Say whether or not experiments on animals can be justified. Say whether there are alternatives to this practice.
Sample Response
Over the past few decades, animal testing has been fiercely debated due to the ethical issues inherent in this practiceethical problems inherent in this area of science. This essay will explain why it cannot be justified and that alternatives need to be sought. People who believeThe people who believe that animal testing is necessary argue that there are significant benefitstend to say that there are serious benefits to humanity, such as testing medicines before they are used on humanstesting medicines before using them on human beings. They believe that this will help to find cures forfigure out the cures to many serious illnesses, thereby improving human well-beingwhich will make the world a better place for humans. However, this argument is flawedthis is wrong for several reasons. Chief among them is the fact that animal testing is not as helpful in developing medicines as people think. Medicines that work on animals do not always work on humans, and vice versa. As such, these trials are not onlyjust unnecessary but also profoundly unhelpful. For example, if scientists induce diabetes in a mousegive a mouse diabetes and then try various drugs to treat the conditioncure the problem, they may find that there are twelve drugs that do not work on the mouse. However, one of those drugs might have workedmaybe one of those drugs would have worked on a human. As such, animal testing would have caused more problems than it solved. Part of the reason for animal testing is that there are not many alternatives. Whilst it is obviously cruel and pointless to subject animals to experiments, most people would agree that it is worse to do this to human beings. However, there needs to be a proceduresome sort of procedure by which testing can move from theoretical research to human trialsfrom theoretical to human trials without the need for the harm caused by animal testingthe evils of animal testing. What this process would be remains to be seen, but it is essential for any humane society. In conclusion, people may argue that there are benefits of animal experimentationbenefits that come from experimenting on animals, but in fact there is no good reason to continue doing this. Scientists must seek alternatives immediatelyScientists need to immediately seek an alternative and end this unethical and ineffective practicebarbaric and pointless practice.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response sustains a clear position against animal testing and develops its criticism with a focused explanation and example, using generally fluent and varied language. Its main limitation is that it does not propose or examine any concrete alternative despite the explicit second instruction, while the single-paragraph presentation weakens the organisation; prioritise a developed alternative, such as advanced cell models or carefully staged human trials, and divide the argument into purposeful paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The position against animal testing is clear and well explained, but the required discussion of alternatives remains largely undeveloped.
Present at least one concrete alternative and explain how it can replace or reduce animal experiments in practice.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses coherently through the opposing view, rebuttal, and conclusion, but the absence of paragraph breaks weakens structural clarity.
Organise the response into distinct introduction, argument, alternative, and conclusion paragraphs with less repetitive connective wording.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a flexible and generally precise range of vocabulary, though some emotive wording reduces academic objectivity.
Replace loaded terms such as evils and barbaric with precise descriptions of ethical or scientific limitations.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex clauses and varied sentence forms are handled with strong overall accuracy, despite a few awkward constructions.
Improve parallel structure and collocation in sentences that combine the position with the proposed course of action.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Say whether or not experiments on animals can be justified. Say whether there are alternatives to this practice.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.