In order to solve traffic problems, governments should tax private car owners heavily and use the money to improve public transportation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution?
Sample Response
It is certainly true that traffic in most of the major cities in every country is really a problem due to more and more privateexclusive cars are used. So, some governments have proposedsome of the states schemed that in order to lessen private cars on the roads, car owners should pay more taxes. Government administrationsCountries administration thinks that this not only solves the problem but also it will improvebut also, it will improve the public transportation. However, as with every solution that is imposedas every solution that will be imposing, benefits and drawbacks will always be there as I will now discussas I will now be discussed. On one hand, tax imposition to owners of private cars will benefit the public conveniently and safely. As more money iswas collected, there will be more funds for improvingmore funds for the improvement of transportation. For instance, in Singapore, their government strictly implemented a blue badge card as a form of tax for private vehicles to pass to their major cities such as Changi, Sentosa and China Town. As a result, more government trains and inter-city buses were built and usedutilise by most of the Singaporeans. Also, a city-wide network has been made to collect information and charge drivers if they have any violations. This means safety for the people of the countrylion country. On the other hand, though such a solutionsuch solution is successful to the people of Singapore, it is a failure to some countries that leadleads to more hostility of the people. For example, when the local government of Cambridge, England, considering Singaporean techniques, it faced vocal and ultimately successful opposition. People of England showed their anger to their government through their social networking sites and even rallied on the Cambridgeshire road to express their disagreement. In conclusion, I think that imposition of the tax to car owners is not the only solution to problems on the road. There are other considerations as well, perhaps building sky railwaysa sky railways and subways. I believe these two are better than just collecting fines to one sector of the public.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response makes a genuine attempt to discuss both benefits and drawbacks, using concrete examples to illustrate how car taxation might fund safer, more convenient public transport. Its main weakness is that the conclusion moves away from evaluating the proposed policy, while awkward wording and unstable sentence structure often blur the argument. Prioritise a clearly organised comparison and finish with a direct judgement on whether the tax is worthwhile.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The essay addresses advantages and disadvantages and includes examples, but the final answer shifts toward alternative solutions rather than evaluating the proposed tax clearly.
Make the advantages and disadvantages explicit, then state whether the tax is worth using overall.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a basic sequence, but it is presented as one block and several sentences are fragments or loosely connected.
Use separate paragraphs with clear topic sentences for advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficient for the topic but often inaccurate or unnatural, such as "exclusive cars", "schemed", and "lion country".
Use precise transport-policy vocabulary and avoid unusual phrases that distract from meaning.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Frequent grammar errors in clauses, verb forms, and sentence structure sometimes reduce clarity.
Rewrite long sentences into simpler complete sentences and check subject-verb agreement.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In order to solve traffic problems, governments should tax private car owners heavily and use the money to improve public transportation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.