Some people think that sports play an important role in society. Others think they are nothing more than a leisure activity. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Sample Response
Many feel sports play an essential role in society while others believe they are simply for entertainment and relaxation. From my point of view, though their stated purpose is leisure, sports serve key social and psychological purposes.
The claim that sports are largely just a leisure pastime is based on common observationsself-evident facts. Most people watch or participate in sports to relieve stressrelease pressure and do not take them as seriously as other parts of life. For example, in England, football is the national sport and many individuals playmany individuals will play in amateur matches, follow their local team, and discuss sports with friends and family. Each of these activities can be broadly defined as a way of relaxing and a purposefully unproductive yetand enjoyable use of free time. If polled, the majority of individuals would state that sports arewould state sports are an important yet entirely recreational part of their lives.
Nonetheless, sports, in fact, playsports in fact play the essential role of satisfying a number of deep psychological needs. The average sports fan invests a tremendous amount of time in and ties their self-esteem toinvests a tremendous amount of time and self-esteem in the success or failure of their team. When the team wins, they can bask in the reflected glory and feel proud vicariously. Research has shown that even when a team loses, there is concomitant and addictive communal sensation of misery. Added to this isare the variety of human drives that are satisfied by talking about the team, thinking about itthem in one’s spare time, reading and watching sports media, and being outraged or excited about team transactions. This all takes place within a welcoming community of like-minded individuals that approves of and normalizes this social behavior.
To conclude, despite the ostensible purpose of sports to entertain, they actually allow individuals to satisfy a range of crucial human desires. This makes sports a healthy hobby when not taken to obsessive extremes.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response fully engages with both views, sustains a clear opinion, and develops its analysis through relevant social and psychological explanations. Its organisation and vocabulary are especially strong, while only a few dense or slightly awkward formulations reduce complete precision. The best refinement is to make the more abstract claims about communal identity more concise and support them with a concrete societal example beyond individual sports fans.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both views are directly examined, the writer's position remains clear, and the main ideas are extended with relevant explanation and examples.
Strengthen the societal dimension further by adding a concise example of how sport builds community or collective identity beyond individual spectators.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically sequenced, clearly paragraphed, and connected with cohesive devices that generally support rather than distract from progression.
Tighten the transition within the psychological-needs paragraph so its list of behaviours leads more directly to the concluding point about community.
Lexical Resource
A wide and precise vocabulary conveys nuanced distinctions, with only occasional phrasing that feels overly dense or slightly unnatural.
Prefer the clearest precise expression when discussing abstract ideas, particularly where several sophisticated modifiers compete within one phrase.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex structures is used accurately and flexibly, with only rare article or phrasing slips.
Proofread dense sentences for missing determiners and streamline long noun phrases to preserve clarity alongside grammatical sophistication.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Some people think that sports play an important role in society. Others think they are nothing more than a leisure activity. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.