Fewer young people do farming work in rural areas. Why? Should young people be encouraged to do farming work?
Sample Response
These days, rural youth are less likely to work in farmingrural youth are less involved in farming work. There are several reasons for this change, and I firmly believe that it is vital for governments and NGOs to engage them in farming.
There are two mainleading reasons why young people in rural areas tend not to pursue farmingtend to leave farming. Firstly, they tend to hold negative perceptions of agricultural work. Farming is often associated with hardship and poverty. It involves painstaking labourIt is painstaking labor that indeed takes months of tending cropsmonths to take care of crops and yet cannot guarantee a successfulfruitful harvest due to external factors such asexternal factors like weather conditions, pests and diseases. In fact, having experienced this instability, many rural parents even discourage youngsters from pursuing a career in farmingleading a farmer’s life. Secondly, today’s generation has more advantages than previous generationstoday’s generation is more advantageous than older generations as they have access to the Internet. They begin to know many vocational opportunities out there that are more profitable and financially stable than farming work. In other words, farming is no longer their only choice and is more likely to seem an inferior choiceis more likely an inferior choice.
I think it is essential to engage youth in farming work for two main reasonsbecause of two main reasons. For one thing, farmers are aging; in Vietnam, the average age of farmers is 50. If young people remainstay uninvolved, there may be no next generation of farmersthere would probably be no next generations of farmers who produce food and other agricultural productsprovide food and agricultural products. Another reason is that young people are early adopters of technologytechnology adopters from an early age. With their familiarity with technologytechnologies, they can find ways to incorporate those technologies intoin modern farming and solve many agricultural problems, like using remote-controlled helicopters to spray pesticides.
In conclusion, it is due to negative perceptions and abundance of career choices that discourage rural youth from going into farming, and I think engaging them in farming work from now on is vital for our future.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response directly addresses both questions, sustains a clear position, and develops its main ideas with relevant explanations and examples, especially the link between young people’s technological familiarity and modern agriculture. Its main limitation is occasional imprecision or awkwardness in wording, which slightly weakens an otherwise persuasive argument. The highest-priority improvement is to refine collocations and express causal claims more precisely.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions are fully answered through a clear position and well-developed, relevant reasons.
Qualify broad claims about the future absence of farmers to make the argument more measured and convincing.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through clearly focused paragraphs, with cohesive devices used effectively throughout.
Vary the signposting of supporting reasons so the progression feels less formulaic.
Lexical Resource
A good range of topic-specific vocabulary conveys the argument clearly, despite several awkward or imprecise collocations.
Replace phrases such as ‘more advantageous’ and ‘no next generations of farmers’ with more natural, precise wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex structures are generally well controlled, and the few errors do not impede communication.
Check conditional forms, agreement, and clause construction when expressing hypothetical future consequences.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Fewer young people do farming work in rural areas. Why? Should young people be encouraged to do farming work?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.