In some countries, marriages are arranged by the parents but in other cases, people choose their own marriage partner. Discuss both systems and state which one do you think is better.
Sample Response
It is a fact that in several countries, marriages are still arrangedset by parents, but in other countries, people have the right to choose their own marriage partnerspeople have their own right to choose their wedding partners. A mixture of these two systems isThe mixtures of these two trends are also common in many societies and countries. The following essay will discuss both systemsfacts, but I believeI do believe that people should choose their own partnersit is better for us to choose our own partner. For a number of reasons, some parents still follow the tradition of choosing a partner for their child. Firstly, since it is a tradition that has been passed on for so many generations in the society. They are afraid that it might be considereda taboo if they do not follow it and could be isolated by the community. Secondly, they believe that parents want the best for their childrenparents would give the best of everything to their child. They think that parents are wiser and more mature, therefore they could select a good partner for their child. However, other peopleother groups of people disagree with the above statement, as they believe that people should have the right to choose their own partner. They believe that a relationship should be built on love and attractionbuilt based on love and attraction, not on coercionnot based on enforcement. As marriage becomes a special moment in someone’s life, he should get married to the person he loves or he might regret it for the rest of his life. Therefore, they arguethey all agree that people should have their own right to choose their own married partner. I believeIn my opinion, I personally believe that we should have the right to choose our own spouse, becauseas I agree that marriage is a major event in a person's lifemarriage is a special moment in someone’s life. And I think that the tradition of parents arranging marriagestradition of arranging married by parents should no longer be acceptedshould not be considered anymore as it is against individual rightsthe human right.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response is strongest in maintaining a clear preference for personal choice while giving understandable reasons for both marriage systems. Its main limitation is that the discussion remains fairly general and gives more attention to why arranged marriage persists than to evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. Develop each side with a concrete consequence or example, use clear paragraph breaks, and revise recurring collocation and sentence-structure errors.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both systems and a clear opinion are presented, but the ideas are somewhat general and the evaluation of arranged marriage is limited.
Explain a concrete benefit and drawback of each system before justifying why personal choice is better.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument follows a recognisable sequence and uses clear linking expressions, but the single-block presentation weakens paragraph-level organisation.
Divide the response into distinct introduction, two discussion paragraphs, and conclusion, with one central idea in each body paragraph.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for the topic and shows some range, though several inaccurate collocations reduce precision.
Replace awkward expressions such as wedding partners, married partner, and arranging married with natural marriage-related collocations.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex structures communicates the argument, but fragments, article errors, and agreement problems recur.
Check that every dependent clause has a main clause and revise articles, pronoun agreement, and noun forms systematically.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In some countries, marriages are arranged by the parents but in other cases, people choose their own marriage partner. Discuss both systems and state which one do you think is better.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.