It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to develop your essay.
Sample Response
Today, childrenToday children predominantly live in villages or other rural areaslive in villages and in the countryside, but many others live in big cities. This can be seen in terms of their family, hobbies, interests, and lifestyleundoubtedly, lifestyle. Many people believeIt is believed that rural children are more skilled than children who live in big cities. This will be proven by analysing children's lifestylesanalysing of children's lifestyle in both the countryside and big citiesin both countryside and big city in this essay. Firstly, it is a well-known factit is well-known fact that living in isolated villages can improve children's health, and therefore, their physical development. For instance, if children constantly do housework and gardeningdo house-working and gardening, they will be healthy. This example clearly shows that working hard improves not only health but also diversifies lifestyle. From this, it can be concluded that living in villages accelerates physical developmentdeveloping and improves skills they will need later in lifeskills which they need in future life. Secondly, there is no doubt to say that rural children can adapt and develop in big cities, which are filled with a variety of placessaturated by a variety of places. For example, they can visit and feel a sense of ethnic places, restaurants, stadiums, despite adapting. It is obvious when looking at the example that rural children slowly adapt tofor fast-paced city lifestyleboiling city lifestyle. Thus, it would be better to live near big cities. After analysing the areas of both lifestyles, it can be concluded that rural children are healthier than children inof big cities. As has been shown, rural children's skills are based onskills of rural children based on house-working, although a villagealbeit village is not an ideal place to develop life skills. It is predicted that children will live in villages in the future.
Why this response received Band 5.0
The response offers a recognisable position and relevant points about health and practical skills, but the argument becomes inconsistent when it shifts from village life to adapting to cities and living near them. Development is thin, and frequent awkward phrasing and grammatical errors weaken clarity. The highest priority is to maintain one precise position and build each body paragraph around a clearly explained, directly supporting reason.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses the topic and offers relevant reasons, but its position becomes inconsistent and the ideas are only partly developed.
State one unambiguous view and make every body paragraph explain and exemplify a reason that directly supports it.
Coherence and Cohesion
Basic sequencing is visible through the introduction, two main points, and conclusion, although progression is weakened by contradictory turns and mechanical linking.
Use separate paragraphs with clear topic sentences and ensure each sentence advances the same central idea within that paragraph.
Lexical Resource
There is some topic-related range, but frequent inaccurate collocations and word choices such as those describing work, development, and city life reduce precision.
Choose common, natural collocations and check that each ambitious expression conveys the intended meaning accurately.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts complex structures, but frequent errors in articles, verb forms, prepositions, and clause construction regularly weaken control.
Prioritise accurate sentence patterns, then edit systematically for articles, verb forms, and prepositions before adding complexity.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
It is better for children to grow up in the countryside than in a big city. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to develop your essay.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.