Should a city try to preserve its old, historic buildings or destroy them and replace them with modern buildings? What is your viewpoint on this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Same question Compare all 3 answers See different approaches and band scores for this IELTS task.Sample Response
Modernization has resulted in the rapid expansion of cities, which has left its heritage and culture behind. Day by day new commercial complexes and other buildings are coming up in the place of older buildings. Sometimes historically significant buildings have been demolished to build new structures. This has stirred into an interesting debate on whether the historic buildings should become the prey of modernization or not.
Firstly, conserving historical building is a means of transferring the ancestral legacy to future generations. These are a great means for our children to learn about our culture and heritage, also such monuments often give insight into our ancestor's lifestyle. Knowing our history and giving respect to it is very much important to advocate patriotism in young people.
Secondly, such buildings will attract more tourists, hence, the tourism industry will grow. This brings more money, thus improves the lives of people over there. This money could be used to preserve and renovate such buildings. Additionally, a city becomes well known among other parts and this increases chances of getting more funds and investments.
Finally, increased tourism means increased income. To cater to the increasing number of tourists’ new hotels, resorts and better facilities have to be built. Apart from bringing more money, it increases employment opportunities too.
In my opinion, preserving such buildings would greatly benefit the economy and also teaches future generations about their history, culture and traditions. Furthermore, it significantly contributes to infrastructure developments and modernization, at the same time allows saving cultural beauty.
(by- Santosh)
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Add introductory comma Original: Day by day new Suggested revision: Day by day, new Why it matters: The introductory phrase should be separated from the main clause by a comma.
- 2. Use concise fixed phrase Original: in the place of older buildings Suggested revision: in place of older buildings Why it matters: The fixed expression meaning “instead of” is “in place of.”
- 3. Use natural debate verb Original: stirred into an interesting debate Suggested revision: sparked an interesting debate Why it matters: An event sparks a debate rather than stirring into one.
- 4. Correct fixed expression Original: become the prey of modernization Suggested revision: fall prey to modernization Why it matters: The standard expression is “fall prey to.”
- 5. Use plural count noun Original: conserving historical building Suggested revision: conserving historical buildings Why it matters: The argument concerns historic buildings generally, so the count noun should be plural.
- 6. Use precise evaluation Original: These are a great means Suggested revision: These are a valuable resource Why it matters: “A valuable resource” expresses the educational function more naturally.
- 7. Repair comma splice Original: heritage, also such monuments Suggested revision: heritage; such monuments also Why it matters: A semicolon correctly separates the two independent clauses.
- 8. Fix plural possessive Original: our ancestor's lifestyle Suggested revision: our ancestors' lifestyles Why it matters: The general reference requires plural ancestors, a plural possessive, and plural lifestyles.
- 9. Use concise respect verb Original: giving respect to it Suggested revision: respecting it Why it matters: The verb “respecting” expresses the same idea more directly.
- 10. Correct degree phrase Original: very much important Suggested revision: very important Why it matters: “Very” modifies the adjective directly without “much.”
- 11. Use correct influence verb Original: advocate patriotism Suggested revision: promote patriotism Why it matters: “Promote” means encourage a quality, while “advocate” normally takes a position or policy as its object.
- 12. Link clauses correctly Original: tourists, hence, the tourism industry Suggested revision: tourists; hence, the tourism industry Why it matters: A semicolon is needed before the conjunctive adverb joining two independent clauses.
Suggested Rewrites
- Day by day new Day by day, new
- in the place of older buildings in place of older buildings
- stirred into an interesting debate sparked an interesting debate
- become the prey of modernization fall prey to modernization
- conserving historical building conserving historical buildings
- These are a great means These are a valuable resource
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response is strongest in its clear support for preservation and its logical presentation of cultural, tourism, and employment benefits. Its main limitation is that the tourism and income points overlap, no genuinely specific example is provided, and several grammatical and collocational errors weaken precision. The highest-priority improvement is to replace the repeated economic point with a concrete example of a preserved building and explain how it benefits both heritage and the city.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Response
The response presents a clear viewpoint and several relevant reasons, but support remains general and the requested specific examples are absent.
Include a concrete historic building or city example and explain exactly how preservation produced cultural or economic benefits.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay progresses logically through distinct reasons, although the two tourism paragraphs overlap and some sentence-level linking is awkward.
Combine the related tourism and employment points into one developed paragraph and use the remaining space for a distinct supporting reason.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary shows some flexibility and appropriate topic range, but several unnatural collocations and imprecise expressions reduce control.
Replace phrases such as “stirred into a debate” and “prey of modernization” with more natural, precise academic wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of sentence structures is attempted, but errors in agreement, punctuation, articles, and clause construction recur throughout.
Check subject-verb agreement and sentence boundaries, especially when joining explanations with words such as “hence” and “thus.”
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Should a city try to preserve its old, historic buildings or destroy them and replace them with modern buildings? What is your viewpoint on this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.