Task 2: Some cities create housing areas by providing taller buildings. Others create housing by building houses on a wider area of land. What solution is better?

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Nowadays, with more than half the world’s population living in the cities, the problem of housing development in urban areas has become more urgent than ever. There are two main options to tackle the issue: either by building more skyscrapers, or by expanding the land size of urban areas
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then
conjunction used in comparatives
than
build more houses in the new area. In
this
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essay, I will compare the merits of both solutions and state my own opinion. The provision of high-rises is deemed to have beneficial impacts from social and economic perspective.
To begin
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with, high-rise buildings can solve the problem of housing scarcity.
This
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is because these buildings are believed to possibly accommodate a dense population in the metropolis, compared to their low-rise counterparts.
Secondly
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, the authorities of the cities can
also
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save a considerable amount of money if they choose the
first
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option. The underlying reason is that more citizens are allowed to live in a certain area of territory, which means it is dispensable to build new infrastructure
such
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as roads, bridges, electric cables and lightings, which must be done if the city expands in land use.
On the other hand
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, when the matters of safety take into consideration, the
second
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approach might surpass the
first
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. The reason is the ability to withstand the devastation caused by natural disasters. Whether it is an earthquake or hurricane, the damage suffered by low buildings can be less catastrophic due to their stronger foundation and less heavy load.
Additionally
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, in case of emergency,
such
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as fires and earthquakes, the high-rise skyscrapers could potentially be much more dangerous for its inhabitants than smaller houses. A prime example is that when it comes to fires, elevators could be shut down and the stairs could be inaccessible due to the fires and the smoke, precluding people from escaping to safety if one is stranded on the top floors of a skyscraper. In conclusion, as discussed above, I am of the opinion that both of the cited approaches are advantageous as they solve specific issues.
Submitted by huyenmy on

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Include an introduction and conclusion

A conclusion is essential for IELTS writing task 2. It is more important than most people realise. You will be penalised for missing a conclusion in your IELTS essay.

The easiest paragraph to write in an essay is the conclusion paragraph. This is because the paragraph mostly contains information that has already been presented in the essay – it is just the repetition of some information written in the introduction paragraph and supporting paragraphs.

The conclusion paragraph only has 3 sentences:

  • Summary
  • Restatement of thesis
  • Prediction or recommendation

Example:

To summarize, a robotic teacher does not have the necessary disciple to properly give instructions to students and actually works to retard the ability of a student to comprehend new lessons. Therefore, it is clear that the idea of running a classroom completely by a machine cannot be supported. After thorough analysis on this subject, it is predicted that the adverse effects of the debate over technology-driven teaching will always be greater than the positive effects, and because of this, classroom teachers will never be substituted for technology.

Start your conclusion with a linking phrase. Here are some examples:

  • In conclusion
  • To conclude
  • To summarize
  • Finally
  • In a nutshell
  • In general

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Topic Vocabulary:
  • urban density
  • sustainability
  • public transportation
  • green spaces
  • community connections
  • overcrowding
  • economic implications
  • infrastructure impact
  • maintenance costs
  • carbon footprint
  • compact city
  • habitat destruction
  • greenhouse gas emissions
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