This is the latest in my series of IELTS essays tutorials. You can read and download the essay and learn how to approach the essay and deal with some tricky vocabulary.
Looking at the question
Newspapers and books are outdated. Why do some people believe this? What is your opinion?
This is a double question. Whatever else you do, make sure you answer both halves of the question by giving your own opinion and explaining why other people believe this.
Essay structure
There are different ways to structure this essay. The way I have chosen is to write one paragraph about newspapers and one about books and then use a slightly longer conclusion than usual for my own views. In this form of essay, one natural technique is to use the conclusion in this way.
- intro: modern technology partly to blame
- newspapers: problem that they are yesterday’s news
- books: problem that they are not instant gratification
- conclusion: books and newspapers are not redundant but may need to change in the modern world
Another option would be to use one topic paragraph for “advantages” of books and newspapers and one for their “disadvantages”.
The vocabulary
Topic vocabulary
You need vocabulary to talk about books and newspapers and other media. There is a great range to choose from here. Some of the topic vocabulary I use in this essay is:
- great novels
- use Google or another search engine
- switch on the television
- the latest news bulletin
- read for pleasure
- enjoying a 3D movie
- in turning the pages of a book
Outdated and opinion vocabulary
If at all possible you do not want to repeat the vocabulary from the question too much. Here are some options for you for “opinion” and “outdated”.
- people take this view
- are said to be
- My own view is
- become redundant
- out of date
- out of fashion
The essay
Newspapers and books are outdated. Why do some people believe this? What is your opinion?
As we move into the twenty- first century an increasing number of people are relying on new forms of technology. A possible consequence of this is that traditional media such as books and newspapers are not just less popular but are considered by some to be outdated. Personally, I disagree with this point of view.
The principal reason why some people take this view is fairly clear in the case of newspapers. It is generally much easier and quicker to discover what is happening in the world from the internet or the television than from a newspaper. If you use Google or another search engine or simply switch on the television, you can instantly get the latest news bulletin. A newspaper, by contrast, is out of date the moment it is published because it contains yesterday’s news.
It is perhaps less obvious why books are said to be out of fashion. One possibility is that fewer people choose to read for pleasure nowadays because they prefer the instant gratification and thrills of modern technology. There is less effort involved in enjoying a 3D movie or playing a computer game than in turning the pages of a book.
My own view and conclusion is that books and newspapers will never go completely out of fashion or become redundant. The reason for this is that they serve basic human needs. I believe that people will always want to read about the news and escape into the imaginary worlds of great novels. However, books and newspapers may need to change to meet the new demands of twenty-first century consumers. We can already see this happening with the arrival of the audio-book and the various free newspaper internet sites. (292 words)
Download the essay
IELTS essay on books and newspapers (2243)Learn to write this essay
For an exercise on how to write this essay sentence by sentence, try:
The last line of the first paragraph should read ” are not just less popular —-BUT —-I feel the but is missing !!
But awesome essay !
thank you
Thanks for that. Do let me know if you find any more typos.
I feel the conclusion is a little too much? Doesn’t it introduce a new idea of “books and newspapers are still having some value” which probably should have been a idea for a separate paragraph? just curious to know.
Excellent comment. I quite see your point and your suggestion about a separate paragraph makes sense.
This is a “non-standard” conclusion as the final paragraph is in some ways a content paragraph in its own right. I wrote it this way because this is a double question. It asks for you to explain others opinions and also give your own. In this context, I believe it makes sense to use the conclusion as my personal viewpoint. It brings the essay to a natural end and it does reflect/summarise the content of the other topic paras.
The moral for me is that you need to adapt your structure to the question and not simply have one essay plan. It is possible to write a “heavy” conclusion in a 250 word essay, particularly with this type of question. One alternative would be to write a very short/one sentence conclusion – something I personally dislike and I know many others do too. I dislike that option as the conclusion does matter – it is the last thing the examiner reads and the first thing s/he remembers. The other alternative would be to write an over-length 5 para essay – again something I dislike as it often leads to more mistakes and poorer writing,
my essay is like this
On one hand,some causes indicate why books and newspapers and books are outdated.Due to hectic schedule,people are paying less attention to read newspapers and books.For example,some people are interested to know about latest news so for that reason they switch over to Tv and radio where they can do their other works togather.Second point,online news are comparitavely easy and fast to read as per once time conviency.Some people feel bored to read such novels and story books so they perefer to watch the same reading materials in form of Cd and programmes which can make them relaxed.
Moreover,computer and the Internet inventions are playing a vital role to deacrease popularity and an importance of two firms of reading.Nowadays,in schools,colleges and universities teachers and recommand and an encourage students to gain knowledge from E-books with specific changes and improvments in comparison of old edition text books.Newspaper has full bunch of informations,ads and news.As a result,some people are struggling to read their choice of news which they can easily get by searching on google within few seconds.For instance ,one day a week some newspapers have job vaccancies so especially, yongsters buy newspaper to get only two pages of job ads and throw it which is waste of paper.Lastly.use of paper for newpaper and book affect adversly on enviornment.
(now in this eassay do i make error of articles much?)
I was waitinf for your replay for this essay..
Apologies for not answering earlier. I simply don’t have time to look at individual essays properly. It would be much better if you approached a teacher form the teachers’ page – that is why they are there.
ok Thanks a lot