Some people believe that there should be fixed punishments for each type of crime. Others, however, argue that the circumstances of an individual crime, and the motivation for committing it, should always be taken into account when deciding on the punishment. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Sample Response
In recent yearsdays, there is an ongoing debate on how to give appropriate punishment fortoward people who accused with criminal activities. Some state that they should be punished by looking at the type of crime they have committed, while some people believe that the circumstances and reasonsthe circumstance and reason of committing a crime should be given high prioritygiven a high priority while accusing someone of the crime. However, I personally argue that sentences should normally be flexible rather than fixedthese ideas are definitely true and through this essay, I will support these views with some considerations below. Nowadays, the fact shows that there are some cases given unjust punishmentsinjustice punishment toward a criminal. For instance, a grandmother stole three chocolates last year and she had to spend several years in prisonspend times in prison for several years. By contrast,In contrast of corrupt officialsthe corruptors stealing plenty of money from society but were sentenced to only one yearbut punished only a year and completed by good service from the police. In short, the law of government should review and reform sentencing lawsrearrange the constitution when deciding on the punishment. They should think of the punishment types as the consideration of the punishment decision. Turning to the other arguments, the government also should pay attention to the reason why people have committed crimescriminalities. For example, there are some cases which show the mainmost reason for committing a crime are economic problems. A lot of people have no job thus they prefer to do misconduct to meet their daily needsfulfil their daily need. The most obvious solution is by taking the motivation of criminals as an essential consideration in giving punishment. As a result, I truly believe that these ideas are an essential consideration that can promoteencounter social justice.
Why this response received Band 5.0
The response recognises both fixed punishment and case-specific circumstances, and it attempts to support the latter with examples involving unequal sentencing and economic need. However, the two positions are not explained distinctly, the writer’s own view is ambiguous, and frequent grammatical and lexical errors weaken precision. Build one clear paragraph for each view and state exactly which approach should prevail.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both topics are mentioned, but the fixed-punishment view is not properly developed and the opinion that both ideas are true does not resolve the conflict.
Explain the fairness and deterrence case for fixed penalties, contrast it with mitigation, and choose a clear final position.
Coherence and Cohesion
There is some progression through examples and a transition to circumstances, but paragraphing is absent and connections are often unclear.
Use an introduction, two view paragraphs and a conclusion, with each paragraph centred on one claim.
Lexical Resource
The response has sufficient crime-related vocabulary to convey basic ideas, but inaccurate word choices and repeated punishment language are frequent.
Use precise terms such as sentencing, mitigating circumstances, proportionality, offender and corruption.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Frequent errors in passive forms, articles, plurals, clauses and sentence construction sometimes impede understanding.
Practise complete subject-verb clauses and passive patterns such as people who are accused and was sentenced.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people believe that there should be fixed punishments for each type of crime. Others, however, argue that the circumstances of an individual crime, and the motivation for committing it, should always be taken into account when deciding on the punishment. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.