62.2K - 62.2KShares
A lot of my IELTS students struggle with how many ideas they need and how to structure their essay.
This article with explain clearly what you need to do and why. Read some real IELTS essays that I wrote by clicking here.
Let’s look at an example of this kind of question:
Nowadays governments are investing more in public transport such as buses and trains rather than in building new roads.
What are the reasons for this?
Is this a positive or negative development?
Don’t miss out on my new Patreon exclusive essays here if you want to really improve on IELTS!
Dave
Clear position
For this kind of task you need to discuss both questions.
In the first question, you are given a situation and asked to explain why.
The second question requires a clear opinion so you must choose a side.
This is very important for your task response score.
If you don’t choose a side and support that ‘position’ clearly, you will lose marks for your task response. You will get a maximum of a 5 for task achievement if you do not choose a side.
It’s not important which side you choose as long as you choose one.
Here are the options for the second question:
1) Agree. You think it’s a positive development that governments are spending more money on public transport. You support r this opinion.
2) Disagree. You think it’s a negative development that governments are spending more money on public transport. You support this opinion.
Clear essay structure
I always recommend to my students that they give their opinion in the introduction as well as the conclusion (for all IELTS Task 2 questions).
Technically, it’s OK to write a very general introduction and leave your opinion to the end.
But I strongly suggest that you don’t do this because it’s not as clear.
Also, you might run out of time before you’ve got to your conclusion, so overall it’s a risky strategy. If you don’t choose a side and support that ‘position’ clearly, you will lose marks for your task response.
Therefore my suggested IELTS Task 2 essay structure is four paragraphs – an introduction, two main (or body) paragraphs and a conclusion.
The opinion is presented in the introduction and re-stated in the conclusion.
Ideally each body paragraph should discuss one main idea.
Now let’s look at the options in more detail.
Possible Essay structures
1) Agree – you feel it’s a positive development that governments are spending more money on public transport.
You need at least one good reason why it’s happening and one good reason why it’s a positive development.
Paragraph 1(intro) |
Paraphrase both questions and state your overall opinion (you feel it’s a positive development) |
Paragraph 2(body 1) |
Explain and support your reason why governments are spending more money on public transport. |
Paragraph 3(body 2) |
Explain and support your reason why this is a positive development. |
Paragraph 4 (conclusion) |
Re-state your overall opinion (you feel it’s a positive development) and summarise your main reasons. |
2) Disagree – you feel it’s a negative development that governments are spending more money on public transport.
You need at least one good reason why it’s happening and one good reason why it’s a negative development.
Only the parts highlighted below are different from the first essay
Paragraph 1 (intro) |
Paraphrase both questions and state your overall opinion(you feel it’s a negative development) |
Paragraph 2 (body 1) |
Explain and support your reason why governments are spending more money on public transport. |
Paragraph 3 (body 2) |
Explain and support your reason why this is a negative development. |
Paragraph 4 (conclusion) |
Re-state your overall opinion (you feel it’s a negative development) and summarise your main reasons. |
Now it’s your turn! Put your answers in the comments.
Look at the question below then compare your ideas with this sample answer (written by an ex-examiner).
Living in large cities today poses many problems for people.
What are these problems? Should governments encourage more people to live in smaller towns?
Brainstorm some main ideas:
-
What are the biggest problems for people living in a big city?
-
What causes these problems? What are the effects on people’s lives?
-
Do think think the government should help people to move out of big cities to live in smaller towns?
-
Is this a good or bad idea? Why?
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more free IELTS sample answers, expert tips and more!
Don‘t miss your chance to learn the facts about IELTS and improve your English with my online courses, guaranteed!
62.2K - 62.2KShares
Those who live in big cities face by far more challenges and difficulties compare to town residents. Traffic congestion and high property taxes can be considered as the main reasons of this reality. In my opinion, local authorities may persuade residents to move their residency to the outskirts.
Traffic jam is a well-known trait of any major city worldwide. This reality is highly annoying during rush hours. As a result, people, especially working ones, spend hours on ends stuck in traffic, wasting precious life time, not to mention that arriving late for work is a guarantee. Another reason why living in a major city is anything but fulfilling is the huge amount of money paid for having a own house. In Toronto city, for instance, residents pay three times more property taxes than those who lives in Winnipeg, a rural area located just 30 minutes away. This mandatory expense prevents families to earn money and live without financial worries.
Based on the above negative factors, governments should convince citizens to settle down into the nearby towns. One persuasive argument that can be used by politicians would be that both families and their children will have more green areas to play and relax, with the additional fresh air to breath in. Furthermore, since smaller cities have, by nature, less public services, the amount of taxes due will be considerable lower, which allow residents have extra money to invest in other priorities. These wise strategies can be run at any time by the authorities, which in the end will benefit the community as a whole.
In conclusion, living in cities is increasingly getting tougher; however, I firmly believe that local governments can run convincing campaigns to seed a need in their citizen to move out, helping people enhance their life.
Sorry I didn’t notice this before! Great work!
Population migrating from small towns to live in big cities is growing substantially every decade, which poses many problems such as shrinking living space and public health concerns. However, I personally disagree with the suggestion of reversing this trend because apparently individuals receive higher education and have more job opportunities in big cities.
It is true that people who live in large cities have to sacrifice personal living space due to the sky-rocket price of residential products. In some popular neighborhood, the average sale price of the apartments or condos has reached recorded high of over $100,000 per ft2. A lot of families could only afford to buy small apartments. Worse still, tight living space encourages disease transmission caused by human contacts. For instance, influenza and the late Covid-19 coronavirus has caused tens of thousands of deaths in the world’s largest cities, such as New York and London.
Even though living in big cities could create lots of issues, the advantages still overweighs disadvantages. The most straight-forward benefit is that individuals living in urban areas enjoy way more high-quality education and work opportunities than those in suburban areas. Megacities are not only located with more universities and colleges but also head quarters of international businesses, which provides a better chance for its population to receive higher education and thrive in their professional careers.
In conclusion, with more people migrating to large cities the average living space as well as public health of those cities could suffer, on the other hand, big cities provide training and opportunities which are not available in small towns. Therefore, I do not think it is sensible to encourage moving out of cities for the problems mentioned previously. (284 words)
Really well argued and written!
Be careful in your 3rd paragraph – tie it back more clearly to the overall essay question that this is why governments should not encourage people to live in the countryside.
Thanks Dave! I see why paragraph 3 seems loosely connected. Rewriting P3…
Despite the relatively small living space and the potential health thread, big cities offer way more high-quality education and work opportunities compared with suburban areas. This is because mega cities are located with most universities, colleges and the head quarters of international businesses, which provides a better chance for its population to receive higher education and thrive in their professional careers. Those who live in the countryside, on the other hand, encounter greater challenges as they pursuit education and career. Therefore, the government should help people maximize their potentials and realize themselves in the cities rather than encouraging them to move to the countryside.
Much much better!
Thank you Dave! I sat my second IELTS academic on May 14th, and my writing score has not improved, still at 6.5.
L8 R8 W6.5 S7.5
Writing task one was analyzing a bar chart, which compares the sales of five different consumer products one US department store from winter to Autumn in 2002.
I paraphrased the question and wrote in overall description. However, I am sure I made a critical mistake in the end when I described the fluctuations of the two lowest categories. I said. “Finally, the sales of sportswear and jewelry experienced relatively minimal fluctuations throughout the year, at below 200,000 and just above 200,000 respectively.” What I meant was actually, “despite of minimal fluctuations, the sales of these two categories remained well below and just a little over 200,000 (only in Autumn).”
Task two: Some people consider the increasing business and cultural contacts are positive, while others argue that it causes the loss of cultural identities. discuss both sides and give your opinion.
I was prepared with this topic. I wrote globalization can boost world economy by enabling the share of natural resources and human resources among participating countries,but it can also cause some nations to eliminate their uniqueness to fit in, and pose threat to travel destinations, because there is no point to visit other countries if they are similar to our own. My opinion is globalization is a positive development if closely supervised and regulated by the government. For one thing, very few countries nowadays can afford to lose supply or market. For another, it is up to each country to decide what it want to adopt. I wrote 325 words in total, but still got 6.5.
I feel my writing level is decreasing. This is probably because I spent the last month and a half preparing for TOEFL. However, I feel more familiar and confident with IELTS, and all I need is a leap from 6.5 to 7.0 in writing. I have decided to focus on IELTS.
How much more time should I spend before sitting another test? I wish I can score 7 this time, since it has already taken over 5 months.
Sorry to hear about the writing score, Jing.
That is really common for a lack in writing and based on the level of your other scores it could have been a bit of bad luck but probably also related to task achievement. Your language ability is good enough to get a higher score so task achievement is the most likely problem.
The mistakes you describe for your graph doesn’t sound like the biggest problem. What was your overview?
For your task 2, it might be wiser to have a firmer opinion, just to be safe in case if that was the issue.
Since you are so near to your score, I think you don’t need much time to reach band 7 with your writing and cleaning up small mistakes with grammar/vocabulary and making sure your TA is strong should get you there.
If you want more detailed corrections, you can consider: https://course.howtodoielts.com/band-scores-corrections
A country’s economy is directly related to its infrastructure. Governments these days are spending a major portion of their budget on increasing the capacity of public transport instead of building new roads. This easy will discuss the reasons for it, and also elaborate that on the whole, this is a very welcome development.
Firstly, the reason for increasing the number of buses and trains is that the public transport system is one of the major sources of traveling in any country. For instance, a large number of people in cities travel daily to their jobs using local transport. Another main reason is the rapid growth of the population which is generating huge pressure on each economic sector. Major cities, for instance, are over-crowded due to this phenomenon.
Increasing the capacity of public transport is a prudent and positive development by the Governments in many ways since it is one of the cheapest sources to travel within a country. People, for instance, from middle and lower-middle-class backgrounds mostly use public transport. As a result, it can intrigue positive sentiments as their government is spending money on them. Furthermore, a good and huge transport system can play a vital role in energy-saving and pollution control. For example, people instead of using their cars will prefer to travel locally if they can have a comfortable journey. This leads to the reduction of traffic on roads and ultimately less fuel consumption.
In conclusion, while the increase in the number of trains and busses ensures cheap traveling, it can save energy and control pollution (noise, dust) as well.
Well written Hasad! Make sure that you add a final thought to your conclusion. Also try to limit your body paragraphs to one main idea, fully developed with a specific example!
Nowadays governments are investing more in public transport such as buses and trains rather than in building new roads.
What are the reasons for this?
Is this a positive or negative development?
Nowadays, people are moving from rural areas to cities in search of a better environment, jobs, and homes. As a result, cities are getting more and more crowded. The government is putting money into the infrastructure of cities and making more buses and trains available to its denizens. In awe of making more public transport available, authorities are forgetting that they also need to spend money on building new roads. This easy will discuss the reasons for it before reaching a conclusion in the upcoming paragraph.
To commence with the reasons, the population in the urban areas is increasing at a significant rate as people are moving from rural areas to urban areas because there are better education and job opportunities in the urban areas as well as the infrastructure is far more attractive and accommodating than that of in the rural area. Government is investing more in public transport because it is the need of the hour. In order to accommodate the increasing population, more buses and trains are required.
I vehemently believe that this is a positive development because more public transport is always better than more private transport on the road. On the other hand, I also want to point out that the government should at least spend the appropriate amount of the budget on the maintenance of the roads. As more people will start using public transport, traffic jams in busy cities will fell to considerable levels and also the pollutions will decrease significantly.
All in all, citizens of the nation should see it as an opportunity to contribute toward the environmental health of the planet and encourage themselves as well as others to use public transport. It is no one else’s but our responsibility to save our planet. If the government is doing their part, instead of finding negatives we should look for positives and do our best.
It’s a good start, Mannat!
I don’t have time to check writing this week but you can sign up for some corrections here: course.howtodoielts.com/band-scores-corrections
Keep up the the good effort!
(Here we go. My first ever essay. My writing is crap and I hate it, But I did this to better remember your structure. Thanks for sharing it with us. <3 )
Life in the big cities is accompanied by a variety of issues, many of which, are unheard of in small towns. In this essay, I will be discussing some of these difficulties and the reason why I believe governments should encourage people to move into small towns.
There is no doubt that life as we know it has changed dramatically over the last 100 years, forcing many people to move out of their quiet towns and into the cities in search of employment, introducing a new and seemingly more advanced lifestyle. People were instantly drawn to the hustle and bustle of big cities, and life as we’ve known it has changed forever. The most noticeable change being the lost sense of community. People no longer felt the need to socialise like they used to, the endless chase after monetary gain and constant changes left people in a loop of feeling hollow, alone and anxious. This followed by a variety of health complications, that people in small towns have never experienced before. Last but not least, it has introduced a new financial crisis, raising taxes and increasing the cost of living, higher than it has ever been before.
While initially this move has been supported by the government, it should now focus on encouraging people to relocate into small towns, and change back life to the way it was, before moving to the big cities. One of the ways to do that would be to introduce more job offers in small towns, improve living conditions and advertising campaigns glorying the life away from the city.
To summarise, City life has proven to be more harmful than beneficial, bringing forward a variety of health issues, isolating communities and introducing a financial burden, which I believe should prompt the government to encourage people to move into small towns.
That’s a great way to remember the structure, Lena. I hope a lot of other students copy your approach!
Your writing is really high level though the 3rd paragraph needs more detail.
What score are you going for?
Hi Dave, thank you so much for the reply I wasn’t expecting it! I’m hoping for no less than 6.5.
I’ve actually edited it after I posted because I realised I forgot to mention the the reasons, I’ll need to practice a bit more.
By more details, do you mean elaborate on how these changes will be done, rather than just say what they are? I wasn’t sure how to phrase it. Thanks again!
There are some little issues with formality related to academic writing that could hold you back but you are firmly in that range.
I meant that in the 3rd paragraph you need to write 4-5 sentences and include more detail. The best way to do that would be with a specific example, fully developed.
That will help your task achievement and cohesion/coherence scores a lot! A specific example will also bring out a lot of high level vocabulary – practice your examples!
For several decades, the total ratio of people living in big cities has been inclined rapidly which causes the emergence of new problems that have holistic negative impacts. According to many urban planners and environmentalists human flow to big cities needs to be reverted. In this essay I will explain the issues inhabitants of big cities face while questioning whether the government should encourage people moving to smaller cities.
First of all, it is inevitable that there are immense amount of problems that the majority of the people living in big cities complain about. Two of main problems big city inhabitants from all around the world express is level of crowdedness, and pollution. As a person living in Istanbul, I need to confess that living in a big city makes me exhausted especially in times I spent in public transit and as well as in center. It is clear that people living in big cities are more tend to suffer from pollution since more people means more source of pollution. These are only a few problems people in big cities face.
To mitigate the problems people face in big cities, governments needs to endorse people planning to move smaller cities. Establishing policies and implementations that will restrict human flow to big cities is essential for handling the problems and recovery. To give an example, people who lost their job in big cities due to economical crisis and planning to get into farming profession could receive incentives from government so that they will feel enough courage to live and earn their bread in a rural land. In that way, improvement in rural economies is highly viable. To conclude, there are a bunch of reason why government should support human flow to smaller towns.
To conclude, in this essay the urgent problems of big cities has been explained and the question whether the government should encourage migration to smaller cities has been examined. In my opinion government needs to support depopulation of big cities via human movement to smaller towns since it can even lead to economical improvement in agricultural sector. However, to weigh two sides, there need to be further research to reveal actual impact of the argument.