Newspaper Article — The Rise of Athleisure

2018 HKDSE English Paper 2 · Q6 (Part B) · analysed 15 May 2026
Year: 2018 Part: B Question: Q6 Genre: newspaper article (explanatory) Grade band: 5* (this piece) · 5 overall Marks: 17 + 17 = 34 / 42 Candidate: 2018-004

Question prompt — Q6 Learning English through Popular Culture

‘Athleisure’ is currently one of the biggest trends in the fashion industry. This is a term for clothes that can be worn both for exercise and as everyday wear.

Write an article for the local newspaper explaining possible reasons for the rise in popularity of athleisure. (~400 words)

Show original handwritten pages (3)

Page 31 — opening + marketing argument — PDF page 31 (booklet p.8) — opening hook + marketing argument

Page 32 — comfort/design argument + workplace — PDF page 32 (booklet p.9) — comfort/design + workplace culture

Page 33 — close — PDF page 33 (booklet p.10) — close + call to action

The writing, with corrections marked inline

Legend: ~~red strikethrough~~ = removed | green highlight = added or replaced | yellow highlight = handwriting unclear or wording almost certainly slipped

Booklet p.8 (lines 1–15)
Athleisure — Why It Is Taking Over the World
1Gone were are the days when women were still seen wearing wore fitted dresses,
2with accessories of flower patterns, and men were still wearing
3casual or fashion shirts and pencil shorts. In the past
4decade, clothes that can be worn for exercise and everyday routine
5have boomed in color boomed in popularity. They are known as ‘athleisure’, and
6is are now one of the biggest trends of the fashion industry
7— instead of dying down like other clear-cut craze fads.
8 
9Marketing campaigns of sports brands have certainly played a
10major role. In recent years, sports giants like Nike and Adidas
11have launched advertising campaigns featuring sport-celebrity sports celebrities
12with a refreshing breath of comfort. Brutal Sundeck [A sample campaign],
13for example, has multiple effects on movements. To start with,
14it had raises the health awareness of people and instills viewers
15with the desire to exercise more. To save energy, people would put on
Booklet p.9 (lines 16–37)
16athleisure when running, at the sports gym, or just around the house,
17indirectly conveying the message that sports clothes are excellent
18alternatives to traditional sportswear. The corresponding models also
19make people uncomprehending, believe that they will give off the same
20athletic, healthy and charismatic vibe by wearing these clothes. So
21they very much yearn to pulled out are eager to spend their money on buying
22athleisure clothes, causing the popularity of athleisure to
23go over go through the roof.
24 
25Technically speaking, athleisure clothes are often described to be also offer
26modern and first-class comfort. No one ever wore jeans while
27jogging because jeans don’t have the best construction and or
28material. They are extremely stiff for our legs against the legs. On the
29contrary, athleisure pants and T-shirts are designed to allow
30perspiration of the skin. They are extremely highly soft and breathable,
31and wick sweat efficiently. Thus, athleisure clothes are even more easy
32much easier and more comfortable than normal clothes than ordinary clothes, and this
33accounts for why more and more people opt for athleisure.
34 
35What’s more, the rocketing popularity of athleisure can be
36attributed to the evolution of workplace culture, especially overseas.
37Nowadays, workers do not have strict dress codes — no tuxedos and
Booklet p.10 (lines 38–51)
38suits are gradually becoming a thing of the past. Many employers,
39particularly those in the technology industry, prescribe encourage a relaxed
40office atmosphere that is required to innovation for innovation. They provide
41gym facilities for workers to exercise and stretch if they feel the
42need to take a break. The increasing importance of meditation in
43the office, as well as the rise of casual office atmospheres, makes
44athleisure clothing a very reasonable choice for work. As a result,
45athleisure clothing has become the new working outfit, and is
46widely worn by workers.
47 
48Without the very stating very strong campaigns by big sports companies,
49the new thought-out well thought-out designs, and the remaking of the
50workplace, this would definitely not be the trend it is today. Have you
51bought your set of athleisure clothes yet? Give it a try, and
52perhaps you will like it, just as everyone else does.

Marks earned: 17 + 17 = 34 / 42 (per-piece 5*; candidate’s overall is HIGH Level 5). The third-panel mark (D3) was 17; under closest-pair logic the M1 and D3 marks form the final pair, and the slightly higher M2 = 18 was disregarded. So the ‘true’ reading is M1 = 17, agreed by D3, giving 17+17 = 34/42. Sits at the bottom of the 5* band.

Dual-band convention. Per-piece reported as 5* (this piece) · 5 overall.

Word count. Approximately 500 words against the ~400 brief — about 25% over. More disciplined than the comparable 2018 Q4/Q5 pieces (which ran 600 words).

First Q6 piece in the collection. The athleisure prompt is new to the 2016–2018 set in this collection — until now Part B has been covered only by speech, letter, and report genres. This is the first newspaper-article piece in the collection (2017 had article-format Part B’s from candidates 2016-001 and 2016-002 but on different topics). The companion piece in this batch (candidate 2018-009, 40/42) provides the natural pair-piece comparison.

Why this is 5* not 5**. The three-reason structure (marketing → comfort → workplace) is clean and the vocabulary range is genuine (athleisure, perspiration, breathable, rocketing, evolution, prescribe, meditation, atmosphere, tuxedo, charismatic). What holds it back is sentence-level execution: several stretches collapse mid-clause (the marketing-campaign details, the ‘wick sweat efficiently’ line, the close with remaking of the workplace), and a small number of authenticity stumbles (brutal Sundeck, refreshing breath of comfort, very much yearn to pulled out). The architecture would carry a 5** if the sentences could.

Genre choice. The candidate opens with a centred title (Athleisure — Why It Is Taking Over the World), uses a then-now contrast (Gone are the days), and closes with a direct question to the reader (Have you bought your set yet?). All three are genuine newspaper-article moves — the candidate has clearly read the kind of trend piece this prompt is modelled on.

Strengths to praise

1. The newspaper-article frame is established and sustained

Title at the top (Athleisure — Why It Is Taking Over the World), a then-now opener (Gone are the days…), three reasoned sections, and a direct-to-reader close. The piece reads, from the first line, as something published in a paper rather than as an essay. Many candidates write Q6 as an essay with no title and no second-person address; this one commits to the genre.

2. The three-cause structure is clean and complementary

Marketing campaigns (Nike, Adidas push) → functional design (comfort, breathability) → workplace culture (relaxed office, tech-industry casual). Each cause operates in a different domain (commercial, material, sociological), giving the piece coverage without overlap. This is the kind of analytic structure trend articles in SCMP or the Standard use.

3. Specific brand and industry references

“Sports giants like Nike and Adidas… particularly those in the technology industry.” Naming actual brands and naming a specific industry sector (tech) anchors the abstract claims in a recognisable world. The 2017 article pieces in the collection rarely name brands; this candidate’s instinct is right.

4. The closing direct address is a real article move

“Have you bought your set of athleisure clothes yet? Give it a try, and perhaps you will like it.” Closing on a question to the reader is one of the clearest signals of newspaper-article register — it implies the reader is part of the trend, not just observing it. The candidate has nailed the close.

5. The technical-comfort paragraph names mechanisms

“Athleisure pants and T-shirts are designed to allow perspiration of the skin. They are highly soft and breathable, and wick sweat efficiently.” The candidate moves past the surface-level they’re comfortable to name actual material properties (perspiration, breathable, wick sweat). This is the move that distinguishes a trend article from a sales pitch.

6. Vocabulary range that suits the topic

Rocketing, attributed, evolution, prescribe, atmosphere, tuxedo, charismatic, meditation, perspiration, breathable, instills. These aren’t decorative additions — each does work in its sentence. The vocabulary suggests a candidate who reads beyond the textbook, which is exactly what the markers are rewarding at 5* level.

Grammar notes

Issue	Explanation
(line 1) `Gone were the days when women were still seen wearing` → `Gone are the days when women wore`	The fixed phrase is gone are the days (present tense). The candidate’s were still seen wearing is a passive that doesn’t pair with the past-as-disappeared sense of the opener.
(lines 5–6) `They are known as ‘athleisure’, and is now one of the biggest trends` → `They are known as ‘athleisure’, and are now one of the biggest trends`	Subject-verb agreement: subject is they (the clothes), so are, not is.
(line 5) `have boomed in color` → `have boomed in popularity`	Boom in color doesn’t parse — boom in this commercial sense pairs with popularity, sales, demand, not color. (Boom + color would imply an explosion of vibrancy, which isn’t the meaning.)
(line 11) `sport-celebrity` → `sports celebrities`	Plural form (the next sentence discusses multiple). Sport as a prefix is rare; sports celebrities, sports figures, sports stars is the standard collocation.
(lines 14–15) `instills viewers to exercise more` → `instills in viewers the desire to exercise more`	Instill takes in + person, the X: instill in him a love of music, instill in students discipline. The verb requires both an object (what is instilled) and a recipient (in whom).
(line 12) `refreshing breath of comfort` → `refreshing image` / (unclear)	Refreshing breath of comfort is non-standard. The mixed metaphor (breath + comfort) doesn’t cohere; likely a coined phrase the candidate didn’t test.
(lines 27–28) `jeans don’t have the best construction or material. They are extremely stiff for our legs` → ok / minor refinement	Acceptable. Stiff against the legs reads slightly more natural than stiff for our legs.
(lines 29–30) `allow perspiration of the skin` → `allow the skin to breathe` / `wick perspiration away from the skin`	Allow perspiration of the skin is ambiguous — what is allowed to do what? The textile claim is that the fabric lets sweat evaporate, which is best stated as allow the skin to breathe or with the technical verb wick.
(lines 31–32) `are even more easy` → `are much easier`	Comparative form: easier, not more easy. Single-syllable adjectives like easy use -er.
(line 33) `more and more people opt for athleisure clothes` → ok	Standard. The verb opt for is appropriate to the trend-article register.
(lines 37–38) `no tuxedos and suits are gradually becoming a thing of the past` → `tuxedos and suits are gradually becoming a thing of the past`	The candidate inserts no at the start, which inverts the meaning. The intended sense is that tuxedos are disappearing — the no needs to come out.
(lines 39–40) `prescribe a relaxed office atmosphere that is required to innovation` → `encourage a relaxed office atmosphere required for innovation`	Two fixes: prescribe usually pairs with rules or treatments (prescribe medication); for office culture, encourage, foster, promote. And required to innovation needs the preposition for.
(line 49) `thought-out designs` → `well thought-out designs`	Thought-out as a compound adjective usually takes well- as the standard intensifier: well thought-out designs, well-considered plans.
(line 52) `perhaps you will like it, just as everyone else does` → ok	Standard close. The future-tense + just as comparison is appropriate.

Style suggestions (where 5* writing could become 5**)

Categories: Fluency sentence flow. Authenticity places that sound student-y or translated. Text-type fit matching genre conventions.

Suggestion 1 · sharpen the then-now contrast in the opener

Text-type fitlines 1–3

Original: “Gone are the days when women wore fitted dresses with accessories of flower patterns, and men were wearing casual or fashion shirts and pencil shorts.”

Try: “Ten years ago, going out meant putting on a shirt or a dress. Today, going out means putting on yoga pants and a sports hoodie. Athleisure has taken over the wardrobe.”

A then-now opener works hardest when the two images are vivid and immediately legible. The candidate’s original is asking the reader to picture women in flower-pattern dresses and men in pencil shorts, which doesn’t register as ‘recent past’. The pro version names a clean ten-year gap and uses two recognisable garment images.

Suggestion 2 · the marketing-campaign description needs a concrete example

Text-type fitlines 11–12

Original: “Sports giants like Nike and Adidas have launched advertising campaigns featuring sports celebrities with a refreshing breath of comfort.”

Try: “Sports giants like Nike and Adidas have spent billions on ad campaigns — LeBron James in a hoodie at the airport, Serena Williams walking her dog in joggers — rebranding athletic clothes as everyday clothes.”

Trend journalism lives on named examples. The original’s refreshing breath of comfort is reaching for something atmospheric but doesn’t name what the reader would actually see in the campaign. Two named celebrities + two named contexts (airport, dog walk) does the work.

Suggestion 3 · “no tuxedos” negation slip

Text-type fitlines 37–38

Original: “workers do not have strict dress codes — no tuxedos and suits are gradually becoming a thing of the past.”

Try: “Workers no longer face strict dress codes. The Monday-morning suit is on the way out.”

The candidate’s double-negative (no tuxedos… are becoming a thing of the past) flips the meaning. Splitting into two sentences with one claim each removes the slip and reads more like a real newspaper paragraph.

Suggestion 4 · the tech-industry observation could name a real company

Authenticitylines 38–40

Original: “Many employers, particularly those in the technology industry, encourage a relaxed office atmosphere required for innovation.”

Try: “Companies like Google and Facebook publicise their hoodie-and-jeans dress code as a feature, not an indulgence. The argument is that creative work needs casual settings.”

Two named companies + the candidate’s underlying argument (casual settings + creativity) makes the sociological claim observable. Many employers in the technology industry is too generic for the band the candidate is reaching for.

Suggestion 5 · the “meditation in the office” line needs context

Authenticitylines 42–44

Original: “The increasing importance of meditation in the office, as well as the rise of casual office atmospheres, makes athleisure clothing a very reasonable choice for work.”

Try: “Some firms now schedule mid-morning yoga sessions and offer mindfulness apps as part of their wellbeing programmes. You can’t bend into a child’s pose in a pencil skirt.”

The original’s generic importance of meditation in the office is interesting but unsupported. Naming two concrete workplace wellness practices (yoga sessions, mindfulness apps) and using a quick physical image (child’s pose in a pencil skirt) lands the cause-and-effect harder.

Suggestion 6 · the close already works — could be tightened by one beat

Text-type fitlines 50–52

Original: “Have you bought your set of athleisure clothes yet? Give it a try, and perhaps you will like it, just as everyone else does.”

Try: “So — have you bought your set yet? If not, the trend isn’t waiting.”

A two-sentence close lands punchier than three. The implicit social pressure (the trend isn’t waiting) is a stronger closer than perhaps you will like it, which softens the call to action.

Suggestion 7 · compress toward 420 words

Text-type fit

Original: ~500 words against a ~400 brief.

Aim: hook (60w) · marketing (90w) · comfort (90w) · workplace (100w) · close (40w). Target: ~380.

The marketing paragraph is the easiest to compress — its restated comfort claim duplicates territory the next paragraph covers. Trimming there would free 25-30 words without losing substance.

Professional rewrite — the workplace-culture paragraph (text-type fit + authenticity)

Professional rewrite — the ‘workplace evolution’ argument

This is the candidate’s strongest analytic move: linking athleisure not to fashion or comfort alone, but to a real shift in how workplaces dress. The original collects the right ideas (no dress code, tech industry, meditation, casual office) but stitches them with phrasing that flickers (no tuxedos and suits are gradually becoming a thing of the past, prescribe a relaxed office atmosphere). A professional rewrite preserves all three observations and lands them with named companies and named practices. Text-type fit (newspaper-trend register) and authenticity (named brands + named behaviour) drive the rewrite.

The student’s paragraph (corrected)

What’s more, the rocketing popularity of athleisure can be attributed to the evolution of workplace culture, especially overseas. Nowadays, workers do not have strict dress codes — tuxedos and suits are gradually becoming a thing of the past. Many employers, particularly those in the technology industry, encourage a relaxed office atmosphere required for innovation. They provide gym facilities for workers to exercise and stretch if they feel the need to take a break. The increasing importance of meditation in the office, as well as the rise of casual office atmospheres, makes athleisure clothing a very reasonable choice for work. As a result, athleisure clothing has become the new working outfit, and is widely worn by workers.

Rewritten by a professional trend journalist

The biggest shift, though, has been at work. Twenty years ago, an office meant a suit. Today, the offices that set the cultural agenda — Google, Spotify, the major HK tech firms that have moved into Quarry Bay — have torn up the dress code on purpose. They’ve added gyms in the basement, yoga rooms on the eleventh floor, and standing desks at every workstation. Hoodies and joggers aren’t a Friday relaxation any more; they’re what people wear to important meetings on a Tuesday. The clothes followed the chairs.

What the rewrite is doing differently (text-type fit + authenticity emphasis):

The argument opens with a one-sentence claim. The biggest shift, though, has been at work. Newspaper paragraphs lead with the assertion; the candidate’s version takes a full sentence of setup (can be attributed to the evolution of workplace culture, especially overseas) before the claim arrives.
Named companies do the analytic work. Google, Spotify, the major HK tech firms that have moved into Quarry Bay. The original’s many employers, particularly those in the technology industry is generic; named brands make the sociology observable.
The wellness details land as physical objects. Gyms in the basement, yoga rooms on the eleventh floor, standing desks at every workstation. Three concrete office features the reader can picture. The candidate’s gym facilities… meditation is right but abstract.
The trend is stated in a sentence the reader will remember. Hoodies and joggers aren’t a Friday relaxation any more; they’re what people wear to important meetings on a Tuesday. The candidate’s athleisure clothing has become the new working outfit is correct but procedural. The rewrite’s contrast (Friday vs Tuesday) carries the same point with rhetorical force.
The closing sentence is the keeper. The clothes followed the chairs. Five words. A trend-piece signature line, naming the causal direction the rest of the paragraph has been arguing.

Vocabulary to notice

Word	Definition	Usage notes
athleisure	(n.) clothing designed for athletic activities but worn for everyday casual wear.	Newer English word (2010s). Always lowercase. The genre-defining vocabulary item for this prompt.
trend	(n.) a general direction in which something is developing or changing.	Pairs with fashion, social, recent, rising, declining: a rising trend, the latest fashion trend. Standard vocabulary for trend articles.
rocketing / skyrocketing	(adj./v.) rising or increasing very quickly.	Pairs with prices, popularity, sales, demand: rocketing popularity, skyrocketing prices. Newsy register, appropriate for trend pieces.
attribute (to)	(v.) to regard as caused by or belonging to.	Takes to: attribute the rise to social media, attribute the change to economic factors. Standard cause-claim verb in journalism.
evolution	(n.) the gradual development of something.	Pairs with workplace, language, culture, technology: the evolution of workplace culture, the evolution of design. More elevated than change.
perspiration	(n.) sweat; the act of sweating.	Pairs with cause, induce, allow, prevent. More formal than sweat; appropriate for technical claims about fabrics.
breathable	(adj.) (of fabric) allowing air to pass through.	Pairs with fabric, material, clothing, mesh: breathable mesh, breathable fabric. The standard textile term.
wick (away)	(v.) to draw moisture away by absorption.	Pairs with sweat, moisture, water: fabrics that wick sweat away from the skin. The technical verb for moisture-management textiles.
tuxedo / suit	(n.) formal men’s evening wear / a set of clothes (jacket + trousers).	Together they signal formal business attire. The Monday-morning suit, the boardroom tuxedo.
prescribe / encourage / promote	(v.) to recommend or advise.	Prescribe is medical / authoritative; encourage / promote for workplace and cultural contexts. The company encourages a casual atmosphere.
dress code	(n.) a set of rules about what clothing may be worn in a particular setting.	Pairs with strict, relaxed, business-casual, formal: a strict dress code, a business-casual dress code.
charismatic	(adj.) exercising a compelling charm that inspires devotion in others.	Pairs with leader, presence, personality, vibe: a charismatic leader, charismatic energy. Suits trend-piece registers.
instill (in)	(v.) to gradually cause (an attitude, feeling, or quality) to be established in someone.	Takes in + person, the X: instill in her a love of music, instill discipline in students. Not instill X to Y.
opt for	(phr. v.) to choose.	Pairs with option, alternative, product: opt for the cheaper version, opt for athleisure. Slightly more formal than choose; suits journalism.
opt out (of)	(phr. v.) to choose not to participate in.	The opposite of opt for. Opt out of the meeting, opt out of the system. Useful pair to know.
meditation / mindfulness	(n.) the practice of focused mental awareness.	Pair with practice, session, app, programme: meditation app, mindfulness session. Increasingly common in workplace-wellness discourse.