An increasing number of people choose to live in big cities. What problems will this bring about? Should the government encourage people to live in small towns?
Sample Response
It is certainly true that nowadays people are movingshifting to larger cities. There are several reasons and consequences of this moot issue, however, the government can play a vital role so that one can be rehabilitated into the small towns.
To begin with, people migrate to big cities to enjoy the facilities available thereavailable over there and to secure their children’s future. Large cities are whereLarge cities are the places where various educational institutions are established. Moreover, more job opportunities attract people to citiesattract the people towards the cities. Nonetheless, this movementmoving of an enormous number of people creates problems. Firstly, the urban population will continue to growurban population would go on increasing, because of this, there will be housing problemsthere would be the housing problem. Furthermore, this leads to the creation of slum areasunderdeveloped slum areas. Secondly, in most casesin most of the cases, people in large cities might not find a jobobtain the job after several attempts, which leadsafter several trials which lead to deterioration of their standard of living. The overpopulation is big cities would create more pollutions, would increase the crime rate and traffic congestion would become worse. Next, as the population in cities increases, the number of people staying in towns and villages gradually decreasesdecrease. Because of this, there might be a situation when food production declinesfood harvesting steps down, this, in turn, produces food scarcity. Owing to all the above reasons it is clear thatclear that, the life of people in cities is highly stressful and problematic.
On the other hand, the government can change the situation in large citiesthis situation of people in large cities. Firstly, the government should improve the facilities in towns so that people do not think of moving to cities in search of a better lifein search of better life. This can be done by developing the transport system which interconnects different towns and cities. This encourages the establishment of companies that generategenerates employment for young peoplethe employment for youth. Construction of schools and colleges in the towns and countryside will help the children to study well. Moreover, providing employment allowances would also be beneficial. The government should decentralise many industries and offices so that small towns create more job opportunities. A large portion of the national budget should be allocated tofor the development of rural areas.
In conclusion, I believe that it is the government’s responsibility to look after the welfare of its people. Hence, shifting of more people to cities could be checked by providing city-like opportunities and facilities.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response's strongest feature is its comprehensive coverage of urban problems and concrete government measures, with a clear conclusion supporting investment in smaller towns. Its main limitation is linguistic precision: several causal claims are overstated, and frequent grammar and collocation errors make some sentences awkward. Prioritise developing fewer, better-supported problems while revising agreement, countable nouns, and natural policy vocabulary.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses both questions, presents a clear supportive position, and develops multiple problems and practical government actions, though some causal claims are speculative.
Focus on two major urban problems and explain their mechanisms carefully instead of relying on broad claims such as migration causing food scarcity.
Coherence and Cohesion
The problem-solution structure is logical and easy to follow, although list-like sequencing and some crowded sentences make progression less smooth.
Group related consequences under clear topic sentences and use causal links selectively rather than repeatedly numbering each point.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary range is adequate for urbanisation and public policy, but frequent inaccurate collocations and word forms reduce clarity and naturalness.
Use precise phrases such as urban migration, housing shortages, air pollution, employment opportunities, and investment in rural infrastructure.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses both simple and complex sentences, but recurring agreement, article, plural, and sentence-boundary errors remain noticeable.
Check subject-verb agreement and countable nouns, then split comma-linked independent clauses into correctly punctuated sentences.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
An increasing number of people choose to live in big cities. What problems will this bring about? Should the government encourage people to live in small towns?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.