IELTS opinion essay model answer.
Here is a model answer based on an essay topic from the Cambridge IELTS 15 textbook on the role of newspapers and books in the future. It’s an opinion essay and in this type of essay, you need to clearly state your opinion throughout the response.
The answer is quite long at over 300 words so I would advise aiming for under 300 words as you will only have 40 minutes to write the essay.
Notice that I have given two reasons for my opinion in the thesis statement which I expand on in the main body paragraphs. I have repeated the word ‘free’ a few times and this is ok. If you can’t think of a synonym then don’t be afraid to repeat words.
See this useful structure below for IELTS opinion essays.
Model Answer
In the future, nobody will buy printed newspapers or books because they will be able to read everything they want online without paying. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
It is argued that people will not need to purchase printed reading material in the future as this will be free to everyone on the internet. I completely agree with this as smartphones and ebook readers are more widespread and information online can be updated far quicker than printed material.
To begin with, the trend toward ebooks and free online news websites has been growing rapidly. I believe that within the next ten years nobody will pay for printed material, except in academic institutions. That is to say, information now is far more accessible because nearly everyone owns a smartphone or an iPad. In addition, free ebooks and PDFs can be easily downloaded and a wide variety of digital news websites can be found online. For example, research in the UK has shown that newspaper companies are investing heavily in developing their websites as well as launching free subscription services. Moreover, sales of devices such as Amazon Kindle and iPads have grown rapidly and this trend is set to continue.
Another reason for my view is that information on the web is far more up to date. In other words, once newspapers are distributed to the shops, they cannot be edited or altered if an important news story suddenly changes. To illustrate this, during the presidential election in 2020 the situation changed quickly and many news organisations ran a 24-hour news channel covering the changes. Thus, sales of newspapers declined rapidly as nearly every one got updates on their smartphones and social media. For this reason, I think that printed newspapers will be seen as unnecessary in the future as most people will rely solely on digital news and downloadable books at no cost.
To conclude, I think print media will be considered a thing of the past in the next decade as people depend more on free information on their smartphones, and traditional newspapers will not be able to compete with digital media.
317 words
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