In many countries around the world, rural people are moving to cities, so the population in the countryside is decreasing. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?
Bhargavee Sisodia09 Aug 2024

The IELTS exam is intended for those who are interested in moving abroad in order to get international job opportunities or gain admission to foreign universities. The four sections on reading, writing, speaking, and listening are just as important whether you write for an Academic or General IELTS Training test. Academic and General Task 2 requires you to draft a response to a specific argument or statement. The time limit is 40 minutes, and the word limit is 250 words.
Criteria of IELTS Scoring System: Writing Task 2
The IELTS Writing Task 2 will be scored using four separate elements, each with a 25% weighting in the final IELTS writing band score. To receive a 9-band score, you must fully appreciate these prerequisites and correctly prepare your responses. We have discussed the four criteria below, and reviewing them and comparing them to the sample responses will help you comprehend band scoring.
- Task Achievement: This section's goal is to provide a well-structured response to the question. You must be able to explain the scenario precisely and provide an answer that remains on topic. You must write at least 250 words and follow all formatting guidelines to organize your response in a manner that is appropriate for the essay's style. Each type of essay follows a specific format, so build your response based on the question.
- Coherence and Cohesion: This is the criterion used to evaluate your ability to explain content clearly. How well you use the proper words, link the paragraphs, prevent repetition, and make your response easy to read will all contribute to your overall score. You must divide the essay into four or more paragraphs, which must be appropriately linked. Do not write the essay in a disorganized manner, with paragraphs beginning out of nowhere.
- Lexical Resource: To excel in this domain, you must have a vast and nuanced vocabulary. Furthermore, if you use simple syntax and prevent spelling and word structure mistakes, you will perform better in this evaluation area. Use synonyms to improve your answer.
- Grammatical Accuracy and Range: Using a variety of suitable tenses and grammatical structures can help you meet the requirements for grammatical accuracy and range. It is also vital to adopt appropriate phrase structure and punctuation.
Understanding and Analyzing IELTS Writing Task 2 Questions
The first step is to identify the broader topic and the micro-topic. For example, if the question is "Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of social media on children", the broader topic is the impact of social media. So, a lot of students can write about the positive and negative impacts of social media, but the micro-topic here is the impact of social media on children specifically. So, if you write about the generic impact of social media, it will directly impact your IELTS writing band score.
The next important step is to identify the type of essay. This is because the structure of the essay depends on the type of essay that is asked in the question. "Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of social media on children" is clearly an advantage/disadvantage essay. However, your opinion is not asked here, so under no circumstance should you give your opinion. The same question can be framed as "Social Media has a large impact on children nowadays. Some believe that it is detrimental whereas some believe it is beneficial. Discuss both viewpoints." This is a discussion-based essay. Although the essence of the essay is the same, the structure will vary.
IELTS writing task 2 topics:
In many countries around the world, rural people are moving to cities, so the population in the countryside is decreasing. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?
This is an opinion-based essay. There will be keywords like "do you think" or "give your opinion", and this will be a direct hint to identify the essay as an opinion-based essay. Also, it is tricky to differentiate between other types of essays, like advantage/disadvantage essays, where your opinion is asked and opinion-based.
For example, an essay might have the keyword "do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?" or it might have "discuss both view points and give your opinion." In the first case, it is an advantage/disadvantage essay, where you need to discuss both sides and give your opinion on whether you believe the advantages are more or the disadvantages are more. In the same way, the second example is a discussion-based essay where you need to discuss both sides of an argument and give your opinion.
Then you must be thinking, how to identify opinion-based essays? Except for the keywords like "do you think" or "give your opinion," search for the keyword "or." The question will be "Do you think this 'or' that?" or the question will be "Do you agree 'or' disagree?" This "or" is a clear giveaway that you need to either talk about the agreement or disagreement and not both sides of the argument, which is the primary way you can differentiate between opinion-based essays and other types of essays, where your opinion is asked.
In this blog, we will discuss how to frame your answers to this opinion-based essay question. We will provide essays matching bands 6, 7, and 9, allowing you to investigate the rationale for the essays' placement within each band and identify variances in the replies.
- Introduction: Redefining and making the question plain. Please indicate the argument you agree with.
- Body 1: Provide proof to back up your stance.
- Body 2: Provide additional proof to back your claim.
- Body Paragraph 3 (optional): Feel free to present the other viewpoint and explain why you disagree.
- Conclusion: Restate the question in your own terms and share your perspective.
IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers:
Now that you are aware of the essay's structure, let's examine how the response will affect your grade. For bands 6, 7, and 9, we have provided answers along with an explanation of why the answer falls under that specific band.
In many countries around the world, rural people are moving to cities, so the population in the countryside is decreasing. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?
Band 6
Rural people are flocing to cities in many nations around the world, resulting in a decline in rural population. In my opinion, this is a negative development and has several detremental influences.
The rural population, while migrating toward the cities, cause a significant increases in the population density of the cities. This causes pollution, pressure on the government to provide adequate facilities, accommodation shortages, and employment concerns, creating an imbalance in the ekology and the people also faces financial difficulties to bear the high cost of living in the cities compared to the rural areas. Thus, economicaly and financially speaking, the migration of the population from rural areas to cities poses a threat.
Another significant negative impact are the health pesrpective. The rural environment is comparatively healthier in terms of fresh air, accesses to fresh food, and also a non-sedentary lifestyle, where people physically work hard. The picture is quite different when they move to cities, as a lot of work is desk-job and communication and transportation are advanced even for a very short distance which can easily be cover by foot, and thus it directly impacts physical fitness and this is a large cause of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.
Rural people are moving to cities in many nations throughout the world, result in a decrease in the rural population and an increase in the city population. I think this is absolutely a negative evulution with various impacts on the daily life of the migrants, start from health and economics to ecology.
Clarification on the band:
The grammatical errors in the Grammatical Range and Accuracy part of the evaluation have been underlined and are in italics. The spelling errors in the Lexical Resources portion of the evaluation are in italics. The lengthy sentences are in bold which is categorized as cohesion and coherence in the evaluation.
Band 7
In various countries across the globe, rural people are moving to urban areas, leading to reduced populations in rural regions. According to my consideration, these is an unfavorable tendancy that can bring several negative effects.
Firstly, the immigration of people in rural pruvinces create a high density of people in the cities. It consequently increases the levels of pollution, pressures government systems, contributes to inadequete shelter and generates employment issues, which disrupt ecological stability. Moreover, those people who migrate from rural areas to urban areas end up being finnancially unstable due to the effects of high costs of living in urban areas compare to rural areas.
Another important thing that are negatively affected is health. Environmental conditions in rural areas are usually considered to be much healthier than in cities because of clean, fresh air, locally produced and fresh food products, and the hardworking nature of the work. On the other hand, the urban lifestyle is characterissed by desk jobs, advanced commuting means even for a short distance, and reduced mobility. This shift play a direct role in enhancing lifestyle diseases, for example, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases.
Population migration is a potential issue, specifically, the migration of people from rural areas to urban ones that result in the decrease of rural population and the increase of the urban one. In my opinion, this is undoubtedly a negative process, as it has myriad consequences for the lives of migrants on a daily basis that touch upon health, the economy, and the environment.
Clarification on the band:
The grammatical errors in the Grammatical Range and Accuracy part of the evaluation have been underlined and are in italics. The spelling errors in the Lexical Resources portion of the evaluation are in italics.
Band 9
In many countries of the world, there have been reports of rural people trooping to urban centers, thus reducing the number of people in the rural zones. In my opinion, this pattern is negative, and, as one can infer, it envelops diverse adverse effects.
First of all, migration from rural provinces promotes the increase in the density of the population in cities. It increases pollution levels, draws pressure on governmental structures, widens housing deficiencies, and creates employment issues, hence perturbing ecological equilibrium. Additionally, when people move from the countryside to urban centres, such as cities, most of them experience formidable economic challenges because of the exorbitant cost of living in metropolitan areas compared to their rural counterparts.
Another element as a result of volatility that has been negatively affected is health. Agricultural areas generally promote healthier lifestyles as people breathe fresh air and consume organic and fresh produce since their diets comprise foods produced locally and they engage in so much rigorous work. On the other hand, cultural dens relate to sedentary patterns of living characterized by conventional desk-bound employment, sophisticated transportation systems for even minimal distances and reduced levels of exercise. This kind of transition plays a major part in the proliferation of lifestyle diseases, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and diseases of the heart.
Depending on the scale of the stream, it is a common problem when the rural populace shifts its locale to urban regions, leading to depopulation and growth of rural and an increase of populace in urban areas. As for me, this is clearly a negative trend since it shifts a number of consequences into the existence of migrants’ lives in terms of health care, economic predictability, and environmental impact.
Clarification on the band:
There are no grammatical or spelling problems or word repetitions. The sentences are well-written, and the vocabulary is advanced.
Conclusion
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