Some people think that cities are the best places to live. Others prefer to live in a rural area. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of living in the city to living in the countryside.

Same questionCompare 10 different answers (Band 5.5–7.5)

Sample Response

1

Many people preferconsider living in cities and they think that this is more advantageous while another group prefers living in the countryside as they find it a better alternativefind it as a better alternative. Living in a city and in an urban area, both has their advantages and disadvantages. First of all, living in a city is very stressful as life isas the life is very busy and competitive there. Cities have lot more vehicles, industries and a large population and that pollutes the environment which is very harmful to the health. It is particularly tough for low earning people as the cost of living in a city is always higherthe expenses in living in a city is always higher. People suffer from many health problems when they live in a cityhealth problems that live in a city and especially they suffer a lot in old agein the old ages. I recently readRecently I have read a book and this book reveals some surprising facts about living in a city. I was pretty surprised to find that ''people who live in the countrysidecountry sides have longermore life expectancy than those who live in an urban areathan live in an urban area.'' On the other hand, city life offers numerous facilities and opportunities compared with livingcompared to the living in urban area. For instance, job opportunitiesopportunity and small businessesto run small businesses have better prospects in a city than in the countryside. People can easily find a new job in case s/he loses a job and there are many other earning prospects in a city that could not be found in a village. For financially secure peopleeconomically solvent people, the city offers many social and entertainment facilities such as cinemasfacilities like Cineplex, sports event in stadiums, amusement parks, museum etc. By contrastOpposite to this, rural areas do not offer many opportunities for social life and lack entertainment facilitiesand lacks the entertainment facilities. Also, people can’t purchase everything they need from a village market and markets are very rare in most rural areasmost of the urban areas. Regarding this, I would like to mention my own experience that I had a few days back. I went to a rural area called Tillo and I had my cell phone damaged there. I could not find any phone servicing centre there and I had to go to the city to have it repaired. In conclusion, both the cities and rural areas have their advantages and disadvantages.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 5.5

The response provides several concrete city disadvantages and advantages, supported by examples about employment, entertainment, costs, health, and access to services. However, the countryside's positive qualities are scarcely developed, some urban and rural references are confused, and the single unbroken paragraph weakens the comparison; the highest-priority improvement is to organise a balanced, accurate comparison with separate paragraphs for each setting and clearly matched advantages and disadvantages.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TR

Task Response

6.0
Scoring rule

Relevant city benefits and drawbacks are developed with examples, but countryside advantages receive limited direct treatment and some comparisons are inaccurate.

Next step

Develop at least two clear rural advantages and compare each directly with the corresponding feature of city life.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

5.5
Scoring rule

A broad shift from city drawbacks to city benefits and rural limitations is visible, but one long paragraph and uneven grouping weaken progression.

Next step

Use separate focused paragraphs for city advantages, city disadvantages, countryside advantages, and countryside disadvantages.

LR

Lexical Resource

5.5
Scoring rule

There is sufficient vocabulary for employment, health, pollution, services, and entertainment, but frequent repetition and inaccurate word choices reduce precision.

Next step

Use precise terms such as cost of living, low-income residents, life expectancy, rural area, and access to amenities.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

5.5
Scoring rule

Some complex sentences are attempted, but frequent agreement, article, plural, relative-clause, and sentence-boundary errors reduce control.

Next step

Check subject-verb agreement and noun number first, then divide overloaded sentences into complete grammatical units.

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IELTS Writing Task 2

Some people think that cities are the best places to live. Others prefer to live in a rural area. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of living in the city to living in the countryside.

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