter of whether one side has more advantages than the other. That’s not exactly right, though. If one side had three small disadvantages and one big advantage, then the advantage(s) could still outweigh the disadvantages.

Do I give my opinion too?

This is actually the most important part, and the answer is yes.

When it asks whether one side outweighs the other, you absolutely must give your opinion. That can be in favour of advantages, disadvantages, or totally neutral… but you have to make your position clear in the introduction and conclusion, and these have to be in line with what you say in the body paragraphs.

Remember that this may be about advantages and disadvantages, but it is really an opinion question.

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? – A sample answer

Now that we’ve discussed the requirements, let’s look at a sample question and answer.

Question

In some countries, more and more adults are continuing to live with their parents even after they have completed education and found jobs.

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

My Answer

These days, it is quite common for people to live with their parents even after they have graduated from university and found a job. There are various reasons for this situation, as well as some consequences. Overall, it is impossible to say whether it is a good or a bad phenomenon, so this essay will explore both the advantages and disadvantages.

On the plus side, people who live with their parents after university may save money which they can then use later in life. This is preferable to paying rent and bills for several years after graduation. Instead of this, young people can live with their parents and then buy a house when they are ready to settle down. In addition, this situation can allow young people to stay closer to their families and maintain traditions. In the modern world, lots of old values have changed or been lost, and this can help continue closer family relationships.

There are also a great many negatives to this. Unfortunately, living at home restricts a young person’s freedom, and thus they cannot forge close personal relationships with their peers. It is important for young men and women to live together as young adults so that they can know each other before marriage, and living with parents makes this impossible. More than just impacting social development, living alone or with friends or a partner allows for many other responsibilities, and living with parents also restricts this. For example, it is good for young people to learn about the difficulties of paying bills and doing their own chores rather than relying upon their parents.

In conclusion, it is hard to say whether there are more advantages or disadvantages. It seems there are different cultural perspectives to be taken into consideration. All that can really be concluded is that there are certainly many big differences between living alone and living with your parents.

Analysing the Answer

Let’s think about this answer and see how it fits with my earlier advice.

Firstly, you will notice that I have not chosen one side, and so my answer is quite balanced. I believe that it is impossible to say that one side outweighs the others, so I will merely explore them. However, it is fine to strongly side with one view and totally dismiss another.

Here’s an outline of the structure:

Notice that although I gave more than one advantage and disadvantage, I did not just list many of them. I gave them carefully and then explained them. This is important for Task Response because it shows development.

Here are two more sample answers about this type of question:

• The advantages and disadvantages of driverless cars
• The advantages and disadvantages of paying with mobile apps