IELTS Writing Task 2: books, radio, TV

Here are my 'main body' paragraphs for last week's question. Notice that it's possible to put advantages and disadvantages together in the same paragraph. Also, you need to be careful not to write too much!

Advantages / disadvantages of books:

The main advantage of books is that they are usually considered to be reliable sources of information. People tend to refer to books when they want to research a subject in depth, and for this reason they continue to play an important role in education. On the other hand, books quickly go out of date, and therefore they are not the best medium for communicating news stories.

Advantages / disadvantages of radio:

Radio is a much more effective medium than books for the communication of up-to-date information. We can listen to news broadcasts about events as they happen, and a key benefit of radio is that we can listen to it while doing other activities, such as driving or working. The main drawback of radio, when compared to books or television, is that there is no visual element; we cannot see what the broadcaster is describing.

Advantages / disadvantages of TV, and my opinion:

In my opinion, television is the most effective of these three media because it brings us closer to reality than a book or radio programme ever can. For example, we can watch events as they take place on the other side of the world, or we can see the body language of a politician who is being interviewed. The disadvantages of television are that programmes tend to be short and interrupted by advertisements, meaning that information is presented in limited depth.

Comments

[Gary]

Hi，Simon
Your lessons are really all of great help, I assume it must comsume you much energy. thany you. I am even a little worried, will you stop it someday or in the near future?

Gary

[Sunny]

Hi,Simon
Thank you for your answer.
Your answers are always so easy to understand,but concise and profound.
I wish I could write like you!

[gwapo]

what is your secret Mr. Simon? It is really easy to comprehend your thoughts and ideas. How will it take me to be like you? How much time I need to devote to speak like you? I hope there is a school that can assist me with my difficulty in spoken English.

[gwapo]

what is your secret Mr. Simon? It is really easy to comprehend your thoughts and ideas. How long will it take me to be like you? How much time I need to devote to speak like you? I hope there is a school that can assist me with my difficulty in spoken English.

[Amin]

Dear Simon, Thanks for your answer
I have a question about each paragraph title.
Do we are recommended to put title to categorize each paragraph ? as you did :
Advantages / disadvantages of books:
Advantages / disadvantages of radio:
Advantages /disadvantages of TV, and my opinion:
or even put titles as:
Introduction:
Conclusion:
Are they going to be counted as number of written words? any impact on examiner?
Thanks

[jawairia]

Hi Simon,
May be my Question sounds bit silly but I was going through the question and answers section of your website .Someone posted a question there
Describe your favourite work of art
You should say:
- what the work of art is
- where you first saw it
- what it looks like
and explain why you like this work of art.

Just wanted to ask if I face this unexpected situation or question can I explain the art painted by my 4 year old son.

Thanks and Regards.

[Snehal]

Dear Simon,
Thanks for the essay your Ideas are very well organized.
I wanted to incorporate this maxim “Picture is worth 1000 words”. Any idea how can I use this in the introduction

[Simon]

Hi Gary,

Don't worry. I have no plans to stop yet!

...

Thanks Sunny and Gwapo.

I do have the advantage that English is my first language! The more you practise, the closer you will get to being able to write like I do. Keep working hard!

...

Hi Amin,

No, you should never put titles or categories. I only did that to make the lesson clearer.

...

Hi Jawairia,

Yes, that would be fine, and I think the examiner would find it interesting!

...

Hi Snehal,

My advice is to forget about trying to use that phrase. It's a cliche - not academic style. Read this lesson to see what I mean by 'cliche':

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/11/ielts-advice-avoid-proverbs-and-clichés.html

[Kim]

HI Simon,
I do follow your advise to get my writing better. I try everything and sometime spend an hour to think how to develop ideas and how to get supporting ideas working. Although i have read the grammar books, stealing ideas somewhere, i am still getting stuck around.
It seems like that i am a cooker with full of materials around me and i dont know how to cook the good meals!

[Bart]

Hi, Simon,
Your lessons and essay are really great! I am trying to wtrite in your way. But I have a problem now with another question:

Housing shortage in big cities can cause severe social consequences. Some people think only government action can solve this problem. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

I palnned a 4-paragraph essay:
1.
introduction. (disagree)
2. reason one: it is unrealistic (government has no sufficient human or financial resources)
3. reason two: this problem also involves real estate companies and indiviudals. their actions and attitude are also important.
4 conclusion.

Quesion 1: I wonder if main body 2 and 3 are acceptable. if acceptable, would you please tell me some more supporting arguments?

Question 2: is the following plan workable: 1. introduciton: I disagree with the view becasue both the governmental action and some institional (company and bank) and individual efforts are also important.
2. government can solve this problem to a certain extent.(mainly making policies)
3. the role of companies, banks and individuals are also important.
4. conclusion.

Question 3: if we delete the phrase "some people think" in the second sentence of the question, (then the quesiton becomes: Housing shortage in big cities can cause severe social consequences. only government action can solve this problem), then it seems to me that this problem consists two questions: one is whether housing shortage can cause prolbems and the other is whehther only govenement can solove it. is it right?

thanks!

[Simon]

Hi Kim,

Maybe you are at the stage where you need some one-to-one help. Try to find a teacher who can give you some private lessons, or use a good essay correction service. Click here if you want to know about an essay correction service:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/10/essay-correction.html

...

Hi Bart,

1. Your essay structure is fine. For your first reason, explain why it would be so expensive, and talk about the other things that governments have to spend money on. For reason 2, explain exactly what agencies and individuals can do.

2. Yes, that plan is also fine.

3. No, I think we just have to accept the initial statement as a fact - you wouldn't need to debate the idea that housing shortages cause problems. The question is still asking you to debate WHO can solve the problem.

[Anna]

Hi Simon,

Thank you for answering. I had learned your website a lots.
Could you please help me these two topic? I don't have any idea about that.

1. Shopping is becoming a way of entertainment. Do you think it's positive and negative?
2. Some people believe individuals are more important in taking care of environment, other thinks that government should be major responsible to it. DIscuss and give your opinion

[Simon]

Hi Anna,

I've done a full essay for your second question here:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2010/08/ielts-writing-task-2-full-essay.html

For the first question, try planning some ideas in your own language. This should help you with the ideas stage.

I'm glad you like the site!

[mitch]

feb.9....the spread of multinational companies and globalisation has positive effects on people.do you agree or dis agree?

[kul]

Many languages around the world die every year, often replaced with more widely spoken dialects. Opinions as to whether this is a positive or negative trend are mixed. On one hand, people feel sharing a common language may help to encourage economical development in the world. However on the other hand, many feel the losing of languages is a negative trend that makes it increasingly difficult to trace humanity’s heritage. Both of these accounts will be examined before a conclusion is reached.

As many attest, the global adoption of a single language can do a lot in promoting economical development. For example, all export companies in China hire English speaking people to help them communicate with foreign buyers. The growth in trade that comes as a result of this effort to speak the world’s language does a lot to create jobs and industries around the world. Thus it can be understood why many people support this point of view.

However, other people would argue that the rapid reduction of the world’s languages is making it increasingly hard to trace where and how people evolved. For example, during colonial times many lesser spoken African languages were replaced with English, French and Dutch. This phenomenon has understandably caused major problems for modern day historians, as these old and forgotten languages render many of the recovered historical records and artifacts indecipherable.

After analyzing both sides of this argument, it is felt that more good comes from the global adoption of a single language than the preservation and practice of older languages. Thus, it is hope the world continues to move towards a single, standardized linguistic system.

hi simon, what do you think this essay?

[Bassel]

Hi Simon,

Which is a better approach to write an exam essay:
- lot of pondering before writing, hence little revision, or
- writing down whatever comes quickly to mind as a draft, then a lot of editing

[Joyce]

Hi Simon and everyone

I am a student who is preparing the ielts at the movement and I regularly follow your daily activity to improve my English ability. Thanks so much for all of your efforts. You really did a great job to help many people who are struggling in the ielts exam.

Recently, I practiced a writing topic form Cambridge 8 test 2. I found I have difficulties to analyse the question and am not sure whether i answer the question or not.

The question is as followings,

Nowadays the way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology.
In what ways has technology affected the types of relationships people make?
Has this become a positive or negative development?

One of my main paragraph:
Technology has introduced more effective ways to help people keep in touch with each other. Human beings are able to deliver messages in time via a variety of different devices. Also, technology has broken the limitation of different countries to establish the channel of communication. For instance, people use mobiles to chat or send messages with others. Another example is that teleconferencing has removed the barriers of communication for many companies across the nations. All of these show that people are free to communicate more effectively and conveniently and technology leads to a positive impact into our society.

In order to discuss my point of view, I think I just put a paragraph here. Everyone is welcome to give me some comments. I do appreciate that.

My confused part is this sentence “In what ways has technology affected the types of relationships people make?”

Does that mean we also need to discuss the part of the different types of relationships people make?

Hope, this long message makes sense to everyone.

By the way, is that any possible for you to show us how to analyse questions in order to help students to response the question logically and correctly?

[mitch]

hji everone, task 2 of my exam ,feb.9,was this question...the spread of multinational companies and globalisation has positive effects on people.do you agree or dis agree?
hwere i talked about the advantages of free trade and outsourcing.1.job opprtunities then 2 examples..2.development of land area and transportation due to new infrastructures built 1 example. 3.good relations among countries. 1 example..my opinion den conclusion....ultimately,for the above mentioned reasons I believe that globalisation and outsourcing has been very advantageous to all countries and all people involved.
hope this helps...

[Erian]

Hi Simon,

Hope you have a nice day.

Well,my question is not about a specific title,I just wonder which is important,the complex words or sentence,or the fully talking point?

Sometimes I felt that I don't know what to say about a topic different from others,usually I found that most of my point is same as others..that is what puzzle me for a long time.

Thank you for your attention.

Best wishes & regards

[ki]

HISimon,
I frankly don't understand your idea:
" and therefore they are not the best medium for communicating news stories."

Would youlike to explain more details?
Thanks so much.

[Bart]

Hi, Simon,
Thank you very much.

[Simon]

Hi kul,

I'm afraid I don't give essay feedback because too many people would send me their essays if I did. Just one point: I don't think an introduction should ever be longer than a main body paragraph. Look through my lessons to see my advice about introductions.

...

Hi Bassel,

Personally I'd do it the first way in an exam. I find that spending 10 minutes planning (making notes) works well.

...

Hi Joyce,

I don't think you need to worry - you seem to have the right idea.

For that question, you just need to write one main paragraph about each of the sub-questions. You answered the first one, so you just need to write a paragraph about the second one.

...

Thanks Mitch,

I've done a few lessons about globalisation here on the site. Your ideas are similar to mine.

...

Hi Erian,

The most important thing is IDEAS. If you don't express relevant ideas, using complex grammar won't help your score at all.

Focus on explaining relevant ideas in DEPTH in your main paragraphs - this is the key to a high score. Don't worry if your ideas are the same as other people's ideas; it isn't a test of your originality.

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Hi ki,

That sentence simply means "books are not the best sources of news stories". If you want to know what's happening in the news, you'd probably watch TV news or buy a newspaper. "best medium" just means "best way".

[hathu]

Hi Simon! This is a topic of test 2 in ielts cambridge book 8.
Topic: "Nowadays the way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology. In what ways has techno;ogy affected the types of relationships people make? Has this become a positive or negative development?
- What type is it?
- How can i come up with this topic? (how many paragraph? What should i write?)
Thank you Simon!

[Simon]

Hi Hathu,

That's what I call a '2-part' question. It's similar to the question in this lesson:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/03/ielts-writing-task-2-the-two-part-question.html

[Gigi]

Hi Simon,
I would like to clarify regarding the above example you gave about combining the advantage and the disadvantage. If that is the case which paragraph it will fall? Remember you said we should write 4 paragraph essay? Thank you.

[Gigi]

Hi Simon,

Oops no need to answer my question on which paragraph it will fall? I got the answer from your ebook. Thanks

[Martin]

Hi Simon,

It's been a while since my last post! How have you been?

Just a quick question regarding writing Task2. If an essay is fairly well written with minor grammar mistakes BUT out of topic, how much could it cost in terms of points?

One of my students usually writes 6.5-7.0 essays during practice, but got only 5.5 in the actual test... not sure what could have really happened.

Please advise.

Thanks!
Martin

[Bart]

Hi, Simon,

I have some questions about the following new topic:

Some people think that the spread of multinational companies and the increasing globalization produce positive effects to everyone. Do you agree or disagree?

I tried to prepare three plans in your 4-paragraph way, I want to konw:
1. if all these plans are acceptabel, which is better?
2. if the structure of plan 1 is acceptable, it seems to me that I do not need to mention the disadvantages, right?

Plan 1: Completely Agree:

1. Introduction:
2. the advantages of the spread of multinational companies
3. the advantages of the increasing globalization
4. Conclusion:

Plan 2: Agree to a large extent:

1. Introduction: while there are some disadvantages, they have more positive effects to everyone.
2. disadvantages of the spread of multinational companies and the disadvantages of the increasing globalization
3. advantages of the spread of multinational companies and the advantages of the increasing globalization
4. Conclusion.

Plan 3: Disagree to a large extent:

1. Introduction: while there are some advantages, they do not have positive effects to everyone.
2. advantages of the spread of multinational companies and the advantages of the increasing globalization
3. disadvantages of the spread of multinational companies and the disadvantages of the increasing globalization
4. Conclusion.

Thanks

[Simon]

Hi Gigi,

I don't really understand what you mean about 'which paragraph will it fall'. Anyway, I guess you found the answer. I do sometimes write 5 paragraphs - it depends on the question.

...

Hi Martin,

Nice to hear from you. I'm fine thanks!

Yes, when a student gets a much lower score than expected, it's usually due to something like the problem you mentioned: being "off-topic" will seriously affect the score. Students often think that they answered the question correctly, but it turns out that they misunderstood something, wrote an irrelevant paragraph, or didn't answer all parts of the question.

...

Hi Bart,

All perfect - neither structure is better than the others. You've definitely got the right idea!

[Martin]

Hi Simon,

Thanks a lot for your feedback on this matter! I really appreciate it!

Best,
Martin

[Bart]

Hi, Simon,

Thank you very much.

[Simon]

No problem Martin and Bart!

[goli]

hi dear Simon
you have repeatedthe word of "effective" in each parageraph, is it true and does not have a negative point?

[Jen]

Hi simon.can u help me in my writing?