People say that it is a waste of time for high school students to learn literature such as novels and poems. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?
Sample Response
Some people believe that it is a waste of time for students to study literature in high school. Personally, I strongly disagreecouldn’t disagree more with this opinion.
Firstly, there are a range of benefits for high school students who study literature. Studying novels can give students a deeper insight into the history and culture of a particular place or time. For example, although the storyline in many novels may be fictional, the reader can still gain a good sense of the culture and customs of particular places and historical periodscertain places and periods of time, and this is usually a much more entertaining way of understanding history compared with reading conventional history bookscompared to reading regular history books. Secondly, studying literature helps students to learn more about language, which increases their ability to express themselves and communicate with others. This is particularly important these days as the use of the internet and social media has had numerous negative effectsa myriad of negative impacts on people’s communication skills.
Furthermore, literature is a form of art, and it cannot be deniedargued that the world needs artists to make it a better place to live. Without art, the world would be a dull and uninspiring placea ghastly, boring place. I believe that literature should be considered as an important part of any high school curriculum as it helps to stimulate students’ artistic awarenessintelligence and provides them with a break from the monotony of logic-based subjects such as math and science. All subjects play an important role in the development of students, and literature is no exception. These days, there seems to be too much emphasis placed ontoo much attention given to the importance of science- and math-based subjectsscience and math-based subjects, as they are what many people believe drive a country’s economy; however, I believea country’s economy, however I believe that art and culture should be considered as important as the economy.
In conclusion, not only does literature hold an important place within a high school’s curriculum, but also within society itself, and therefore I believe it should be held in high regard.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response gives a direct, consistent position and develops a persuasive set of benefits through well-selected explanations and examples. Its main limitation is that a few claims become broad or rhetorically absolute, while occasional sentence-level slips slightly reduce polish; the best improvement would be to qualify those claims and tighten the longest sentences so the reasoning remains consistently precise.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The question is fully addressed through a clear position and well-developed, relevant arguments about literature's educational and social value.
Qualify broad assertions about art and social media to make the argument more consistently measured and convincing.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are logically sequenced in clear paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader smoothly with only minor lapses in sentence flow.
Break or repunctuate the longest sentence in the third paragraph to preserve effortless progression.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and flexible, with effective less common expressions and only occasional slightly awkward phrasing.
Refine small collocational choices, such as considered as important, to make the style fully natural.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately, with only minor agreement and punctuation errors that do not impede communication.
Check agreement in phrases such as there are a range and avoid comma splices in long compound sentences.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
People say that it is a waste of time for high school students to learn literature such as novels and poems. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.