Some people think that cities are the best places to live. Others prefer to live in a rural area. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of living in the city to living in the countryside.
Sample Response
Peoples have different opinions while choosing their living place. Some people think that a village is a better place to live in, while others think a city is a preferred candidate to choose for their living. In my opinion, there are several reasons to believe that cities are the best places to live in because they provide facilities for a comfortable life. First of all, a city provides better education and career prospects.The renowned and excellent schools are built in the cities because most of the population live in cities. These schools employ the qualified teachers to provide education to the children. A child who gets the education in a city is considered the better one because of his broad range of experience and deep knowledge. The government and private businessman build universities and colleges in the city to improve the learning and skills in students. Various laboratories use the advanced appliances instruments that aid the students in higher education especially in research and this facility is mostly available in a city area. I have learned to operate IR spectrophotometers from Punjab University which is situated in Chandigarh City and cities are mostly the hub of education. Moreover, a city provides better prospects of life. The shops, malls are built in a city to attract customers from large area. The important home appliances like fan, refrigerator, car etc. are available in cities at a reasonable cost. Government offices are built in cities. Living in cities can help avoiding the dwellers to travel from village to city to do important official works. A city also provides sources of entertainment. Many festivals, carnivals are organised in the cities. Even peoples from the rural area come to a city to watch their favourite movies in Cinema Hall and Theatres. Sports stadium, training centres are located in cities. City life offers too many facilities that are absent in rural lives. The most important thing is that the city provides better medical services. Best hospitals, medical centres are built in big towns so that majority of people can have medical facilities. In these centres, expert doctors, specialist like neurosurgeons, heart surgeon works to treat peoples. These medical centres not only use advanced machines & instruments but also offer operation theatres for different types of operations for critical diseases. Cities are safe on health ground and have well-planned sanitation to avoid spreading epidemic. Cities have lifesaving medical centres. In summation, it is clear that city is the better place to live. The city not only provides good education and civil life but also provides best medical facilities.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use uncountable plural Original: Peoples Suggested revision: People Why it matters: People is already the plural form when referring to individuals generally.
- 2. Use natural phrasing Original: while choosing their living place Suggested revision: when choosing where to live Why it matters: The revision expresses the decision naturally and concisely.
- 3. Clarify the comparison Original: a city is a preferred candidate to choose for their living Suggested revision: a city is the preferable place to live Why it matters: Candidate is inappropriate for a place, and the revision removes redundant wording.
- 4. Tighten school description Original: The renowned and excellent schools Suggested revision: Renowned schools Why it matters: Renowned already conveys high standing, making excellent and the generic article unnecessary.
- 5. Remove unnecessary article Original: employ the qualified teachers Suggested revision: employ qualified teachers Why it matters: The general plural noun phrase does not require the definite article.
- 6. Fix article and verb Original: gets the education Suggested revision: receives an education Why it matters: Receive an education is the natural construction and requires the indefinite article.
- 7. State meaning precisely Original: is considered the better one Suggested revision: is considered better educated Why it matters: The revision identifies the relevant educational comparison rather than using the vague pronoun one.
- 8. Use plural subject Original: businessman Suggested revision: businesses Why it matters: The coordinated subject needs a plural noun that can naturally build institutions.
- 9. Clarify possession Original: improve the learning and skills in students Suggested revision: improve students' learning and skills Why it matters: The possessive construction clearly links the learning and skills to the students.
- 10. Remove incorrect noun Original: advanced appliances instruments Suggested revision: advanced instruments Why it matters: Appliances does not correctly modify instruments and makes the phrase ungrammatical.
- 11. Match plural subject Original: cities are mostly the hub Suggested revision: cities are major hubs Why it matters: The plural subject cities requires the plural complement hubs.
- 12. Join coordinated nouns Original: The shops, malls Suggested revision: Shops and malls Why it matters: And, rather than a comma, should connect the two nouns in this subject.
Suggested Rewrites
- Peoples People
- while choosing their living place when choosing where to live
- a city is a preferred candidate to choose for their living a city is the preferable place to live
- The renowned and excellent schools Renowned schools
- employ the qualified teachers employ qualified teachers
- gets the education receives an education
Why this response received Band 5.5
The essay’s strongest feature is its substantial range of examples showing city advantages in education, shopping, entertainment, and healthcare. Its decisive limitation is incomplete task coverage: it does not develop countryside advantages or city disadvantages, so the required comparison never occurs, while frequent language errors further reduce precision. The highest priority is to replace some city detail with balanced paragraphs that examine benefits and drawbacks of both settings.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response develops several relevant city benefits and states a clear preference, but it omits the required advantages of rural life and disadvantages of cities.
Include substantial discussion of both settings, covering at least one benefit and one drawback of each before reaching a comparative conclusion.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow recognisable categories and use basic signposting, but the single long paragraph, repeated listings, and abrupt transitions weaken overall organisation.
Divide the response into focused paragraphs for city benefits, city drawbacks, rural benefits, and rural drawbacks, then compare them explicitly.
Lexical Resource
There is some range in education, public-service, and medical vocabulary, but frequent word-form and collocation errors undermine accuracy and naturalness.
Correct recurring expressions such as “people”, “place to live”, “advanced equipment”, “medical specialists”, and “rural life”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The essay attempts varied sentence forms, but frequent errors with plurals, articles, agreement, prepositions, and verb patterns occur throughout.
Prioritise noun-number agreement and verb control, for example “people have”, “businesspeople build”, “specialists work”, and “help residents avoid travelling”.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people think that cities are the best places to live. Others prefer to live in a rural area. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of living in the city to living in the countryside.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.