Some say that due to heavy traffic governments need to build more roads in metropolitan cities, while others argue this isn't the right solution. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
Advancement of the world has brought tremendous development in the transportation system, but in developing and undeveloped countries, increases in private vehicles has become the main reason of traffic blocks. Some people argue that the government should take initiatives in building more roads to solve this problem but some others argue building road is not the right solution. However, I tend to agree with the latter statement that construction of new roads is not the only and proper solution for it. First and foremost, government’s initiative to make new roads for reducing the heavy traffic in metropolitan cities is not the way but it is the wastage of government funds which should be used for the basic purpose of the society. To be precise, building new roads instead of limiting private vehicles will do no effect on traffic flow. For example, a country like India has to give more priority to the basic needs of low-income society such as in healthcare, employment, education more instead of developing road system which is of least important for the development of a country. Moreover, one of the other reasons why it is not a right solution to build new roads is that it is wastage of land resource. To be clear, construction of new roads will take away acres of land from agriculture which affect the economy of the farmers that lead to impact the revenue of that particular place. However, the argument of building new roads to reduce heavy traffic by government is mainly because of wastage of time and fuel spent in the traffic blocks but if the same traffic can be managed by endorsing new rules to limit private vehicles and encourage and improve public transport facility which can reduce heavy traffic to a larger extent. To sum up, after analysing the argument of building roads by public sector and the opposite view that it is not the only right solution, it is evident that if government take initiatives to control the number of private vehicles by increasing taxes and parking charges, and also by developing public transportation system it can not only control heavy traffic but also its will be a great help for the next generation by saving fuel, time and life from accidents.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural opening Original: Advancement of the world Suggested revision: Global development Why it matters: This phrase expresses worldwide development more naturally and concisely.
- 2. Fix subject agreement Original: increases in private vehicles has Suggested revision: the increase in private vehicles has Why it matters: The singular head noun 'increase' correctly agrees with 'has'.
- 3. Fix traffic collocation Original: reason of traffic blocks Suggested revision: cause of traffic congestion Why it matters: 'Cause of traffic congestion' is the natural and precise collocation.
- 4. Fix verb pattern Original: take initiatives in building Suggested revision: take the initiative to build Why it matters: The fixed expression is 'take the initiative to' followed by the base verb.
- 5. Remove unnecessary determiner Original: some others argue Suggested revision: others argue Why it matters: 'Others' already functions as a pronoun and does not need 'some' here.
- 6. Use plural noun Original: road Suggested revision: roads Why it matters: The argument concerns road construction generally, so the plural noun is required.
- 7. Add definite article Original: government’s initiative Suggested revision: the government’s initiative Why it matters: A specific government's initiative requires the definite article.
- 8. Use correct verb Original: make Suggested revision: build Why it matters: Roads are 'built' rather than 'made' in formal usage.
- 9. Express purpose correctly Original: for reducing the heavy traffic Suggested revision: to reduce heavy traffic Why it matters: An infinitive naturally expresses purpose, and 'traffic' does not need the article here.
- 10. Use standard noun phrase Original: the wastage of government funds Suggested revision: a waste of government funds Why it matters: 'A waste of funds' is the conventional expression in this context.
- 11. Clarify social needs Original: basic purpose of the society Suggested revision: basic needs of society Why it matters: The intended contrast concerns society's needs rather than its purpose.
- 12. Fix effect collocation Original: do Suggested revision: have Why it matters: The correct collocation is 'have an effect'.
Suggested Rewrites
- Advancement of the world Global development
- increases in private vehicles has the increase in private vehicles has
- reason of traffic blocks cause of traffic congestion
- take initiatives in building take the initiative to build
- some others argue others argue
- road roads
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response maintains a clear position against relying on new roads and offers relevant alternatives such as restricting private vehicles and improving public transport. Its main limitation is that several supporting claims are only partly convincing or become difficult to follow in overloaded sentences, with frequent language errors. Prioritise developing each reason through a precise cause-and-effect chain, using shorter sentences and more natural word combinations.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The position is clear throughout and relevant reasons and alternatives are presented, although some claims are insufficiently justified or loosely connected to congestion.
Explain exactly how each proposal would reduce traffic and support claims about public spending and land use with more convincing reasoning.
Coherence and Cohesion
The overall progression from position to reasons and alternatives is clear, but absent paragraph breaks and long, crowded sentences weaken cohesion.
Give each main reason its own paragraph and split contrast, explanation, and result into separate, clearly linked sentences.
Lexical Resource
There is enough range to discuss transport policy, public spending, and land use, but frequent collocational and word-form errors reduce precision.
Use established expressions such as traffic congestion, road construction, public transport, and have little effect consistently.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are attempted frequently, but persistent errors with articles, agreement, clauses, and sentence boundaries sometimes strain readability.
Build shorter controlled sentences first, then check subject-verb agreement and article use before combining clauses.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some say that due to heavy traffic governments need to build more roads in metropolitan cities, while others argue this isn't the right solution. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.