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Task 2 · Positive or negative development · Community

Cash disappearing in favour of digital payment

A positive-or-negative essay on the cashless economy, where the band 9 answer shows why a change can be positive on average and still be bad policy.

The question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

In some countries, cash is being replaced almost entirely by digital payment. Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.

What separates the three answers

The 6.5 and 7.5 both weigh convenience against exclusion. The 9 points out that the benefit is an average spread thinly and the harm is concentrated on identifiable people, so the two cannot be added together at all.

The three answers

Band 6.5

255 words (the task asks for at least 250)

The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.

The answer

In many countries nowadays, the people are not using the cash anymore and they are paying by the cards and the mobile phones. Some persons are saying this is a good change but some are not agree.1 I think this development is mostly positive because it is very convenient.

Firstly, the digital payment is very fast and easy. We do not need to carry the heavy wallet and we do not need to find the change every time. Also, if the person is losing the cash, the money is gone forever, but if the card is lost, we can block it immediately, so it is more safe3. Moreover, all the transactions are recorded, so the government can catch the black money and the tax evasion is reducing4.

Secondly, there are also some problems.5 The old people are not knowing how to use the smartphones2 and they are facing many difficulties in the shops. Also, in the villages the internet connection is very poor, and if the server is down, nobody can buy the anything. Some people are also worried about the privacy, because the companies can see all the purchases of the customer. And if somebody is not having the smartphone, then he can not buy anything in such type of shops.

In conclusion, in my opinion this is a positive development because it is convenient, safe and it is helping the government, but the banks and the government should also help the old people and the villages, so that everybody can use this system.

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “Some persons are saying this is a good change but some are not agree.”

    'Are not agree' mixes the two ways of forming a negative, and 'persons' appears where 'people' is required.

  2. 2. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “The old people are not knowing how to use the smartphones”

    'Know' is stative and cannot take the continuous, and the definite article before 'old people' is not wanted here.

  3. 3. Lexical resource

    “so it is more safe”

    The comparative is formed the long way. 'Safe' and 'convenient' then carry the whole of the essay's positive evaluation.

  4. 4. Task response

    “so the government can catch the black money and the tax evasion is reducing”

    A substantial claim compressed into half a sentence and never explained. Each of the essay's four reasons is treated the same way.

  5. 5. Coherence and cohesion

    “Secondly, there are also some problems.”

    The paragraph reverses direction while the linker announces continuation, and the objections it raises are never brought back to the verdict in the introduction.

One honest caveat

Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.

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