[IELTS TASK 2] (Agree and Disagree) Books and televisions

Some people believe that people who read books can develop more imaginations and language skills than those who prefer to watch TV. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

reading and TV watching influence on imagination and language skills

With the fast-growing rate and the increasing ubiquity of technology, books are replaced by televisions more and more as a way of entertainment. Some suggest that book readers have a higher ability in creativity and linguistic skills than those who watch TV as a hobby. In my opinion, people who read books more definitely are able to develop better imaginations and language skills.

First of all, when people read, they get a direct and excessive access to how words are used, therefore, gradually improve their language. They can see a variety of words and collocations in different contexts which are skillfully used by writers. By interacting with them many times through reading, readers will naturally "absorb" the words, acquiring a better understanding of how words are used in many ways and expanding vocabularies. This is why language learners are advised to read books in the language they learn because it is more natural for them to study vocabularies and how the language works.

Secondly, reading books, especially the fictional ones, can stimulate the readers' imagination effectively. A book's content has no boundaries and it has a special ability to take people to different worlds, even the wildest ones. Thus, their minds can be "more relax" and think out of the box as there is such no thing impossible or irrational in books. In addition, because books hardly have any visual aids or illustrations, readers have to imagine the scenarios and that also helps improve imaginations.

In conclusion, reading assists people in improving language skills and creativity because it gives them lively examples of how words are handled and push them to be more imaginative. Although watching televisions is more convenient and easy to enjoy with visual aids, it still cannot bring value as profound and educational as reading do.

I'm sorry for not helping much but anyway I think you should put some examples like how books effect your or somebody's imaginations and language skills (I mean the specific examples).

I think your essay is well-organized so that why I can't really help much. :)))

Xuan, I must say that your essay is well organised and good enough to earn an overall score of at least a 6. You were able to use transition words to enhance the cohesiveness of your write-up. I could also establish that while the 2nd paragraph borders on developing language skills through reading books, the 3rd paragraph elaborates the accruing imaginative skills. This shows that you have good understanding of the prompt. However, my only worry is that your introductory paragraph is contrary to my view. Your paraphrase is good but the first sentence in that paragraph did not go well because, apart from wrong choice of words ((...fast-growing rate...and ... increasing ubiquity...), you were almost introducing an idea that is alien to that of the prompt. The idea in the prompt has nothing to do with entertainment even though conventionally it could be gained from reading books or watching television. The first sentence would have immediately related to the prompt paraphrased in the second sentence if it read as: 'With the growing rate of technology or With the increasing rate of technology or With the ubiquity of advanced technology, people's attention is turning towards television as a way of enhancing imaginative and verbal communication skills more than reading books'.. Then you also were not meant to state an opinion, you were supposed to use an agreeing statement or disagreeing statement to introduce the side where you would pitch your tent in the entire essay. Nevertheless, apart from these few observations, I think you did a good job there.

Hang, the agreement that you have with the opinion should have been indicated in a proper manner in the opening statement. Your discussion of the topic ran counter to the official prompt that was provided because you did not indicate that you agreed with the opinion of the original prompt. Instead, you delivered a straight opinion. Rather than a straight opinion, you should have said "I agree with this opinion up to a certain point and will discuss the reasons why below."

By not accurately paraphrasing the prompt, the end result was a different essay discussion for the topic provided. In which case, you would be scored down considerably in the Task Accuracy portion of the essay. While your discussion did support the stance that you chose for the essay, the misrepresentation in the opening statement discussion type sentence is what affected the ability of this essay to get a higher score.

Additionally, the presentation of additional information as a concluding paragraph will also affect the TA of this essay because, I am sure you have been told this before, new information cannot be discussed in the concluding statement as that is meant to serve the same purpose as the opening statement, only it is placed at the end of the essay to test your English writing and paraphrasing skills.