There are no longer enough natural resources to sustain current levels of economic growth. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Sample Response
For over a century, it has been concerned that there may exist a limit to the Earth’s capacity to support economic growth due to scarcity of its resources. There is a growing consensus that economic sustainability requires greater use of natural capitalmore natural capital which subsequently might lead to resource depletion and environmental degradation.
Firstly, continued economic development is negatively seen as a destroyer and corrupter of the natural environment and as a consequence, inadequacy of natural resources. While resource-augmenting technological improvements enhance productivity and result in fewerless resource inputs, it is important to recognize that technology alone cannot be seen as a key to avoiding a resource crisis. This means thatIt is stressed that extraction of a unit of a non-renewable resourcea unit of non-renewable resource reduces the remaining resource stockdamages resource amenities which will ultimately lead to itsthe exhaustion.
In addition, the concept of absolute scarcity still exists because the amount of non-renewable resources available will decline with use. This suggests thatIt is agreed that the maintenance of the natural capital stock through waste assimilation and renewable resource regeneration is unlikely to be achievable. The reason for this is that man-made capital is made from and operatesoperate on flows of energy and materials which limit substitution possibilities. Moreover, improvementsameliorations in the efficiency of energy and material use can have the adverse effect of increasingcan produce an adverse effect that actually increases resource use or waste generation. FurthermoreAlso, rising affluence when the economy grows increases the likelihood of harmful impactsincreases the likelihood of causing harmful impacts on the quality of the environment.
In conclusion, even though technological improvements and renewable resource use can partly help to decrease the increasing insufficient resources, these stocks will, by their physical nature, be eventually destined to run out. Government intervention should therefore be designedIt is thus expected that government intervention should be designed to restrain excessiveover exploitation and that the discovery of new reserves and the recovery and recycling of materialsscientific discoveries of new reserves, recovery and recycling of materials could be achievedattainable in the foreseeable future.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response presents a clear, sustained position and develops a sophisticated line of reasoning about scarcity, technology, and environmental pressure. Its main weakness is that the argument remains abstract and some claims are asserted without concrete support, while awkward phrasing occasionally blurs precision. The highest-priority improvement is to support each main claim with a specific, clearly explained example and express causal links more naturally.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response maintains a clear agreement position and develops relevant arguments about finite resources, technological limits, and environmental harm.
Support the central claims with specific real-world examples and explain more directly how they prove that present growth cannot be sustained.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas progress logically through focused paragraphs, although some connective language and causal transitions feel mechanical or compressed.
Make each causal step explicit and use referencing more naturally so that dense arguments remain easy to follow.
Lexical Resource
A broad range of topic-specific vocabulary conveys complex ideas, but several unnatural collocations weaken precision.
Prefer established combinations such as reduced resource inputs and resource depletion, and check noun forms before using highly technical wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied complex structures effectively, though recurring agreement, article, and sentence-construction errors interrupt accuracy.
Proofread complex clauses for complete grammatical frames and subject-verb agreement, especially when linking several abstract concepts.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
There are no longer enough natural resources to sustain current levels of economic growth. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.