IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Is ambition a positive or negative characteristic? Is it necessary for success?
What is your point of view on this topic?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Model Answer 1:
Ambition is nothing but a strong desire for accomplishing a goal through hard work and determination. The great achievers of history have all had it. Individuals with this trait loom large as people who consistently drive towards their dreams and goals. So, there is not a shadow of doubt that ambition is a positive trait which is essential to be successful.
To begin with, I negate the notion that ambition is a negative characteristic. Let me clarify it. Ambition does not constitute a character flaw which causes dishonesty or unquenchable thirst for outcomes beyond stretch goal. Instead, ambition is an aspiration for attaining something good where nothing existed before.
Again, I firmly believe that ambition is the key to success whereas success can be defined as embracing a goal. However, road to success is always wrought with ups and downs: pain, uncertainty, and brutish hard work. In this context, one need a great effort in order to be successful in attaining his goal and therefore he need to be persistent and highly motivated with the goal. It goes without saying that it is absurd to have such motivation and determination without being ambitious. That is to say that ambition creates zeal within human that fuels motivation and instigates the aspiration to succeed. In addition, ambition leads to dedication which fosters perseverance. Perseverance is a trait that helps people to firm their commitment to their goal. More or less, each of us has some goals, but only who has the ability to stick with his goal can taste the success. Thus, ambition plays the crucial role in achieving goals.
To wrap up, success is a phenomenon that all of us wish to attain and, success and ambition go with hand in hand. This suggests that ambition can never be a negative trait. In achieving goal, ambition and success are not divergent, but interconnected in such a way that one can be explored through other.
Model Answer 2:
Ambition refers to the high and unrealistic motivation or urge to achieve something. It could be defined in the phenomenon of ‘’how does needy become greedy’’ as ambition leads toward greed. I strongly believed that there is a high correlation between need, ambition, selfish ambition and greed.
Ambition is a negative characteristic as it demands unrealistic goals and leads towards daydreaming. Only will and determination could be defined as a positive characteristic for achieving goals. Ambition distorts the human thinking, and leads towards the purely unrealistic world, the person becomes greedy for materialism, expect unrealistic assumptions in interpersonal relationships or becomes rigid for having fame. The materialistic ambition may motivate the person to work hard beyond his capacity, as a result, he may lose his actual level of performance, he stop working with daydreaming and wait for a miracle to happen. Unrealistic ambitions in interpersonal relationships like, high approval, respect, love, and care made the ambitious person socially isolated as they expect another person show intimacy without give and take phenomenon, this high level of unrealistic ambition distort the person thinking within two extremes either ‘good or bad’’. If any person care and love him, he was labilized good otherwise he will be considered bad. They become so rigid as to give the benefit of doubt to their love ones. It exploits the ambitious person, if his demands couldn’t be fulfilled, which leads towards, isolation, anxiety, depression and other psychological disorders. Ambition for fame reveal the complexes of a person, which could be only cured by that person.
I strongly believed that ambition distort the contact from reality and cause many biological, psychological and social problems.
( by -Sana Rehman )