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The key thing IELTS Examiners want you to do is present main ideas and then develop them by ‘extending and supporting.’
By developing an idea, you are giving the reader a clearer understanding of why the main idea is a good or bad idea.
If you want to see how this actually works out with various real questions from the test, you can click here to read my sample answers.
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!
What are supporting ideas?
Supporting ideas are a combination of explanation and examples (both general and specific).
This may include talking about the result or effect of something, or how a situation is made better or worse by something.
Let’s look at an example question:
In some countries the average weight of people is increasing and their levels of health and fitness are decreasing.
What do you think are the causes of these problems and what measures could be taken to solve them?
For the first body paragraph you should discuss the causes.
Below is a breakdown of the main and supporting ideas for this paragraph:
Main idea: One of the main causes of obesity is unhealthy diets
General example: processed food has become very common
Explanation 1: high levels of sugar and salt
Explanation 2: lots of marketing – especially aimed at children
Result: kids have bad habits – continue when adults
Specific examples: soft drinks e.g. coke, fast food e.g. burgers, pizza
How do I link my supporting ideas?
One way to make your paragraph clearer is to your link ideas using vocabulary phrases, which help the reader follow your idea development.
Phrases include the following:
The main causes of _______ is…
This situation is made worse because…
This results in…
Good examples include…
This has been confirmed by….
Good linking phrases are like landmarks on a map when you’re finding your way around a new city.
They really help the reader to know exactly what kind of idea they are reading and where they are in your discussion.
With practice they will help you to logically organise your supporting ideas into clear, cohesive body paragraphs.
Here is the sample paragraph with the ideas and linking phrases all together:
One of the main causes of obesity and poor health is unhealthy diets. In many parts of the world, processed food, which contains high levels of sugar and salt is readily available. This situation is made worse because this food is supported by large advertising campaigns, which are increasingly aimed at children. This results in young people developing bad habits at an early age, which continue into adulthood. Good examples include soft drinks such as Coke, as well as fast food e.g. pizza and burgers. This has been confirmed by a recent study in the USA which showed that the majority of obese people had a poor diet containing high levels of junk food.
Should I include fake evidence?
You can see from the above paragraph, that the final supporting idea includes scientific evidence.
Many IELTS teachers suggest including this kind of supporting idea as it makes your argument really clear and strong.
However, you should be careful not to be too specific as some examiners might mark you down if it’s really obvious that you’re just making it up.
Compare the following two examples:
General (good!):
This has been confirmed by a recent study in the USA which showed that the majority of obese people had a poor diet containing high levels of junk food.
Too specific (bad!):
This has been confirmed by a recent study from the University of Michigan which showed that 87% of obese people ate junk food more than four times a week.
Therefore keep your evidence as general as possible. Don’t include any data, just general conclusions.
The IELTS examiner has to be able to accept that you are writing this from memory.
If it’s too specific then the examiner will find it difficult to believe that you were able to remember all this data even though you didn’t know what the question would be.
Now it’s your turn! Put your answers in the comments.
In some countries the average weight of people is increasing and their levels of health and fitness are decreasing.
What do you think are the causes of these problems and what measures could be taken to solve them?
For the above question, plan a body paragraph focussing on the main of a lack of exercise due to people being too busy. Think of examples and explanation.
Main idea: One of the main causes of obesity is a lack of exercise.
Supporting idea 1: People are too busy to exercise.
Supporting idea 2:
Supporting idea 3:
Supporting idea 4:
Supporting idea 5:
Now put it together in a paragraph and put it in the comments!
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Hi, I just find this article really helpful specially the part about fake evidence. Thanks a million
Thank you for the feedback and glad to help!
People’s weight is on the rise, while their overall health and fitness are experienced a steady decrease. A poor diet coupled with a lack of exercise can be considered as main roots of this disturbing issue. Fortunately, there are some strategies that can be implement to fight it back. Firstly, people are gaining weight due to the consumption of bad and unhealthy foods. For example, a regular meal is quite often made up by trans fats, lots of starchy carbs such as white bread or pasta, and little or nothing of green leaves. All of these have nothing of nutritional… Read more »
Good effort! Some corrections: People’s weight is on the rise, while their overall health and fitness are experienced to decrease steadily. A poor diet coupled with a lack of exercise can be considered as the main roots of this disturbing issue. Fortunately, there are some strategies that can be implemented to combat this. Firstly, people are gaining weight due to the consumption of bad and unhealthy foods. For example, a regular meal is quite often made up by trans fats, lots of starchy carbs such as white bread or pasta, and little or nothing in terms of leafy greens. All… Read more »
Thank you so much. I thought I would be disappointed with myself after your feedback. Fortunately, I did not make a ton of mistakes, just a few (a face smiling). You are right, my third paragraph is weak and not convincing. I was beyond 300 words, so I just stopped there, no more ideas came to my mind. Can I interpret your “good” as acceptable 6.5? (a concerned face)
Thanks!..
I think it can manage 6.5 with 7s for task achievement, coherence and 6s for vocabulary and grammar – but it is close!
One of the main causes of obesity is a lack of exercise. Nowadays people are too busy to exercise. The long work hours result in adopting sedentary lifestyle. Furthermore, scarcity of sport amenities with flexible hours and descendent fee deter people of having active life. According to recent study in the USA, majority of middle-class people afflicted by the huge costs of gyms. These all have lead human being to be more and more overweighted
One of the main causes of obesity is a lack of exercise. Nowadays people are too busy to exercise. The long work hours result in adopting sedentary lifestyle. Furthermore, scarcity of sport amenities with flexible hours and descendent fee deter people of having an active life. According to a recent study in the USA, the majority of middle-class people afflicted by the huge costs of gyms. These all have lead human being to be more and more overweight.
Well written! Some corrections:
One of the main causes of obesity is a lack of exercise. Nowadays people are too busy to exercise. Long work hours often result in adopting a sedentary lifestyle. Furthermore, scarcity of sport amenities with flexible hours and affordable fees deter people from having an active life. According to a recent study in the USA, the majority of middle-class are deterred by the huge costs of gyms. These all have lead human beings to be more and more overweight.
Keep your claims weak!
Thanks a ton
you mean i need more supporing sentences?
No, I mean don’t make statemets like all people have adopted a sedentary lifestyle – better to keep it weak and say ‘many people’ or ‘some’
I saw the sample essay by Mai posted on this website on the same topic. Where one of your checkers has commented that “Be careful and not to repeat simple vocab (Foods)” and marked down in the lexical resources part. But there are very fewer alternatives to the word “food”. You have also repeated food many times.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dkzY20EnjvWLtM697A5rz-2QHMCmLGEV/view
What this person would have done differently to get a higher score in vocab too?
If you look closely at that essay you will see that there are a lot of ways to paraphrase food instead of saying it 3 times in a sentence. Such as watching what you eat, having a better diet, good nutrition, eating healthier, etc.
Is that clear?
One of the main causes of obesity is lack of exercise. People are living a sedentary lifestyle due to long working hours. In other words, physical activity has been overlooked because of the hectic work schedule. Moreover, individuals gets involved in a lot of sitting and ignores doing any sort of outdoor activity. As a result, many people consume more calories than they burn through exercise. For instance, a recent study in the USA indicates majority of the population avoids healthier activities such as gardening and walking which has a major impact on an individual.
Great work!
But please try to cut down on the linking words to start every sentence – try to limit yourself to 2 per paragraph maximum!
The main cause of obesity is sedentary lifestyle of people. These days people do less physical work. The emergence of video games has aggravate the situation as people find 3D video games a better way to spend their leisure time as compared to outdoor games. This result in overweight of people. This has been proved by a recent survey in the USA which showed that the majority of obese people used to do quite small amount of physical exercise.
That is very well-focused and supported – keep it up Harsh!
Thank you Dave!
You’re welcome!
The main cause of obesity is lack of exercise. In many parts of the world, people have sedentary lifestyles. This situation is further made worse by their working in front of computers for long hours. This results into weight gain and several health problems. Good example include avoidance of going to gym or using lifts instead of stairs and then spending the entire day in office with not major movements. This has been confirmed by a recent survey in New York that obese people had inactive lifestyle containing minimal physical work.