IELTS Writing Task 2: The Internet and Books

Hi. I hope you can spend a little time to help me evaluate this essay, please. Thanks in advance!

Prompt: In the past, knowledge was contained in books. Nowadays, knowledge is uploaded to the internet.

Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

Essay

Storing knowledge on the internet is becoming more common with the innovation of online resources. Though there is a prominent advantage of being convenient, using online data also has its downsides. From my point of view, I partly assent that the benefit of online literacy outweighs the drawbacks, on the contrary, I will not deny its downsides either.

To embark on, critics usually point out its disadvantages that are worthy to mention. Basically, online sources will encourage a sedentary lifestyle and eye strain by indulging in it for a long duration. Besides, the sites suggested on the internet are by no means accurate knowledge, let alone feasible to be safe. Amidst books have to be verified before publication, abundant accessible information on the internet, in contrast, is not provided conscientiously. For example, knowledge on user-generated sites like Wikipedia can be changed universally without any permission. In outline, the uploaded knowledge on the internet is not trustworthy at all.

On the other hand, I believe the benefits of online information overshadow its minor drawbacks. Fundamentally, internet sources give users handiness. Comparing to the past when we used to relish going to the library and rummage through thousands of books to find the subject we wanted, nowadays merely with browsing the queries we fancy on search engines, we could access a wide range of sources. Knowledge on the internet is not limited to blank pages and black text, furthermore, it is depicted with animations and high digital photographs. Online knowledge is economical and good for nature and budget as well as we do not need to cut down trees for paper or cost for maintenance. In short, uploading information on the internet is convenient and thrifty.

To sum up, online literacy has outstanding benefits also downsides which are needed to consider. In my perspective, I would argue the advantages outweigh its drawbacks.

( 4 paragraphs, 310 words)