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.
Sample Response
Our earth is home to around six billion people living all around the globe, many of them are urbanites and other ruralites. One view in societyOne line of thought of society states that it’s beneficial to live in urban areas; however, othersurban areas, however, others hold the opposite viewstand opposite to it. But this thought is gyrated by many reasons. Urban societyThe urban society provides a wide range of basic amenitiesgreat means of basic amenities necessary for dailyliving life. We can find manylot schools and other educationaleducation institutions in cities where childrenthe tiny tots prepare for their futuremake their future and turn into better-informed citizensbetter future civilians. Consequently, studentsOn the contrary, the students from villages come to the cities to receive an educationto have the education. Health facilities are also found in abundance in urban areas. Whenever the people in a rural area have any serious health issues rush to the urban areas to avail these facilities. Apart from this, the large number of transport facilitiesvast amount of transports facilities has made life immensely easy to live in urban areas. By contrastOn the flipside, the villagers have great difficulty within transport as proper means are not present and if present the roads are not proper to run them as they are never properly sanitised. The facilities of shopping malls and supermarkets have helped to gain access to necessary items under one roof easily decreasing our time utility. However, if we take a glanceif take a glance at rural society, we will be able to find lush green fields, fresh air and pure environment which is highly polluted in the cities. The villagers have a healthy lifestyle which is very scant in urban areas. People of rural areas are more socialised whereas that of urban areas are mammon worshippers, always running to make both ends meet. Parents of urban society have very less time due to which they are slowly drifted in oblivion, whereas the children of rural society share a great bond with their parents. The crime rate is far less in rural parts as compared to urban where crime is found in every nook and corner of the society. At last keeping all the aspects in mind, we can conclude that living in any part has both benefits and drawbacks, however, it’s totally subjective choice that which society cater our needs better.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response’s strongest aspect is its broad coverage of relevant contrasts, including urban services and transport alongside rural air quality, social ties, and lower crime. Its main limitation is that the entire comparison is packed into one paragraph and expressed through frequent unnatural or inaccurate language, which weakens development and clarity. The highest priority is to organise each side into focused paragraphs and explain fewer comparisons more precisely.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The essay addresses advantages and disadvantages on both sides with several relevant comparisons, but many points remain generalised, stereotyped, or briefly asserted.
Select two major contrasts, such as services and quality of life, and develop each with balanced explanation rather than listing numerous claims.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence broadly moves from city amenities to rural benefits, but one dense paragraph, frequent switches, and run-on connections weaken progression.
Use an introduction, separate city and countryside paragraphs, and a conclusion, with each paragraph built around a clear comparative focus.
Lexical Resource
The writer attempts a wide range of topic vocabulary, but frequent misuse and strained collocations make several descriptions imprecise or unnatural.
Prefer accurate phrases such as “educational institutions”, “public transport”, “reduce travel time”, and “have little free time” over forced wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Frequent errors in sentence boundaries, articles, agreement, missing subjects, and relative structures reduce grammatical control and sometimes strain meaning.
Write shorter complete sentences first, ensuring every clause has a subject and verb before combining ideas with conjunctions or relative pronouns.
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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.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.