IELTS WRITING TAST 2 Tips and Overview.pdf

Writing Task 2 Overview

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IELTSWRITING
Task Two

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Task 2: Argument Essay
Six Types of Argument Essays:
•Agree / disagree
•Discuss two opinions
•Advantages & disadvantages
•Causes (reasons) & solutions
•Causes (reasons) & effects
•Problems & solutions
Not every essay will fit one of these patterns, but many do. The golden rule is
toALWAYS read the question very carefullyto see exactly what you are
being asked to do.

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Task 2: Argument Essay
FourTypes of Argument Essays:
1. Opinion
2. For & Against
3. Comparison & Contrast
4. Cause & Problem & Solution

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Opinion
Sample Task
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Present a written argument to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge
of the following topic:
The prison is not a cure for crime.
To reduce crime in the long term, courts should significantly reduce prison
sentences and focus on education and community work to help criminals
not to re-offend.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
You should write at least 250 words.
Use your own knowledge and experience and support your arguments with
examples and relevant evidence.

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For & Against
Sample Task
Some people regard animals as the source of food or clothes,
and others think that they should be treated like pets.
State you opinion from both sides.

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Comparison & Contrast
Sample Task
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of
three of the following as media for communicating
information. State which you consider to be the
most effective.
books，radio，television，film，theatre

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Cause & Problem & Solution
Sample Task
What are the effects of global warming?
Suggest some recommendations to minimize these
effects.

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Rules for essay writing
Not every essay will fit one of these patterns, but many do. The golden
rule is toALWAYS read the question very carefullyto see exactly what
you are being asked to do.
Now let us have a go.

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How to compose a task 2 essay
1.Identifying the Topic
2.Identifying the Task
3.Brainstorming and Planning
4.Ideas for IELTS

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1. Identifying the Topic
How do you identify the topic?
•Remember, in IELTSwriting, you are usually presented with some issue
or problem that is currently affecting society and you need to discuss it.
•So you need to read the question carefully and identify what the issue
is. You will normally only be looking for one or two key words.
•Have a look at the following question. What is the issue?
The crime rate among teenagers has increased dramatically in many
countries.
Discuss some possible reasons for this increase and suggest solutions.
crime teenager

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1. Identifying the Topic
The crime rate among teenagers has increased dramatically in many
countries.
Discuss some possible reasons for this increase and suggest solutions.
In this case, the question specifically wants you to address the issue of
TEENAGE crime.
When you identify the topic, always look carefully to see if it is being
narrowed down to a particular area that you need to focus on.
crime teenager

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2. Identifying the Task
•Once you have identified the topic for your essay, you need to
identify the task.
•The ‘task’ is the part of the question that tells you what you
have to do to answer it.
•This is one of the most important things you will have to do when
you analyze the essay question.
•Because 25% of your grade for the essay is based on ‘Task
Response’ -how you have responded to the task.

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2. Identifying the Task
The crime rate among teenagers has increased dramatically in many
countries.
Discuss some possible reasons for this increase and suggest solutions.
•The task -or ‘what you have to do’ -is usually at the end of the prompt.
•As you can see, you are being told to ‘Discuss some possible reasons for
this increase and suggest solutions’.
•It’s very common in task 2 IELTSessay questions to get asked to do two
things, and this question is a good example of this:
Why teenage crime has increased
Ways to solve this problem
•YouMUSTdiscussboththose things to ensure you have fully answered the
question and you must write roughly equal amounts about each part.
reasons solutions

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2. Identifying the Task
Doing any of the following things will reduce your score for task response, and
hence may reduce your overall score:
•Only writing about reasons or only solutions
•Writing most of your essay about reasons and only a small part on solutions
(or visa versa)
•Writing about the reasons and solutions for crime in general, and not
referring to teenage crime (the topic)
•Writing about neither reasons nor solutions
This is why it is so important to spend some time at the beginning making sure
you identify the task so that you know what you have to write about.

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2. Identifying the Task-A Practice
•Advances in technology and automation have reduced the need for manual
labor. Therefore, working hours should be reduced.
•To what extent do you agree?
1. What do you need to write about?
2. Write your ideas down, and then share with someone around you.

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2. Identifying the Task-A Practice
You have to:
1)say whether youagreeordisagreewith working hours being reduced
2)say how muchyou agree or disagree ("to what extent").
3) discuss the reasonswhy you agree, and the reasonswhy you
disagreeif looking at both sides of the issue. Or put another way:
The advantages of reducing working hours
The disadvantages of reducing working hours
If you find more reasons to agree than disagree, then you can write more
about this side of the argument, or visa versa.

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2. Identifying the Task-A Practice
•Therisinglevelsofcongestionandairpollutionfoundinmostofthe
worldcitiescanbeattributeddirectlytotherapidlyincreasingnumber
ofprivatecarsinuse.Inordertoreversethisdeclineinthequalityof
lifeincities,attemptsmustbemadetoencouragepeopletousetheir
carslessandpublictransportmore.
•Discusspossiblewaystoencouragetheuseofpublictransport.
a. Why people have been using cars more and public transport less
b. How to get people to use public transport more
c. The causes of increasing congestion and air pollution.
b. How to get people to use public transport more

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2. Identifying the Task-A Practice
•As global trade increases, many goods including those we use on a
daily basis are produced in other countries and transported long
distances.
•Do the benefits of the trend outweigh the drawback?
a. (a)The benefits of this(b)The disadvantages of this(c)Your opinion on whether
it is more beneficial or not
b. (a)The benefits of this(b)Your opinion on whether is is more beneficial or not
c. (a)The disadvantages of this(b)Your opinion on whether it is more beneficial or
not
a. (a)The benefits of this(b)The disadvantages of this(c)Your opinion on whether
it is more beneficial or not

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2. Identifying the Task-A Practice
•Unemployment has become an increasing problem in the recent past.
•What factors contribute to an increase in unemployment and what
steps can be taken to solve the problem?
a. (a)The causes of increasing unemployment(b)How to solve this problem
b. (a)The problems with increasing unemployment(b)How to solve this problem.
c. (a)The reasons why unemployment is increasing.
a. (a)The causes of increasing unemployment(b)How to solve this problem

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3. Brainstorming and Planning
•The crime rate among teenagers has increased dramatically in many
countries.
•Discuss some possible reasons for this increase and suggest solutions.
3.1 Developing Focus Questions
For this question, you need to write aboutreasonsfor the increase in
teenage crime andsolutions.
In order to make sure you fully answer the question it is a good ideas to
develop somefocus questionsi.e. questions that will help you focus on
what you need to write.

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3. Brainstorming and Planning
These are possible focus questions for this essay question:
Focus question 1: Why has teenage crime increased?
Focus question 2: What can be done about it?
•You then need to brainstorm answers to these questions:
Why has teenage crime increased?
•Breakdown in the nuclear family
•Lack of things to do
What can be done about it?
•Government -Provide better support for families & stricter
punishments
•Individuals –take responsibility

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3. Brainstorming and Planning
However, you now need to think about how your are going to extend and
support those ideas you have brainstormed. In other words, you need to
ask yourself further questions about each of your ideas. For example:
Why has there been a breakdown in the nuclear family?
What is the effect of this?
What is a good example of it?
Answering questions like these will make sure you have fully supported
and explained all your points. For example:
Why has there been a breakdown in the nuclear family?
-high divorce rates
What is the effect of this?
-no male role model; boys go astray & may commit crime

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3. Brainstorming and Planning

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3. Brainstorming and Planning

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Model Answer
Overthelastdecadetherehasbeenamassiveriseinthelevelofcrime
committedbyteenagersinanumberofcountries.Itisimportantto
establishwhythishashappenedandtolookatwaystosolvetheproblem.
Onereasonisthebreakdowninthenuclearfamily.Thehighdivorce
rateshavemeantmanychildrenhavebeenbroughtupinone-parent
familieswithnofathertoactasarolemodelwhichisdetrimentaltotheir
development.Thisisparticularlyimportantforboys,whowithoutthis
guidanceareeasilyledastraybybadinfluencessuchasdrugsand
crime.Anotherfactoristhelackofthingstodofortheyoung.For
example,intheUK,manytelevisionprogramsaboutthisissuehave
shownthatteenagershangaroundintheeveningswithlittleto
do.Whenthishappens,theboredommeanstheywillfindtheirown
entertainment,whichisoftencrime.

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Model Answer
Thereare,however,waystotackletheseproblems.Firstly,
thegovernmentshouldprovidemoresupportforfamilies.Theycould,
forinstance,investmoreintobuildingandstaffingyouthcenterswhich
wouldprovideguidancethroughtheyouthworkersandalsoenable
teenagerstofocustheirattentiononsportandotheractivities.Parents
shouldalsobeencouragedtotakemoreresponsibilityfortheir
children.Ultimately,theonusisonthemtoensuretheirchildrenare
broughtupinalovingenvironmentwhichwouldmakethemlesslikelyto
turntocrime.Theycould,forexample,findamalerelativetoactasarole
model.
Therefore,itisclearthattherearevariousreasonsforthisriseincrime,
butsolutionsareavailable.Ifwebegintotackletheissuenow,wemay
beabletopreventthesituationfromdecliningfurther.

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Comment and reflect
•Comment the sample answer.
•Task Achievement (25%)
•Coherence and Cohesion (25%)
•Lexical Resource (25%)
•Grammatical Range and Accuracy (25%)
•Reflect the following question: How does task two in
IELTSwriting relate to our academic study?

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A Reflective task
1.How to Plan an Essay
•Writing an essay without a plan is like trying to put IKEA furniture
together without any instructions. You will get half way through it, get
lost and frustrated and you will lose control of your entire essay.
•A good plan should be like a map that guides you through the essay
and makes sure you get to where the examiner wants you to go. Every
sentence should have purpose, if you are just writing for the sake of
writing then it won’t be a very good essay. Less is more in many
cases and a good plan makes sure that every single sentence has a
purpose.

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A Reflective task
1.How to Plan an Essay
Paragraph 1-Introduction
Sentence 1-Paraphrase Sentence
Sentence 2-These Statement –advantages outweigh disadvantages
Sentence 3-Outline Statement –Advantages-happiness Disadvantages-technology
Paragraph 2-Why advantages are strong
Sentence 4-Topic Sentence –happiness
Sentence 5-Explanation –death causes unhappiness and longer lives lead to happiness
Sentence 6-Example –Okinawaand Sardinia
Paragraph 3-Why disadvantage are weak
Sentence 7-Topic Sentence –technology
Sentence 8-Explanation –technology can solve any of the drawbacks
Sentence 9-Example –GM crops and renewableenergy
Paragraph 4-Conclusion
Sentence 1-Summary of main points

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A Reflective task
2. How to Paraphrase
•Paraphrasing is simply re-writing a phrase or sentence so that it has
the same meaning, but with different words.
•Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn before doing
your writing in English. It is most important for writing and speaking,
but will also help you in the reading and listening.
•In other words, if you know how to paraphrase you are more likely to
success in your academic career you need.

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A Reflective task
2. How to Paraphrase
•Let’s look at an example.
•Example: Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn
before doing your IELTStest.
•Paraphrased: Prior to taking the IELTStest, mastering paraphrasing is
one of the most crucial things to do.

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A Reflective task
2. How to Paraphrase
•Method Number 1: Using Synonyms
Synonyms are different words that have the same meaning. For example,
‘humans’ is a synonym of ‘people’ and ‘attractive’ is a synonym of ‘beautiful’.
This method simply replaces words with the same meaning in order to
produce a new sentence.
For example:
•My car needs petrol.
•My vehicle requires fuel.

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A Reflective task
2. How to Paraphrase
•Method Number 2: Change the Word Order
Changing the word order also allows us to effectively paraphrase a sentence,
but again, we have to be careful.
•Question:As languages such as Spanish, Chinese and English become
more widely used, there is a fear that that many minority languages may
die out.
•Paraphrased by changing word order:There is a fear that many minority
languages may die out, as languages such as Spanish, Chinese and English
become more widely used.

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A Reflective task
2. How to Paraphrase
•Method Number 3: Change the Form of the Word
There are many different forms of words including nouns, verbs, adjectives
and adverbs. Changing the form of a word allows us to paraphrase effectively.
•Question:Longer life spans and improvements in the health of older
people suggest that people over the age of sixty-five can continue to live
full and active lives.
•Paraphrased by changing word form:Longer life spans and
improvements in the health of older peopleare suggestingthat people
over the age of sixty-five can continuelivingfull and active lives.

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A Reflective task
2. How to Paraphrase
•Method Number 4: Change from Active to Passive
The passive voice is often used in academic writing
•We often use the passive voice in academic writing when we don’t
want to say it is our opinion.
•Example active: People say that global warming is caused by the burning
of fossil fuels.
•Example passive: Global warming is said to be caused by the burning of
fossil fuels.

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A Reflective task
3. Coherence and Cohesion
•How to create coherent and cohesive paragraph?
•Unity
•Coherence
•Transition

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Whatisthedefinitionofaparagraph?
A paragraph is a group of related sentences that discuss
one (and usually only one) main idea.
There are three criteria of a good paragraph:
Unity
Coherence
Transition

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Unity
•Definition: unity means a paragraph discuss one and only one
main idea from the beginning to the end; every supporting
sentence must directly explain or prove the main idea.
•Note:
•To achieve unity you must:
1.Discuss only one idea in a paragraph.
2.Always stay on the topic in the supporting sentences.

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How do you think of the following paragraph?
Adventuretravelisthehottrendinthetourismindustry.Ordinarypeople
arenolongercontenttospendtheirtwoweeksawayfromtheofficeresting
onasunnybeachinFlorida.Moreandmoreoften,theyarechoosingto
spendtheirvacationsraftingdownwildrivers,hikingthroughsteamyrain
forests,climbingtheworld'shighestmountains,orcrossingslippery
glaciers.Peopleofallagesarechoosingeducationalstudytoursfortheir
vacations.

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Coherence
Definition: for coherence in writing, the sentences must hold
together; that is, the movements from one sentence to the next
must be logic and smooth; there must be no sudden jumps.
•Four ways to achieve coherence:
1.Repeat key nouns.
2. Use consistent pronouns
3. Use transition signals to link ideas.
4. Arrange your ideas in logical order.

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1) Repeat the key noun
English
Englishhasalmostbecomeaninternationallanguage.ExceptforChinese,
morepeoplespeakitthananyotherlanguage.Spanishistheofficial
languageofmorecountriesintheworld,butmorecountrieshaveitastheir
officialorunofficialsecondlanguage.Morethan70percentoftheworld's
mailiswritteninit.ItistheprimarylanguageontheInternet.Ininternational
business,itisusedmorethananyotherlanguage,anditisthelanguageof
airlinepilotsandairtrafficcontrollersallovertheworld.'Moreover,
althoughFrenchusedtobethelanguageofdiplomacy,ithasdisplacedit
throughouttheworld,Therefore,unlessyouplantospendyourlifealoneon
adesertislandinthemiddle-ofthePacificOcean,itisausefullanguageto
know.
The key noun is never repeated.

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2) Consistent pronouns
•Use the same person or number throughout the paragraph
•Don’t change youto heor she
•Don’t change heto they

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3) Transition
Transitionsignalsareexpressionssuchas,first,finally,and
however,orphrasessuchasinconclusion,ontheotherhand,andasa
result.Otherkindsofwordssuchassubordinators(when,although),
coordinators(and,but),adjectives(another,additional),and
prepositions(becauseof,inspiteof)canserveastransitionsignals.

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3) Transition signals
Transition signals are expressions like:
•Words: first, however……
•Phrases like in conclusion, on the other hand or as a result.
•Subordinators (when, although),
•Coordinates (and, but ),
•Adjective( another, additional)
•Prepositions( because of, in spite of )

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4) Logical order
•Chronological order
•Logical order of division of ideas
•Comparison / contrast

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A Reflective task
4. How to write a paragraph?
•Topic Sentence
•Supporting Sentence
•Conclusion Sentence

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What is a paragraph?
•A group of related sentences that discuss one (usually one）
main idea.
•A paragraph can be as short as one sentence, or as long as ten
sentences, but it should develop the main idea clearly.
•The first word should be indented about a half inches from the
left margin.

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The topic sentence
1. Functions: indicating the topic and controlling ideas of a paragraph.
2. Constituents: the topic and controlling ideas.
3. Requirements:
•A topic sentence is a complete sentence with a subject and a verb.
•It doesn't neither too general nor too specific.
4.Position: usually the first sentence of a paragraph.
•Experience writers sometimes put the topic sentence in other locations , but the
best spot is usually right at the beginning.
•Sometimes it comes at the end. In this case, the paragraph often begins with a
series of examples. Other paragraphs may begin with a series of facts, and the
topic sentence at the end is the conclusion from these facts.

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How to identify a topic sentence?
•A complete sentence. (contains at least one subject and one verb.)
•Contains both a topic and a controlling idea. (names the topic and then limits
the topic to a specific area.)
Examples of good topic sentences.
1.Driving on freeways requires skill and alertness.
2.Registering for college classes can be a frustrating experience for new students.
3.The rise of indie film is due to several factors.
•The most general statement and does not give any specific details.
Examples
The Arabic origin of many English words is not always obvious.
×The slang expression so long (meaning “good-bye”) is probably a corruption of the Arabic
salaam. (too specific)
×English has been influenced by other languages (too general)

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Supporting Sentences
•Definition: Explain or prove the topic sentence. (Students need to use
specific details to be thorough and convincing.)
•Types: examples:
1.It can be form your own knowledge and experience.
2.Make your writing interesting and lively.
3.Example phrases: for example, for instance, such as.
•Statistics
•quotations

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Concluding Sentences
Purposes:
1.It signals the end of the paragraph.
2.It leaves the reader with the most important ideas to remember.
Ways to conclude:
1.y summarizing the main points of the paragraph.
2.y repeating the topic sentence in different words.
Note:Concluding sentence is not necessary to a multiparagraphessay.

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The Concluding Sentence
Singles:
1. Followed by a comma:
•Finally, lastly, in brief, in conclusion, indeed, in short, therefore, thus,
to sum up
2. Not followed by a comma:
•The evidence suggests that, there can be no doubt that, these
examples show that, we can see that

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The Concluding Sentence
Notes:
1.Many writing teachers thinkin conclusionand in summaryare
overused and so will not want to use them.
2. Don't use at lastas an end-of-paragraph signal.
•At last means at the end of a long period of a time.

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