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ielts writing

IELTS essay, topic: Athletes and entertainers’ enormous salaries reflect our dependence on entertainment (agree/disagree)

This is a model response to a Writing Task 2 topic from High Scorer’s Choice IELTS Practice Tests book series (reprinted with permission). This answer is close to IELTS Band 9.

Set 4 General Training book, Practice Test 16

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Professional sportsmen and sportswomen and professional entertainers can often command enormous salaries today and this situation reflects society’s dependence on being entertained.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Sample Band 9 Essay

It is no secret that today’s entertainment industry is extremely popular, with nearly everyone being engaged at some time in watching TV shows, movies and sports games. The North American sports industry alone generates a massive $67.7 billion every year. With the present emphasis on entertainment, sportsmen and women and professional entertainers can earn enormous salaries, with figures in the millions for one game, appearance or film. This situation certainly does reflect today’s society’s obsession with entertainment.

Many people argue that celebrities do not deserve such payment when work in other professions considered of equal or higher value to society is underpaid. A-list celebrities can make over $20 million per movie, whilst many average workers can barely make ends meet. Of course there are lots of people who say that there are better ways the money could be used, rather than allowing such a vast amount to go to just one person. This is a fairly naive point of view, though. So long as people wish to watch entertainment, advertising in turn will be present and the most watched celebrities will be able to earn high salaries, as their presence will ensure the high viewing figures the advertisers desire.

Though celebrities and sportsmen and sportswomen often make very large sums of money, it can also be seen as unfair to say that they do not deserve it or propose their money be used for something else. While it is true that they did not find a cure for cancer or made a life-changing scientific discovery, their hard work and expertise created a product that the public wants to see and the high payment merely reflects their value.

In conclusion, it is clear that today’s society is indeed a society obsessed with being entertained and the high salaries paid to those who entertain society clearly reflect this. The high payments, however, are not necessarily out of place or undeserved.

Go here for more IELTS Band 9 Essays

Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 – How to Describe Line Graphs

When you don’t get Band 7 for your Academic writing, even though you have good grammar knowledge and a wide range of vocabulary, it is disappointing and seems very unfair. In the 10 years Adam worked as an IELTS examiner, he saw it happen too many times – all because people didn’t know how to write a correct Writing Task 1 response.

In this video Adam shows you step by step how it is done. He gives you a way to analyse the line graph before you start writing, some tips how to reword the task prompt easily, and he also demonstrates how to write a great overview and how to compare and contrast.

Watch the lesson on YouTube, or below:

 

In the video

1. What are you comparing?
In this particular double line graph it is the length of stay of public and private hospital patients.

2. How are you comparing?
Here you need to look at the units used in the line graph. You want to note that the length of stay is measured in days, and that there are many age groups, each with its own length of stay.

3. When are you comparing?
For this graph it is last year, which means you will be using past tense to describe the graph. The period of time always affects your grammar, and you should be aware of that.

4. Is there an overall trend?
If both line graphs follow the same trend, even for some of the time, it will help you describe them.

5. What are the similarities?
Look at the two graphs to see where they declined or rose at the same time.

And there is a lot more to learn, so do watch the entire video, because Adam explains everything in a very easy to understand way. It won’t take you long to start writing Band 7+ reports!

Adam doesn’t give you a model response in this lesson, because he would like you to have a go and write your own. But if you’d like to see a Band 9 sample, check out our High Scorer’s Choice IELTS practice tests. This particular topic can be found in Package 2 and we also provide a model response for it, as well as all the other writing tasks.

Enjoy the lesson!