It has been seen that reading for pleasure develops imaginations and better language skills than to watch TV. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Wrtie at least 250 words.
Sample Response
Some people believe that reading for pleasure is more useful than watching television since reading habit improves people's creativity and imagination, and language skills more than watching TV can. To a certain extent, I would agree with the statement, but I do believe that watching educative television programmes could also bring positive outcomes.
Reading enhances the creativity of people who enjoy it. Every book opens up a new window to the mind of the reader. It makes them wonder, walks into a realm they never thought would exist and put them in the centre of an impossible situation when they have to critically think about the characters and their situations presented by the writer. This engages their brain and imagination power which research shows is conducive to positively developing imagination. Besides that, regular readers get used to seeing proper grammar, formal language and new collocations every now and then, and their brains pick many of these giving them the ability to use them by themselves. It gradually improves their skill in handling the complex aspects of a language.
But, watching educative television programmes for a prescribed duration of time can also bring benefits to the audiences. Some television channels trigger their viewer's imaginative and creative thinking, such as National Geographic or Discovery Channel while many TV documentaries are highly prised for their ability to engage viewers making them wonder about what they see and hear. News channels like BBC and CNN are often recommended by language teachers as those news channels are proven to improve listening and communication skills.
In conclusion, it is expressed by many people that reading has more positive effects on developing people's creative thinking and language skills. To a certain point, I would agree with it, but I also believe that watching appropriate and educative television programmes can also improve our imaginative thinking and communication skills.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Fix noun phrase Original: reading habit Suggested revision: reading Why it matters: Reading functions naturally as the subject without an articleless singular noun.
- 2. Streamline list Original: creativity and imagination, and language skills Suggested revision: creativity, imagination and language skills Why it matters: A simple three-item list removes the unnecessary break before the final element.
- 3. Use correct adjective Original: educative Suggested revision: educational Why it matters: Educational is the standard adjective for programmes designed to teach viewers.
- 4. Improve collocation Original: bring positive outcomes Suggested revision: have positive effects Why it matters: Have positive effects is a more natural collocation in this context.
- 5. Match plural reference Original: brain Suggested revision: brains Why it matters: The plural possessive reference requires the plural noun brains.
- 6. Refine noun phrase Original: imagination power which Suggested revision: imaginative capacity, which Why it matters: Imaginative capacity is idiomatic, and the comma correctly introduces the added research claim.
- 7. Remove redundancy Original: positively developing imagination Suggested revision: developing the imagination Why it matters: Developing already expresses positive growth, so positively is redundant.
- 8. Use formal linker Original: Besides that Suggested revision: In addition Why it matters: In addition connects the second benefit in a more formal academic style.
- 9. Use natural collocation Original: their brains pick many of these Suggested revision: they absorb many of these patterns Why it matters: Absorb patterns clearly expresses the process of learning language through exposure.
- 10. Clarify pronouns Original: giving them the ability to use them by themselves Suggested revision: allowing them to use such forms independently Why it matters: The revision removes the confusing repetition of them while preserving the meaning.
- 11. Use concise phrasing Original: their skill in handling Suggested revision: their ability to handle Why it matters: Ability to handle expresses the same idea more directly.
- 12. Correct paragraph linker Original: But Suggested revision: However Why it matters: However is the appropriate formal sentence adverb for this contrast.
Suggested Rewrites
- reading habit reading
- creativity and imagination, and language skills creativity, imagination and language skills
- educative educational
- bring positive outcomes have positive effects
- brain brains
- imagination power which imaginative capacity, which
Why this response received Band 7.0
The essay is well organised and develops plausible benefits of both reading and educational television, with a clear qualified position throughout. Its main limitation is that the comparison is not weighed directly enough and several awkward collocations and agreement errors reduce precision; the highest-priority improvement is to compare the two activities explicitly and then support the degree of agreement with cleaner, more idiomatic sentences.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response maintains a qualified position and develops relevant advantages of reading and educational television, but it does not directly compare their relative effectiveness in enough depth.
Explicitly weigh why reading develops imagination and language skills more effectively, or specify the conditions under which television offers comparable benefits.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas follow a clear introduction-body-conclusion structure, and each paragraph has a recognisable central focus despite some overloaded sentences.
Use shorter sentence units within the body paragraphs so each supporting point and comparison advances in a cleaner sequence.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary shows good range and communicates nuanced ideas, but recurring awkward combinations such as reading habit, imagination power, and benefits to the audiences reduce naturalness.
Replace translated or over-engineered phrases with established collocations such as a reading habit, imaginative ability, and benefits for viewers.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The essay uses varied complex forms, but noticeable agreement, reference, and sentence-control errors recur in longer constructions.
Check that coordinated verbs share the correct subject and form, particularly in sentences such as It makes them wonder, walks into a realm and put them.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
It has been seen that reading for pleasure develops imaginations and better language skills than to watch TV. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Wrtie at least 250 words.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.