How paper is remade, and how we shop now
A Task 1 process diagram and a Task 2 advantages-and-disadvantages essay, written, self-assessed, and shown beside the Band 7.5+ models, with the moves that earn the marks.
How to use this. Write both tasks in the boxes below, Task 1 in twenty minutes, Task 2 in forty, as in the real test. When you have finished, open Self-assessment to mark your own work against the four criteria, then compare it with the Band 7.5+ models and the notes on exactly what lifts a response up a band. You can download a copy of everything to keep. For a person to mark your writing against the criteria, the first lesson includes one marked Task 2.
Describe the process.
Recommended 20 minutes · at least 150 words
The diagram below illustrates the eight main stages involved in producing recycled paper from used paper waste.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write the essay.
Recommended 40 minutes · at least 250 words · carries twice the marks
Online shopping has grown rapidly in many countries over the past two decades, with consumers now buying everything from groceries and household goods to clothing and electronics through internet retailers, often in preference to visiting physical shops. This shift has transformed high streets, supply chains and consumer behaviour alike.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this development.
Mark your own work.
Be honest with yourself against the four criteria, the same four an examiner uses. Then read the model answers and the notes on exactly what moves a response up a band.
Task Response
Coherence & Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The Band 7.5+ models, and what earns the marks
What the task wants. Eight stages, in order, with no figures to report. The mark is in two things: an overview that captures the shape of the whole process (here, that it is linear, runs from collection to reeling, and divides into a wet preparatory half and a mechanical forming half), and an accurate sequence carried by the passive voice and time markers. A Band 5 narrates “first this happens, then this happens” in the active voice; a Band 7.5 reports a process.
The target · Band 7.5+ · modelThe diagram shows how waste paper is turned back into usable paper through a sequence of eight stages. Overall, the process is linear rather than cyclical: it begins with the collection of used paper and ends with finished paper being wound onto rolls, and it falls into two broad halves, a wet preparatory phase in which the paper is cleaned and broken down, followed by a mechanical phase in which it is reformed and dried. At the first stage, used paper is gathered from homes and offices, after which it is sorted by grade and paper type. It is then pulped, being shredded and mixed with water and chemicals, before the ink is removed: air bubbles are used to lift the ink to the surface, where it can be skimmed away. In the fifth stage the fibres are refined, cleaned and beaten in vats, which completes the preparation. The pulp is subsequently pressed onto rollers to squeeze out the water and passed through heated rollers to dry. Finally, the finished paper is reeled onto large rolls, ready for use.
Why it scores. A real overview that names the shape of the process, not just “there are eight stages”; consistent use of the passive (is gathered, is sorted, is pressed), the register an examiner expects for a process; varied sequencers (after which, before, subsequently, finally) instead of a chain of then; and related stages grouped so the description reads as analysis rather than a list.
Where weaker responses lose marks. Retelling the diagram in the active voice as a story (then the machine shreds it, then it dries it); no overview, or one that only counts the stages; and then between every stage; and slipping out of sequence or inventing detail the diagram does not show. Tense drift, mixing the present passive with past forms, also quietly caps accuracy.
What the task wants. A “discuss the advantages and disadvantages” prompt asks for both sides, treated with comparable weight, and the rubric rewards a clear position of your own. The cleanest structure gives one body paragraph to the advantages and one to the disadvantages, with an introduction that paraphrases the prompt and states where you stand, and a conclusion that weighs the two. Listing four advantages and one disadvantage, or sitting on the fence with no view, both cap Task Response.
The target · Band 7.5+ · model paragraphsIntroduction, with a position. The way people shop has changed dramatically in recent years, with a growing share of purchases, from weekly groceries to expensive electronics, now made online rather than in physical shops. While this shift brings real convenience and choice, I would argue that its benefits are tempered by significant costs to communities and to consumers themselves.
Advantages. The clearest advantage is convenience. Shoppers can compare prices and buy from a vast range of retailers at any hour, without travelling, which is a particular benefit to those who are housebound or live far from large towns. Online retailers also tend to be cheaper, since they avoid the overheads of a physical shopfront and can pass some of that saving on. For many households, being able to order goods and have them delivered to the door has genuinely improved everyday life.
Disadvantages. These gains, however, come at a price. The most visible cost is to the high street: as custom moves online, local shops close, jobs are lost, and town centres lose the social function they once had. There are drawbacks for the consumer too. Buying without seeing or trying a product leads to disappointment and a stream of returns, and the ease of one-click purchasing can encourage overspending. The environmental cost of millions of individual deliveries and their packaging is a further concern that is easily overlooked.
Conclusion. In conclusion, online shopping offers undeniable convenience, lower prices and choice, but it does so at a real cost to high streets, to the environment and, at times, to shoppers’ own finances. On balance, I consider it a beneficial development, provided that its wider costs are recognised and managed rather than ignored.
Why it scores. Both sides developed to a similar depth; a position stated in the introduction and confirmed in the conclusion, so the essay argues rather than lists; points developed with a reason and an example (housebound shoppers, lower overheads, returns, packaging) instead of asserted; and topic-specific lexis (overheads, high street, custom, one-click purchasing) used accurately.
Where weaker responses lose marks. Treating one side in three sentences and the other in one; giving no opinion at all when the rubric rewards one; a list of points with no development; and the recurring Task 2 ceiling, comma splices joining two full sentences with only a comma, which holds an otherwise strong essay at 6.5 on accuracy.
These are model answers I wrote for this paper, shown with the criterion marks they would earn and the reasons. The first lesson includes one of your own Task 2s, marked the same way against the four criteria and returned annotated, line by line.
Take your work with you.
Download your two answers alongside the target models, so you can revise them later or bring them to a lesson.
Next, online: Paper 05, a map comparison and a two-part essay · or back to Paper 03 · Paper 02 · Paper 01.
Send a task. Get it back marked.
A paper tells you the question. It can’t tell you why your answer sits at 6.5.
Write your response to the Task 2 above and send it to me. I’ll mark it in detail against the four assessment criteria and return it to you annotated, line by line, so you can see exactly where the band is sitting and what is holding it down. Written work is handled this way around the lessons, sent over and returned marked between sessions, which keeps the fifty minutes themselves free for speaking. The first lesson is a full assessment. Regular lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English.