Many people believe that bicycle is a healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transport. However, it is still unpopular in many countries. What are the reasons for that? What could be done to encourage the use of bicycles among the wider population?
Sample Response
Riding a bicycle is good for our health and it is an environment-friendly mode of transportation. However, it is still not popular in many countries. This essay will discuss some of the reasons for this drift and several suggestions to encourage more people to use bicycles. In several countries, fewer people use bicycles these days than at any time in history. This is because many people still believe that riding a bicycle is only a sporting or recreational activity, and for commuting they need to ride on buses, trains or drive their automobiles. Secondly, since many city areas do not have any dedicated bicycle lanes, people find it risky to ride bicycles in busy streets. Without the existence of a separate bicycle lane, some people think that cycling to work would be dangerous as they have to share the road with car commuters and motorcyclists. The government can contribute significantly to persuade people to ride bicycles. One of the solutions is to provide separate cycling lanes for cyclists. Sufficient bicycle lanes in a city will encourage many residents to ride it for their daily commuting. Denmark, for example, has extensive bicycling lanes and that has positively encouraged citizens to cycle whenever possible. Another solution could be encouraging and informing people by launching campaigns about the positive health and environmental effects of cycling. Finally, government officials should set examples by using it daily while commuting to their workplaces. If government authorities ride cycles to offices, it is hoped that the public will also follow the example. In conclusion, cycling is still not widely prevalent in many countries. It is because of the mindset of the people who believe that cycling is a just sport. Besides, cycling lanes are not available in their countries as well. The government should take initiatives like building dedicated cycling lanes and running awareness campaigns to convince people to ride bicycles.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use adverbial modifier Original: environment-friendly Suggested revision: environmentally friendly Why it matters: The adverb “environmentally” correctly modifies the adjective “friendly.”
- 2. Name the trend accurately Original: drift Suggested revision: trend Why it matters: “Trend” refers clearly to the declining popularity of cycling, while “drift” does not.
- 3. Avoid absolute comparison Original: at any time in history Suggested revision: in recent decades Why it matters: The narrower time frame avoids an unsupported absolute historical claim.
- 4. Fix transport expression Original: ride on buses, trains Suggested revision: travel by bus or train Why it matters: People travel by bus or train rather than ride on these forms of public transport in this construction.
- 5. Use natural vehicle term Original: automobiles Suggested revision: cars Why it matters: “Cars” is the natural general term in this context.
- 6. Use concise urban phrase Original: city Suggested revision: urban Why it matters: “Urban areas” expresses locations within cities more concisely.
- 7. Fix street preposition Original: in Suggested revision: on Why it matters: Road activity takes the preposition “on.”
- 8. Remove wordy construction Original: Without the existence of Suggested revision: Without Why it matters: The shorter preposition conveys the same condition directly.
- 9. Use standard road term Original: car commuters Suggested revision: motorists Why it matters: “Motorists” names people driving cars more naturally.
- 10. Fix infinitive structure Original: contribute significantly to persuade Suggested revision: do much to persuade Why it matters: The revised construction correctly links the government's contribution to its persuasive action.
- 11. Remove redundant wording Original: separate cycling lanes for cyclists Suggested revision: dedicated cycling lanes Why it matters: A cycling lane already implies use by cyclists.
- 12. Fix pronoun and phrase Original: ride it for their daily commuting Suggested revision: use bicycles for their daily commute Why it matters: The plural noun avoids the unclear singular pronoun, and “daily commute” is the natural expression.
Suggested Rewrites
- environment-friendly environmentally friendly
- drift trend
- at any time in history in recent decades
- ride on buses, trains travel by bus or train
- automobiles cars
- city urban
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response addresses both parts directly, offering relevant reasons and practical measures, and its ideas progress clearly from causes to solutions. Its strongest feature is the focused, adequately supported content, while awkward word choices and the absence of paragraph breaks reduce precision and readability. The highest-priority improvement is to divide the discussion into clear cause and solution paragraphs while refining collocations and pronoun reference.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions are answered directly with relevant reasons, practical solutions, and generally sufficient development.
Develop the awareness-campaign and official-example proposals with the same specific causal detail given to cycle lanes.
Coherence and Cohesion
The cause-to-solution progression is clear and cohesive devices guide the reader, but the entire response is presented as one paragraph.
Separate the introduction, causes, solutions, and conclusion into purposeful paragraphs with one central function each.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and topic-appropriate, though several choices such as 'this drift' and 'ride it' are imprecise or awkward.
Use more natural collocations and precise reference, such as 'this decline' and 'use bicycles for daily commuting'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures is used with generally good control, while minor article, agreement, and pronoun errors recur.
Check article use, singular-plural agreement, and pronoun reference during a final edit.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Many people believe that bicycle is a healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transport. However, it is still unpopular in many countries. What are the reasons for that? What could be done to encourage the use of bicycles among the wider population?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.