The only way to reduce the amount of traffic in cities today is by reducing the need for people to travel from home to work, shopping and education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
The most viable solution to the ever-growing traffic problem in urban areas, according to some, is to minimize citizens' needthe citizen's need for travel to workplaces, shopping malls and schools. However, I disagree with this viewpoint and in this essay, I will explain why I holdpossess this view. First, all professionals can not work from home. Doctors, engineers, bankers, nurses, sales executives and many other professionals have to visit their workplaces and meet people to carry out their dutiesexecute their responsibilities. AdditionallySimilarly, if we shop online, delivery workersdispatch staff will still be on the road to deliver products. FurthermoreIn addition to this, many professional courses require fieldworkfield studies and laboratory work and an online course cannot provide equivalent practical facilitiescannot provide such facilities. Online courses cannot be compared with classroom teaching and the quality of the products cannot be judged just by the pictures on a laptop or a phone. Thus people need to leave home to carry out their daily activitiesget outside to do their daily work.
To truly tackle traffic congestion, we need more practical measuresmore realistic solutions than restricting people's movement. One such solution can be improving public transportation. The convenience of public conveyance would discourage many to use their private cars, which is the primary reason for bad traffic in many cities. Furthermore, the government can encourage people to use an eco-friendly mode of transport, such as cyclingan eco-friendly mode of transport, like the bicycle, by dedicating a separate lane for them. Many European and Asian cities, for example, already have separate cycle lanes and this has been truly effective in promoting environment-friendly vehicles and reducing traffic congestion. We need to have effective ways to tackle traffic congestion rather than asking people to stay home. In conclusion, in order to minimize traffic jams, the authority should enhance mass transportation facilities and encourage people to use eco-friendly transport rather than planning to restrict people's movements.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response maintains a clear disagreement and supports it with relevant examples of work, shopping, and education, while also proposing practical alternatives. Its main limitation is that some claims and causal links remain broad, so the argument does not consistently reach full depth; the highest priority is to explain more precisely why each proposed transport measure would reduce congestion more effectively.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A clear position is sustained, and relevant reasons and alternatives are developed with appropriate examples.
Deepen the comparison between reducing travel needs and the proposed alternatives by explaining their relative effects on congestion.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through the case against the claim and then toward alternative solutions, with generally clear linking.
Separate the introduction from the first main idea and reduce repetition between the final body sentences and conclusion.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of topic-specific vocabulary, though several collocations are imprecise or unnatural.
Refine combinations such as discourage people from using cars and replace vague phrases such as bad traffic with more precise wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A variety of complex structures is handled with generally good control, and errors rarely affect clarity.
Proofread possessives, articles, and verb-preposition patterns to eliminate the remaining localized inaccuracies.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
The only way to reduce the amount of traffic in cities today is by reducing the need for people to travel from home to work, shopping and education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.