minutes on this task It is said that "Not everything that is learned is contained in books". Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?
Sample Response
Books are the great source of information since the dawn of time. Throughout history, books passed the information from generation to generation. What we study in our educational life helps us in our professional life. In the following paragraphs, I will explain my point of view.
Firstly, information gained from books are as important as from gaining experience, books help us to learn basic knowledge we can call it a guide for professional life. For instance, my friend Asif recently start working as an accountant and he told me that what I studied in university through books is very helpful in practical life. This makes it clear that learning books help us in our future.
In addition to this, Knowledge gained through experience help us to understand more clearly what we read in the book. For example, my friend Junaid told me that when he wants to go somewhere for dinner, outing or a strange place he also uses his street directory for directions rather than GPS because next time it will be easy to go to the same place without a street directory. This makes it clear that Learning from book and use that in practical life increase our knowledge.
To sum up, whatever we study in a book is as important as learning through experience. It has been proven that both are very important for learning. Thus, it is recommended that knowledge gained from books or experience is never useless it will help us somewhere in our future life so keep learning.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use present perfect Original: books passed the information Suggested revision: books have passed information Why it matters: The present perfect links this historical action to the present.
- 2. Use concise term Original: educational life Suggested revision: education Why it matters: 'Education' expresses this idea more naturally and concisely.
- 3. Use natural wording Original: in our professional life Suggested revision: in our careers Why it matters: 'In our careers' is a more natural expression for professional contexts.
- 4. Correct past tense Original: start Suggested revision: started Why it matters: A completed action introduced by 'recently' requires the past-tense verb here.
- 5. Match reported subject Original: he told me that what I studied Suggested revision: he told me that what he had studied Why it matters: The embedded subject must remain 'he', and the earlier study takes the past perfect.
- 6. Correct preposition Original: in Suggested revision: at Why it matters: The standard expression is 'study at university'.
- 7. Align reported tense Original: is very helpful in practical life Suggested revision: was very helpful in professional practice Why it matters: The revision aligns the tense with the reported statement and uses a clearer formal phrase.
- 8. Fix verb pattern Original: learning books help us Suggested revision: learning from books helps us Why it matters: Learning is done 'from' books, and the gerund phrase takes a singular verb.
- 9. Use concise transition Original: In addition to this Suggested revision: In addition Why it matters: The shorter transition connects the next point without an unnecessary reference word.
- 10. Use lowercase noun Original: Knowledge Suggested revision: knowledge Why it matters: A common noun after a comma does not require a capital letter here.
- 11. Generalise plural noun Original: what we read in the book Suggested revision: what we read in books Why it matters: The plural form is appropriate when referring to books in general.
- 12. Fix number and case Original: Learning from book Suggested revision: learning from books Why it matters: The general noun should be plural and should not be capitalised mid-sentence.
Suggested Rewrites
- books passed the information books have passed information
- educational life education
- in our professional life in our careers
- start started
- he told me that what I studied he told me that what he had studied
- in at
Why this response received Band 5.5
The response gives a clear view that books and experience are equally valuable and follows a recognisable introduction-body-conclusion structure. However, the comparison is fairly limited, the examples do not always demonstrate the claimed point clearly, and frequent sentence-level errors weaken fluency. The highest priority is to build a direct comparison around distinct benefits of each source and support it with concise, logically connected examples.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both sources are discussed and the equal-importance position is clear, but the contrast and supporting explanations remain limited.
Compare a distinct strength of book knowledge with a distinct strength of experience, then explain why neither is more important overall.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has clear paragraph boundaries and an understandable overall sequence, though internal progression is weakened by run-on sentences and repetitive linking.
Give each body paragraph one controlling idea and connect its explanation and example with shorter, logically ordered sentences.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient vocabulary to discuss learning and professional life, but repetition and inaccurate collocations frequently reduce naturalness.
Use more precise phrases such as knowledge gained from books and applying knowledge in practice while avoiding repeated formulaic conclusions.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is generally accessible, but frequent errors in agreement, verb forms, articles, sentence boundaries, and capitalization limit control.
Prioritise complete sentence boundaries and correct subject-verb forms before attempting longer compound or complex structures.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
minutes on this task It is said that "Not everything that is learned is contained in books". Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.