In a number of countries, some people think it is necessary to spend large sums of money on constructing new railway lines for very fast trains between cities. Others believe the money should be spent on improving existing public transport. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Sample Response
Whether a largesignificant amount of money should be spentdisbursed on constructing new railway lines for fast trains or whetherif it should be spent on improving existing public transport is a highly debatable topic. While some people advocate for the construction of new railway lines, others argue that the money should be spent on improving existing public transport. In this essay, we will examine both perspectives and argueopine that it is better to invest money in improving a country's existing public transportation system.
Proponents of constructing new railway lines for very fast trains argue that it would provide several benefits. Firstly, it will reduce travel timereduce the travel time between cities, and improve the efficiency of transportation. This will lead to economic benefits as businesses would have greater access to markets. Moreover, it will reduce traffic congestion on busy roads. For instance, countries such as China, Spain, and Japancountries like China, Spain, and Japan have reaped noteworthy benefits from their fast train networks, and these networks have reducedthose have reduced their citizens' commuting timestheir citizen's commute time and traffic congestion considerablytraffic jams to a great extent.
On the other hand, those who advocate for improving existing public transport argue that it would be a better use of resources. By improving the existing public transport infrastructure, cities would become more accessible, and this would lead to a reduction in car usage. This, in turn, would reduce traffic congestion and pollution, resulting in a cleaner and healthier environment. Moreover, improving existing public transport would make it more affordable and accessible to a wider range of people, providing greater equity in transportation.
In my opinion, while building new fast rail lines may be important for various reasons, improving existing public transport is more importantfar more essential and should be a priority. This is because improving existing public transport would make it more accessible and affordable to everyone. It will also decrease pollution and traffic congestion and reduce carbon emissionson the one hand and reduce carbon emissions on the other hand.
In conclusion, there are advantages to both constructing new railway lines for fast trains and improving existing public transport. However, improving existing public transport can bring more benefits and seems to be a more prudent choiceseems like a more prudent idea for most countries.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response fully discusses both investment choices and maintains a clear preference for improving existing transport, with logically developed benefits for each side. Its main limitation is occasional over-formal or imprecise wording and a few grammatical slips despite otherwise strong control. The highest-priority improvement is to make comparisons more analytically specific, explaining why existing-system upgrades deliver greater value than new high-speed rail in most contexts.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both views are well developed, and the writer's preference is clear and consistently supported throughout.
Strengthen the judgement by directly comparing the cost, reach, or urgency of the two options rather than mainly listing their benefits.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is logically sequenced, well paragraphed, and smoothly connected, with clear progression from the two views to the opinion.
Refine the internal comparison in the opinion paragraph so each sentence adds a distinct step to the reasoning.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a broad, topic-specific vocabulary with good flexibility, although a few expressions are over-formal or slightly imprecise.
Prefer natural academic phrasing over choices such as 'disbursed' and 'opine', and check singular-plural reference carefully.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are frequent and mostly accurate, with only occasional errors in tense consistency, punctuation, and possessive forms.
Proofread conditional sequences and noun forms, especially shifts between 'would' and 'will' and phrases such as 'citizens’ commute times'.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In a number of countries, some people think it is necessary to spend large sums of money on constructing new railway lines for very fast trains between cities. Others believe the money should be spent on improving existing public transport. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.