Should the government impose a heavy tax on private car owners to improve the public transportation system to reduce the traffic problem in many cities? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution?
Sample Response
With the population growth worldwidegrowing population all over the world, many cities are facing too manymuch traffic problems including pollution and congestion. One of the solutions to this problem is the impositionsetting of a new tax to car owners. In return, this money could be used to improve public transporttransports and roads. This essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantagesdiscuss advantages and disadvantages of this solution.
First of all, the proposalfact to tax private car owners heavily might deter many drivers and car owners from using their own vehiclesdeter plenty of drivers and car owners using their own vehicles and make them use public transport more often in their citiesmore public transports in their city. The setting of this new tax could lead to a decrease inof congestion and pollutionpollution issues.
Furthermore, the revenuethe harvested money from this new law will be used to replace inefficient, old public transport vehiclesremove less efficient and old transports and improve the leveldegree of safety within the city. Indeed, we all know that a lot of people are afraid to use public transport at nightafraid of public transports at night because they feel unsafebecause of their lack of security. Improvements in this areaAn improvement on this field can encourage other residentshabitats to use public transportation.
However, such a tax also hascontains disadvantages. Some inhabitants will not agree with this new law because it is another amount to pay at the end of the month. Besides, some people have no choice but to use their own cars to get to their working place which sometimes is located outside the cities where public transport is not availablepublic transports are not available. It will also bring problems for those who live in the countryside and work in cities.
To conclude, taxing private car owners could be a solution to the congestion and pollution problems by encouraging the use of public transports and imposing taxes only to rich populations who live in the city area would be a better solution, in my opinion.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response presents a clear advantages-and-disadvantages structure and offers relevant points about congestion, funding, affordability, and access. Its main limitation is that several ideas remain briefly asserted, while frequent awkward collocations and grammatical slips reduce precision. Develop each key effect with a clearer causal explanation and use more natural forms for taxation, public transport, and people affected by the policy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses both advantages and disadvantages with relevant ideas, although support is sometimes brief and the proposed selective tax appears only in the conclusion.
Explain the most important benefit and drawback in greater depth and introduce the preferred policy qualification before the conclusion.
Coherence and Cohesion
The paragraph sequence is clear and the central argument is easy to follow, though linking is somewhat mechanical and some paragraphs are minimally developed.
Use topic-led transitions and extend each paragraph around one fully explained idea instead of relying on stock linking phrases.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate for the topic and shows some range, but recurring collocation and word-choice errors reduce naturalness and precision.
Use accurate combinations such as taxing car owners, public transport, tax revenue, and residents rather than literal or inappropriate alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentences, but errors with articles, prepositions, plurals, and verb patterns recur throughout.
Prioritise article and preposition control, especially in noun phrases concerning transport, cities, taxation, and places of work.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Should the government impose a heavy tax on private car owners to improve the public transportation system to reduce the traffic problem in many cities? What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.