The mass media, including television, radio and newspapers, have great influence in shaping people's ideas. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Sample Response
The mass media have a powerful influence in shaping our lives. We have come to depend on them for information and entertainment, and in doing so we let them affect important aspects of our lives. The undeniable usefulness of the media in providing information almost instantlyin almost instantly providing information about events around the world is largely taken for granted. But throughin our dependence on the media we have allowed them to mould our viewsnotions 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 aboutof 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 are also influential because they facilitatein 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 societies across the globeevery society on the globe. Thus I would argue that the mass media's influence is certainly great. Indeed, with technological advancements such as the Internet bringing even more forms of electronic media to our homes and workplaces, it is likely the media's influence will become even greaterinfluence will grow even stronger.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response presents a clear, sustained position and develops it convincingly through political, wartime, and cultural examples, using precise language and varied complex structures. The principal weakness is presentation as a single continuous paragraph, which obscures the otherwise strong progression; there is also one awkwardly punctuated long sentence. Organise the distinct lines of argument into paragraphs and refine that sentence boundary.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The position is clear throughout and is extensively developed through several relevant, specific illustrations of media influence.
Add a brief qualification about audience choice or differing media sources to make the evaluation of the extent even more nuanced.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses smoothly from political influence to war coverage and culture, with cohesive references that rarely draw attention.
Create distinct paragraphs for the introduction, each major sphere of influence, and the conclusion so the conceptual progression is visually clear.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is broad, precise, and natural, allowing sophisticated distinctions about opinion, bias, culture, and media reach.
Maintain this precision while avoiding the occasional dated or overly general illustration when a more current, specific example would be sharper.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are varied and highly controlled, with only a rare punctuation problem in an extended sentence.
Replace the semicolon before the embedded question about good and bad sides with punctuation and clause structure that clearly separate the ideas.
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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 with this statement?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.