Should a city try to preserve its old, historic buildings or destroy them and replace them with modern buildings? What is your viewpoint on this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Sample Response
The past and the futurePast and future have to be part of every city's charactera part of every city's characteristics; this is what makes cities different and diverse. That’s how we areget attracted to one city and feelfeels bored byat another. Walking through a city's streetsWalking in the streets alone should give us an idea of the history of the city or how technologically advanced it is. So, I think it is a critical task and an influencing one on the inhabitants of the city to decide what historical buildings to keep and what to replace with modern iconic ones. This balance can preservekeep the soul of a city and still remain competitive in the race for developmenthold a place on the race of development. FurthermoreOn another hand, I think it is crucial to keep a significant number of each city's historical buildingsa significant amount of any city's historical buildings as they teach peopleas it teaches people about their past and how their city actually developedhow they actually developed, this fosters a senseit grows a sense of loyalty and patriotism; it increases the feeling of ownership and in turn, preservationin return preservation. In general, thisIn general these has a positive impact on societyimpacts positively on society and on the impression any visitor takes awaythe message any visitor leaves with after a visit. Here comes to mind how the city of Munich in Germany rebuilt and still most of the historical buildings destroyed during the world war two, it is an accurate imitation of the original destroyed building using archived photos and old blueprints, this shows how significant history is to their culture and way of life. In brief, it's not the buildings that are preserved, it's the history, the stories behind those buildings and the people spent parts of their lives on those buildings, preserving all this will never happen unless there are still remains of their presence and those buildings stands as a witness and a living proof of this existence.
(by- Mohamed Shokry)
Why this response received Band 6.0
The essay’s strongest feature is its thoughtful position that cities should preserve substantial historic fabric while allowing selective modern development, supported by a relevant Munich example. Its main limitation is control of progression and sentence structure: the entire response forms one block and several run-ons obscure otherwise meaningful ideas; the highest-priority improvement is to divide the argument into focused paragraphs and rebuild each long sentence around one main claim.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A clear, nuanced position is developed through cultural identity, civic attachment, modernization, and a relevant example, although some claims could be explained more directly.
Clarify the criteria a city should use to decide which buildings to preserve and which may be replaced.
Coherence and Cohesion
The broad argument is recognizable, but the absence of paragraphing and frequent comma-linked clauses weaken logical progression and referencing.
Use separate paragraphs for the balanced policy, the benefits of preservation, the Munich example, and the conclusion.
Lexical Resource
The essay shows a good range for history, identity, preservation, and development, but awkward collocations such as “race of development” and “impacts positively” reduce precision.
Use natural phrases such as “remain competitive,” “have a positive impact,” and “evidence of their presence.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex ideas are attempted, but frequent agreement errors, fragments, run-on sentences, and faulty relative clauses reduce clarity.
Write shorter sentences and check forms such as “we feel,” “buildings that were destroyed,” and “people who spent parts of their lives in them.”
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Should a city try to preserve its old, historic buildings or destroy them and replace them with modern buildings? What is your viewpoint on this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.