IELTSWriting Task 2: How to write a good conclusion The conclusion is an important part of your IELTS Writing Task 2 response. A good conclusion is not just a summary of information presented in your essay, but also helps emphasise the importance of the main points or opinions in your essay and gives the reader a sense of closure. Prepareyour questions and the tools you need when you are going to have the interview. You may also see Interview Email Examples. 2. Do some background research. Before conducting an interview, research any information related to the topic of the interview. Task2. Students are required to do the following tasks for write report by answering all the questions at the end of case study: (Total Marks = 90 Marks) Task 2.a: Answering all the questions at the end of case study. (60 Marks) Task 2.b: Student is required to write comments as a reflection for Sampleanswer: The bar graph illustrates the water storage capacity of 6 cities in Australia from October 2009 to October 2010. By comparing the given data, it can be observed that Brisbane's water storage capacity did not change. At the same time, the water storage capacity in Sydney increased by 7% approximately in October 2010. So clearly, comprehension questions are a normal part of discourse. The difference is that, in normal conversation, it is the listener who decides to ask the speaker for clarification when he fails to follow what the other is saying. In the EFL class it is an external authority (course book/teacher) that initiates the comprehension checking. Frequentlyasked questions about IELTS Writing Task 2. Q: Will I lose marks if I write too many words (400-500) in my essay? A: There is no penalty for writing more than 250 words for writing task 2. However, there are also no extra marks for writing more. In fact, the more you write, the more you may end up making spelling or grammar mistakes. IELTSis a test to mock a candidate's language ability. If the candidate, despite being good in English, writing only short and speaking briefly, the examiner will not have a basis to assess their language ability. Therefore, IELTS test takers always try to write or speak long to have a "land" that shows all their vocabulary and grammar. Writingtask 2 question 1 Newspapers have influenced people's ideas and opinions. What are the reasons for this? Is this a positive or a negative situation?.. Whyis this essay a band 9? Task achievement. According to the IELTS Writing Band Descriptors, an essay is Band 9 for Task Achievement if it: Fully addresses all parts of the task; Presents a fully developed position in answer to the question with relevant, fully extended and well supported ideas. In order to score well on Task Achievement, the most important thing is to make sure you respond Make questions using the words you found. • Ask your partner / group your questions. 2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text. •Share your questions with other classmates / groups. •Ask your partner / group your questions. 3. WRITINGWRITING TASK 2 You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic: Successful sports professionals can earn a great deal more money than people in other important professions. Some people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. IELTSWriting Task 2 - Internet Some people say that the Internet provides people with a lot of valuable information. Others think access to so much information creates problems. Which view do you agree with? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. ( 267 Words, 17 Sentences, 4 Paragraphs, Band 9) Theconclusion is an important part of your IELTS Writing Task 2 response. A good conclusion is not just a summary of information presented in your essay, but also helps emphasise the importance of the main points or opinions in your essay and gives the reader a sense of closure. Additionalsensitivities to keep in mind when creating good survey questions: If you have to ask sensitive questions, such as religion or political affiliation, place them next to the questions contextually related to them. This will make it easier for the respondents to understand why you're asking. Make the first questions simple, pleasant Youshould spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Information technology is changing many aspects of our lives and now dominates our home, leisure and work activities. To what extent do the benefits of information technology outweigh the disadvantages? 6ibdE. IELTS writing agree or disagree is the essay type that requires the view on the given question. News stories on TV and in newspapers is an IELTS writing task 2 topic that comes in the category of agree or disagree essays. You will find sample answers for the IELTS writing task 2 agree or disagree essay in this article which will help you to understand more about such essay types. News stories on TV and in newspapers are very often accompanied by pictures. Some people say that these pictures are more effective than words. What is your opinion about this? Give reasons for your answer and give any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words. News stories on TV and in newspapers- Band 8 IELTS model essay Visual communication is an assertion of strategically converting words into images and conveying information. It is agreed that photographs are more useful and valuable than words. I will discuss the same in the following paragraphs. Firstly, visual graphics create an impact on people's minds rather than reading words continuously. Pictorial representation may even eliminate boredom and create some excitement to learn and know new stuff. Moreover, the probability of publishing fake news is reduced, as it is very difficult to fake a story if it is published in the form of a photograph. Also, the printing of high-definition and multi-color pictures may attract a lot of new viewers, and therefore, there is a significant rise in business. Furthermore, sometimes it is very difficult to bring out certain issues in the form of words. As a result, pictures are the only solution left to spread the news. For example, if there are any community or political problems news companies are not allowed to write particularly accurate information in any article. But pictorial depiction acts as a charm in such situations. At last, it is very convenient for people who are running late. They can just catch a glimpse and get to know the bearings happening out in the world. In conclusion, it can be said that there are numerous benefits of representing news along with pictures. They attract more audience and therefore news and Stories are more effectively transferred to the targeted audience. Also, the sales of newspapers and television are increased. 251 words Check IELTS Writing to enhance your writing skills News stories on TV and in newspapers- Band IELTS model essay Visual journalism enables viewers to understand the complexes, sophisticated topics in a little time period, and other remembering key takeaways. Many people argue that images are more effective than word content. I strongly believe in this fact and further paragraphs will discuss my perceptions. To begin with, illustrations, maps, charts, and other digital content makes it easy and faster for the audience to understand the scenario and hence improving the chances of remembering different aspects. For instance, if a particular data is presented in form of graphs or pie charts, it will be easy to get hold of data, allowing individuals to track much larger data trends in no time. Moreover, the news hence depicted will be more accurate and therefore no pseudo information can be published. Furthermore, there is no need for a deep explanation for any news as the images make it pretty much clear, what they want to convey. Also, there is no promotion of confusion or any perplexion. Additionally, pictures also attract children because of the color therapy. This helps to develop a feeling of responsibility and understatement in children from a very young age. Similarly, different age groups are attracted to different kinds of stories benefiting their personal self. In conclusion, words would narrate stories in organized ways but the addition of images would create a significant impact. Also, the pictures act more advertised to make people updated and attracted towards the stories happening all around the world as there is balanced information represented in pictorial form rather than those valuable words. 257 words Read IELTS writing task 2 sample to understand how to write the writing task questions effectively. News stories on TV and in newspapers - Band 7 IELTS model essay Graphical communication is the most powerful tool that provides facts and news. It is believed that it is more effective to use pictures, than dictation or words. I agree with this opinion and further paragraphs will discuss the same. To start with, photographs catch the attraction of people and make them more interesting. For instance, it is written in a newspaper that a picturesque view of the Northern lights was observed near the Arctic circle. Reading the highlights, individuals will not pay attention to the news. However, as soon as they will see the picture of northern light, it will strike their eyes and create an immense impact. As a result tourism in a particular place may increase significantly. All of these happen because of the pictures displayed along with the news. In contrast, it can also cause some negative effects. Sometimes, citizens are not able to see news from their perspective. They are forced to view things from the eyes of editors of news-producing companies which can mislead or deviate the viewers. The political and business pages are hence traded by the companies in order to find more paper money. Even some new companies' owners get corrupted in order to make more money and hence, play around with the quality of news. Moreover, visual proof of the incident is not always trustworthy and is not always proven. To conclude pictures supporting news engages the audiences very well. However, the real situations of the incidents in pictures are not always accurate and might also deceive or confuse the viewers. 259 words Check all IELTS writing task 2 topics to develop your understanding of IELTS writing skills News stories on TV and in newspapers- Band IELTS model essay Photography is an imperative part of Journalism as it is believed that pictures speak harder than words. Many of the articles add pictures to strike the interest of audiences and attract more people. Therefore, it is argued that images are more powerful than text content. The further paragraphs will discuss my views on the same topic. There are mainly two reasons why pictures coexist with news stories. Firstly, it reduces the language barrier. There are many diverse languages in our nation and it is not possible for each and every individual to understand all the languages therefore pictures play an important role in making the citizens understand different news from different states, countries, or continents. Secondly, images reduce time. People can just go through the pictures and be wise to recognize the whole scenario, hence, reducing the time and using it for other productive things However, looking at pictures, Individuals have to stick with the limited information available within the images. Furthermore, newspapers allow us to get familiar with a wide range of useful words which can be used in personal as well as professional life. Increased knowledge of vocabulary helps an individual create a career in a certain field. Also, sometimes the smallest yet the most important stories are left out because of no picture visual implemented by the story writers. In conclusion, there are various aspects where using pictures, to share news and information, is more convenient. But the small interests and some other factors are compromised because of visual communication. 253 words Model answer for the topic News stories on TV and in newspaper pdf is given here. More writing task 2 essay topics Food can be produced much more cheaply In many places prisons are overcrowded Today the high sales of popular consumer All parents want the best opportunities for their children Due to the development and rapid expansion of supermarkets Newspapers - The 20 Questions STUDENT A's QUESTIONS Do not show these to student B What did you think when you read the headline? What images are in your mind when you hear the word 'newspaper'? What is your favourite newspaper, and why? What do you think of the Daily Star's actions? Why might a newspaper be called the Daily Star? What are your newspaper-reading habits? What was the last story you read in a newspaper? What sections of the newspaper do you like best? What newspapers do you dislike? What do you think of fake news? STUDENT B's QUESTIONS Do not show these to student A Did you like reading this article? Why/not? What do you think of when you hear the word 'protest'? What do you think about what you read? Are newspapers better than Internet news? Do you think the Daily Star rang alarm bells? What challenges is your country facing? What crises have there been in your country? Do you believe everything you read in the newspapers? What do you see as the future of newspapers? What questions would you like to ask the Daily Star's editor? Contents 1 Get Evaluated for FREE 2 Sample Answer More Writing Task 2 Essay Topics The Essay Writing section of the IELTS Writing Module can be a difficult task for many IELTS Aspirants. Thus, it is vital that you polish your essay writing skills before attempting the IELTS. Below is a sample IELTS Essay for the IELTS Essay topic Some people think that the best way to gather information is through newspapers while others believe in other better ways. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. OR Some people think that newspapers are the best way to learn news. However, others believe that they can learn news better through other media. Discuss both views and give your opinion. Get Evaluated for FREE Do you have an essay on this topic? Please post it in the comments section. One of our IELTS trainers will evaluate your essay from an examiner’s point of view and reply to the comment. This service is completely FREE of cost. Sample Answer The prevalence of varied kinds of media provides people with more opportunities to access information. Some people believe that to explore information, a human can make use of different means from television to the internet, while others rest on newspaper reading as the most preferable method. My essay will discuss both ways. IELTS Writing General Actual Tests eBook Combo July - October 2022 [Task 1+ Task 2] of 89 Reviews Written by professional IELTS teachers to help candidates on the big day Written by professional IELTS teachers to help candidates on the big day First of all, newspapers have, for years, been employed for their comprehensiveness. It is true that through just a number of pages, the world’s most general information is captured from the life of a famous person to the wars happening somewhere around the globe. However, to those people who are avid readers and demand the depth of information, they prefer reading books and real-life interviews through television where they believe the truth can be revealed. We may know, in general, what is occurring, without the detailed analysis and emotional conveyance of writers through the short headlines. Besides, in the market-based economy, the content of several newspapers is central to the provision of hot news about the life of famous people to entice the audience and is likely to be embellished for the sake of profit. Occasionally, no sooner have I purchased a newspaper to read for its appealing headline, for instance, the adultery case of a celebrity, than I feel being deceived for its soulless description. It is also claimed that celebrities can use their money to ask writers to present information to their advantage or polish their images, despite their dearth of genuine talent. Second of all, unlike the internet’s news- reading which causes eye problems, newspapers might lessen this danger and satisfy busy people with the purpose of quick reading. The truth is that hardly do we see many people nowadays be patient enough to read a thick book full of hundreds of pages. Nevertheless, according to social statistics, those people who are interested in reading news only through newspapers are less able to foster their active thinking while the experience of reading books, in spite of taking longer time, is greatly conducive to people’s imagination, linguistic and critical thinking growth. Besides, compared with television, it is undeniable that newspapers prove less desirable for its inability to depict news in the most vivid ways with sound and authentic images. Equally important, with the Internet coming along, all pieces of news from the world, rather than being shown through pages, can be wholly compacted into merely one online page and monitored in their own way via a simple click on the window. Surveys have indicated that since the dawn of the Internet, the number of newspaper fans has been on a downward spiral, but that of online readers has been multiplying amazingly on a daily basis. At the same time, the more sources of information we read, the better our understanding of the issue grows, which actually sharpens our thinking. All in all, each kind of media has its own advantages and disadvantages. Apart from newspaper reading, I believe that humans, at present, have successfully harnessed a host of means to continuously enrich their knowledge. More Writing Task 2 Essay Topics Some People Think That Newspapers Are The Best Way To Learn News Many Developing Countries Require Help From International Organizations To Develop Studies Show That Many Criminals Have A Low Level of education People Are Living Longer. Some People Think That It Causes Big Problems Museums And Art Galleries Should Concentrate On Local Works Also check IELTS Writing Task 2 IELTS Essay Topics Tips to write introduction in IELTS Writing Task 2 Tips to write great writing essay IELTS Sample essays IELTS Writing task 2 Preparation Tips IELTS Writing tips How to get band 8 in IELTS Writing Task 2 IELTS Writing recent actual test IELTS Direct question essay IELTS Band 9 essays Advantage and Disadvantage Essays IELTS Writing Answer sheet IELTS map vocabulary IELTS Writing Task 1 Connectors Nor did leaking the Pentagon Papers, by itself, do anything to shorten the war, which was his intention, Ellsberg admits. What did happen is that Nixon erupted in outrage over the leak and created the “Plumbers” unit to discredit Ellsberg. The Plumbers’ first break-in was to the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, but that led later to the Watergate burglary, Nixon’s resignation and the dismissal of all charges against Ellsberg on grounds of “improper government conduct.” Thus, indirectly, Watergate may well have prevented further escalation and shortened the war because it “undermined Nixon’s authority,” as Nixon’s secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, wrote in the first volume of his memoirs, White House Years. Congress cut off aid to South Vietnam in 1975, and the war ended in April of that year with total victory by North Vietnam. So Ellsberg has some parting advice to future whistleblowers “Don’t do it under any delusion that you’ll have a high chance of ending up like Daniel Ellsberg.” This is especially true, he says, now the government is zealously prosecuting under the Espionage Act, which was first used in Ellsberg’s case. Barack Obama later deployed it eight times, more than any other president, despite pledging to run “the most transparent administration in history.” Even if they escape prosecution, whistleblowers in high places face long odds against success in changing government policy — and yet at the same time Ellsberg says they are more necessary than ever. “I would caution people against thinking that any revelation by itself, no matter how spectacular — how amazing, how shocking, and extraordinary it is — would necessarily evoke a reaction, from the media or Congress, or that people will react to it,” Ellsberg tells me. “But it can work. My case shows that probably more than any other case.” Ellsberg, snowy-haired but energetic despite the cancer — renowned for his eloquence, he still speaks in perfect paragraphs — was calm, even jovial, during what his son, Robert Ellsberg, said would be his last interview. Based on his experience in the covert world, Ellsberg sees a direct line between the deceptions and lies that led to the Vietnam War — and 58,000 American deaths — and the deceptions and lies that justified the Iraq war. This high-level deceit, Ellsberg says, extends to America’s current drone war policy around the world, in which the government has allegedly covered up the number of civilian deaths it causes. “The need for whistleblowing in my area of so-called national security is that we have a secret foreign policy, which has been very successfully kept secret and essentially mythical,” he says. “I’m saying there’s never been more need for whistleblowers … There’s always been a need for many more than we have. At the same time, it’s become more and more dangerous to be a whistleblower. There’s little doubt about that.” For many whistleblowers and their legal defenders, Ellsberg remains an inspiration, not just because of the Pentagon Papers but for his later actions revealing how nuclear strategy during the Cold War had been secretly based on war plans that would have left hundreds of millions of civilians dead, and how dangerous the nuclear threat remains today. “For me and my generation, Daniel Ellsberg was the defining whistleblower,” says Scott Horton, a prominent human rights attorney who has defended whistleblowers going back to Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov in the 1970s. “The striking thing about him was that his position within the national security establishment was a prominent one. He realized there was something wrong with the whole way the Vietnam War was being justified, that this process was corrupting the way decisions were being made about national security affairs, and the system was so self-sealing that really the only way you could puncture that was presenting the public with the truth.” At the same time, Horton believes that Ellsberg, like other whistleblowers, occasionally sees conspiracy and government perfidy when the evidence is scant. During the course of our hour- and-20-minute interview, Ellsberg contended America still runs a “covert empire” around the world, embodied in the domination of NATO. He believes Washington deliberately provoked Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine by pushing its seat of power eastward toward Russia’s borders; that the mainstream media is “complicit” in allowing the government to keep secrets it has no right to withhold; and that any notion Americans are ever the “good guys” abroad “has always been false.” “I think very few Americans are aware of what our actual influence in the former colonial world has been, and that is to keep it colonial,” Ellsberg says. “King Charles III [of Britain] is no longer an emperor, as I understand it, but for all practical purposes Joe Biden is … Here’s a point I haven’t made to anyone but would like to in my last days here. Very simply, how many Americans would know any one of the following cases, let alone three or four of them?” Ellsberg then rattles off a series of orchestrated coups, most of them fairly well documented, starting with Iran in 1953, and then in Guatemala, Indonesia, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Brazil and Chile. I respond by saying those were all Cold War policies, if covert ones, and ask him whether he thinks anything has changed since. In announcing the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, for example — as the Taliban effectively chased American troops out of the country — Biden declared that the United States was “ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.” Ellsberg doesn’t believe it. “Democrats in this area are as shameless as Republicans,” he says. “Our elections in the realm of foreign policy and defense policy and arms sales, I have come to understand, are essentially between people vying to be manager of the empire.” Even his most fervent admirers say that sometimes Ellsberg, haunted by his experience in the covert world, occasionally goes too far in seeing dark designs in policy. “He’s really serious about conspiracy theories,” Horton says. “I would contrast what he did during the Vietnam era to some of the more recent things where he’s really not on the inside anymore and doesn’t have that access to information.” Christian Appy, a University of Massachusetts historian who is currently working on a book about Ellsberg based largely on his papers, says he doesn’t believe Ellsberg is a conspiracy theorist but adds “I do think he sometimes speculates on things that I myself think are improbable.” Even so, Appy says, Ellsberg is not entirely wrong in asserting that since World War II the has been effectively running an empire. “I think he is more careful than some people. In the last 10 years he has placed more stock on the military-industrial complex underpinnings of power, that they really do have huge influence on sustaining this huge imperial footprint around the world. And after all, we still have 800 military bases on foreign soil, and we conduct exercises in 25 countries.” The current number of bases abroad is closer to 750. Louis Clark, the CEO of the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower legal advocacy organization inspired by Ellsberg, says his influence has been titanic over the decades. “There’s been a tremendous sort of cultural change from the time he came forward, an acceptance of whistleblowing.” Unfortunately, that in turn has incited use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers, a 1917 law that was intended for use against spies for foreign governments. “People need to know what they’re getting into, especially with the abuse of the Espionage Act. These people are obviously not spies. There needs to be at a minimum a public interest kind of defense, which you can’t do under the Espionage Act,” says Clark. In the interview, Ellsberg agrees not all leaks are created equal, and that it’s sometimes difficult to tell a real whistleblower from a fantasist, like the mysterious Q of the QAnon conspiracy, or someone who seems mainly interested in self-promotion. He believes Jack Teixeira, the National Guardsman who recently leaked a raft of classified documents by posting them on a gaming site, fits into the latter category. “He’s invented a new form of leaking. It is not easy to understand why he thought he would get away with it,” Ellsberg says. “But there’s a big difference between whistleblowing and just leaking. Leaking is part of the way the system works. It has nothing to do with revealing wrongdoing. It’s much more about how great our weapons system is compared to the other one.” No one ever sets out to become a whistleblower. Most whistleblowers start out as patriots or devoted company people, often passionate ones. And there is a pattern to their behavior Most of them try at first to address wrongdoing within the system; going to the media is a last resort. Ellsberg describes himself as a Harvard-educated Marine who in the beginning completely bought into the Cold War struggle against communism, including the Domino Theory. When he went to work for the Defense Department and Rand Corp., he says, “I very much accepted the idea that we were a force for democracy in the Third World, as in Korea, and the former colonial world, and for self-determination, for sovereignty, for peace. We were the good guys.” Initially, he wanted to divulge the Pentagon Papers to Congress, but few people in Congress seemed interested, he says. Ellsberg only reluctantly agreed to go to the media when he began “hearing from contacts in the Nixon administration that Nixon was planning to escalate the war,” says Robert Ellsberg, who as a 13-year-old helped his father secretly copy the Papers. In a later era, a number of people who turned into whistleblowers were inspired by 9/11 to help their country. Among them Ian Fishback, the dedicated Army captain who revealed that the torture practices at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were systemic, not isolated incidents, only to suffer criticism, mental illness and die years later in a charity hospital; and Reality Winner, who was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking details of Russian infiltration in the 2016 election. Other whistleblowers who have served time include Chelsea Manning, the former Army soldier who disclosed military and diplomatic documents to Wikileaks, and Daniel Hale, who is currently imprisoned in Illinois after being convicted of giving classified material about drone operations to the media. Edward Snowden, who leaked massive amounts of information about surveillance by the National Security Agency, is in permanent exile in Russia. Whistleblowers often end up bitter and incurably self-righteous. Like Ellsberg and Snowden, they are variously called “hero” or “traitor” for the rest of their lives. Or in the case of Frank Serpico, the famous cop, a “rat.” Not long before Ellsberg exposed the Pentagon Papers, Serpico was testifying to the Knapp Commission in 1970 about endemic graft in the New York City Police Department, which later became the subject of a book and a classic film. Like Ellsberg, Serpico tried for years to register his complaints inside the system — in his case the police department and the city government — before finally going to the New York Times in frustration. To this day, Serpico says, he is viewed as an outcast by the NYPD. “It’s pretty lonely out there,” says Serpico, who is 87 and lives in a wooded tract outside Albany, “It doesn’t end. Dan is the unforgiven and I’m the unforgiven.” Still, in a phone interview in May, Serpico adds “Whatever you do, no matter how small, it makes a difference … And you have to keep struggling. That’s what whistleblowers are doing They’re struggling to keep the system from going under.” Whistleblowers, it must be said, often do seem to be a different breed of human — and more alike than different, no matter what they are exposing. They are motivated by a moral outrage that often leads them to take on an entire system they were once part of and even loved with little hope of changing that system. Nor are they welcomed back into their organizations or industries, much less promoted. Certainly, they get no reward — with the exception of some financial whistleblowers who revealed illegal corporate gains. “It’s not just a question of awarding an act which from almost every point of view, social and personal, is irrational, in the sense that it’s likely to be extremely personally risky and I think there will be no change to that,” Ellsberg says. “You can’t change the fact that when you tell secrets that your boss or your old area of industry is anxious for you to keep, you can’t escape retribution for that. I was very much an outlier on that. You might almost say Frank Serpico is the other absolute end of that. He got shot in the face.” In the last half century, Ellsberg amassed a huge amount of hate mail calling him treasonous, Appy said. As Kerry Howley describes it in Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs A Journey through the Deep State, her new book about Reality Winner and other whistleblowers, they often just don’t understand why others fail to see the world the way they do, why most people just go along even with what they think is a bad or unjust system. “Most of us are good at not looking,” she writes. “People who feel they must confront the nature of reality, whom we call whistleblowers’ or traitors,’ tend to feel that the rest of us should do the same, which makes those people annoying, because not looking is a skill, and after a while you too might lose the ability not to look.” As a result, whistleblowers often find each other, forming a loose band of exiled brothers and sisters — or, at the very least, a support group. After hearing about Ellsberg’s diagnosis, Serpico and Ellsberg recently spoke on FaceTime and “reminisced about old times,” as Serpico puts it, “what was going on back then and how both our situations were happening pretty much at the same time.” Serpico refuses most requests to have video conversations though he occasionally makes public appearances to support whistleblowing causes, but he says “I couldn’t deny Dan. He wanted to see my face.” And in the end, that is the legacy Ellsberg hopes to impart — the idea that whistleblowers are not alone. They are a team, and they need to become more effective by learning from each other. “Here’s a very good piece of practical advice, which is don’t go through channels. Don’t go to the Whistleblower Protection Act. Don’t go to the inspector general as Tom Drake did, for example. That only serves to identify you as a troublemaker and someone who’s not with the system, somebody who whines about the fact that we’re killing people,” he says. In 2005, Thomas Drake was working as a career intelligence official and employee of the National Security Agency when he grew worried that an NSA program code-named Trailblazer had turned into a boondoggle that cost more than a billion dollars and violated citizens’ privacy rights. Internally, Drake pushed for a more effective alternative program but when he was ignored, first by his superior, then by the NSA and Defense Department inspector generals, and even testified to Congress with no effect, Drake finally leaked to a Baltimore Sun reporter. He became the first official since Ellsberg charged under the Espionage Act and barely managed to avoid prison when he pled guilty to a misdemeanor. But his career was ruined. Ellsberg also believes whistleblowers should try to remain anonymous if they can. “If you possibly can avoid exposing yourself, do that, don’t reveal yourself as I did, although I felt I had to do it and would do it again under other circumstances. Like Snowden and Chelsea Manning, we always felt we didn’t want other people blamed for what we had done. But if you’re not worried about that, the first thing would be to do it as anonymously as possible. In that respect there has been some improvement a cipher system so whistleblowers can speak with the press. “My biggest advice is, don’t do this unless you’re ready to accept the high risk of having your career destroyed and actually going to prison,” Ellsberg says. “Going to prison is a new one, starting under Obama, but it’s there now, very much so. Obviously, that really narrows the number of things worthy of whistleblowing considerably. I wouldn’t do it, for example, just for bribery or cost overruns. That’s not important enough to go to prison.” “But the final thing I would say is there are lots of things having to do with preserving the Constitution, as in Snowden’s case, or shortening a war, or in stopping a massive assassination program, the drone program, as in Daniel Hale’s case, that do make it indeed quite worthwhile to sacrifice yourself in order to save the lives of lot of people,” Ellsberg says. “I would like to encourage people to ask themselves the question Am I willing to sacrifice my career, my life, to save these other lives?’ And most people will say no. That’s humanity. That’s the way it is. But definitely, if they ask that question as I was led to ask myself the question, you can very well look at it that way and you can say yes.” When I asked whether whistleblowing has made government or corporate America any more honest, however, Ellsberg waxes gloomier. “That’s easy to answer No. The short answer is no. The long answer is no. It hasn’t changed the desire to keep secrets. People in all governments in all of history have been willing to take all actions necessary…to keep people from knowing what will lead to their being blamed for a mistake, for a lie, or a crime or for their incompetence. Talking about national security Who exactly has had their career hurt by incompetence? Maybe some Russians have. They have fired some Russians. Walt Rostow [Lyndon Johnson’s hawkish national security advisor] had to go to the University of Texas, instead of back to MIT, for example. So that’s the level of accountability.” Those aren’t very encouraging words, I reply. “Despite all those odds there is a chance and that can make it worthwhile,” Ellsberg says. “When everything is at stake — I’m talking about nuclear war implicitly here but climate is the same. When we’re facing a pretty ultimate catastrophe. When we’re on the edge of blowing up the world over Crimea or Taiwan or Bakhmut. … From the point of view of a civilization and the survival of eight or nine billion people, when everything is at stake, can it be worth even a small chance of having a small effect? And the answer is Of course. Of course, it can be worth that. You can even say it’s obligatory.”

task 2 write and ask questions about the news