Ambition is an important characteristic of people in today’s society. How important you think it is for people who want to succeed in life? Is it a positive or negative characteristic for success?
Sample Response
In an era when competition is becomingbecomes increasingly prevalent in contemporary society, individuals are paying more attention to the role of ambition in personal success. From my perspective, it is indispensable for people who want to achieveacquire long-term success and it is a positive trait in the pursuit of success in general. There is no denying that human beings are not inherently diligent. With such a nature, people who lack ambition or goals are prone to lazinessprone to be lazy and reluctant to strive for higher achievements, since significant breakthroughs in their liveslife necessitate a great deal of endeavourlarge amounts of endeavour and devotion. However, possessing great ambition means that individuals may have a full understanding of their targets and realise the effort they should devote to fulfilling these aims, motivating and stimulating them to work harder and overcome obstacles encountered during the process. For instance, ambitious people tend to make comprehensive schedules to cope with possible difficulties that may occur on their way to success. Admittedly, excessive ambition is more likely to cause severe problems forto both individuals and the whole society. To begin with, ambitious aims which are difficult to achieve may frustrate individuals due to the fact that those people fail to verify their own capacities and talents. One of the most striking examples is that an ordinary worker who dreams of getting promotiondreams to get promotional opportunities may lose his confidence and become disappointed after failing to secure a promotionafter the failure of promotion. Besides, in order to fulfill their ambition, people need to dedicate large amounts of time to their work or study, which may impose a heavy burden on their mental well-beingburden on their mentality, leading to some mental problems. Nonetheless, the merits of having ambition outweigh its demerits. First and foremost, ambition can encourage people to try their best, laying a solid foundation for achievingobtaining success. More importantly, if everyone has ambition and works harder instead of being lazy, social productivity can be enhanced dramatically since all of them get immersed in their work.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The essay presents a well-developed, clear response that thoroughly addresses both prompt questions with logical arguments and relevant examples. Structure and cohesion are managed smoothly, supported by a rich vocabulary and a good range of complex grammatical structures. To improve further, ensure that counterarguments are directly tied back to your central position more concisely to avoid slight shifts in focus.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both parts of the prompt are fully addressed with a clear personal stance and well-supported ideas throughout the essay.
Ensure counterarguments regarding 'excessive ambition' are explicitly tied back to the main question of whether ambition itself is generally positive.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is logically organized with clear paragraphing and effective use of linking expressions.
Vary cohesive devices slightly more to avoid overusing standard transitions like 'Admittedly' and 'To begin with'.
Lexical Resource
A wide range of topic-specific vocabulary is used naturally and precisely to express complex ideas.
Refine subtle collocation choices, such as changing 'dreams to get promotional opportunities' to 'aspires to gain a promotion'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response demonstrates a strong variety of complex sentence structures with high grammatical accuracy.
Pay attention to minor preposition and infinitive structures to ensure perfect precision in complex clauses.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Ambition is an important characteristic of people in today’s society. How important you think it is for people who want to succeed in life? Is it a positive or negative characteristic for success?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.