Researching Family History and Genealogy

In some parts of the world, it is becoming increasingly popular to try to find out the history of someone’s family. Why do you think people do this? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?

Annotated response

2 correction notes

Showing 2 correction notes.

People nowadays are becoming increasingly keen to learn about their family history. There are some compelling reasons for this; and I strongly feel that this is a positive development.

Most people do research on their family history to find out whether their ancestors had similar personality traits and to understanding and heritage . Others study their family history background for less significant reasons, one of which is curiosity. For example, my uncle used to spend a great deal of time and effort tracing my family tree back to the 18th century just out of curiosity. Also, I think that news media have a major part to play in this trend. There are a lot of news articles and advertisements these days that encourage genealogy and convince people that it is necessary to know about their ancestry.

In my view, this is a good way to teach children about history and how their ancestors lived, which is linked in part to family traditions. And it is even more important for children to carry on such valuable and unique traditions, given that this fast changing world is somehow making young generations ignore the spiritual legacy that their ancestors left . On top of that, family history can be a fascinating topic of discussion whenever there is a family meeting. How my grandparents struggled to raise their offspring during the Vietnam War, for example, has become my father’s favorite subject when all my relatives gather for a traditional holiday feast.

In conclusion, people like to study their family history for a variety of reasons as I have discussed, and personally, I consider this a positive modern trend.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response addresses both parts of the question with a clear position, well-chosen examples, and a logical two-part structure. Its strongest aspect is the relevant, personal development of ideas, while the main limitation is occasional looseness in phrasing and underdeveloped exploration of the reasons in places.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.0

Both questions are answered with a clear position, relevant reasons, and extended examples such as the uncle and Vietnam War anecdotes, though some reasons are treated briefly.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas progress logically across clear paragraphs with effective referencing and linking, although a few transitions, such as a sentence beginning with 'And', feel slightly informal or mechanical.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is flexible and mostly precise, including items like 'ancestry', 'genealogy', and 'spiritual legacy', with only minor awkwardness such as 'deeper understanding about'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A range of complex structures is used with good control, including relative and noun clauses, and errors are rare and non-impeding.