Planning is very important, but there are definitely good and bad ways to do it.
In this article I will show you how to plan efficiently, focussing only on what you need for your IELTS Task 2 essay.
Don’t miss out on my new Patreon exclusive essays here if you want to really improve on IELTS!
Dave
Why does planning improve your Task 2 writing?
If you plan effectively, writing your Task 2 essay will be easier and quicker because you know what you are going to to write.
So it actually saves you time later and makes your writing clearer so you will get a much higher score.
If you spend a few minutes to come up with your overall ‘position’, your main ideas and supporting ideas then after that you’ll be free to worry about your grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and spelling.
The idea is that by planning carefully you won’t have to worry much about your ideas and structure while you’re writing, which will help you feel more relaxed.
And the more relaxed you are, the easier it will be to think of good language to use to express your ideas and how best to link them together.
Four steps to reduce your planning time
Some IELTS students seem to take a long time to write their plan.
Other students seem to be able to get writing almost straight away – they hardly plan at all!
And yet they can still produce essays that achieve a high band score.
Here are four steps to planning efficiently and just focusing on the ideas you need.
1. Relevant but personal ideas – focus on the question but use your experience.
2. Simple main ideas – that you can easily support with explanation and examples.
3. Focus on your essay structure – think of the order and linking of ideas.
4. Do lots and lots of practice – so you see patterns and get quicker.
Now let’s look at each of these in more detail.
1. Focus on the question but make it personal
Your main ideas must be relevant (clearly answer the question) otherwise your Task Achievement score will be no higher than a 5.
However my IELTS students often complain that when they read the question they can’t think of any ideas and this might be because IELTS Task 2 questions are often written in a formal, academic way.
So one way of helping you to come up with ideas is to rephrase the question into more normal language that you might use with your friends or family.
Governments should spend money on railways rather than roads.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
So for the question above, imagine you read in the news that your government is going to spend more money on transport in your local area.
Would you prefer them to spend money on new roads or new trains? Would this make you happy? Why?
2. Simple is best
There are no extra marks for interesting or complicated ideas, or for ideas that follow your real opinions.
The best main ideas are ONLY those you can easily explain and support, ideally with a clear example.
Keep it simple and make it easy for yourself.
The most simple, obvious ideas that are often the first ones that pop into your head.
Your basic IELTS Task 2 essay has only two body paragraphs and I always recommend one main idea per body paragraph so you can fully support them.
If you have more main ideas than you need, quickly try to explain them and think of examples (on paper or in your head) and choose the main ideas that are the easiest to explain fully.
3. Focus on your structure
Now look at your chosen main ideas and add more supporting ideas if needed. I suggest using a mind map for this.
At this point it’s a good idea to put the supporting ideas into a logical order and quickly make a note (on paper on in your head) of which linkers would be suitable (these can change later).
Don’t be afraid to reject, change or reorder your supporting ideas at this point.
So now you have your main ideas, supporting ideas and your structure, so you’re absolutely ready to start writing a kick-ass Task 2 essay!
4. Practice is the key
The more you practise with different topics the more you will be able to generate good, simple main ideas in seconds.
Likewise, generating and organising supporting ideas will get easier and easier, as you practise developing your main ideas in relatively similar ways each time.
Eventually this will become an almost automatic process and by the time exam day arrives you’ll be an idea generating machine.
Now it’s your turn! Put your answers in the comments.
Governments should spend money on railways rather than roads.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
CommentGood.
Thanks!
Hi dave,
I have a question.for practising writing i have 2 methods i wanna know which one is better in your opinion.
1. Practise only agree/disagree type then problem solution then 2_part quetions then discuss
Or
2. Practising for example crime- related topic then environmental- related topic and so on
I think that if you practice with a variety of topics then you will come across the question types over time. A lot of people focus too much on the question types when the structure is almost exactly the same and there are more important areas to focus on. So I would recommend #2!
Hi dave,
could you please answer my question…
Hi Dave,
Thank you so much for sharing such valuable guide line.
After visiting tour website, I have one question, could you please help to advise, which way should we develop body paragraph,and why?
1. General topic sentence (ex: There are many reasons/ benefits of…) => Firstly,…. Secondly….
=> This approach seem to be easy to think about ideas & write full paragraph.
2. Specific topic sentence, which will focus on one main idea, and then supporting sentences (Explanation, example,…).
Thanks Mia for the great question!
Yes, number 1 is easy and that’s why students do it because listing main ideas is simple – developing them is hard. It is also the best way to get band 5 for task achievement.
Don’t trust me – just check the band descriptors. Main ideas are only important as they are relevant – not how many or how good.
Your task achievement depends on how much you develop them.
The logical conclusion is that you should develop them as much as possible.
Think of them like children. With 1 child, you can devote yourself fully. With 2, your attention is split.
Same with main ideas!
Really appreciate your clear thoughtful answer.
Since I am going to have Ielts General test, could you please help to share the differences in vocabulary band descriptor between Ielts General & Ielts Academic?
Some people said that Ielts General will focus more on topic vocab, while Ielts Academic tend to emphasis on academic vocab. Is this true?
Hope you all the best,
Mia
Hi Mia,
They are basically the same. The only differences are that the reading topics in general are less academic and task 1 writing is different (a letter instead of a chart).
The topics are slightly different for task 2 writing, but not meaningfully.
It’s true in terms of the reading test (the listening is the same) and it makes no difference for speaking and only a small difference in writing.
Thank you a lot Dave ^^
You’re welcome!
Is anyone here to practice and guide with me for IELTS. I am from Myanmar
partly agree with given statement , because they both plays a vital role in every individual life and demos use both type of transportation . however, if government spend more money on roads its have many benefits, as well as, in that way government assist people life because when lawmaker spend more money on roads then also they made some laws and its helps people in the way of less accidental rate , on other hand , if government spend money on railway transports then its helps when people wants to go somewhere for long journey.