Nowadays we are producing more and more rubbish. Why do you think this is happening? What can governments do to help reduce the amount of rubbish produced?
Sample Response
I think it is true that in almost every country today each household and family produces a large amount of waste every week. Most of this rubbish comes from the packaging from the things we buy, such as processed food. But even if we buy fresh food without packaging, we still produce rubbish from the plastic bags used everywhere to carry shopping home. The reason why we have so much packaging is that we consume so much more on a daily basis than families did in the past. Convenience is also very important in modern life, so we buy packaging or canned food that can be transported from long distances and stored untill we need it, first in the supermarket, and then at home. However, I think the amount of waste produce is also a result of our tendency to use something once and throw it away. We forget that even the cheapest plastic bag has used up valuable resources and energy to produce. We also forget that it is a source of pollution and difficult to dispose of. I think, therefore, that governments need to raise this awareness in the general public. Children can be educated about environmental issues at school, but adults need to take action. Governments can encourage such action by putting taxes on packaging, such as plastic bags, by providing recycling services and by thing households and shops that do not attempt to recycle their waste. With the political will, such measures could really reduce the amount of rubbish we produce. Certainly nobody wants to see our resources used up and our planet poisoned by waste.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Remove redundant wording Original: each household and family Suggested revision: each household Why it matters: Household already refers to the people living together, making and family redundant here.
- 2. Use correct preposition Original: from Suggested revision: of Why it matters: Packaging of correctly identifies the items that are packaged.
- 3. Use natural phrasing Original: used everywhere to carry shopping home Suggested revision: used to carry our shopping home Why it matters: Our shopping makes the object of carry clear and removes the imprecise everywhere.
- 4. Use adjective form Original: packaging Suggested revision: packaged Why it matters: Packaged is the adjective needed to modify food in parallel with canned.
- 5. Fix distance phrase Original: from Suggested revision: over Why it matters: Goods are transported over a distance, not from a distance in this construction.
- 6. Correct spelling Original: untill Suggested revision: until Why it matters: Until is spelled with one final l.
- 7. Use past participle Original: produce Suggested revision: produced Why it matters: Produced is required to form the reduced passive clause describing waste.
- 8. Use natural collocation Original: raise this awareness in the general public Suggested revision: raise public awareness of this issue Why it matters: Raise public awareness of is the standard collocation for increasing understanding.
- 9. Use formal collocation Original: putting Suggested revision: imposing Why it matters: Impose a tax is the conventional formal collocation for government policy.
- 10. Correct mistaken word Original: thing Suggested revision: fining Why it matters: Fining supplies the intended enforcement action and maintains the parallel by structure.
- 11. Clarify the example Original: such as processed food Suggested revision: such as that used for processed food Why it matters: The revision makes clear that the example is packaging rather than the food itself.
- 12. Reduce wordiness Original: so much more on a daily basis Suggested revision: much more each day Why it matters: Each day conveys the frequency more concisely.
Suggested Rewrites
- each household and family each household
- from of
- used everywhere to carry shopping home used to carry our shopping home
- packaging packaged
- from over
- untill until
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response gives a focused, well-developed explanation of rising waste and links practical government actions coherently to consumer behaviour. Its strongest feature is the natural progression from packaging and convenience to education, taxation, and recycling, while the main limitation is a small number of conspicuous word-form or wording errors. Prioritise a final proofread to remove these slips and preserve the otherwise precise argument.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response directly addresses both questions with well-developed causes and relevant, practical government measures.
Strengthen the policy discussion further by briefly explaining how enforcement would change household and business behaviour.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress smoothly through causes, consequences, and solutions, with cohesive devices used naturally despite limited visible paragraphing.
Separate the causes and government responses into distinct paragraphs to make the strong logical structure immediately visible.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and well suited to environmental policy, with only a few conspicuous wording and spelling slips.
Proofread carefully for isolated errors such as untill, waste produce, and the unclear phrase by thing.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentences is handled accurately, and the few grammatical slips do not impede communication.
Check reduced clauses and passive forms at the editing stage so isolated form errors are removed.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Nowadays we are producing more and more rubbish. Why do you think this is happening? What can governments do to help reduce the amount of rubbish produced?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.