Writing Feedback / Wealth and Power / Personal Growth - IELTS [2]

Question: A person's worth nowadays seems to be judged according to social status and material possessions. Old-fashioned values, such as honour, kindness and trust, no longer seem important.

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honor, kindness and trust to measure a person's worth

There is apparently a long list of criteria in evaluating a person. However, a proportion of people assume that conventional ethical values are being taken off list. Seemingly, the worthiness of an individual is now attributed to his or her social significance and possession of properties. From my point of view, I partly disagree with it.

Undeniably, in this material world, people tend to admire or envy with those financially superior or who claim desirable positions in various social hierarchies. In fact, their admiration and judgment based on these factors are not ungrounded, in other words, reasonable. To climb high in social ladder, one must definitely pose certain characteristics. Being in charge of hundreds of employees, for example, requires billionaire CEOs competence, brainpower and leadership skills. It is not a coincidence that a selected group of elites are voted into the government; otherwise, every citizen could run for presidency.

Meanwhile, social status and material wealth can never suffice, rather be trivial and flawed in several cases. To illustrate, luxurious celebrities would not earn themselves respects if over-indulging in alcohol or drugs. The same goes for a reputable teacher who bears discrimination toward impoverished students or a head director whose company is criticized for labor abuse. Furthermore, that old-fashioned values are not exalted is a false notion, especially on daily basis when people comment on others' behaviors. It can be explained by the fact that ordinary people usually attempt to raise their kids to be benevolent, rules-respecting , kind-hearted citizens and praise bonding, trust worthy relationships. Still, they absolutely stand for the righteousness and condemn violation of rights. That is to say, there is no way that ethics have been totally neglected by societies.

All things considered, I would confirm my stance that although wealth and power can be the symbols of personal worth, the intrinsic value of a person should be measured by their morals such as honor, kindness and trust.

(321 words)

Writing Feedback / IELTS TASK 2 - University purpose opinions [4]

Ques: some people believe the aim of university education is to help graduates get better jobs. Others believe there are much wider benefits of university education for both individuals and society. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

benefits of studying

Education is of vital importance to the growth of individuals and society as a whole, which means it merits an enormous amount of consideration. The notion that tertiary education serves the foremost purpose of generating high qualitied workers has been refuted by those who suppose universities have a greater number of roles to play besides assuring career path for school leavers.

Initially, let's look at the first view. Universities were originally vocational training schools whose scope was to provide students with hands-on skills in a given profession. As now people lay the hope of future development over college students who will constitute the main drive of state's prosperity, higher education would turn to be useless with failure to have practical workforce as output. Intensive labour economy replaced by knowledge-based economy, those attending universities must have advantages over others in securing employment. Furthermore, monetary investment in tertiary education is huge, hence, should be worthing and pay off financially afterward. Therefore, higher education needs to fulfill the role as an instrument for combating unemployment and a ticket to a well-paid desirable job, in turn for the state's support and government funding.

Moving forward onto the other perception of education, one can argue that intrinsically, higher education can definitely bring more benefits that should not be overlooked by either individuals or the society. Aside from becoming a successful income earner, college students now tend to persue tertiary educational opportunities for a wider range of goals and aspirations. Areas such as arts, philosophy, psychology and human sciences may help individuals gain a better understanding of humanity and figure out their own purposes of life. To a larger extent, university graduates who have undergone the environment of discipline and self-independence will stablize the well-being of society by their moral codes of behaviour such as giving priority to the elderly or pregnant women in public services.

Both views elaborated above, I believe the two opinions can be reconciled. Universities can be a facilitator of favourable jobs, as well as a platform for other educational pursuits, which benefits students themselves and society one way or another.