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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.
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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’!