You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
It’s been seen that reading for pleasure develops imaginations and better language skills than to watch TV. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Sample Answer 1: (Agreement)
It has always been a great debate whether the pleasure reading or the watching TV improves the creativity, positive imagination power and language skill for an individual. Some people think that reading is better for enhancing positive thinking while other groups say that watching TV is more beneficial. I completely agree that the thinking capability and language skill of a person are better developed by reading than watching television.
First of all, reading for pleasure grasps the attention of a person more than the TV can. Most of the people who read a lot have a better thinking capability and thus become innovative and more creative. While people do not pay utmost attention while watching TV as they often change the channels to find something more interesting.
Television improves the listening and speaking skills. Reading and the analytical ability of an individual are developed more quickly by reading books. It is obvious that reading books, magazines, journals or even websites give much opportunity to learn something more accurately than watching television. In the case of pleasure reading, the reader always has the option to read whatever interests him/ her most. On the other hand, television programmes are broadcasted according to the people who maintain that. Television programs are much more commercial and always try to produce programs keeping the commercial aspects in mind. Good books are always the better alternative in learning new things, developing skills and imagination.
Again, the reading and writing skill of a person cannot be greatly developed unless this person is a professional writer or reads a lot. Only watching television is not a good choice who wants to develop their language skills.
Finally, good books and other reading materials come with the thoughtfulness of writers and with the historical facts and events which are much more thought-provoking than the TV programmes. People often tend to watch entertaining programs like movies than watching a historical program on the History channel. On the other hand, when people read books or other materials, they read only things that can keep their attention. A book, thus, is a better option for everyone to learn more, develop imagination and improve language skills, especially in reading and writing areas.
Sample Answer 2: (Neutral point of view)
Some people believe that reading is better than watching television since it improves people’s creativity and imagination, and their literature skill as well. To a certain extent, I would agree with the statement, but I do believe that watching television at the proportionate time could also bring positive values to our mind and language as well.
On the one hand, it is true that reading brings a lot of benefits for mankind. Despite that people read books or articles for pleasure or study, it is a fact that reading will enhance people’s literacy and develop their imaginative thinking. As there is no visual display in reading, it means that people have to imagine by themselves about the event that is informed in the article or book, and definitely, it will improve people’s creativity. Besides that, by doing a lot of reading, people will get used to seeing proper grammar, formal languages and new collocations, therefore it will gradually improve the reader’s language capabilities.
On the other hand, watching television at the right portion and only watching appropriate programs also bring benefits for people. Some television programs trigger their viewer’s imaginative thinking, such as National Geographic or Discovery Channel. And then there are other programs such as BBC News or CNN which could also affect people’s way of communication. Therefore, watching television could also bring positive effects to their watchers.
In conclusion, it is said that the reading has more positive effects on human creative thinking and language skills. To a certain point, I would agree with it, but I personally think that watching television has some positive things as well. It could improve our imaginative thinking, communication skills and enhance our knowledge, but we must select the appropriate programs and watch them proportionately.
[ Written by – Darwin Lesmana ]