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.

Same question Compare 10 different answers (Band 5.5–7.5)

Sample Response

The places where people live affects greatly in their lifestyles and the living place is one of the very basic needs for people. People opine differently while choosing the living places. Some prefer and argue that city is the best place to live at since it provides so many advantages over the rural area, but other think that villages are the best places to live a good life. Both places have advantages and disadvantages. It is true that a city offers so many opportunities and advantages those are absent in a countryside. For instance, the modern transportation and communication systems are better in any city compared to a village. In a city people have access to many different transportation systems and have latest technologies to communicate; like cellular phones, internet, fax etc. Moreover, when a new technology arrives at the country it is first introduced in the city area and usually 2/3 years later to the village. Secondly, cities provide better security to its inhabitants like the mobile police patrols, special forces, community police, security guards, traffic police etc. But in the village, the number of security force persons are too low compared to the overall population. Moreover, cities provide better treatment, hospitals, qualified doctors, better educational institutes, and amusement parks etc which are really inevitable to lead a better life. In many cases, those facilities are absent or rare in a village. In my opinion, the reason for why most people tend to live in a city is the vast opportunities of jobs. Most of the corporate offices, industries, factories, government offices, garments and manufacturing industries are either situated in a city or close to the city. People have much more employment opportunities in a city than a village. On the contrary, people living in a village, are often forced to do a job that is not suitable at all for him since the job opportunity is so narrow there. Again, schools or colleges are not equipped with a better environment, labs, teachers and that's why students in a village might not get a better education he/she deserves. If we consider the entertainment facilities in a city then citizens of a city have so many options like theatre, park, art gallery, museum, amusement parks, libraries etc. But people in the villages have only TV or books and very little facilities to spend leisure time. On the other hand, Villages offer many invaluable advantages those are completely absent in the cities. First of all, someone living in a village can get fresh air and water. There is no intense pollution with smoke, Carbon-DI-oxide, Carbon-mono-oxide, Nitrous-Oxide and people living in a village are less prone to suffer diseases like asthma, bronchitis etc. The city can provide security against visible foes but it causes people to face some invisible and dangerous enemies like toxic and polluted air, water and environment. Secondly, people of villages live much nearer to the nature and breathe in the fresh air, as well as eat fresh foods, vegetables, fruits collected directly from the garden. On the contrary vegetables, foods, fruits in the cities are normally stored and mixed with preservatives and can cause serious harms to the health. The living cost in a countryside is much lesser than that of a city. The density of population in a village is much less than a city and village people are naturally grow up their personal relationship among all people and live like a real community and take care of each other. While in the city people do not know even who live in the next door and personal relationship in a community is rare. In my case, I prefer to live in the city. I feel relaxed and comfortable staying in my own city. There are lots of facilities I can't deny are presented in my city and those are the invaluable part of my lifestyle. Moreover, I like to lead a busy and challenging life and want to be connected with the world. I enjoy visiting countryside but get bored there if I stay more than 2/3 days because all of my necessary stuff to lead my as usual life are absent there.

IELTS Writing Correction

  • 1. Use plural pronoun Original: other Suggested revision: others Why it matters: The plural pronoun 'others' is required to refer to other people.
  • 2. Use relative pronoun Original: those Suggested revision: that Why it matters: A defining relative clause modifying things requires 'that', not 'those'.
  • 3. Add article and access Original: have latest technologies Suggested revision: have access to the latest technologies Why it matters: The phrase needs the article 'the' and a clearer expression of access.
  • 4. Correct preposition Original: at Suggested revision: in Why it matters: The preposition 'in' is used for arrival within a country.
  • 5. Fix agreement and noun Original: the number of security force persons are Suggested revision: the number of security personnel is Why it matters: 'The number' takes a singular verb, and 'security personnel' is the natural collective term.
  • 6. Choose accurate adjective Original: really inevitable to lead Suggested revision: essential for leading Why it matters: 'Essential' expresses necessity, whereas 'inevitable' describes an unavoidable outcome.
  • 7. Remove redundant preposition Original: the reason for why Suggested revision: the reason why Why it matters: 'For' is redundant before the relative adverb 'why'.
  • 8. Use natural collocation Original: vast opportunities of jobs Suggested revision: vast number of job opportunities Why it matters: 'Job opportunities' is the standard noun phrase for available work.
  • 9. Use count quantifier Original: much Suggested revision: many Why it matters: The plural count noun 'opportunities' requires 'many' rather than 'much'.
  • 10. Match plural reference Original: not suitable at all for him Suggested revision: not suitable for them Why it matters: The pronoun must agree with the plural noun 'people'.
  • 11. Fix pronoun agreement Original: students in a village might not get a better education he/she deserves Suggested revision: students in villages might not receive the education they deserve Why it matters: The revision makes the plural reference consistent and removes the mismatched singular pronoun.
  • 12. Use count quantifier Original: little Suggested revision: few Why it matters: The plural count noun 'facilities' requires 'few'.

Suggested Rewrites

  • other others
  • those that
  • have latest technologies have access to the latest technologies
  • at in
  • the number of security force persons are the number of security personnel is
  • really inevitable to lead essential for leading
Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 6.0

The response gives a comprehensive, relevant comparison of city and countryside living and supports both sides with numerous concrete considerations. Its effectiveness is reduced most by the absence of paragraph breaks, excessive listing, and frequent grammatical and collocational inaccuracies; the priority is to group the material into a few balanced thematic paragraphs, remove repetition, and proofread sentence structure carefully.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TR

Task Response

7.0
Scoring rule

Both settings are compared extensively through relevant advantages and disadvantages, and the writer's personal preference is clear.

Next step

Select and develop the strongest comparisons more analytically instead of accumulating many similar examples and facilities.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

5.5
Scoring rule

The overall city-to-countryside sequence is discernible, but the unbroken paragraph and repetitive listing make progression cumbersome.

Next step

Use separate thematic paragraphs for urban benefits, urban drawbacks, rural benefits, and the final comparison or preference.

LR

Lexical Resource

6.0
Scoring rule

The response uses a reasonably wide topic vocabulary, but unnatural collocations, imprecise wording, and repetition are frequent.

Next step

Use more natural comparative phrases and replace repeated general terms such as facilities, advantages, and better with precise alternatives.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

5.5
Scoring rule

Meaning remains generally clear and several complex forms are attempted, but agreement, articles, pronouns, and sentence construction are frequently inaccurate.

Next step

Prioritise agreement and article accuracy, then revise long sentences so every clause has a clear grammatical relationship.

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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

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