Many supermarkets are selling more and more products that are imported from other countries instead of selling food that is locally sourced. What are the reasons for this? Is this a positive or negative development?
Sample Response
Some feel that supermarkets today sell too many imported products compared to the number of locally produced ones. In my opinion, this is a result of changes in consumer tastes and it is a negative overall.
The main cause behind this phenomenon is an exponential shift among consumers. Over the last century advances in sea and air transport have allowed supermarkets to import products from all over the world. As a result, an individual living in New England can try exotic fruits like mangos and pomegranates that cannot normally be grown in a four season climate. Once a person tries a new food and enjoys it, they are more likely to sample other new fruits and vegetables. They then recommend those foods to others and shifts in taste quickly become mainstream and irreversible.
This change is negative as it hurts local farmers and the environment. Local producers must now compete with large companies that source products such as bananas at lower prices and undercut farmers. Consumers naturally buy the cheaper products and the result is that local farmers often cannot survive without government subsidies or must close their operations. Moreover, this development leads to greater consumption of fossil fuels. Imported products allow consumers to shop out of season, for example eating asparagus year round, but this requires shipping products globally and increasing the burning of fossil fuels involved in transportation.
In conclusion, though supermarkets now enable shoppers to have more varied palates, this poses tremendous risks for local producers and the environment. Therefore, tariffs on imports should be high.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Make comparison direct Original: compared to the number of locally produced ones Suggested revision: than locally produced products Why it matters: The revision compares the two product groups directly and avoids the awkward reference to their number.
- 2. Remove incorrect article Original: a negative overall Suggested revision: negative overall Why it matters: "Negative" functions as an adjective here and does not take the article "a."
- 3. Use concise collocation Original: behind Suggested revision: of Why it matters: "Cause of" is the standard and more concise collocation.
- 4. Avoid imprecise intensity Original: an exponential shift Suggested revision: a major shift Why it matters: "Exponential" describes a specific growth pattern that the sentence does not establish.
- 5. Add introductory comma Original: Over the last century advances Suggested revision: Over the last century, advances Why it matters: The introductory time phrase should be separated from the main clause with a comma.
- 6. Clarify causal link Original: negative as it hurts Suggested revision: negative because it harms Why it matters: "Because" states the causal relationship more explicitly, and "harms" suits the formal context.
- 7. Clarify resulting action Original: at lower prices and undercut farmers Suggested revision: at lower prices, thereby undercutting local farmers Why it matters: The participial structure makes clear that undercutting farmers results from the lower prices.
- 8. Improve clause connection Original: the cheaper products and the result is that Suggested revision: cheaper products; as a result, Why it matters: A semicolon and transition correctly connect the purchase decision to its consequence.
- 9. Use concise wording Original: increasing the burning of fossil fuels involved in transportation Suggested revision: increasing fossil-fuel consumption for transportation Why it matters: The revision removes the awkward modifier and expresses the environmental cost concisely.
- 10. State benefit precisely Original: have more varied palates Suggested revision: access a greater variety of food Why it matters: Supermarkets directly expand food choice, while "have more varied palates" is an indirect and awkward description.
Suggested Rewrites
- compared to the number of locally produced ones than locally produced products
- a negative overall negative overall
- behind of
- an exponential shift a major shift
- Over the last century advances Over the last century, advances
- negative as it hurts negative because it harms
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response directly answers both questions, maintains a clear negative position, and develops the economic and environmental consequences with convincing explanations and examples. Its argument is highly coherent and language control is strong; the main room for improvement is to sharpen the causal account of changing consumer tastes and avoid adding the unsupported tariff recommendation in the conclusion.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions are fully addressed through a clear position and well-developed explanations of consumer demand, farmer competition, and environmental harm.
Integrate the final policy suggestion into the argument or omit it so the conclusion contains only established claims.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through focused paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader smoothly without drawing undue attention.
Make the link between improved transport and changing consumer tastes slightly more explicit within the causes paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and natural, with effective topic-specific choices used flexibly throughout.
Refine occasional broad phrasing such as the description of the consumer shift to make the causal meaning even more exact.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is handled accurately, with only negligible lapses that do not affect clarity.
Maintain this control while checking pronoun reference and sentence economy during final proofreading.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Many supermarkets are selling more and more products that are imported from other countries instead of selling food that is locally sourced. What are the reasons for this? Is this a positive or negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.