Nowadays online shopping is extremely popular. Discuss the impacts on environment and on people who lost their job because of it: IELTS Writing Test
Bhargavee Sisodia15 Nov 2024
The International English Language Testing System or the IELTS test consists of four segments Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. The IELTS test comes in two flavors: The Academic and General Training IELTS.
For both types of IELTS exams, there are two distinct sections in the writing test.
Academic IELTS writing test: It consists of two tasks
- Visual Information: A 150-word description of visual information which has an allotted time of 20 minutes.
- Essay: A 250-word (minimum) essay on a topic that has an allotted time of 40 minutes. This part of the test would require you to express your point of view, arguments, or problems in an essay depending on the allocated topic. The topics of the essay are based on education, science, and social issues.
General Training IELTS writing test: It also consists of two tasks.
- Letter Writing: In the first part of the writing test for General Training, you will be asked to write a letter with a word limit of 150 and a maximum time of 20 minutes.
- Essay: The second section of this writing test is the same essay section with the same word limit and time constraints. Topics of the essay are based on general interest.
The IELTS writing test is used to measure the candidate's credibility in writing clear, logical, and effective sentences. While answering the IELTS essay topics, you should keep in mind that your answer must satisfy all the criteria for evaluation, to achieve your desired IELTS writing band score.
IELTS essay topics widely belong to 6 major categories, each having a very particular way of answering. So you need to know and understand the essence of each category of the essays.
- Problem Solution Essay: Such essays urge you to discuss the cause and effect of a general issue like overpopulation or global warming. It is crucial to avoid giving personal opinions and input in such essays.
- Advantage & Disadvantage Essay: Such essays require you to point out the advantages and disadvantages of a particular issue. You should balance the main body of your essay well with each paragraph designated to its benefits and drawbacks respectively. Avoid giving your opinion if the topic doesn’t ask for it.
- Discussion Essay: This type of essay entitles you to discuss two sides of a given argument. Refrain from giving your opinion if the topic doesn’t ask for it.
- Balanced Opinion Essay: This type of essay requires you to be diplomatic with your arguments on the topic. You have to argue both sides of the issue without directly favoring any one of them. You should provide personal input in the introduction and conclusion of the essay.
- Opinion Essay: An opinion essay requires you to state your opinions on the given topic. It requires you to give facts and reasons to support your judgment to convince the examiner.
- Direct Question Essay: This assesses your capacity for concept expression, topic analysis, and clear, well-organized response on a single topic or issue.
The IELTS writing task 2 topics must be answered using appropriate style, punctuation, and grammar. Let's discuss the assessment criteria below.
IELTS Writing: Assessment criteria
The writing test of the IELTS exam takes 60 minutes to complete. The first part of the test takes 20 minutes to complete and the second part i.e. the Essay writing part has an allocated time of 40 minutes. The essay section of the writing test is scored on four criteria each of which is responsible for 25% of the IELTS writing band score. The factors are as follows:
- Task Achievement / Task Response: This factor evaluates your extent of covering the given topic, the key pointers mentioned to justify the response, and the extent of accuracy of interpreting the given topic. Ensure your essay's word count is not less than 250 words.
- Coherence and Cohesion: This factor checks the link between paragraphs, the proper formation of paragraphs, and the clarity of your writing. It would require you to have your phrases flow naturally together and your ideas organized neatly into paragraphs. It also evaluates the proper usage of conjunctions and transition phrases.
- Lexical Resource: To evaluate this point, the examiner would check the accuracy of your writing, your vocabulary range, your spelling errors, and your appropriate use of collocation i.e. proper use of word combinations.
- Grammatical Accuracy and Range: This factor evaluates the use of appropriate grammar, the structure of your sentences, and your punctuation.
You need to be careful about all the above factors to get a good IELTS writing band score.
IELTS writing test: A few useful tips
IELTS essay topics need a lot of attention to detail to write an appropriate answer. We have jotted down some tips that you should keep in mind while preparing for the IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers.
- Maintain proper grammar: You should aim for the least grammatical errors while writing your answers to IELTS essay topics as grammar is one of the main factors on which your IELTS writing band score depends.
- Maintain proper tense: Make sure your answer has proper usage of tenses. Maintain the tense throughout the essay. Make sure to determine the tense depending on the demand of the topic.
- Keep it short and simple: Simplicity is the best policy while forming your sentences during essay writing on IELTS writing task 2 topics. Complex sentences attract confusion if the formation is incorrect.
- Understand the topic: For the IELTS writing task 2 topics, it is crucial to understand the meaning appropriately. If you fail to understand the meaning of the topic or misinterpret it, you might end up writing the essay from a different point of view that is not anticipated.
IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers
To attempt a Discussion essay like this one, you need to follow a few sets of rules and structures.
Introduction: Paraphrase the given information and state the aspect you would be discussing in the main body. Make it short and effective.
Main Body: The main body should consist of at least 2 paragraphs.
- Paragraph 1: Mention the topic sentence in the first line. Give two reasons, and some specific examples to justify the first side of the example. It can be two to six sentences long.
- Paragraph 2: This paragraph should be dedicated to the second side of the argument. Make sure to use valid analogies and examples to solidify your argument. It can be up to six sentences long.
A minimum of two paragraphs are mandatory for this kind of essay. However, you can write a thirdor even a fourth paragraph stating more points of discussion. Make sure to use effective “linking words” at the beginning of each paragraph.
Conclusion: Summarize the discussion effectively and provide your take on the discussion.
Now let's have a look at the probable answers to one such IELTS essay topic which is “Nowadays online shopping is extremely popular. Discuss the impacts on environment and on people who lost their job because of it”. It is a discussion type of essay and below we have listed the answers for bands 6, 7, and 9.
IELTS writing band score 6
In this world of change online shopping has bring out a lot of changes. It has some positives and some negatives. Today in this essay let's discuss what people think of the problems the environment face because of the online shopping and the problems it effects the employment people.
The polythene and plastic used to pack the goods we shop from online platforms like Amazone and Flipkart harm nature. The packing of the online good gives rise to a lot of waste materials that, cause harm to wildlife and give a lot of pain to nature. The packaging materials used for packing the item is harmful to environment aswell.
Moreover, people think it is not only creating problem with the nature but it is also creating problem with an ordinary man. It is not good for man aswell. For ordinary man their daily bread is vanishing because of the online shopping platforms. Online shopping is bursting, the offline shopping is shrinking making the life of offline shop employees hard due to layoffs. So online shopping is taking job away from offline shopping employee.
Online shopping is causing dangerous side effect to the environment and giving problem to the employee of offline shopping platform. Many shops have shut down because of the web shopping platforms because of that business bankruptcy and unemployment ratio is increasing all over the world. People who are not well aware of online shopping are facing great inconveniences with the local stores closing down.
These are some of the problems caused by the online shopping to the common people and nature. Once we figure out the problem, we should think about solutions. The common solution to the harmful effects of online shopping and its bi-product is to use biodegradable package meterial. This will decrease environment pollution. Conglomerates should hire more labor forces to help reduce unemployment.
Notes on the above answer:
- The green highlights in the above answer represent Grammatical errors like incorrect tenses or nouns. The blue highlight depicts the wrong use of words in the sentence, like “effect” should be “affects”, and “give” should be “cause” and the red highlights represent punctuation mistakes which would decrease your score on Accuracy.
- The yellow highlights represent spelling mistakes or lack of Lexical Range.
- The repetition of words like “nature”, “environment”, and “online shopping” negatively impacts Coherence. The essay must have the correct vocabulary and flair and appropriate linking words like “However”, and “Moreover” which affects the overall Cohesion of the essay.
IELTS writing band score 7
Online shopping media has taken the world by storm with several advantages like quick access, easy returns, and lucrative solutions to exchange policies, but it has several disadvantages as well. In this essay, we are going to discuss the side effect of online shopping on environment and employment of the world.
The very first disadvantage of online shopping is the huge residue of package material that is discharged into the environment. After a package is delivered, the item is taken out of its elaborate packaging and the waste materials are discarded into nature which is suffering with each passing day due to the non-biodegradable residue of products. Plastics or polythenes, when thrown into the sea cause harm to the fishes and wildlife in the sea, not to mention it causes soil pollution and air pollution on being burn.
Furthermore, it has severely affected many people whose employment depended on sales of offline stores. With the booming business of contactless shopping through online means, the shops and businesses that sell products offline have suffered a major hit, which has been the major cause behind employee layoffs. Thus small business downfall and unemployment ratio have increased all over the world.
Apart from environmental issues and unemployments, online shopping has significantly contributed to shopping addiction and increased morbid obesity among people. Since people are getting everything from the click of a button, there is hardly any need for exercise, which has increased fatigue and causes several health issues.
Although online shopping has contributed to the increase of the economy all over the world and has helped people in several ways, it would be inconsiderate to ignore its side effects. Its discredits should be weighed along with its advantages to carefully consider its impact on human life and nature.
Notes on the above answer:
- The green highlights in the above answer represent Grammatical mistakes like the incorrect choice of words, or nouns.
- The pink highlight depicts the incorrect formation of sentences or phrases, like “the increase of the economy” could be “economic growth”, hence it lacks Coherence. The sentence in the third paragraph is too long to be interpreted correctly, thus it reduces Cohesion and Accuracy. Linking words have been used much less, which has also decreased the overall score of Cohesion and Coherence.
IELTS writing band score 9
Online shopping has been a game changer for the world of retail over the past few years due to the prominent range of advantages it has on the lives of people and the environment. In this essay, we will navigate through all the positive and negative impacts of online shopping on the environment and employment.
Online shopping has enriched the mundane life of a shopper in a few ways like, ease of access, easy returns, smooth exchange, and try-and-buy options. The extra overheads like electricity charges, fuel expenses, and product services have been reduced to a minimum with the advent of online shopping methods and so has the pollution due to them.
Moreover, several people have received employment from online shopping platforms as delivery agents, shipping agents, technical support, and warehouse managers. Most of the delivery agents travel by two-wheelers which causes less air pollution as opposed to family sedants.
However, shopping online has a few environmental disadvantages due to its extensive packaging formats. The severing of plants to produce the package materials for the products, the poisonous gases during its production, and the chemical residue dumped in natural waterbodies are the chief causes of environmental pollution. The relatively large and unnecessary packaging of items once discarded, pollutes several components of the environment like soil, air, and water.
In addition, E-commerce has broken the demand-supply chain of local stores, adversely affecting the employment ratio of common people. The insolvency of several offline shops has rendered their employees jobless and the owners bankrupt.
In conclusion, although web shopping media has contributed to elevated employment ratios in the technology sector it has also increased unemployment of labor forces worldwide. Thus, along with a bundle of pros, it has a sufficient share of cons that affect lives and nature simultaneously.
Conclusion
While you dive into your IELTS preparation, you need a guiding light to understand the pattern of IELTS essay topics and judge your writing capability accordingly. D-VIVID is here to be your mentor and help you with a vast set of writing task 2 topics with answers. We have a huge array of IELTS writing task 2 topics along with their answers categorized by IELTS writing band score to help you prepare for the band you are aiming to achieve in the writing test. Our archive of IELTS essay topics on different categories and types will surely improve your understanding of the task and its required outcomes. We are here to guide you in each step of your IELTS exam, so trust us and contact us today for a great IELTS preparation experience.
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