Monday Feb 14: 2011 NAPLAN Sample Prompt

Books or TV
Reading books is better than watching TV.
What do you think about this idea? Write to convince a reader
of your opinions.

When watching television you are watching the opinionated ideas of the presenter of the show the ideas that they have generated from their own personal experiences and ideas and this leaves no option for the viewer to place their own ideas into the storyline.

Watching a movie or television show follows the plot and ideas from a script which has been created to make the most interesting, exciting or informative plot for the viewer to watch, the director will use his own ideas of the best and most effective ways to create a more interesting, exciting show for the viewer therefore place his own ideas and opinions into the film leaving nothing for the viewer to add with their own minds because all the work, ideas and theories are right there in front of them already. Television shows are created to keep the mind fixed following along the storyline without the requirement of the user needing to think and participate with the story or description.

In books the description and information are placed on the pages for the responder to read and to create their own ideas of the character. The base plot and description of the characters give the responder the baseline of the  storyline and the characters but often leaves much to the imagination in creating the landscapes and fictional characters. Books can create fictional areas without the need for CGI or animation that television would need which destroys the atmosphere trying to be created by the fact that the scene does not look 'real enough' or 'too real'. Books create atmospheres that appeal the audience without the risk of lack of realism or over simplification.

Movies and television shows can often change otherwise 'boring' textbooks into more suitable and interesting sources of information for younger viewers. Through the use of pictures and a narrator information from a textbook can become more interesting through the use of television shows. Documentaries that contain a significant amount of information in one hour is more interesting and faster than researching and reading documents about it.

The manufacturing of movies is a multi million dollar business and are only often can only be seen at theaters or bought in stores limiting the amount of people they can reach. With books it only requires the person to be able to read and books are relatively cheaper to manufacture and produce and can be translated into any language, compared to the limited market for movies that if translated into another language would sound unusual and out of sync.

Some books require a significant grasp of language of the time period or social events to be able to understand the context of the text. This can limit the amount of people who can read certain books such as Sherlock Holmes, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and many more television does not require a extensive knowledge of any language as it often has pictures to accompany it and information links to the pictures on screen.

Books invigorates the imagination of the responder while unfolding a extensive storyline and can be easily transported and reach a larger audience, while television can simplify otherwise complicated language and information that books would not be suitable to a particular audience due to language knowledge or age. Books are useful for stories and creating story lines and characters while television can be understood easily.