The mass media, including television, radio and newspapers, have great influence in shaping people's ideas. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
The mass media play a powerful role in shaping our liveshave a powerful influence in shaping our lives. We have come to depend on them for information and entertainment, and in doing so, we allow them to affectin doing so we let them affect important aspects of our lives.
The undeniable usefulness of the media in providing information almost instantlyalmost instantly providing information about events around the world is widelylargely taken for granted. Yet through our dependence on the mediaBut in our dependence on the media, we have allowed them to mould our notions and opinions of events, places and people. Though few of us probably think about it, our perceptions of our elected officialsour conceptions of, say, our elected officials spring from television images and newspaper stories. Most of us will never meet prime ministers or presidents, but anyone who is regularly exposed to the media will have an opinion of them. When it is time to cast our votesvote, we will make our decision based on how the media portray the candidates. We are similarly swayed by coverage of wars. The media, representing the values of their owners, societies and governments, tend to report wars with a bias; which is the 'good' side and which the 'bad' is determined for us by reporters, editors and commentators, and sure enough the public begins to form opinions that reflect the coverage they see, hear and read in the major media.
The media also facilitateare also influential in the way they facilitate the spread of culture and lifestyle. The so-called 'global youth culture', in which young peoplein which one finds young people around the world displaying a common interest in music, clothing styles and films, is an example of the media's enormous sway in this regard. A popular figure such as Michael Jackson would never be so well known were it not for the media's extensive reach into every society on the globe.
Thus I would argue that the mass media's influence is certainly great. Indeed, technological advancements, such as the Internet, areis bringing more forms of electronic media to our homes and workplaces. It is likely that the media's influence will grow even stronger with the passage of time.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response gives a clear, sustained position and develops it persuasively through well-chosen political, wartime, and cultural examples, using precise and flexible language. Its main limitation is a small number of grammatical and punctuation slips, while parts of the second paragraph could be more tightly controlled. Prioritise editing long sentences for agreement and clause boundaries so the otherwise sophisticated argument reads with complete accuracy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The position is direct and fully relevant, with well-developed examples showing how media shape political views, perceptions of war, and culture.
Add a brief qualification about audience agency or differing media sources to make the already strong argument more nuanced.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses logically from the general claim to political and cultural examples, with cohesive devices used naturally and paragraphs clearly focused.
Tighten the lengthy political paragraph by separating the discussion of elections from the discussion of wartime bias.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and flexible, including effective choices such as mould our notions, swayed by coverage, and extensive reach.
Maintain this precision while trimming occasional wordiness in longer explanatory passages.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is handled accurately, with only occasional slips in punctuation and subject-verb agreement.
Check clause boundaries and agreement in long sentences, particularly after semicolons and with subjects such as technological advancements.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
The mass media, including television, radio and newspapers, have great influence in shaping people's ideas. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.