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Students often ask me what’s the best way to write an introduction if you’re aiming for a high band score.
I always tell them they should include their main ideas as well as their clear opinion (position) in their introduction.
This isn’t necessary for every IELTS student but it’s highly recommended for students who want to improve to get a band 7 or above.
It will make your position and therefore your essay much clearer. This will boost your Coherence and Cohesion score as well as your Task Achievement.
If you want to both improve your English and feel comfortable, I now offer online lessons complete with feedback, videos, workbooks and more – you can learn more here!
Example Question
Governments should spend money on railways rather than roads.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Look at the following model introductions.
1. Without main reasons:
It is often suggested that governments should increase investment in railway infrastructure rather than on new roads. Personally, I agree that the benefits of rail outweigh the apparent benefits of new roads. I will explain my reasons in this essay.
2. With main reasons:
It is often suggested that governments should increase investment in railway infrastructure rather than on new roads. Personally, I agree that the benefits of rail, which include less traffic and pollution, outweigh the apparent benefits of new roads. I will explain my reasons in this essay.
Notice the main reasons (less traffic and pollution) tell the reader exactly what will be discussed later.
This is a huge help for your cohesion and coherence!
The standard IELTS Task 2 essay structure is four paragraphs – an introduction, two body paragraphs and a conclusion, with each body paragraph focussing on one main idea.
So for the introduction above the main idea for body paragraph 1 will be traffic, and the main idea for body paragraph 2 will be pollution.
If your essay follows this structure, then the position of your essay is extremely clear.
This will increase your ‘task response’ and ‘coherence and coherence’ scores.
Now it’s your turn! Put your answers in the comments
Brainstorm your main ideas and position for the question above and write an introduction. Put it in comments.
In some countries, governments are making some criminals do voluntary community work rather than being put in prison.
To what extent do you agree with this?
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In some parts of the world, offenders are compelled to participate in unpaid work instead of putting them behind the bars. Although the trend promises certain benefits of increased manpower for community work and some work experience while facing the penalty for criminal, it also comes at the cost of risk of the general public being exposed to the wrongdoer. This essay will discuss both sides of the fact before concluding that it would be better to limit public exposure of these criminals.
Great work! Here are some corrections: ‘In some parts of the world, offenders are compelled to participate in unpaid work instead of BEING PUT behind the bars. Although THIS trend promises certain benefits INCLUDING increased manpower for community work and some work experience while INCARCERATED, it also comes at the cost of THE risk of the general public being exposed to the wrongdoer. This essay will discuss both sides of the fact before concluding that it would be better to limit public exposure of these criminals.’
It is suggested that in some countries some criminals are punished by doing voluntary work for the community instead of putting them into jail. Personally, I believe that criminals still should be in prison, which can give them a hard lesson and decrease the threat to the public. In this essay, I will explain my reasons.
Good! Make sure that you paraphrase correctly – it is not whether or not they are punished but whether they should be!
It is sometimes argued that offenders should be forced to do some unpaid work in society, instead of being held in jail. I think that doing community work under supervision could be beneficial for criminals and society in general. In this essay, I will give my reasons why this trend have positive effects.
Great work! ‘why this trend will/would have a positive effect’!
Delinquents commitment in voluntary acts is preferred to sending them to jails in some nations. Personally, i agree that the benefits of doing unpaid tasks, which include training skilled workers and increasing efficiency, outweigh the apparent benefits of imprisonment.
Good work!
Some corrections:
Delinquents commitment in voluntary acts(I don’t understand what this means…)Doing community service is preferred to sending juvenile delinquents to jails in some nations. Personally, D agree that the benefits of doing unpaid tasks, which include skilled training, outweigsh the apparent benefits of imprisonment.
Crime does not pay, it is the responsibility of any nation to ensure justice is served to criminals. It is of the opinion of some people that offenders could be taught more and moral values and contribute to the growth of society by being working members and doing voluntary work like garbage collection, fireman rather than putting them in confinement to serve their sentence. This essay will provide evidence that although voluntary has its benefits, like contributing to society and learning skills, it is not the right course of action and criminals should be put behind bars.
Well written, Jay!
Crime does not pay is a nice expression but better for speaking as it is a bit informal.
Some other corrections:
I am of the opinion or…
Some strong vocabulary but be careful with your grammar: It is the opinion of some people that offenders could be taught moral values and contribute to the growth of society by working and doing voluntary work like garbage collection rather than putting them in confinement to serve their sentences.
Criminals, in some parts of the world, are kept involved in the society by engaging them in voluntary work which in my opinion is not better treatment of offenders as compared to their imprisonment. Criminals must be punished for their offense to have them have a good lesson in specific and to the society in general. I will discuss further in this essay that how this punishment will be a positive development.
Great introduction!
Corrections:
not a better treatment option for
their offense in order to not repeat the mistake
Otherwise great!
Thanks a lot Dave!
Your lessons are really helpful. Previously, I was worried about preparing myself for IELTS writing task 2 practice but now it seems I got what I really needed.
You’re welcome!
Some nations think that it is good to allow prisoners to do voluntary social work. Personally, I agree with this statement because of the freedom it gives to prisoners themselves and contribution it provides to national economy. I will explain my reasons in this essay.
Some nations think that it is good to allow prisoners to do voluntary social work. Personally, I agree with this statement because of the freedom it gives to prisoners themselves and contribution it provides to national economy. I will explain my reasons in this essay.
Great!
THE national economy
But otherwise a perfect application of my strategy!
Governments around the world have their own way of penalizing offenders. However, in some countries authorities are allowing the criminals to help the society by doing some free of charge work instead of putting them behind the bars. Personally, I thoroughly agree with this notion due to the fact that contribution in society will make the criminals responsible individuals and eventually affect the community growth in a positive way.
Goverment of a different part of pockets, suggest to put there prisoners to do volunteriy community work to make them more responsible towards there surrounding, rather keeping them jail. This will be good for nothing. I agree to this statement and will be discussing this further by describing how it would be beneficial to there self improvisation as well to the community?
Be careful with some of those expressions if you are translating from your language – I don’t know what a ‘different part of pockets’ means. Also careful with your punctuation and level of formality. Why is it a question at the end?
Hi Dave, hope you are doing well. I graduated from the journalism program in Canada. While I was in the English class there, my English professor once mentioned for IELTS writings, you should only use the third-person point of view to express your ideas, even though they are your own opinions. For example: Instead of saying “Personally, I agree that the benefits of rail outweigh the apparent benefits of new roads. I will explain my reasons in this essay”, I would say “The benefits of rail is strongly believed that far outweigh the apparent benefits of new roads”. What do… Read more »
Hi Duy Anh, that is absolutely false and it is dealt with specifically during the IELTS training and is in the IELTS guidance handbook.
Don’t use ‘i’ too much but a couple times is absolutely fine for IELTS, though academic writing standards in different countries vary a bit on this point in university.
Governments should spend money on railways rather than roads.
In your above example you said that the main idea for body paragraph 1 will be traffic, and the main idea for body paragraph 2 will be pollution.
BUT
you had told before that paragraph 1 will be benefits of roads and paragraph 2 will be benefits of railway.?????
Yes, the full essay isn’t there right?
I think this is just showing you the method for the introduction.
It is best to have a main idea for both sides in the introduction if you can manage it.
Is that clear?
In some parts of the world, offenders are required to provide voluntary services to the society rather than being imprisoned. I agree with this view as it enables the criminals to develop their vocational skills and provides economic benefits to the society.
in some parts of the world, some offenders are asked to participate in community services instead of being put behind the bars. I vehemently espouse that giving criminals a chance to contribute towards society is a great idea. However, it should be done under proper invigilation because criminals may possess a risk to the general public. This essay thus shall discuss both the views before reaching to a conclusion in the upcoming paragraphs.
It is often seen that the government would penalise the offenders for social community work instead of sentencing imprisonment. In my opinion, I agree that the benefits of this punishment, which solving the problem of society, outweighs putting them into jail.
Well written!
Use the present simple for true facts now: It is often argued that the government should…