Nowadays food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live?
Sample Response
Over the past decade, the food industry had tremendous growth and improvements. This, together with technological advancements, has made it much easier to prepare food and cook at home. Ready-made meals, which are bought frozen or canned form the shops, are the great lifesaver for those who work since all that is needed is to defrost or open the can and enjoy. Although this is a method of preserving all the goods, the freshly prepared food is definitely better for health. Many of the vitamins and minerals may be lost during the freezing or canning process. Technology, on the other hand, has speeded up the food preparation process. Kitchen aid tools such as electric choppers and grinders reduce the entire workload and the food can be prepared in the blink of an eye. Not only it requires less effort compared to the past, but it also saves time, which can be put to other tasks. The other technological advancement that has helped with food preparation is microwave ovens. This device benefits from short waves that can penetrate food easily and thus cook or warm the food very quickly. In spite of being a huge advancement and time and energy efficient, long-term studies and scientific evidence are not supporting the use of such devices and they are being blamed for at least minor risks if used on a long-term daily basis. In conclusion, the process of food preparation has become much easier nowadays and this has had both positive and negative effects on our lives. Every individual should consider wisely how to prepare their food to ensure good health.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use present perfect Original: had tremendous growth and improvements Suggested revision: has experienced tremendous growth and improvement Why it matters: The unfinished time period ‘over the past decade’ calls for the present perfect.
- 2. Correct preposition spelling Original: canned form the shops Suggested revision: canned from shops Why it matters: ‘Form’ is a spelling error for the preposition ‘from’ here.
- 3. Fix number agreement Original: the great lifesaver Suggested revision: great lifesavers Why it matters: The plural subject ‘meals’ requires the plural complement ‘lifesavers’.
- 4. Use precise noun Original: all the goods Suggested revision: food Why it matters: ‘Food’ is the intended referent and is more precise than the broad noun ‘goods’.
- 5. Remove unnecessary article Original: the freshly prepared food Suggested revision: freshly prepared food Why it matters: Food is discussed generally here, so the definite article is unnecessary.
- 6. Use standard term Original: Kitchen aid tools Suggested revision: Kitchen appliances Why it matters: ‘Kitchen appliances’ is the standard collective term for electric choppers and grinders.
- 7. Use inverted structure Original: Not only it requires Suggested revision: Not only does it require Why it matters: A clause beginning with ‘not only’ requires auxiliary-subject inversion.
- 8. Correct verb phrase Original: put to other tasks Suggested revision: used for other tasks Why it matters: Time is naturally described as being ‘used for’ other tasks.
- 9. Name mechanism accurately Original: benefits from short waves Suggested revision: uses microwaves Why it matters: ‘Uses microwaves’ clearly expresses how the oven heats food.
- 10. Avoid repeated meaning Original: prepare food and cook at home Suggested revision: prepare and cook food at home Why it matters: The revision avoids treating food preparation and cooking as awkwardly separate objects.
- 11. Complete parallel actions Original: defrost or open the can and enjoy Suggested revision: defrost the meal or open the can before eating Why it matters: Both alternatives need clear objects and a grammatically complete final action.
- 12. Use concise adjective Original: better for health Suggested revision: healthier Why it matters: ‘Healthier’ expresses the comparison more concisely and naturally.
Suggested Rewrites
- had tremendous growth and improvements has experienced tremendous growth and improvement
- canned form the shops canned from shops
- the great lifesaver great lifesavers
- all the goods food
- the freshly prepared food freshly prepared food
- Kitchen aid tools Kitchen appliances
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response develops a clear comparison between convenience benefits and possible health drawbacks, using specific examples of appliances and preserved food. Its main limitation is that it never clearly decides whether easier preparation has improved life overall, while the single-block organisation and several awkward grammatical constructions reduce control. Prioritise an explicit overall judgement, then divide the discussion into focused paragraphs and edit sentence structures for accuracy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response explores relevant positive and negative effects with supporting details, but it does not give a clear overall answer to the question.
State whether the change has improved life overall and make the conclusion explicitly weigh convenience against health concerns.
Coherence and Cohesion
The discussion progresses logically from prepared food to kitchen technology and health risks, although the absence of paragraphing limits clarity.
Organise the introduction, benefits, drawbacks, and conclusion into separate paragraphs with clear topic sentences.
Lexical Resource
A good range of topic-specific vocabulary is used, but several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward.
Check natural collocations for food preservation, appliances, time savings, and health risks to improve precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied sentence forms with generally clear meaning, though errors in tense, inversion, agreement, and articles recur.
Review complex structures carefully, especially not-only inversion, subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, and article choice.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Nowadays food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.