Monday 12 October 2009

Ambiguity of IELTS writing questions

Module: writing task 2 Date of the exam: 10-10-2009 Conducted by: The British Council Some people feel that supermarkets and manufacturers have the responsibility to reduce the amount packaging of goods. While others argue that customers should avoid buying goods with a lot of packaging. Discuss both views and give your opinion. The term “amount packaging of goods” and “a lot of packaging” are ambiguous terms which can mean many things. Different candidates can interpret them in different ways like ‘expensive packaging’, 'attractive packaging', ‘heavy packaging’ etc.. Hence, in order to avoid ambiguity, the question should specify what the term “amount packaging of goods” would mean. This can be mentioned in brackets. There is a possibility that candidates would be confused and score less in ‘Task Achievement’ if they deviate from the focus of the question. I believe that such ambiguity should be avoided. You are welcome to post your comments and suggestions...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Just saying hello while I read through the posts


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jim said...

hello

jim said...

hello sir,
how are you?hope you remember me,am siba one of your student,working in uk.am planning to do my test again because i lost in reading last time.Do you have any reading meterials,which i can get access through onlne?

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Anonymous said...

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IELTS Essays from George Andrews said...

nice to hear that...

TheIELTSSolution said...

Hi,

First of all, I would like to say that your blog looks really good and simply amazing since it gives informational discussions, tips and instructions about IELTS writing. With regards to the ambiguity issue, yes, I do agree with what you've said that a certain term should be more specific to avoid confusions. Well, this serves as an eye opener to those IELTS writing examinees to be more aware on the issue of ambiguity when writing a piece. TheIELTSSolution.com

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Dear George sir, it would be grateful if you can upload some reading materials as well in this blog and the answers too. Thanks