IELTS Writing task 1 (Jan 06, 2018)

Sample answer:

The line graph compares the number of questions that one particular Tourist Information Office received through three different channels, namely telephone, letter/ email and direct communication during the first six months of 2011.

Overall, the office received substantially more enquires made via telephone and directly from tourists, as opposed to a gradually weaker preference for mailing platforms throughout the timescale  given.

Tourists sent about 900 questions through the telephone to the office, which was the largest number in January. This figure then experienced a slight dip of 100 before rising back to 1000 both in March and in April, followed by a steep increase to reach approximately 1600 enquires in June. Likewise, the number of in-person questions registered the most dramatic growth from only 450 to 1900 inquiries, making face-to-face communication the most common way to obtain travel information.

Written inquiries saw an opposite trend. Especially, after having remained relatively stable at about 7000 for the first 3 months, the figure halved to merely 350 questions in May and in June alike.

IELTS Writing task 2 (Jan 06, 2018)

Some people think that it is more beneficial to take part in sports which are played in teams, like football. While other people think that taking part in individual sports is better, like tennis or swimming. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Sample answer:

Some claim that team sports such as football are more beneficial to players. Meanwhile, others hold a belief that sports that are played individually have superior advantages. In my opinion, both types of sports bring equal advantages.

On the one hand, by participating in team sport, we learn to collaborate with others. In sport fields, individual ambition takes second place to team objective. Every team member is working towards a common goal. To achieve this goal, cooperation and coordination are of the essence. Members must work as a team and achieve the maximum synergy even if that means someone has to make certain sacrifices. For instance, a cyclist may take the leading position for half of the game and then drop out so as to ensure the victory of his teammate. Or another case in point is that in football, a player may have to sacrifice the opportunity to score a goal to pass the ball to his team player if the chance of a goal being score is higher with his teammate.

On the other hand, solo sports can bring players a number of benefits, one of which is the cultivation and maximization of personal capacities. To be precise, when being without the assistance of others, one has to exert himself to the utmost to come up with solutions to win, and this challenges his own limits. For example, in tennis, a player has to strategize his ball serves, predict where the ball falls and be agile in his movement, and he has to multi-task all these on his own. Besides, when doing sports individually, people are liberated from the constraint of rigidly following a previously agreed plan, thereby having the freedom to experiment on new ways of playing. Therefore, such players often have a high sense of satisfaction.

In conclusion, each type of sports has its merits in cultivating players’ personality development. It should depend on each player as to what sports they should do.

(Band 8.0)

IELTS Writing task 2 (Jan 13, 2018)

People living in large cities today face many problems in their everyday life. What are these problems? Should governments encourage people to move to smaller regional towns?

IELTS Writing task 2 (Jan 20, 2018)

Research shows that business meetings, discussions and training are happening online nowadays. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

Sample answer:

Business conferences and training are taking place more and more on online platforms, replacing the traditional face-to-face communication and information exchange. This has both benefits and drawbacks in equal measure

The trend seen in companies switching their training activities and business discussions to the online mode has many advantages. First of all, this offers staff increased flexibility and full control of their timetable, which is likely to diminish the unnecessary high stress levels and thus boost their work productivity. For instance, working mothers find this incredibly helpful for them to multitask between rearing their children and joining meetings to keep abreast of developments in the company. Furthermore, this online mode of operation could help companies economize on expenditure by not having to pay for electricity bill, printed documents or equipment for carrying out the meeting or training procedures, for instance.

On the other hand, this option has two major drawbacks. Firstly, communication via the internet can be a hindrance as there might be failures in the flow of information. To illustrate, in [country’s name] not many people can afford high-speed internet connection, and as a consequence, lagging connection or computer crashing can cause disruptions, reducing the comprehension among meeting or training participants. In addition, there is little room for practice and the lack of direct guidance also prevents people from fully grasping the skills. It would be less productive because employees receiving training cannot apply what they are taught on the internet, or can be clumsy in their actual performance since there is no one to show them whether they are doing it the right way as reality is sometimes completely different from theory.

In conclusion, while there are some advantages for staying at home and participating in discussions or training sessions, there are also disadvantages showing that both sides of this development should be carefully viewed.

(300 words, band 8.0)

IELTS Writing task 2 (Feb 09, 2018)

Many people believe that scientific research should be carried out and controlled by governments rather than private companies.

Sample answer:

People have different views about who should be responsible for conducting scientific researchand its management. I agree that the government should play a dominant role in this process rather than companies.

The major reason why the government should manage scientific research is about the concern of its safety. In an age of money worship, there is a high possibility that the desire of making money would drive private companies to carry out some evil scientific projects that violate ethical code, for example, human cloning. In contrast, this risk can be eradicated by the management of the government, which plays a role of a powerful supervisor, thus keeping scientific experiments and purposes from challenging ethical boundaries and laws of modern civilization.

Besides, the replacement of private companies by the government can substantially reduce the costs of scientific achievements. In fact, prices of new technologies, devices and medicines developed by private companies and institutes are exorbitantly high, due to their initial goal of pursuing maximum profits. For example, the consumer price of one single pill for HIV/AIDS is hundreds of dollars, while its factory cost is only few dollars. Oppositely, if biomedical research is supported by the tax revenue, instead of by private funds, patents and secrets of advanced medical technology do not belong to one private company anymore, and all social medical manufactures can be allowed to mass-produce new medicines, without paying for astronomical patent fees. As a result, new medications and cures will be affordable for all individuals, especially for poor groups.

In conclusion, I believe that scientific research projects should be implemented and controlled by governments rather than privately-held companies