Writing and speaking are the IELTS skills most students find hardest. If you use a structure and have a plan, then it is much easier to write a full IELTS Task 2 essay in the required 40 minutes. The more preparation and practice you do before your test, the more effective your planning will be and the more time you will have to proofread at the end. Only taking 5 to 10 minutes to plan during the test lets you know what you are doing when you write and gives your reader a consistent message. Practice is always the key to writing exam essays, so make sure that you have a teacher or a friend who can mark your essays for you and give you feedback that will improve your next draft. If you want to improve your grammar, start as soon as you can because it takes time to change it. Task 2 questions are here and the IELTS Writing marking rubric, which hasn’t been included in this post but is incredibly useful, is available here for Task 2 with explanations and suggestions. Finally, there are some sample task 2 essays, with a page being planned for free assessment of student essays.
1: Do I need to think of unique and interesting ideas to get a high score?
No! The examiner is NOT looking for ideas that are interesting or unique. To get a high score, you need ideas that are logical and, most importantly, that you can support them easily. The examiner will only look at how convincing your ideas are and how you analyse them.
2: Does a long essay mean more marks?
No! Keep your essay concise and clear! Write in formal English and also be realistic about how much you write, because you should also leave time to proofread our essay. Aim for 270 to 290 words, although a little more or less is fine. If you do this, you will have the chance to delete a sentence and still stay over 250 words.
3: My teacher said that the introduction is the most important part in an essay. Therefore, it is compulsory that I have to write an interesting introduction to intrigue the examiner by writing a hook. Is that true?
No! Every part of an essay is important, but the most important ones should be the body paragraphs where you present your points. You do not need a hook in your introduction because it is really difficult to write a hook, it would take away a lot of time for the body. Besides, the examiner will not look at how interesting your introduction is, so writing a hook is unnecessary.
4: Is it true that I always need to write a balanced essay to get a high score?
No! It is indeed recommended candidates with advanced writing skills write a balanced essay. But it does not mean that writing a one-sided essay would lead to a low mark. If you write a one-sided essay logically and coherently, you are likely to get a good score.
5: Do I need a concluding sentence for each body paragraph?
No! You do not need a concluding sentence because a conclusion paragraph is enough to round off an essay.
6: Is grammar important?
Yes! The examiner will check your grammatical mistakes.
7: Do I need to use uncommon words to have a high band in the Lexical Resource criterion?
No! Using too many strange words may cause your essay to be unnatural and there are chances of word misuses. I recommend you focus on your accuracy and using topic vocabulary collocations.
8: Should I use templates? My teacher gave me a lot of memorized phrases to use when writing an IELTS task 2.
A loose template of the structure is fine, while having some template sentences in your toolbox will also reduce writing time. Remembering cohesive devices and other types of words and phrases is fine, as long as you know where they are most effective.
9: Do I need to use advanced linking devices?
In my opinion there are no advanced or beginner’s linking devices. Which linkers you use do not reflect your level of writing, therefore I recommend you focus on the coherence of your ideas and supporting details rather than some linking words.
10: Should I write every day? How fast can I improve if I write a lot of essays every week?
From my experience, you do not need write every day. I usually recommend writing about 2 or 3 essays a week and focus more on their quality.
Timing
A rough guide to timing is
- 10 minutes for planning
- 25 minutes for writing
- 5 minutes for proofreading
Planning
If you have trouble completing your writing tasks on time, it is incredibly difficult to allocate some of that precious time to planning. It is worth it! Once you have a plan, you can write much faster and should even have a few minutes left to proofread.
1/ Read the question carefully, maybe three times. Ask yourself ‘What is the topic’ What is the question asking you to write about?
2/Underline the key parts that MUST be included in the answer if you are going to answer every part of the question.
3/ Write down some ideas about each side of the question. Don’t be too careful, you can use shorthand or just letters rather than writing down every word. It is important that you know what you are doing, the examiner won’t see your plan.
4/Do you need to give your opinion? If so, what is the easiest to explain? Use good English to write about an easy opinion rather than write a complex and personal opinion using poor English. It’s an English exam, not an opinion exam.
5/You are going to write a 4-paragraph essay, so decide what to put in each paragraph. See essay types and paragraph structure
6/Write down some vocabulary ideas and some synonyms
7/Have the confidence to write simply but correctly rather than writing confused and unclear sentences because you are trying to use too many ‘good words’ and ‘better grammar’. Simple writing is clear and easy to understand, but not always easy to write.
If you need more ideas try:
Brainstorming –
Write down as many ideas that come into your head as quickly as possible then organise them.
Mind mapping –
- Start with a blank piece of paper. In the middle, write your subject or topic.
- Draw 10 lines extending out from your subject with any kind of information connected to your topic at the end of those lines.
- Draw 10 more lines extending out from your subject! It may become difficult at this point but keep forcing yourself to think of more connections; this may help you get to a really interesting and unique idea.
- Draw lines coming off your smaller lines. You want your connections to be comprehensive and far-
Conversation –
- A useful brainstorming strategy is to ask yourself questions (based on the question). Write down the answers to your own questions as a way of generating potential ideas.
- A useful brainstorming strategy is to imagine you are having a chat with your good friends about the topic. Imagining doing this in a comfortable café or somewhere you meet is more likely to stimulate ideas.
Example
In this post I am going to use this question –
Some people think that all university students should study whatever they like. Others believe that they should only be allowed to study subjects that will be useful in the future, such as those related to science and technology. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
My Plan
Two views and my opinion
They should only be allowed to study subjects that will be useful in the future, such as those related to science and technology
Companies in these fields could sponsor courses so graduates would walk into a well paid job
It would create competition in these areas so the country’s educational qualifications would be sought after
Competition would drive the success of the country’s development in these areas
Study would be less stressful for the students, due to more probable employment opportunities
All university students should study whatever they like
They will enjoy their studies and throw themselves into finding out more for themselves
It makes for a broader education base for society
It means there are people available that look at important issues from different standpoints
There is a large enough cross-section of the student community to fill the jobs needed in tech n science
I think all university education is useful in the future because the research process and discipline required to finish a degree course is often more important than the subject matter
Structure
I recommend you use a four-paragraph essay structure: introduction, body paragraph 1, body paragraph 2 and a conclusion.
Introduction
General Statement
Introduce the topic in the first sentence so your reader knows what the topic of the essay is. You should look at the question first because your paraphrase is your second sentence and should lead on nicely from your general statement. In my opinion, many students find this difficult and time consuming and as a result make quite serious errors. If that is the case, do not use a general statement, it will give an extremely bad first impression.
Example
Increasing numbers of students are accepted to study at universities these days
Paraphrase
There are four main ways to paraphrase successfully.
1/ changing the word order,
2/ changing the form of some words (especially the important words) from nouns to verbs and verbs to nouns,
3/ changing active to passive
4/ synonyms.
You do not have to change EVERY word, in fact there are often words that cannot be changed accurately.
You can also add concessions using ‘although’, ‘while’ and ‘whereas’.
Example
Many believe that they must study subjects that will be relevant to their career after graduation, such as scientific and technical subjects. However, I and others have the opinion each and every one of these students should be free to choose whichever subjects they like.
Opinion
In many cases you are asked to give your opinion in your essay, but you will lose marks if you present your personal opinion in an essay that does not require it.
Questions that ask for an opinion:
- To what extent do you agree or disagree / Do you agree or disagree?
- Discuss both views and give your opinion.
- Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
- Is this a positive or negative development?
The following are questions that DO NOT ask for a personal opinion.
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages
- What are the benefits and drawbacks / What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- What rare the causes? What are the solutions?
Following this advice will also make it much easier to plan and write your essay.
Note – Give your opinion in the introduction and conclusion, but NOT in the body paragraphs. Any opinion there should be expressed impersonally or shown using the content.
Body paragraph 1
- For a fully developed body paragraph, five to six sentences are enough.
- Examples are greatly important and help make your essay much more convincing.
- Always keep asking ‘why’ in order to produce an in-depth analysis to support your essay. What is the reason for the reason, the cause of the cause, the result of the result …….
- If you are asked for advantages and disadvantages, give more than one advantage and more than one disadvantage. If you don’t, your Task Achievement score will suffer.
Body paragraph 1 –
Topic sentence, supporting sentence 1, example, supporting sentence 2, going into more depth, lead on to the next paragraph (if possible).
Topic Sentence
A topic sentence should be a simple statement that introduces the paragraph. It says ‘This is what you are going to read about in this paragraph’
- Many teachers say that each paragraph should have only one idea.
- Many students say, OK, but if that is true, how can I talk about more than one advantage or disadvantage, or more than one view?
Answer – If you have this issue with your topic sentence, it is too specific. This is why many topic sentences start ‘There are many reasons why ………’, ‘There are two main reasons why ………, X and Y’.
It is crucial that the topic sentence is easy to read. It is your signpost telling the reader where you’re going to go. If it is simple, then the reader understands what you are going to talk about in the paragraph, so if you make a mistake, there is still a chance that they will understand what you mean.
However, if you write a long and complicated topic sentence, there is a much higher chance that it will be so confusing the reader is not 100% sure what you are going to say. Then, if you make an error later in the paragraph, it’s almost impossible to understand because the context isn’t clear.
Note – If you talk about the main topics of your paragraphs in the introduction, you still need a topic sentence, but you can be a little more specific. If you do that (it isn’t always possible), then you will be able to develop the paragraph more in the same number of sentences.
This is where planning helps immensely. You know what you are going to talk about next, so you can introduce beforehand. In some ways this is like reverse referencing.
Example
On the one hand, there are varied reasons why the authorities should only let students study the subjects that will enhance their career prospects.
Supporting Sentence
Some are confused about supporting sentences, but is only an explanation of the topic sentence, and there can be more than one in a paragraph. There are also many ways to improve your supporting sentences:
- Prepare these reasons in the planning stage, so you know where and how you will use each reason or argument.
- Be concise, which means not using too many words to say what you want to say. Make every word count.
- Be accurate, don’t use language that means something is true 100% of the time, use adverbs of adverbs of frequency, adverbs of probability and modal verbs to increase your accuracy.
Example
Firstly, companies that need specialists could sponsor university courses, so they have a constant supply of high quality recruits to fulfil jobs they have been trained for.
Examples
Examples are greatly important and help make your essay much more convincing, however:
- Although the question says ‘Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience’, you should present these examples in a general way rather than presenting detailed personal examples form your life. For example, do say ‘In mountainous countries it is difficult to grow staple foods such as wheat or rice’. Do not say ‘In my province in China, all we can grow is corn’
- Try to restrict your example to one sentence to illustrate your meaning rather than using most of the paragraph.
- If you cannot think of a relevant example, you don’t need to have one.
- It is often much simpler to add an ‘inline’ example in a sentence using ‘such as’ for further clarity. Many mobile phone brands, such as Huawei, Apple and Oppo, use bleeding edge technology to compete in the market.
Example
For example, if a country had a particularly strong aerospace industry, then courses could be planned and students enrolled for related courses related to aerodynamics, microelectronics or new means of propulsion.
Second Supporting Sentence
This is the place for your second advantage/disadvantage or your second reason. This is exactly the same as the first supporting sentence in that you need to be careful about being prepared, being concise and being accurate.
Example
Secondly, the educational institutions involved should soon be at the forefront of such fields, making the country’s universities more sought after in general.
Final sentence(s)
As I said before, five or six sentences is enough. So far we have had a topic sentence, the first supporting sentence, an example and a second supporting sentence, which makes four sentences so far.
These sentences can be used to further develop the main idea of the paragraph as well as preparing for body paragraph 2.
This can be done in various ways:
- You can aim for a more in-depth analysis by explaining the why of the why, the cause of the cause or the reason for the reason.
- You can give an alternative view of what would happen if the explanations in your supporting sentences weren’t true. (ideal for conditional sentences – if that didn’t happen, then XYZ would, which would result in ABC) This is a good way to lead on to the next paragraph, if you have practice at planning.
- Compare and contrast the supporting sentence with another point and the resulting benefits or drawbacks.
- You can group together other supporting ideas, results or causes.
Example
This would also make students more likely to accept the pressure of studying these subjects and improve their employment prospects internationally.
Full Body Paragraph 1
Topic sentence / supporting sentence / example / supporting sentence / further development
On the one hand, there are varied reasons why the authorities should only let students study the subjects that will enhance their career prospects. Firstly, companies that need specialists could sponsor university courses, so they have a constant supply of high quality recruits to fulfil jobs they have been trained for. For example, if a country had a particularly strong aerospace industry, then courses could be planned and students enrolled for related courses related to aerodynamics, microelectronics or new means of propulsion. Secondly, the educational institutions involved should soon be at the forefront of such fields, making the country’s universities more sought after in general. This would also make students more likely to accept being pressured into studying these subjects and improve their employment prospects internationally.
Body Paragraph 2
Often, body paragraph 2 will hahttps://tidycal.com/pronhelp/improve-your-ielts-writing-on-zoom-free-no-obligation-30-minute-chat-bring-an-essayve the same structure as body paragraph 1. This depends on the question type and how you want to answer them, as in this answer.
Full Body Paragraph 2
Topic sentence / supporting sentence / example / supporting sentence / further development
On the other hand, two of the main reasons for students to select their own courses are passion and study skills. Regarding the former, if every student is allowed to make their own choice, they would throw themselves into their studies, researching issues and trying to discover new ways to solve old problems. For example, someone studying Egyptian History, may find something that would change the way we think of that period. Furthermore, regarding study skills, many students who passionately study such subjects will probably not influence their field, but the way they throw themselves into it will not only hone their research and communication skills, but also innumerable computer ones. Together these two reasons could increase their employment chances in many areas, and still leave enough voluntary scientific and technical graduates to fill all the vacancies in crucial industries.
Alternatively
The biggest difference comes when you want to write an essay with both paragraphs agreeing or disagreeing with the question. When this happens, both paragraphs take the same side of the argument. Although this is not difficult to understand, there is often a problem with ideas.
In the planning stage, exam takers usually feel under extreme pressure, which doesn’t help idea production. So what can you do?
When you plan, you think of ideas for and against the argument, and then use some of them for the essay. It is often said that in an agree/disagree essay, it is better to have a balanced approach, which should give you more opportunities to use different language from the first body paragraph.
However, you can use the other side of the argument as a concession, then show why this is wrong, or disprove this to strengthen your original point. This is extremely effective and is very persuasive.
- Agree with the opposing side of the argument.
- Refute that argument by showing why it is poor, wrong or false.
Use this structure:
- Topic sentence in favour of the opposing view.
- Sentence supporting the topic sentence.
- No example
- However, if this happened, then ………………..
- Show why this is opposing view is weak, wrong or false by refuting the support.
- As a result the original position is strengthened.
Conclusion
A conclusion is a summary of what you have written with no new information and, if necessary, a restatement of your opinion. One or two sentences is usually enough.
However, you cannot repeat what you have written, you should paraphrase whenever possible.
Example
In conclusion, although there are good reasons for students to be pushed into studying employment ready courses, they are outweighed by those allowing them to make their own choice with which I strongly agree.
The full essay is below.
Full Essay
Increasing numbers of students are accepted to study at universities these days, but many believe that they must study subjects that will be relevant to their career after graduation, such as scientific and technical subjects. However, I and others have the opinion each and every one of these students should be free to choose whichever subjects they like.
On the one hand, there are varied reasons why the authorities should only let students study the subjects that will enhance their career prospects. Firstly, companies that need specialists could sponsor university courses, so they have a constant supply of high-quality recruits to fulfil jobs they have been trained for. For example, if a country had a particularly strong aerospace industry, then courses could be planned, and students enrolled for related courses related to aerodynamics, microelectronics or new means of propulsion. Secondly, the educational institutions involved should soon be at the forefront of such fields, making the country’s universities more sought after in general. This would also make students more likely to accept the pressure of studying these subjects and improve their employment prospects internationally.
On the other hand, two of the main reasons for students to select their own courses are passion and study skills. Regarding the former, if every student is allowed to make their own choice, they would throw themselves into their studies, researching issues and trying to discover new ways to solve old problems. For example, someone studying Egyptian History, may find something that would change the way we think of that period. Furthermore, regarding study skills, many students who passionately study such subjects will probably not influence their field, but the way they throw themselves into it will not only hone their research and communication skills, but also innumerable computer ones. Together these two reasons could increase their employment chances in many areas, and still leave enough voluntary scientific and technical graduates to fill all the vacancies in crucial industries.
In conclusion, although there are good reasons for students to be pushed into studying employment ready courses, they are outweighed by those allowing them to make their own choice with which I strongly agree.
Proofreading
Once you have written your essay, try to take some time to check what you have written.
If you just read what you have written, you may find several errors that you can fix quickly, but it’s much much quicker if you look for certain types of error. Which ones do you look for? The ones you have made in your practice essays.
If you look for them, then
1/ it should be easier for you to find them
2/ you should know how to fix them by now
3/ read once for each kind of error, it’s quicker and more effective than trying to read once for them all.
If you find that you have written the wrong essay and your body paragraphs don’t match your opinion, then go back to the introduction and conclusion and change your opinion to match the body paragraphs. It’s much quicker!
Conclusion
I hope this has been helpful for you. I know there are more questions you would like to ask, but the answers will come in other posts. Thank you very much for reading and good luck with your IELTS writing test.