The world has seen an enormous increase in flights for leisure, business and commercial purposes around the world over recent years. What do you think are the main advantages and disadvantages of such flights? Do you think flights should be taxed more?

Same questionCompare 3 different answers (Band 6–8)

Sample Response

1

Due to globalisation, a paradigm shift of people's lifestyle and expansion of tourism and international commerce, cheap and frequent flights all around the world is quite common nowadays which offers both advantages and disadvantages. In this essay, I shall examine both positive and negative aspects of such flights before drawing a reasonable conclusion. With regardregards to advantages, frequent flights have made air travelthe air travel affordable for many and as a consequence, more people can enjoy the fast and flexible traveljourney. More frequent flightsIncreasing flights also expand tourism and business opportunitiesthe tourism and business opportunities and thus indirectly createcreates more job opportunities. Moreover, people have more places to visit, pursue new business opportunitiesventure in new business opportunities, accessavail advanced medical facilities in developed countries and learn more by travelling. Frequent travelThe frequent travels, in a way, reduce the cultural dividesgaps among people of different countries and bring nations together. Last but not least, many multinational companies can run their operations smoothly across cities due to easily availableeasily-available air travel and this has a direct impact on creating more employment opportunitiesscopes. On the other hand, the detrimental effects of the rapid increasedetrimental effects of the rapid increase in air travel cannot be ignored. The amount of air pollution it causes is quite alarming. A single flight emits a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributingto the air contributing to the greenhouse effect. Furthermore, airports in cities disturbhamper the peace of local people and increase the possibility of terrorist attacks. Many experts suggest that one way to check the negative consequences of increasing air travel is to impose higher taxesmore tax. Though this might seem a reasonable solution, I, however, disagree. More effective solutions like introducing eco-friendly jet fuel and tight security should be in place rather than increasing the tax which would only force the general public to pay moreburden mass people to pay more for their travel. To conclude, ever-increasing air travel has some negative outcomes like air and noisesound pollution and threat to the national security. However, imposing a heavy tax is not a viable solution to this and cheap and frequent flights have facilitated people in many ways which are a timely demand of modern people.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 6.5

The essay addresses advantages, disadvantages, and taxation directly, and its strongest feature is the clear rejection of higher taxes alongside alternative solutions. Its main limitation is presentation and precision: the entire response forms one dense paragraph, many benefits are listed rather than developed, and frequent awkward expressions weaken authority. Prioritise clear paragraphing and deeper explanation of the most important advantage and disadvantage.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TR

Task Response

7.0
Scoring rule

All parts of the task are addressed with a clear position on taxation and several relevant advantages, disadvantages, and alternatives.

Next step

Develop the strongest economic benefit and environmental cost in more depth instead of listing many brief advantages.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

6.0
Scoring rule

The response progresses from benefits to harms and taxation, but the lack of paragraph breaks creates a dense structure and linking is often mechanical.

Next step

Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, tax position, and conclusion, each with one clear central focus.

LR

Lexical Resource

6.5
Scoring rule

Vocabulary is varied enough to discuss tourism, business, pollution, security, and policy, but inaccurate collocations occur frequently.

Next step

Use natural phrases such as “access medical care,” “employment opportunities,” “emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” and “ordinary travellers.”

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

6.0
Scoring rule

A range of complex structures is attempted, but agreement, article, preposition, and relative-clause errors recur throughout.

Next step

Check subject-verb agreement and sentence boundaries, particularly when singular and plural references change within long sentences.

Put the feedback to work

Write this task while it is fresh

Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.

IELTS Writing Task 2

The world has seen an enormous increase in flights for leisure, business and commercial purposes around the world over recent years. What do you think are the main advantages and disadvantages of such flights? Do you think flights should be taxed more?

Your response

Words0
40:00

Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.