Band 9 Model Essay & Analysis
Official Task 2 Question Prompt
At present, the media affects people’s lives significantly. What impact does this have on society? Is it a negative or positive development?
Band 9.0 Model Answer
Follows the standard 4-paragraph structure required by IELTS examiners
The media has a significant impact on the way people live their lives. This essay will discuss how the media shapes how people think about world events, and I believe that this is a negative development because it endangers democracy.
A major impact of the media is that it affects how people interpret things happening in the world. Most people take the news at face value and do not think about it very critically. This leads to them believing everything they read or hear and can result in them having a distorted view of key issues. Take the current refugee crisis as an example, where, as a result of how refugees were represented in the UK news, people came to view them as ‘migrants’ who were looking to overrun the UK and take advantage of its economic prosperity, when in reality, these people were simply fleeing war-torn countries.
This distortion of events is very dangerous for democracy. Governments and corporations can influence the media and get them to spin a narrative that suits their agenda. A healthy democracy must have a free press that is critical of the state and big business, and if it does not, democracy will be in peril. For example, it is widely known that certain news networks in the USA regularly tell lies about the Democratic Party and seek to support the Republican Party, which is very disturbing, considering that tens of millions of people tune in to networks every day.
In conclusion, the media affects our view of the world by telling us what to think, and I think this is a negative development because it poses a very real threat to democracy.
Examiner Assessment & Strategy
How this essay achieves a perfect score across all 4 official grading criteria
Fully addresses every part of the prompt. Presents a well-developed position with relevant, extended, and supported ideas throughout.
Logical sequencing with effortless paragraphing. Sentences link naturally through referencing and substitution rather than repetitive connectors.
Uses a wide range of vocabulary with natural and sophisticated control of lexical features. Rare minor slips occur only as slips.
Employs a full range of complex structures naturally and flexibly. Produces error-free sentences with native-level accuracy.
In two-part prompts, balance your essay by giving approximately equal length and analytical depth to each prompt question.
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