Writing Task 2: Problem & Solution Essay: Question 7
Syllabus W.task2
An increasing number of everyday products, even single small items, are now sold wrapped in multiple layers of plastic, cardboard and foam.
What problems does this excessive packaging cause, and what measures could be taken to reduce it?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
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Worked solution
Examiner notes: why this is a band 9 response
Task Response
The essay identifies two distinct problems (landfill/carbon cost and price passed to consumers) and answers with two matching measures (a legal layer limit and a deposit-return scheme), so every idea raised in the problem paragraph is picked up again in the solution paragraph. The Verdant Foods example is used twice, once to illustrate the problem concretely and once to show the proposed measure actually working, which keeps the whole response tightly unified around a single running case.
Coherence & Cohesion
The two body paragraphs are cleanly signposted (“The clearest problem is…”, “Tackling this problem requires action from both regulators and manufacturers”), and cohesion is built through reference (“this packaging”, “this problem”) rather than a checklist of linking words, so the essay reads as connected reasoning rather than a sequence of separate points.
Lexical Resource
Topic-specific vocabulary is used accurately and without repetition (“composite material”, “carbon footprint”, “deposit-return scheme”, “shelf appeal”), and the essay varies its reference to the central noun with synonyms such as “wrapping” and “materials” instead of repeating “packaging” mechanically.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
A wide range of grammar is deployed with full accuracy, including a non-defining relative clause (“a deposit-return scheme, in which customers pay…”), passive voice for objectivity (“waste sent to landfill”), and a colon used correctly to introduce an illustrative example. No errors of countable/uncountable nouns, tense or agreement appear anywhere in the response.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
See commonMistakes above: the most damaging is proposing “recycle more” as the central measure, since recycling addresses what happens to packaging after purchase rather than the excessive packaging itself. A band 9 response must target the source of the problem, not just its disposal.