Inborn Talent vs Taught Skills in Sports and Music

It is generally believed that some people are born with certain talents, for instance for sport or music, and others are not. However, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good sports person or musician. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Annotated response

10 correction notes

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individuals who have talents in certain areas such as sports or music are , while others believe that a child can learn to be good at these skills. it is true that people are talented in these fields because they can achieve great feats with no training or with minimal effort, I believe that any child can learn to become good at certain skills if they work hard.

People who are naturally talented at sports or music can perform in these areas without training. Some people who perform very well in sports or music do not need to learn or practice to become proficient at these skills because it comes naturally to them, unlike others who have to train for a long time to reach the same level. For example, Michael Jackson, a musical legend, is widely known to be talented in singing and dancing because he displayed these skills from childhood without training. However, I believe that even those who are talented in certain fields need to learn and practice perform at maximum capacity.

Children can be taught to become good and outstanding musicians if they work hard at it. It is possible to teach someone different skills, especially a young child, because they learn faster and with practice they too can become very . For example, Dwayne Johnson, popularly known as , was taught how to wrestle from an early age and now holds many wrestling titles. For this reason, I believe that children to be good at these skills by working hard even if they were not born with such talents.

In conclusion, even though some people can perform well in sports or music because they are talented, I believe that young people who are not talented can learn to be skilled at

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 6.5

The response fully addresses both views and maintains a clear personal opinion throughout, with relevant supporting examples. The main limitation is uneven language control, with recurring grammatical slips such as 'in other to' and 'can be learn', and somewhat mechanical organisation and repetition of the same hard-work argument.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

6.5

Both views are addressed with a clear, consistently maintained opinion, and each body paragraph offers a relevant example, though the ideas are somewhat limited in development and one example is loosely used.

Coherence and Cohesion

6.5

Progression is generally clear with a logical paragraph structure and basic cohesive devices, but linking is at times mechanical and 'Although,' at the start of the thesis sentence is inaccurately used.

Lexical Resource

6.5

Vocabulary is adequate for the topic with some natural collocations like 'perform excellently' and 'maximum capacity', though there are occasional imprecise expressions and no notable range of less common items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

6.0

A mix of complex and simple structures is present with generally accurate clauses, but recurring errors such as 'can be learn', 'in other to', and 'talented with it' show limited control at higher levels.