It is believed that books have been losing popularity throughout the passing years. Other sources of information such as the Internet are rapidly replacing the old-fashioned books. Some say that this situation could have serious consequences.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Your answer should be at least 250 words long.
Sample Essay Answer: disagreeing
Reading has shaped minds of many generations — the most outstanding people have been known to be avid readers. This notion however might soon change as reading becomes less popular, gradually ousted by other media. Should we be alarmed?
To give an objective and impartial answer one should understand the core purpose of reading. Simply put, we read either for education or pleasure. Education is still heavily book-reliant — modern schools and colleges are reluctant to switch from paper-based learning aids to their digital counterparts. This is understandable as textbooks have numerous advantages over displays when it comes to education. Books are affordable, mobile and they can be made notes in. Importantly, a student can’t launch a gaming app on his book — this makes for a better learning process.
With recent technological advances and the Internet becoming ubiquitously available, reading for entertainment (and entertainment itself) has changed dramatically. A person seeking to idle away an hour or two faces a luscious choice of pleasure-reading material — anything and everything they could wish for is at their fingertips. It is then that the person comes to find other mediums of entertainment — podcasts, shows and videos that seem to be more lucrative. After all, reading entails a certain amount of effort whereas watching a video is totally undemanding. This is where reading rapidly loses its allure, requiring too much commitment for a jaded entertainment-seeker.
Whether we like it or not, reading really does become obsolete. Undoubtedly, it will shall retain its popularity among certain social groups, but its demand is nevertheless dwindling by the year.
(260 words)
This is a Band 8 answer. Let’s go over the four basic criteria to understand this mark.
Task achievement
(+) The author gives comprehensive overview of the question from both points.
Coherence and cohesion
(+) Ideas in the text are properly connected using a wide variety of cohesive devices. The structure of his answer is well-balanced.
(-) The second body paragraph could be better structured — it’s second part is a bit too short.
Lexical resource
(+) The author exhibited a very good command of English, using complex vocabulary appropriately and showing a good knowledge of synonyms for most used words.
Grammatical range and accuracy
(+) There are virtually no grammatical mistakes. All of the structures used are accurate and manage to deliver the full extent of the message.
Usually Band 7+ answers have no obvious drawbacks or weak points.
Thank you for sharing.