Some people think that secondary school children should study international news as one of the school subjects. Others, however, think that it is a waste of valuable school time and has no value. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Sample Response
The inclusion of international news in the secondary syllabus is supported by many but is opposed by otherswhile opposed by others. This essay will explore both viewpoints but willwould argue that even though international news can be a valuable source of knowledge and informationa great source of knowledge and information from time to time, it does not necessarily mean that it should formally be included in the school curricula.
Those who support teaching international news to secondary students base their view on the belief thatform their view on the fact that it would broaden learners' knowledge and perspectivesenhance the knowledge and view of the learners making them aware of the world and the issues affecting itthe world and issues surrounding it. In this wayThis way we will have more conscious and responsible young people whoresponsible youths who would not be afraid to take responsibility for tacklingtake responsibility to tackle important issues. For instance, youths who know about the important issues that are happening in the world are often not afraid to express their opinion and take action, no matter how small, to solve environmental, social and political problems.
On the other hand, opponentsthe opposers of having international news in the secondary school syllabusin secondary school syllabus believe that most secondary school students have limited emotional maturityrather tender minds and hearts, and as such, they will not be able to make sense of the many negative and controversial events that occur around the world each daythings that take place all over the world daily. After all, we do not live in an ideal world. Most news media today provide “biased” news that can sometimes be far from the truthwhich sometimes could not be any farther from the truth, and these young children just do not have the required cultural, social, economic and political awareness to critically evaluate biased reportingpenetrate the biased news, to separate fact from fictionthe facts from fiction. On top of that, secondary school children already have to study many difficult subjects, such as math, language, physics, chemistry, social science, history, and geography, and adding one more subject to that list would only create more pressure on those children.
In conclusion, the concept of adding international news to the secondary school curriculumadding international news in secondary school is both welcomed and opposed by many. If we analyse both views with an objective mind, we will have to agree that including international news as a school subject at a secondary level is not such a good idea, after all.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response’s strongest feature is its clear, consistent position, supported by a balanced and logically organised discussion of both perspectives. Its main limitation is that several claims—especially the benefits of studying international news—remain broad, while occasional awkward wording reduces precision. The highest-priority improvement is to develop each central argument with a more specific causal explanation or concrete example and express those links through more natural collocations.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses both views, maintains a clear opinion, and supports its main ideas with relevant explanations, although some claims remain general.
Develop the supporting view with a more specific example and explain more precisely how studying international news produces the claimed benefits.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through well-focused paragraphs, and cohesive devices generally make the relationship between the two viewpoints clear.
Use less formulaic transitions and strengthen the links within longer arguments so that each supporting point follows more naturally from the previous one.
Lexical Resource
A sufficiently varied vocabulary conveys the argument clearly, though awkward choices such as references to opposers and penetrating biased news reduce naturalness.
Prioritise accurate collocations and natural noun choices when expressing abstract ideas about education, awareness, and media bias.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a good range of complex structures with generally clear control, despite occasional article, agreement, and sentence-construction errors.
Proofread complex sentences for articles, subject-pronoun agreement, and clause attachment to make otherwise strong structures consistently accurate.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people think that secondary school children should study international news as one of the school subjects. Others, however, think that it is a waste of valuable school time and has no value. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.