Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers in different countries get different payments and many people say that teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Give specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Sample Response
The education sector in a country is quite important and different policies are taken by the authority to enhance the quality of education. One such policy suggested by some is that teachers' payment should be based on the scale of students' learning. This might sound an alluring idea, but I personally disagree with it. To begin with, theoretically, the policy of paying a teacher based on how much his students actually learn is quite a good one. But the practical aspect is quite different as it is almost impossible to accurately judge the level of students learning curve taught by a teacher. For instance, some students perform quite brilliantly in a class while others even fail to grasp the basic concepts. This can be seen even in a single classroom where the same teachers are teaching those students. Moreover, this policy would create an outburst and dissatisfaction among the teachers and would actually decline their motivation. Not to mention, this would actually decline the education and teaching quality which is not at all desirable. Another key thing to remember is that teaching profession is already failing to attract talented individuals as they opt to more attractive salary offered by other professions. If payment based on students learning curve is considered, it would make it an even less attractive profession. On contrary to this policy, more training, motivations, monitoring teaching styles of teachers and then counselling, student feedback on teachers could be better alternatives. To conclude, teachers' role, in a country, is very important and no policy that might be detrimental for their motivation or for the educational setup should be launched. Alternative ways like training teachers, better study environment, students' feedback etc. for ensuring quality education and motivating teachers should be in place.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural collocation Original: different policies are taken Suggested revision: various policies are adopted Why it matters: Policies are normally described as being adopted rather than taken.
- 2. Use plural noun Original: authority Suggested revision: authorities Why it matters: The plural form more naturally refers to the bodies responsible for national education policy.
- 3. Use concise wording Original: payment Suggested revision: pay Why it matters: Pay is the natural noun for the money teachers receive for their work.
- 4. Clarify the measure Original: scale Suggested revision: extent Why it matters: Scale does not collocate naturally with learning in this context.
- 5. Use neutral pronoun Original: his Suggested revision: their Why it matters: Singular they avoids an unnecessary gender-specific reference to a teacher.
- 6. Fix possessive phrase Original: the level of students learning curve Suggested revision: students' learning progress Why it matters: The original noun phrase lacks a possessive marker and combines level and curve awkwardly.
- 7. Correct the collocation Original: create an outburst Suggested revision: cause an outcry Why it matters: Outburst usually describes an individual's sudden emotion, whereas outcry fits collective dissatisfaction.
- 8. Use transitive verb Original: decline Suggested revision: reduce Why it matters: Decline is not normally used transitively to mean make motivation lower.
- 9. Improve noun phrase Original: decline the education and teaching quality Suggested revision: lower the quality of education and teaching Why it matters: The revision uses a natural verb and places quality clearly over both activities.
- 10. Add the article Original: teaching profession is already failing Suggested revision: the teaching profession is already failing Why it matters: The specific profession requires the definite article here.
- 11. Fix verb pattern Original: opt to more attractive salary Suggested revision: opt for the more attractive salaries Why it matters: Opt takes for before a noun, and salaries agrees with the general plural comparison.
- 12. Correct the agent Original: by Suggested revision: in Why it matters: Professions are fields in which salaries are offered, not the agents offering them.
Suggested Rewrites
- different policies are taken various policies are adopted
- authority authorities
- payment pay
- scale extent
- his their
- the level of students learning curve students' learning progress
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response maintains a clear disagreement and supports it with several relevant reasons, especially the difficulty of measuring learning fairly and the likely effect on teacher motivation. Its main limitation is that ideas are sometimes repetitive or asserted through broad claims, while frequent awkward phrasing reduces precision. The highest priority is to develop fewer reasons with sharper, specific evidence and revise collocations and sentence structures for more natural, accurate expression.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A clear position is sustained and supported by several relevant reasons, though some claims remain general or repetitive.
Develop the strongest two reasons with more specific explanation or a concrete example instead of adding loosely supported alternatives.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses through recognizable stages, but the single-block presentation and repetitive linking weaken paragraph-level organization.
Separate the introduction, main reasons, and conclusion into purposeful paragraphs and use linking phrases more selectively.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient range to discuss policy and motivation, but recurring unnatural collocations and word-form choices reduce precision.
Replace awkward combinations such as references to declining motivation or attractive salary with standard academic collocations.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex structures communicates the argument clearly, despite recurring article, agreement, possessive, and preposition errors.
Proofread noun phrases and verb patterns carefully, especially articles, possessives, plurals, and prepositions after common verbs.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers in different countries get different payments and many people say that teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Give specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.