Some people want governments to spend money on other planets to look for life. Others believe that it is a waste of public money when there are many unsolved problems on Earth. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Sample Response
It is often proposed that governments should allocate public funds to missions searching for life on other planets, while others argue this expenditure is unjustifiable when pressing challenges persist on Earth. I believe despite the potential technological and inspirational benefits of space exploration, prioritising humanitarian aid and environmental restoration at home is ultimately the wiser use of limited resources.
Proponents maintain that funding life-search missions delivers substantial scientific and societal returns. They may well argue that technological spin-offs from deep-space robotics research can drive advances in materials science and artificial intelligence. For example, technologies originally developed by NASA—such as memory-foam cushioning and ultra-compact micro-sensors—now benefit medical devices and consumer electronics. Another benefit of space exploration is the prospect of discovering Martian microbes or other extraterrestrial organisms inspiring a cosmic perspective and stimulating interest in STEM fields. This means that the awe and excitement generated by potential breakthroughs fuel a surge in university enrolment for science and engineering disciplines.
However, channeling budgets toward immediate human and environmental priorities can yield faster, more reliable benefits. One notable reason for this is that investing in humanitarian relief programs—such as clean-water initiatives, vaccination campaigns, and food-security projects—directly improves public health and social stability. Ensuring access to basic necessities reduces disease incidence and strengthens community resilience, and when citizens’ fundamental needs are met, productivity increases and social cohesion is reinforced. Additionally, funding environmental restoration helps mitigate climate change and preserve ecosystems. By way of illustration, large-scale solar and wind installations in place of fossil fuels have already begun to lower carbon emissions in countries that commit to green infrastructure. Consequently, reduced reliance on polluting energy sources can slow global warming and protect biodiversity for future generations.
In conclusion, although the search for life beyond Earth spurs innovation and ignites scientific curiosity, I contend that allocating public money to critical humanitarian and environmental projects on our own planet offers more immediate and dependable returns.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Clarify the mission type Original: funding life-search missions Suggested revision: funding missions that search for life Why it matters: The relative clause is clearer and more natural than the compressed compound life-search.
- 2. State the application accurately Original: now benefit medical devices and consumer electronics Suggested revision: are now used in medical devices and consumer electronics Why it matters: Technologies are used in devices and electronics rather than benefiting the products themselves.
- 3. Soften the inference Original: means Suggested revision: suggests Why it matters: Suggests accurately signals that the claimed enrolment effect is an inference from the preceding idea.
- 4. Keep British spelling Original: channeling Suggested revision: channelling Why it matters: The double-l spelling keeps this word consistent with prioritising and enrolment elsewhere in the response.
- 5. Use the precise adjective Original: human Suggested revision: humanitarian Why it matters: Humanitarian precisely describes priorities concerned with immediate human welfare.
- 6. Keep spelling consistent Original: programs Suggested revision: programmes Why it matters: Programmes matches the British spelling convention used elsewhere in the essay.
- 7. Compare equivalent concepts Original: solar and wind installations in place of fossil fuels Suggested revision: solar and wind installations that replace fossil-fuel energy Why it matters: The revision avoids directly comparing physical installations with fuels as if they were equivalent categories.
- 8. Align the time reference Original: countries that commit to green infrastructure Suggested revision: countries committed to green infrastructure Why it matters: Committed fits the preceding present-perfect claim about reductions that have already begun.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: I believe despite the potential technological and inspirational benefits of space exploration, prioritising humanitarian aid and environmental restoration at home is ultimately the wiser use of limited resources. Suggested revision: I believe that, despite the potential technological and inspirational benefits of space exploration, prioritising humanitarian aid and environmental restoration at home is ultimately the wiser use of limited resources. Why it matters: That and the paired commas correctly frame the embedded concessive phrase.
- 10. Sentence rewrite Original: Another benefit of space exploration is the prospect of discovering Martian microbes or other extraterrestrial organisms inspiring a cosmic perspective and stimulating interest in STEM fields. Suggested revision: Another benefit of space exploration is that the prospect of discovering Martian microbes or other extraterrestrial organisms could inspire a cosmic perspective and stimulate interest in STEM fields. Why it matters: The rewrite removes the dangling participial structure and makes the possible effects grammatically explicit.
Suggested Rewrites
- funding life-search missions funding missions that search for life
- now benefit medical devices and consumer electronics are now used in medical devices and consumer electronics
- means suggests
- channeling channelling
- human humanitarian
- programs programmes
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response is fully focused, presents a clear and consistent preference, and develops both perspectives with specific explanations and examples. Its principal limitation is occasional overstatement or slightly loose linkage between an example and the precise issue of searching for extraterrestrial life, alongside a few dense sentence structures. Strengthen it further by making every example's relevance explicit and tightening the few overpacked sentences.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both views are explored in depth, the position is consistent, and the supporting explanations are relevant and well extended.
Make the connection between each technological example and missions specifically searching for extraterrestrial life completely explicit.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through well-focused paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the argument without obscuring its development.
Trim a few extended explanatory sequences so that the central claim of each body paragraph remains maximally prominent.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and appropriately academic, with only occasional slightly cumbersome or compressed phrasing.
Refine dense combinations such as life-search missions and favour the most natural concise term where equal precision is possible.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide variety of complex structures is used accurately, and the large majority of sentences are error-free.
Polish the few compressed participial and complement structures so that every relationship is immediately unambiguous.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people want governments to spend money on other planets to look for life. Others believe that it is a waste of public money when there are many unsolved problems on Earth. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.