More people are using mobile phones and computers to communicate. Therefore people are losing the ability to communicate with each other face to face. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Response
There are an increasing number of people who rely on smartphones and computers to interact with each other. Il agree that this can have a damaging effect on their ability to handle face-to-face communication, although some skills may not be affected.
Mobile phone and computer users are possibly not able to detect the emotions of other people in a conversation and show empathy. When talking to others on the phone or computer, they rely on verbal messages or emojisemoji, rather than paying attention to the moods of other people, which can be deduced by analysing facial expressions, gestures, tonetones and body language in face-to-face communication. Understanding the emotions of other people is important because it can affect whether people can interpret messages correctlywhether we can interpret all messages correctly, conduct a constructive conversation and even develop a relationship with others.
Another reason is that heavy users of electronic devices may not show patience or skills in a long, face-to-face conversation. They tend to play games, read articles, browse websites or engage in any other online activity while talkingactivity, while talking to others online or making phone calls. In contrast, face-to-face communication with others is less interesting and fails to hold their attention; as a consequence, they may not exhibit the ability to listen carefully to others, show politeness and control their tempermanage temper when they do not appreciate the topic or opinions of others.
On the other hand, electronic means of communication may not pose a threat to all communication skills, because people prefer face-to-face communication in many situationson many occasions. They intend to hold face-to-face group meetings, in which they can communicate with multiple participants effectively by seeing one another's facial expressions directlyfaces and emotions directly. In face-to-face communication, they can decide when to express their personal views or pause to listen by observinglisten, by observing the non-verbal cues of other speakers. Meanwhile, communication is an integral part of special experiences, such as attending friends' gatherings or birthday parties of family members, in which they can convey feelings by words and build a bond with others
In conclusion, I would argue that communication technology can erode some of our communication skills, although face-to-face communication plays an important role in some cases.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response offers a clear, suitably qualified position and develops its central ideas through detailed explanations of empathy, attention, and non-verbal cues. The main limitation is that the counterpoint sometimes describes occasions when people communicate face to face without fully proving that particular skills remain unaffected. The highest-priority improvement is to connect each example more explicitly to the precise degree of agreement stated in the thesis.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The response addresses the proposition directly, maintains a clear qualified position, and develops both the damaging effects and the stated limitation substantially.
Explain more explicitly how continued face-to-face interaction preserves specific skills, rather than mainly showing that such interaction still occurs.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay is logically organised, with focused paragraphs and clear progression from two supporting reasons to a relevant qualification.
Sharpen the transition into the counterargument by stating exactly how it limits the preceding claim before presenting examples.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise, although several collocations such as show patience or skills and manage temper are slightly unnatural.
Use more idiomatic collocations, for example sustain attention, exercise patience, and control their temper, to improve precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a wide variety of complex structures with strong control, while only isolated slips and punctuation omissions are evident.
Proofread for small surface errors, particularly the initial letter typo and the missing full stop at the end of the fourth paragraph.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
More people are using mobile phones and computers to communicate. Therefore people are losing the ability to communicate with each other face to face. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.