By punishing murderers with the death penalty, society is also guilty of committing murder. Therefore, life in prison is a better punishment for murderers. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Sample Response
The issue of whetherThe issue whether murderers should bethe murderers should be punished with the death penaltypunished with death penalty or not is a controversial one. Many people support the death penalty as punishmentdeath penalty as a capital punishment and think that this is an important means of maintaining peace and ordera vital way to establish peace and law in the world but there are many arguments against itlots of opinions against it. I support the death penalty for murderers if it is really necessaryif it's really necessary for maintainingprevailing peace but if there is any alternative way to give the criminals a chance to show remorsea chance to remorse and lead a civilised life again, then they, and then they should be given it. In today's society, life is very violent and if we read the newspapers and watch the news on TV, we find many reports of murders and other crimeslots of murders and other crime news almost daily. There are many mentally ill people who are committing crimes and almost nothing will stop them. These types of psychopathic murderers commit murderpsychopathic murders commit murders even sometimes for personal pleasure. We have interviewed captured criminals who say, "I was going to kill him, but I knew that I could get the death penalty if I did. So I just left him there." Obviously, having the death penalty saves lives and that makes a positive difference to society. The death penalty is also useful for sending the messageuseful to send the message to the rest of societyto rest of the people that no matter who you are if you commit a murder you are going to be hanged till death or going to sit in an electric chair. This fear is helpful in reducing homicidehelpful to reduce the homicide in many countries. If a criminal murders someone and then receivesgets the death penalty, that isn't society's fault. Everyone knows about the death penalty as a punishment for murder. So, the person who murders is really killing himself at the same time he is killing his victim. The murderer has made the choice to die. It is important to remember that the death penalty is used only for people who have committed very serious crimes. For example, a woman shot a police officer when she was trying to escape from jail. She was already a convicted criminal when she committed murder, and she deserves the death penalty. In many countries, crimes become so severe that law-enforcement agenciesthe law enforcers can't control the situation and capital punishment becomes a part of the law practice but there are many cases where a man/woman kills another one to protect him or herself. It is not uncommon forIt's not uncommon when a girl kills a rapist to save her dignity and before imposingpronouncing the death penalty the reason must be considered. Even if a single innocent person gets the death penalty that will make the judicial system questionable. People need to accept responsibility for their actions. Punishing murderers with the death penalty is one way that society can help people to realise the consequences of their decisions.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The essay offers a recognisable conditional defence of capital punishment and raises relevant points about deterrence, responsibility, self-defence, and wrongful execution. Its main limitation is focus and organisation: life imprisonment is barely evaluated, the position is not consistently restated, and all 469 words appear in one paragraph. Prioritise a direct comparison between execution and life imprisonment, organised into clear argument, qualification, and conclusion paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A qualified position on capital punishment is presented with several relevant arguments, but life imprisonment is scarcely assessed and the final stance lacks a clear comparative conclusion.
Directly evaluate whether life imprisonment better serves punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, and protection from wrongful execution before restating a precise position.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas have a broadly understandable sequence, but the unbroken paragraph, repeated assertions, and loose transitions significantly weaken progression and grouping.
Use separate paragraphs for the position, deterrence case, limitations and exceptions, comparison with life imprisonment, and final judgement.
Lexical Resource
There is adequate crime-and-justice vocabulary, but frequent inaccurate or awkward choices reduce precision while the main meaning remains clear.
Use natural terms such as ‘feel remorse’, ‘murderers’, ‘deterrent’, ‘reduce homicide’, ‘legal practice’, and ‘impose a death sentence’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts varied structures, but article, agreement, punctuation, clause-linking, and conditional errors occur frequently throughout.
Break long sentences into controlled clauses and correct forms such as ‘the question of whether’, ‘an alternative’, ‘deters homicide’, and ‘if one innocent person is executed’.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
By punishing murderers with the death penalty, society is also guilty of committing murder. Therefore, life in prison is a better punishment for murderers. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.