Should governments spend more money on improving roads and highways, or on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways etc.)? Why?
Sample Response
The transportation system is one of the serious problems in this day which is related to traffic congestion and air pollution. A suitable decision will always think by the government to cope this issue. There are two optionspoints which the government can choose, whether they want to spendexpense money on developing roads and highways or spend money on improving public transportation. I definitely support improvingagree for improving public transportation for some reasons.
First and foremost, it is impossible to buildit is an impossible way to build roads and highways today, because large areas are not availablethe large areas are not available. For instance, in an urban area, it is hard to find sufficient open spacefind a wide place because most of such placesthese places in here are used to buildbuilt houses and other buildingsbuilding. Thus, the government cannot find space to build new roadsfind a space to build new roads or highways. Whereas, if the government still aspire to continue this program it seems that a new problem will create, such as traffic jam.
In addition, it would be wise for the government to reduceit is wise if the government can reduce the number of private vehicles and increase the availability of public transportationimprove the number of public transportation. There was a sharp rise in private vehicle usea sharp rise of private transportation every year. However, if the government can reduce it by introducing a clear rulemaking a distinct rule to encourage the publicappeal the society to use public transportation, the traffic situation would improvethe traffic issue would be in a better situation. Thus, traffic congestion can be reducedtraffic jam can solve and air pollution can also be reducedair pollution can reduce too.
In conclusion, I believe that improving public transportation is the best way to solve the transportation problem, rather than building roads and highways. When the government builds new ones, the numbers of vehicles do not decrease, but it will increase.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The essay gives a clear preference for public transport and supports it with two relevant reasons: limited urban space for new roads and the potential to reduce private vehicles, congestion, and pollution. Its main limitation is language control, as frequent grammatical and lexical errors make several causal claims imprecise. Prioritise explaining how improved services attract drivers from cars while using shorter, grammatically complete sentences.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The preference for public transport is consistent and supported by relevant points about urban space, traffic, and pollution, though the mechanisms and comparison with road investment need fuller explanation.
Explain how reliable, affordable public transport changes commuter behaviour and why this produces better results than expanding roads.
Coherence and Cohesion
The introduction, two reason paragraphs, and conclusion create a clear overall sequence, but mechanical linking, repetition, and a fragment beginning 'Whereas' weaken cohesion.
Use direct topic sentences for land constraints and modal shift, then connect each reason to the funding choice with complete clauses.
Lexical Resource
The response has enough transport vocabulary to convey its position, but repetition and frequent inaccurate collocations reduce precision.
Use natural phrases such as 'allocate funding,' 'expand road capacity,' 'increase public transport services,' and 'encourage commuters.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Some complex forms are attempted and the main ideas remain understandable, but frequent errors in passive forms, agreement, articles, verb patterns, and sentence boundaries reduce control.
Practise complete active and passive clauses, including 'the government should decide,' 'land is unavailable,' and 'congestion can be reduced.'
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Should governments spend more money on improving roads and highways, or on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways etc.)? Why?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.