Large shopping malls are replacing small shops. Do you think it is a positive or negative development?
Sample Response
In recent years, there havehas been an increasing number of shopping malls being built, leading to the disappearance of small stores. In my opinion, this change brings about both positive and negative impacts, though the negative effects outweigh the positive onesimpacts are more negative in the long term.
On the one hand, the rapid growth in the number of shopping mallsboom in the number of shopping malls has offered customers a wide range of benefits. First of all, people can now save time when shoppingsave time shopping thanks to the availability of a wide variety of storesavailability of many types of stores located in a single complexin the one complex. Shopping malls offer groceries, clothing, and books, along-side food courts and entertainment facilities, all under one roofunder the one roof. This offers considerable convenienceprovides a lot of convenience to people who choose to shop there instead of in separate smaller stores.
Moreover, shopping malls usually offer more discounts and promotions that customers can benefit from when comparedbenefit from, when compared to small stores. Furthermore, smaller stores cannot usually provide customers with the advantage ofadded advantage of large, convenient and safe parking facilities that most shopping malls offer. As a result, an increasing number of peoplemore and more people are choosing to shop at large shopping malls, leading to a decrease in the number of people purchasing goods from small shops.
There are, however, a number of benefits for individuals and communitiesbenefits to people and communities that shopping in smaller stores can bring. For example, locally-owned, family-run businesses are more likely to provide friendlier, higher-quality customer servicefriendlier and better customer service than larger shopping malls and chain stores. In addition, more locally owned small businesses areis better for local economies and communities in the long term, by providing more jobs, profits, and incomemore employment, profits and income to local people.
In conclusion, the proliferation of shopping malls could have positive effects on customers but it is likely to force small local businesses to closedrive small local businesses out of business, and have a negative impact on local economies, with most profits being taken by non-local businesses.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response presents a clear, nuanced position and supports it with relevant advantages for shoppers and longer-term disadvantages for local communities. Its main limitation is that the negative case, despite being the stated priority, is less fully developed than the discussion of convenience and price benefits. The highest-priority improvement is to deepen that case with a specific explanation of how displaced small businesses affect employment, competition, and local spending.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The question is fully addressed through a clear, qualified position and relevant discussion of both consumer benefits and community costs.
Develop the longer-term negative effects more fully so they convincingly justify the stated overall judgment.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through well-focused paragraphs, although the two consecutive benefit paragraphs create slight imbalance.
Group related consumer advantages more tightly and give the negative case comparable structural emphasis.
Lexical Resource
A sufficiently broad vocabulary communicates the argument precisely, with only occasional awkward choices and repetition around shops and malls.
Use more varied and natural terms for local retail, consumer convenience, and economic consequences.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of complex sentences is generally accurate, while a few agreement and article errors remain noticeable but non-impeding.
Proofread subject-verb agreement and article choice, especially in constructions involving plural noun phrases.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Large shopping malls are replacing small shops. Do you think it is a positive or negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.