Some people think that secondary school children should study international news as one of school subjects. Other people think that it is a waste of valuable school time.
Sample Response
The importance of global media is increasingseems to increase every year, to the point ofso much so to the point of introducing news channels into classroomsinto the classrooms. I believe this to be dangerous and potentially damaging because of the nature of news mediadue to the nature of the media.
Firstly, considering the importance of education in modern society, it is deeply concerningextremely worrisome and dangerous to consider replacingsubstituting school subjects with international news. This is because there is no objectivecorrect, balanced, unbiased news source. For example if a child spent their school timedays watching Fox NewsFOX NEWS, they would potentially have a skewed opinion of the world due to its unabashed right wing credentials. Therefore, changing a child’s information diet from traditional subjects such as music or geography to watching a potentially partisan news channel is an extremely risky idea.
Secondly, if international news becameinternational news were to become a new subject, ita new subject it could have a detrimental emotional impact on young studentsminds. In general, the majorityIn general the majority of news is negative; hence,negative, hence the expression ‘if it bleeds, it leads’‘if it bleeds it leads’. For example, studies by the EFE News Agency show that 85% of headlines are negativenegative in nature, usually referring to natural disasters, war, famine, and similar crisesnatural disasters, war, famine, etc. The logic of having these types of stories beamed into a school, to those of an impressionable age has to be challenged.
Although a majority of people see it as an exposure to international standards for students, it is going to be nothing but a deterrent in a positive growth.
To conclude, due to the risk from political influences andpolitical influences, and the disturbing content of global newsharsh reality of global news, I am strongly in favour of maintaining the current curriculum.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response presents a clear position and supports it with two relevant, logically developed reasons, using a broad range of language and complex structures with strong control. Its main weakness is occasional awkward or imprecise phrasing, especially in the brief concession, which reduces clarity and polish. The highest-priority improvement is to develop that opposing perspective more coherently and express it through more natural collocations.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response maintains a clear opposition to teaching international news and develops two relevant reasons with explanations and examples.
Develop the brief acknowledgement of the opposing view so that it contributes a clear, well-supported point rather than an isolated assertion.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through focused paragraphs, with effective sequencing and generally natural use of cohesive devices.
Integrate the concession into a developed paragraph or link it directly to the conclusion to avoid disrupting the otherwise clear progression.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and often precise, with effective expressions such as “information diet” and “partisan news channel,” though several collocations are awkward.
Replace unnatural phrases such as “an exposure to international standards” and “a deterrent in a positive growth” with clearer, idiomatic wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence forms is used with strong overall control, and the few punctuation or construction problems do not impede meaning.
Refine comma use after introductory phrases and recast awkward structures such as “to those of an impressionable age” for greater grammatical precision.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people think that secondary school children should study international news as one of school subjects. Other people think that it is a waste of valuable school time.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.