📈 #IELTS Writing Task 2: (mis)understanding the topic 📈

Sometimes people fail Task Response simply because they misunderstand the topic. Here is one example.

📝 Topic: "In recent years, many small local shops have closed because customers travel to large shopping centres or malls to do their shopping. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?"

The paragraph below was written by me, but it closely imitates what was written by a student. What's wrong?

📝 "This is a positive development. One reason for this is that it is very convenient to shop in large shopping malls as people can buy many different items in the same place. On top of that, shopping centers offer a wide range of goods - for example, they can offer the same product by many different brands. This makes it easier for the customers to buy exactly what they need. It is thus beneficial for customers to do their shopping in huge malls."

Basically, the paragraph answers the question, "Why do people shop in malls?" But let's take a closer look at the topic again - what exactly is positive or negative? It's actually "many small shops have closed." You need to say if it's good or bad that small shops have closed - but they aren't featured in the paragraph at all! And the preference for shopping malls is given to you for context - it's not something you should assess as positive or negative.

Now, arguing why small shops closing is a negative development is easy: people lose their businesses, neighborhoods lose their special allure, customers can't buy something small urgently, customers can't buy fresh local produce, etc. But why could this be a positive development? I have some ideas, but do share in the comments.

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