News editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in newspapers. What factors do you think influence these decisions? Do we become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was reported?
Sample Response
News both in print media and in television should reflect the authentic, unbiased and important news for the audiences and that news play an important role in terms of educating people, informing people about the current world and giving them an insight of political and social view. But sadly this is always not the case and news editors are often broadcast and publish biased and politically influenced news that does more harm than good to the society. There are various reasons for that. First of all the personal views and political biasedness are two important factors that cause this problem. Newspapers and TV news should ideally be two great media to reach the people with the real and authentic news. People greatly rely on these media to get updates on events and current affairs and the impartial and biased news misleads them often. Often political views of editors and their link to a particular political party lead to this problem. It is not uncommon that a chief editor gets appointed to the position by the powerful political party and he is expected to present news in favour of this party. Second, in many countries government impose strict rules on what type of news can be presented to the public and that also causes problems in terms of fair and accurate news presenting. In many cases, money and corruption are involved for such heinous act. Again, many newspapers heavily rely on other renowned newspapers and internet for current news and if the source is corrupted, that leads to the case of printing and broadcasting impartial and misleading news. The personal threat, political reasons, power, greed, pressure and personal gains, business are the main reasons editors sometimes decide what to broadcast and what to print. I would not agree with the notion that we are used to the bad news as I have witnessed many cases when a good news gets more attention and audience than bad news. It’s true that bad news is by their nature is appealing to people, but as a whole, we want to know about the true happening. Good or bad, people want to learn the truth. Often people’s attention can be achieved by publishing and broadcasting bad and negative news, but this is now always the truth as events like a peace treaty, world up, noble contributions, achievements, good deeds and the political positive decision get more readers and viewers than bad news. In conclusion, we are not used to the bad news and editors do decide which news to be reached to the public or not based on their personal, business and political reasons.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Fix both placement Original: News both in print media and in television Suggested revision: News in both print media and television Why it matters: Both should directly coordinate the two media forms.
- 2. Use singular agreement Original: that news play Suggested revision: such news plays Why it matters: News is grammatically singular, so it requires plays.
- 3. Use insight into Original: of Suggested revision: into Why it matters: Insight takes the preposition into when naming its subject.
- 4. Name public issues Original: view Suggested revision: issues Why it matters: Issues is the natural noun for the topics that news helps audiences understand.
- 5. Place not correctly Original: this is always not the case Suggested revision: this is not always the case Why it matters: Not always means the ideal is sometimes unmet, whereas always not implies it is never met.
- 6. Remove passive auxiliary Original: news editors are often broadcast and publish Suggested revision: news editors often broadcast and publish Why it matters: Editors perform the actions, so the active form does not take are.
- 7. Add introductory comma Original: First of all the personal views Suggested revision: First of all, personal views Why it matters: The introductory phrase requires a comma, and the definite article is unnecessary.
- 8. Use political bias Original: biasedness Suggested revision: bias Why it matters: Bias is the standard noun; biasedness is awkward and uncommon.
- 9. Use media forms Original: two great media Suggested revision: two important forms of media Why it matters: Media is a category here, so forms of media expresses the count correctly.
- 10. Remove contradiction Original: the impartial and biased news Suggested revision: partial and biased news Why it matters: Impartial contradicts biased, so partial conveys the intended lack of neutrality.
- 11. Use possessive form Original: political views of editors Suggested revision: editors' political views Why it matters: The plural possessive expresses the relationship more concisely.
- 12. Use plural governments Original: government Suggested revision: governments Why it matters: The claim refers generally to multiple countries, so governments should be plural.
Suggested Rewrites
- News both in print media and in television News in both print media and television
- that news play such news plays
- of into
- view issues
- this is always not the case this is not always the case
- news editors are often broadcast and publish news editors often broadcast and publish
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response offers a substantial range of plausible influences on editorial decisions and states a clear view that audiences have not simply become accustomed to bad news. However, its treatment of whether reporting more good news would be better remains indirect, and repeated wording, imprecise vocabulary, and grammatical errors weaken the argument; the priority is to answer that final question explicitly and support the judgment with a focused explanation.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The factors influencing editors and the response to bad news are addressed, but the question about whether more good news would be better is not directly resolved.
State a clear judgment on increased good-news reporting and explain its likely benefit or drawback with a relevant example.
Coherence and Cohesion
The overall argument is discernible and uses paragraphing, but the very long discussion of editorial influences is unevenly balanced against the later questions.
Organise one focused paragraph around each explicit question so that all parts receive proportionate development.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a reasonable range of vocabulary about media and politics, though repetition and inaccurate choices sometimes obscure the intended meaning.
Use precise media terms and proofread confusing choices such as impartial versus biased, true events, and news coverage.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer attempts varied and complex sentences, but frequent agreement, article, word-form, and clause-structure errors reduce accuracy.
Break overloaded sentences into complete clauses and check agreement and article use systematically during proofreading.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
News editors decide what to broadcast on television and what to print in newspapers. What factors do you think influence these decisions? Do we become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was reported?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.