The number of advertisements for charities on television and the Internet seems to be increasing. What is causing this? Is this a positive or a negative development?
Sample Response
It indeed appears true that the frequency with which advertisements for charities appear both on television and the Internet seems to be increasing. There can be various explanations for this and it can be seen in both a positive and a negative lightboth a positive and negative light.
One explanation for the increase in the number of charity advertisements is that the charities themselves are becoming more aggressive in their marketing. This can also be seen in the common strategy nowadays to encourage a monthly donation, rather than a one-off donation. The increased marketing is apparent too in the increased numbernumbers of ‘street salespeople’, who stop passersby and try to get them to commit to this monthly payment.
A second reason for the increase could also be that more charities have been establishedthere have been more charities started and the number of advertisements would therefore increase and become more noticeable. If these charities are all legitimate, this would mean that more help will reach causesmore help will be getting to causes that need it. The increase in charities could also be explained by a possible increase inof humanitarian awareness. People might now be adoptingmight be now adopting different ideologies that take into account people in disadvantaged circumstancesless advantageous positions.
If the number of advertisements for charities has risen due to the fact that there has been a increase in people’s compassionpositive shift in people’s compassionate principles, this surely has to be seen as an optimistic development. If it is due to the fact that governments have been cutting back, it could be seen as a pessimistic development. In addition, if there are more charities asking for more money, this will inevitably mean that the amount of money donated will have to be more thinly spread, which would be a negative development.
There could be several reasons whyreasons for why there are more charity advertisements today. Whatever the reasons, as long as any money is helping disadvantaged peoplepeople in disadvantageous positions, it must be seen as a positive development.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response addresses both questions directly, develops several plausible causes, and reaches a clear, qualified judgment while maintaining strong control of organisation and language. Its main limitation is that some claims remain general or conditional rather than being illustrated with concrete evidence. The highest-priority improvement is to deepen the evaluation of the positive and negative consequences with one specific, fully explained example.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both parts of the task are fully addressed through relevant causes, balanced evaluation, and a clear final position.
Support the conditional evaluation with a concrete example showing how increased advertising produces a particular benefit or harm.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through distinct causes and consequences, with clear paragraphing and effective linking.
Reduce repeated additive linking and make the transition from causes to evaluation more explicitly analytical.
Lexical Resource
A wide vocabulary conveys nuanced ideas precisely, though a few collocations such as “increase of humanitarian awareness” sound awkward.
Refine less natural collocations so that sophisticated wording remains consistently idiomatic.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex structures is used accurately, with only occasional minor phrasing or preposition issues.
Polish small constructions such as “reasons for why” to make the grammatical control consistently natural.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
The number of advertisements for charities on television and the Internet seems to be increasing. What is causing this? Is this a positive or a negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.