Many educational institutions give greater importance to subjects related to science and ignore subjects such as drama and literature. Why is this? Is this a positive or negative development?
Sample Response
It is becoming increasingly common for schools around the world to emphasise STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to the detriment of the humanities. This is a economicallylogically motivated decision and is negative overall.
The main reason for this shift is a realisation of the value of scientific careersrealisation of the value of jobs in scientific fields. New inventions and medicines advance human progresspush forward human progress and generate billions of dollars in revenue across a wide rangespectrum of industries. It therefore follows that there areIt therefore follows there are high-paying jobs available in the private and public sectorsin private and public sectors for engineers, researchers, scientists, and mathematicians. At the very least, someone who majors in a STEM related subject will be able to find a goodquality teaching position. This guarantees of a minimum level of success and the possibility of a much greater career motivates parents, institutions and students themselves to prioritise and pursue scientific careers.
This over-emphasis on science will result in less arttranslate to less art in the world. It is true that from a strictly utilitarian point of view, resources ought to be allocated to fields with the most economic value. Life is, however, more than the sum of everyone’s earning potential. If the proportion of humanities majors falls, there will be fewer painters, sculptors, filmmakers, writers, and musicians. Science may create modern conveniences, butconveniences but the arts are more important for a fulfilling and enjoyable life. The results of this decline might not become apparent for generations, but if funding is slashed for arts programs, the world will become culturally poorer and the art that has enriched and elevated humanity will give way to a steriletranquil, technocratic future.
In conclusion, the jobs available to science majors explain their dominance, but taken as a whole,dominance but taken as a whole this trend will result in a world bereft of great artists. It is therefore important to balance funding to a reasonabledefensible degree.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response directly answers both questions, sustains a clear negative evaluation, and develops its reasoning through a strong contrast between economic utility and cultural value. Organisation and language are consistently controlled, with only a small number of local grammatical or phrasing slips. The highest-priority refinement is to make individual claims slightly more measured and eliminate the few remaining sentence-level errors.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both parts of the task are fully addressed through a clear position and well-developed explanations of economic motivation and cultural loss.
Qualify broad predictions about the decline of art with a more concrete or balanced supporting example.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through a concise introduction, two focused body paragraphs, and a conclusion that follows naturally from the argument.
Maintain this progression while making the final recommendation more explicitly connected to the preceding discussion of funding.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and flexible, with effective topic-specific choices and only occasional slightly strained phrasing.
Replace less natural expressions such as a defensible degree with more direct wording that preserves precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex sentence forms is used accurately, with only rare local errors that do not impede communication.
Proofread for isolated construction errors, particularly the malformed phrase This guarantees of a minimum level of success.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Many educational institutions give greater importance to subjects related to science and ignore subjects such as drama and literature. Why is this? Is this a positive or negative development?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.