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
PeoplePeoples have different opinions when choosing where to livewhile choosing their living place. Some people think that a village is a better place to live in, while others think a city is the preferable place to livea city is a preferred candidate to choose for their living. In my opinion, there are several reasons to believe that cities are the best places to live in because they provide facilities for a comfortable life. First of all, a city provides better education and career prospects.Renowned schoolsThe renowned and excellent schools are built in the cities because most of the population live in cities. These schools employ qualified teachersemploy the qualified teachers to provide education to the children. A child who receives an educationgets the education in a city is considered better educatedis considered the better one because of his broad range of experience and deep knowledge. The government and private businessesbusinessman build universities and colleges in the city to improve students' learning and skillsimprove the learning and skills in students. Various laboratories use the advanced instrumentsadvanced appliances instruments that aid the students in higher education especially in research and this facility is mostly available in a city area. I have learned to operate IR spectrophotometers from Punjab University which is situated in Chandigarh City and cities are major hubscities are mostly the hub of education. Moreover, a city provides better prospects of life. Shops and mallsThe shops, malls are built in a city to attract customers from a large areafrom large area. The important consumer goods such as fans, refrigerators, and carshome appliances like fan, refrigerator, car etc. are available in cities at a reasonable cost. Government offices are built in cities. Living in cities can help avoiding the dwellers to travel from village to city to do important official works. A city also provides sources of entertainment. Many festivals and carnivalsMany festivals, carnivals are organised in the cities. Even people from rural areasEven peoples from the rural area come to a city to watch their favourite movies in Cinema Hall and Theatres. Sports stadiums and training centresSports stadium, training centres are located in cities. City life offers too many facilities that are absent in rural areaslives. The most important thing is that the city provides better medical services. Best hospitals, medical centres are built in big towns so that the majority of peopleso that majority of people can have medical facilities. In these centres, expert doctors, specialist like neurosurgeons, heart surgeon works to treat peoples. These medical centres not only use advanced machines & instruments but also offer operation theatres for different types of operations for critical diseases. Cities are safe on health ground and have well-planned sanitation to avoid spreading epidemic. Cities have lifesaving medical centres. In summation, it is clear that city is the better place to live. The city not only provides good education and civil life but also provides best medical facilities.
Why this response received Band 5.5
The essay’s strongest feature is its substantial range of examples showing city advantages in education, shopping, entertainment, and healthcare. Its decisive limitation is incomplete task coverage: it does not develop countryside advantages or city disadvantages, so the required comparison never occurs, while frequent language errors further reduce precision. The highest priority is to replace some city detail with balanced paragraphs that examine benefits and drawbacks of both settings.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response develops several relevant city benefits and states a clear preference, but it omits the required advantages of rural life and disadvantages of cities.
Include substantial discussion of both settings, covering at least one benefit and one drawback of each before reaching a comparative conclusion.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow recognisable categories and use basic signposting, but the single long paragraph, repeated listings, and abrupt transitions weaken overall organisation.
Divide the response into focused paragraphs for city benefits, city drawbacks, rural benefits, and rural drawbacks, then compare them explicitly.
Lexical Resource
There is some range in education, public-service, and medical vocabulary, but frequent word-form and collocation errors undermine accuracy and naturalness.
Correct recurring expressions such as “people”, “place to live”, “advanced equipment”, “medical specialists”, and “rural life”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The essay attempts varied sentence forms, but frequent errors with plurals, articles, agreement, prepositions, and verb patterns occur throughout.
Prioritise noun-number agreement and verb control, for example “people have”, “businesspeople build”, “specialists work”, and “help residents avoid travelling”.
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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.