Society · Two-part direct question · Band 7
Why Neighbours Don't Know Each Other Anymore
The question, a model answer written to the band 7 descriptors, why it scores that band against the 4 official criteria, topic vocabulary, and a common mistake to avoid.
Two-part direct question
In many neighbourhoods, people report knowing their neighbours far less than previous generations did. What do you think has caused this decline in community spirit, and what could be done to rebuild it? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Model answer (band 7)
Written to the band 7 descriptors, not by a real examiner. Read it for structure and language, then write your own in your own words. Examiners can tell a memorised essay from an original one.
The decline in neighbourly familiarity that many people now report has several overlapping causes, and rebuilding genuine community connection requires addressing the practical reasons people no longer interact, rather than simply urging people to be friendlier.
One major cause is the restructuring of daily life around private rather than shared spaces. Earlier generations more often did laundry, shopped, and relaxed in communal areas where casual interaction with neighbours happened naturally and repeatedly over time. Modern conveniences, from washing machines to home delivery, have steadily removed many of these everyday occasions for incidental contact, meaning community now requires deliberate effort rather than happening automatically as a side effect of daily routines. A second cause is increased residential mobility: people move house for work far more frequently than previous generations, which discourages the kind of long-term investment in neighbourhood relationships that takes years to build and feels pointless to begin shortly before moving away again.
Rebuilding community spirit requires creating genuine reasons for residents to interact. Local governments and community organisations can fund shared spaces, such as communal gardens or regularly scheduled street events, that recreate some of the incidental contact modern life has removed, giving neighbours a low-pressure reason to meet without needing to schedule anything formally in advance. Encouraging mixed-use neighbourhood design, where local shops and cafes sit within walking distance of homes, also naturally increases the chance of repeated, informal encounters that gradually build familiarity over time, the same way earlier communal spaces once did.
In conclusion, declining community spirit stems from the loss of shared daily spaces and rising residential mobility, and rebuilding it requires deliberately recreating opportunities for informal, repeated contact.
Why this answer scores band 7
Mapped to the 4 official IELTS Writing criteria.
- Task Response: both the causes and the solutions are addressed explicitly and with equal, well-developed depth rather than favouring one part of the question.
- Coherence and Cohesion: a clear cause-then-solution progression, with each solution explicitly linked back to the cause it addresses.
- Lexical Resource: precise sociological vocabulary ('residential mobility', 'incidental contact', 'mixed-use design') used naturally and accurately.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: sustained use of complex sentence structures, including reduced relative clauses, with very high accuracy throughout.
Useful vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the model answer that lift Lexical Resource naturally.
Common mistake on this type of question
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