Task Response assesses whether or not you completed the requirements for the task.

Ask yourself these two questions:

1. Did you respond to all parts of the task?
2. Are the ideas well developed?

Question 1 - Responding to all part of the task

Remember that an IELTS question has multiple parts to it. Not every part needs to be addressed in the response.

In fact, there are questions where most a large portion is devoted explaining something to you, while the question might be entirely something else. Look at the following question:

In this question, whether truth should be objective is not the question. It is merely a statement that is helping you form thoughts.

Presenting grand statements about truth, quoting famous philosophers, using 'fancy' words, and idioms about truth will not get you much in terms of task response. Quite the opposite actually.

You need to realise the task is looking is two specific questions.

1. Is all news true.
2. The function of a newspaper.

Now, to developing these questions the right way...

Question 2 - Are the ideas well developed

For this, you can talk about what you feel. ✅ Is all news true?  ✅ Why? ✅ Are there fake news? ✅  Where do you find fake news? Answers to all these questions are relevant. On the other hand, talking about the ❌advantages and ❌disadvantages of correct news and fake news, respectively is plain wrong!

Look at this:

This is how the descriptors for Band 5 read. For you to rise above, you will need to also talk about

2. The function of a newspaper.
✅ Should the newspaper give news?
✅Should the newspaper entertain?
✅Should the newspaper advertise?
✅Should it educate?
All these are good lines of thought. If you are however talking about
❌Why are newspapers important?
❌What are the benefits of reading a newspaper?
❌How are newspapers affecting people's thoughts?

You will again get a low score.

Final Words

Remember, it is not big words, or fancy sentences that do the trick. It is always clear, well developed answers that are easy to understand. So, spend more time on understanding the question. Once you understand it, write a response that is strictly limited to the questions being asked. Even if it is not 250 words long!