Every morning many thousands of the Daily Telegraph newspapers are distributed to news agencies and convenience shops in Sydney. Some argue that people are wasting their time on reading something that has nothing to do with their life. I disagree with this view. The large circulation of the Daily Telegraph has proved that people are interested in the news and have a good time reading it.

From the point of view of psychology, there is a need for information which motivates people to get access to news whether it is related to people’s lives or not.  American psychologist Henry Murray identified two types of needs: primary needs and secondary needs. Primary needs are things people require to sustain themselves, such as food, water and housing. Secondary needs, on the other hand, are learned from the environment and culture in which the individual lives. The need for information is one of the examples of secondary needs. It means that people wants to understand many areas of knowledge especially those that can satisfy their curiosity. Therefore, reading newspaper or watching TV is a way in which people try to educate themselves to meet their information needs. It is a proactive process, thus cannot be considered as a waste of time.

Furthermore, news is closely connected to our lives, particularly in an era of globalisation. People rely on news to obtain information about government policies, regulations and their implications, which will help them make informed decision in business operations, stock trade or elections. Today, the world economy is suffering a global financial crisis. Owing to the globalisation, what is happening in Europe now is not confined to the continent but is of worldwide concern. It is relevant to everyone’s wellbeing not just that of the Europeans.

In conclusion, we live in a world which is highly interactive. As human beings, we have a need to keep ourselves up-to-date with information and we should enjoy doing so.

I am not good in writing and i got 5 Band in IELTS exam. Now i try to improve my abilities in this field, so I will start with this topic and hope someone help me if I have some mistakes.

Every day in our world there are many events which took place at different countries but may effect on our economics or even our social lives. In my opinion,follow up the news from any aspect either it will be the TV. or Newspaper or even the Internet has very important influence on people’s knowledge and behaviors which will depend on what they read or watch in these media.

Firstly, the media play major role to warning people. Especially when they know what happens on their local area and overseas countries. All people hear about what the last water waves which predicted to hit the shore of Singapore and Malaysia,most people in a city like Marang did not know anything about the danger which may happen soon, until they received the warning from Tv. news and also take the appropriate precaution for these tsunami waves.

Secondly, newspaper now has various articles in different fields, so reading some health advices, some social ,and entertainment events that no one can considering them as losing times. Furthermore, the Television and Newspaper show a lot of advertisement contents which help busy people to find easily what they want or need which will keep some times spent only to looking for.

To conclude that, most of people still rely on media as effective sources to know what happened or will happen around them and it is difficult to say that they are some kind of wasting time.

Thanks! Keep posting and commenting and your writing will improve.  It might feel like slow progress but your essays will definitely improve. 

You are right I gave bad score in writing(5.5) but I'm better in speaking(7) and I really want to solve my problem 

Thanks for your essay, and I hope you can comment on some of the other essays here. Are you taking the IELTS test soon?

Your essay is 254 words long, which is good, but it has a very, very, very scary average of 28 words per sentence. You need to get this down to between 12-15 words.  Really.

(You can check average sentence length, word count, and many other useful statistics by using one of the two readability links at the top of this page-  this one at read-able.com, or this one at online-utility.org.)

Here’s a 57-word monster you wrote: (almost one quarter of your essay!)

Many person spent several hours daily in Facebook just for finding news about their friend or famous actor or gossiping with friends or sometimes we were searching for a buzz in internet, that take a lot time and at the end we did not earn anything useful just fulfilling our curious sense and also wasting of time.

There are 57 words here, but it basically says:

Many people waste time on Facebook (6 words)

But apart from the problem with length, the agreement errors, the punctuation problems, the word choice errors, the changing subject problems, and the word form errors, there is another big problem with your sentence -  much of it is off-topic.

The question asks about news, almost certainly meaning news like CNN  or BBC or Al Jazeera or the newspaper, but NOT what our friends had for breakfast or where they went last night.

Yes, I know that’s important news too, but you get the idea.  Here’s the question again, just as a reminder:

Some people think news has no connection to people's life, so it is a waste of time to read the news in the newspaper and watch news from TV. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

So ‘gossip among friends’ or ‘searching for a buzz’ would be regarded as off-topic by IELTS examiners.

Have a look at the official descriptors for IELTS Task 2 Writing (public version) here, under Task Response, and look for the words and phrases ‘off-topic’ or ‘tangential’ or ‘addresses task only partially’ or ‘format may be inappropriate.’  You don’t want those bands.

Writing, or Speaking?

Much of your essay is written (I imagine) as you speak.

Nope! Won’t work!

I would imagine that you will get a high mark in speaking in IELTS, but you will be shocked by your writing score. There is a huge difference in the two styles. In Task 2 in Writing in the IELTS  you have to write a mix of short and long error-free sentences, using correct punctuation, with clearly expressed and developed ideas and examples logically organized and linked. On-topic, of course.

So you need to start all over again at the beginning: Read more about 3773 layouts here. Have four paragraphs and 20 sentences. Each sentence should be at most 20 words long, and the average should be about 12-15 words. Add some very short sentences to reduce the average and for impact. 

 Introduction

• One side or situation
• Other side or situation
• Thesis sentence

Body Paragraph 1: one side

• Topic sentence
• Idea 1
• Example 1
• Idea 2
• Example 2
• Idea 3
• Example 3

Body Paragraph 2: other side

• Topic sentence
• Idea 1
• Example 1
• Idea 2
• Example 2
• Idea 3
• Example 3

Conclusion

• Summary of both sides
• Your opinion, a recommendation or advice, a statement about the future

Yes, that’s six ideas in total. You have two ideas:

• Vegetables can kill you if you don't read the news 
• Facebook wastes time

And the average sentence length is 12 words, not 28!

Over to you!

I’m not going to fix all the many grammar, punctuation and vocab errors in the essay -  here are some highlighted in the monster. I am quite sure that you know these errors. Microsoft Word will also underline all errors in red (spelling) or green (grammar) -  if it's not turned on in your computer, check here: How to check your work in Microsoft Word.

Many person spent several hours daily in Facebook just for finding news about their friend or famous actor or gossiping with friends or sometimes we were searching for a buzz in internet,thattake a lot time and at the end we did not earn anything useful just fulfilling our curious sense and also wasting of time.

Looking forward to seeing your revised version. Remember, writing is not the same as speaking!

In today's life, there is a big flow of news that every day spread and inevitably saw or heard from internet, TV, friends ... .But is it really necessary consuming such effort for searching or reading news, or it is just wasting of time to reach data that is not related to you or your field of job.
I think fellow of information that cause simple accessing to data is a huge development in human’s life that can increase men’s welfare unbelievably. When you read news your awareness about your environment increase as that can be useful for your life or health or the other things. For example if in the news you hear about a disease that can infect you by using un clean vegetable you will decline using doubtful vegetable so you will be secure.
But as everything has it’s advantage and disadvantages, abusing of news is a problem in our life. Many person spent several hours daily in Facebook just for finding news about their friend or famous actor or gossiping with friends or sometimes we were searching for a buzz in internet, that take a lot time and at the end we did not earn anything useful just fulfilling our curious sense and also wasting of time.
All in all, we can not reject role of free spreading news and data in today’s life convenience level. But we must control it and limit it for accompany our life and job, not just for entertainment for gaining the most from information.

Thanks for your comments, especially the part about short sentences. I had some IELTS writing classes before, the teacher told me to use long sentences as much as I can. When I did my last two IELTS writing test, I followed his rule, and got 5 and 5.5. I was surprised I only got such bad results because I think I am better than this. Now maybe I find the reason.

I did a test last week, changed my writing style. Now I am more focusing on how to build nice logic for my essay. Last week I had another test and I didi my writing with new style. I will let you know the result when it comes. :)

cheers

Word Choice/Word Form/Usage

• The newspapers and televisions report a variety of news everyday →The newspapers and televisions report a variety of news every day  (‘Everyday’ is a different word – it’s an adjective, e.g. an ‘everyday occurrence’ )
     
• However, in the age of globalization, the nerves in that area will actually affect people's life all over the world.  (not sure what you mean by ‘nerves’ - it could just be a typo for ‘news.’  But why not use a different word, e.g. ‘events,’ or ‘changes,’ or ‘happenings,’? )
     
• any unstable in Middle East may cause a wave of oil price→any instability in the Middle East may cause a surge in the oil price  OR    any instability in the Middle East may cause a wave of oil price increases.
     
• Despite reading newspapers and watching news on TV may time consuming, it is still useful → Although reading newspapers and watching news on TV may seem/be time consuming, it is still useful.

Agreement

• Some people suggest we should not waste our time on reading news because they are not closely related to our life →Some people suggest we should not waste our time on reading news because it are not closely related to our life.  (‘News’ looks like a plural, but it is a non-count noun.  It’s singular.
     
• Apparently, these information are definitely affecting people's decision everyday. →This information definitely affects people's everyday decisions.

Specify

You wrote a sentence which could be used in a million essays:

I will explain why I do not agree with them and give examples to support my argument.

Make every sentence specific to the topic. This could be rewritten:

I will explain why we need to follow the news  closely, and give examples o support my argument

Tense

• The news is not link to their life directly →the news is not linked to their life directly
     
• the price change will eventually reflect in the price of fuel and other products.→ the price change will eventually be reflected in in the price of fuel and other products. (you need to use a passive here)
     
• The time that people spend on reading newspapers and watching TV could not be a wasting. → The time that people spend on reading newspapers and watching TV would not be wasted.  OR   The time that people spend reading newspapers and watching TV is not wasted.

Punctuation: Commas

• There is another fact that makes me hold my opinion, which is, a lot of news we read and see are actually things happened around us.  →  Another fact that makes me hold my opinion is that a lot of the news we read and see is actually things which are happening around us.  OR  Another important point is that a lot of the news is happening around us and concerns us.

Puntuation: Fragment

You wrote a fragment here:

For instance, the reports of weather change, sport events and government policy modifications.

A fragment is an incomplete sentence.  (Read more about Fragments here.) You can join it to the previous or next sentence, or you can add a subject and/or verb:

This information definitely affects people's everyday decisions.  Weather reports, for example clearly affect agriculture, sports fixtures, and travel plans. Government policy changes can affect an entire population.  The public therefore adjust their daily activities and long term plans based on the information which they acquired from news.

Conclusion

You wrote:

To sum up, despite reading newspapers and watching news on TV may time consuming, it is still useful for people to help them arrange daily activities and adjust long term plans.

This is fine – you have summarized both sides and given your opinion. Perhaps you could add one more sentence giving a recommendation or looking to the future (e.g. what might happen if people do/do not follow the news. Be careful not to have a very long sentence as it's more likely to have mistakes.

Overall, it’s clear and easy to read. You have a few errors, but your ideas and clear and generally supported. The word count is good, at 277, but you have a high average words per sentence at 19.79. Add some short sentences. Here are some examples:

• The news affects all of us.
• It’s easy to be depressed by reading the news.
• I can’t blame people for not wanting to follow the news.
• We cannot cut ourselves off from the world.
• Whatever happens in one part of the word affects all of us.
• Our planet is getting smaller, and local events have global significance.
• A few minutes spent listening to the news is time well spent.
• Each of us has an impact on the world.
• Who needs to know about David Beckham’s babies?

Short sentences have a strong impact. They are often good as topic sentences.

By the way, I agree with you about the sentence in ChrisLuke's essay (the one about the news creating job opportunities). Yes, he was scraping the bottom of the barrel there! It's not really a good example -  there are far more important ones out there. I'm sure he agrees!

I done this essay too, and feel it is a hard one because of the topic question. chrisluke921221  presented many good views that I never thought and writefix helped all of us greatly as usual . Thanks for both of you :)

There is one question I want to ask. I think there are 2 ideas in the topic question:

•    news has no connection to people's life
•    it is a waste of time to read the news in the newspaper and watch news from TV

Based on this, I think the second last sentence of paragraph2 "Lastly, news creates the job opportunities and helps the government reduce the unemployment rates."  is not related to the topic closely. I would like to use some other support if I can find. What do you think?

BTW, here is my work of this topic, I would very appreciate if u can give me some advise on it.

cheers

===================================================================

The newspapers and televisions report a variety of news everyday. Some people suggest we should not waste our time on reading news because they are not closely related to our life. In this essay, I will explain why I do not agree with them and give examples to support my argument.

Some people think the news are useless because most of the news are not link to their life directly. They feel what happens on the other side of the world is not going to change their daily routine. For example, the tension in Middle East seems will not affect the life in China. However, in the age of globalization, the nerves in that area will actually affect people's life all over the world. Because as a major place of oil production, any unstable in Middle East may cause a wave of oil price, and the price change will eventually reflect in the price of fuel and other products.

There is another fact that makes me hold my opinion, which is, a lot of news we read and see are actually things happened around us. Apparently, these information are definitely affecting people's decision everyday. For instance, the reports of weather change, sport events and government policy modifications. The public adjust their daily activities and long term plans based on the information which they acquired from news. In terms of this, the time that people spend on reading newspapers and watching TV could not be a wasting.

To sum up, despite reading newspapers and watching news on TV may time consuming, it is still useful for people to help them arrange daily activities and adjust long term plans.

I genuinely feel so stupid after reading you comments because a few mistakes are really unforgivable and i should have done a better job...sigh... !!!! but i do appreciate you pointing out all of them . Honestly, i found it a bit hard to organize my ideas in the beginning then ended up making the essay look imbalanced and patchy due to the lack of time , particularly for the supporting sentences .  i will rewrite this essay as soon as possible and again , thanks so much for your comments .

Introduction

Your intro is a bit workmanlike. What does ‘both’ refer to? It sounds to me as if you recycled a sentence, but here you have only one side (‘some people say the news is not relevant’), so ‘both’ is not correct. There’s another issue as well: the first sentence is correct but how does it relate to the question?  It doesn't really matter in this topic how people access the news.

Articles

• Lastly, news creates the job opportunities and helps the government reduce the unemployment rates. → Lastly, news creates job opportunities and helps governments reduce unemployment rates.

Word Choice/Word Form/Usage

• Apparently, news is inextricably linked to our daily life and brings a large number of advantages to the society. → ‘Apparently’ is not correct here. I’ve racked my brain to think of an alternative, and the easiest solution is to leave the word out.:
  News is inextricably linked to our daily life and brings a large number of advantages to the society. 

It does not only help the students expand the knowledge, but also facilitate their awareness of cultural and religious diversity. →
It not only helps students to expand their knowledge but also facilitates their awarenesss…

• For instance, an increasing number of the young are suffering from cyber bullying and cause great concern to the parents and society.   → For instance, an increasing number of the young are suffering from cyber bullying and this causes great concern to parents and society.  

Ideas: Support, support, support

You wrote:

Lastly, news creates the job opportunities and helps the government reduce the unemployment rates.

How does the news create job opportunities? This may be true or not, but you haven’t supported it. Are their millions of prospective news readers in the world’s dole queues?

Punctuation: Fragment

For the readers, they grow more disconnected from exclusive reports on celebrity gossip and rumors. Because there is no common ground that we can share.

The second part is a fragment -  not a complete sentence. Read more about Fragments or Comma Splices.  It’s easy to fix – join it to the previous or following sentence, or add a subject or verb. Here’s one possible rewrite:

• We grow more disconnected from exclusive reports on celebrity gossip and rumors because we have no common ground with the celebrities. 
  OR
• It’s hard for readers to relate to celebrity gossip and rumors. What do we know about helicopters, private islands, or luxury yachts?

One sentence, one idea

You wrote:

Furthermore, news exposes too much violence and people’s privacy to the public

 Two good points. Separate them and give them a sentence and a supporting sentence each. Aim for one idea per sentence.

Tense

Without reading the news, people would never know how devastating impact that the earthquake has on Haiti. →

Without reading or seeing the news, people would never know how devastating an impact the earthquake had on Haiti.  OR   Without the news media, people would never have known about the devastating effect of the earthquake on Haiti

Cohesion

What's the exact link between these two sentences?

Have a look at the official descriptors for IELTS Task 2 Writing (public version) here, under Cohesion, or how ideas link.

You wrote

Furthermore, news exposes too much violence and people’s privacy to the public. For instance, an increasing number of the young are suffering from cyber bullying.

Here you need to explain why cyberbullying is related to violence or privacy.  And in any case, how is cyberbullying related to news, exactly?

You wrote:

From this point of view, keeping our eyes off the news is necessary and understandable.

This sentence also needs support. Don’t be afraid to support. What’s obvious to the writer is not always obvious to the reader.

Conclusion:

You have focused on one side only! What about the graphic violence in the news, and what about the endless celebrity gossip? Make sure your conclusion summarizes both parts of your essay body.

I'm happier with this simpler and easier style of your writing - now it would be great if you could organize your ideas!

Keep writing and commenting ChrisLuke!

To be honest, i find this topic not easy to get it started , especially racking my brains to "glean" the arguments..lol guess i really need to spend some time on analyzing different topics and making a list of supporting arguments....sigh.. 

The manner in which people get to know the world by reading the news varies greatly from one person to another. However, some argue that news has no relevance to our day-to-day life, and we should not encourage people to read the news.  In this essay, I will examine both and explain why i give my support for reading the news.

Apparently, news is inextricably linked to our daily life and brings a large number of advantages to the society.  Firstly, news literacy is very informative and educational.  It does not only help the students expand the knowledge, but also facilitate their awareness of cultural and religious diversity. Another important function is to bring us the first-hand news of what is happening in the world. Without reading the news, people never know how devastating impact that the earthquake has on Haiti. Also, people would not be able to offer the earliest international aid across the globe. Lastly, news creates the job opportunities and helps the government reduce the unemployment rates. Thus, reading the news benefits all of us in many aspects.

Unfortunately, it is with a host of irrelevant reports today that people find themselves difficult to relate the news to their lives. For the readers, they grow more disconnected from exclusive reports on celebrity gossip and rumors. Because there is no common ground that we can share. Furthermore, news exposes too much violence and people’s privacy to the public. For instance, an increasing number of the young are suffering from cyber bullying and cause great concern to the parents and society.  From this point of view, keeping our eyes off the news is necessary and understandable.

To conclude, I totally disagree with that there is no connection between the news and people’s life. By contrast, we can gain more information, learn the latest global events and enhance the chance of job employment.