IELTS Writing Sample #68

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

It has been said, “Not everything that is learned is contained in books.” Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books.
In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?

You should write at least 250 words.

model answer:

People are learning and practicing through their entire life. I believe that life experience and practice are the basic reasons of the humankind's evolution. However, in my opinion, knowledge gained from books plays a very important role in the modern life.

The most obviously important advantage of books is that they hold all knowledge gained by previous generations. People write books about their discoveries and inventions, which are gained through practice and experience. This knowledge is accumulated in books that are passed from generation to generation. So, basically, people get all knowledge about the previous achievements from books, analyze it and than, according to their experience and new data, write new books. In this case, books are the holders of humankind's experience.

For example, at old times people thought that the Earth was flat. It was concluded from observations and studdying. However, the next generations, using the experience of their ancestors, proved that the Earth was round.

Personally, I think that books are very important because they are able to give people the basic and fundamental knowledge. Books store history, the important events and discoveries. Without them it is difficult and sometimes impossible to move forward, make new discoveries and inventions.

To summarize, I think a person should take basic knowledge from books because it will help him to make his own inventions, conclusions and discoveries. Only using both books and one’s experience one can move forward.

(237 words)