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IELTS Academic Writing Task Two- Tips and Useful Phrases

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

What to do and not to do in IELTS Writing Task 2 review, starting with crossing off bad tips and ending with brainstorming useful language for doing the good things.

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Lesson Plan Content:


IELTS Academic Writing Task Two tips and useful phrases

What advice would you give on writing IELTS Writing Task Two essays?

Possible topics to give advice on:

  • Before the exam
  • Analysing the question
  • Planning/ Paragraphing
  • Introduction
  • Writing
  • Summary/ Conclusion
  • Editing

 

Cross off any of the tactics below which are bad ideas/ which are not true.

Preparation for the test

  • It’s worth doing extra timed writing practice even if no one can correct it
  • The answers at the back of exam practice books are perfect models which you should copy as much as possible
  • Memorise model answers from the internet and just change a few words and sentences to make your answer in the exam
  • Make a note of your typical errors in IELTS Writing and go back to them many times to check that you can remember the correct versions

 

Analysing the question

  • Always underline important words in the question
  • There’s no need to read and underline instructions like “Give reasons” because they are the same in every question
  • “To what extent do you agree or disagree?” questions are basically the same as “Look at both sides and then…” questions
  • With “To what extent do you agree or disagree?” questions, you always have to look at both sides of the argument
  • With “To what extent…?” questions, you must say how strong or weak your opinion is
  • With a looking at both sides question like “What are the advantages and disadvantages of…?”, one advantage and one disadvantage is enough
  • If a question includes a word with -s like “causes”, “reasons”, “effects”, “solutions” or “advantages”, then you have to write about more than one

 

Planning/ Paragraphing

  • If you can think of a good paragraph structure/ organisation/ plan right away, there is no need to do any brainstorming, and you should avoid brainstorming if you can
  • Brainstorm as many ideas as you can before deciding on the structure of your essay/ your plan
  • Spend about 10 minutes planning
  • Most IELTS essays have four paragraphs (two main paragraphs in the body plus an introduction and summary or conclusion)
  • If you are only looking at one side of the argument, you can have three main paragraphs in the body, with one paragraph for each of the reasons for your opinion
  • If you look at two advantages and two disadvantages, you need four paragraphs in the body (i.e. six paragraphs in total)

 

Introduction

  • Rephrase the question in your introduction
  • Before rephrasing the question, you might need to give background to the question (why it is important, relevant, something that you might want to write about, etc)
  • Any background sentence is okay, so you can always use “… is a controversial topic”
  • Spend a couple of minutes to make sure you don’t repeat any words from the question when you are rephrasing it
  • If you can’t think of a word with the same meaning as one in the question when you are rephrasing, just change the grammar (e.g. change from a verb to a noun)
  • If you can’t think of a word with the same meaning as one in the question when you are rephrasing, just use one with more or less the same meaning
  • Give your own opinion in the introduction if you will only look at one side of the argument
  • Give your own opinion in the introduction if you will look at both sides of the argument
  • End the introduction with a sentence that explains the structure of the essay/ the topic of each paragraph below

 

Writing

  • Use different kinds of support (personal experience, other people’s experiences, things you read or heard, data, logical arguments such as cause and effect, etc) for each argument that you mention
  • Make up imaginary data to support your arguments
  • Make up quotes and the places they came from to support your arguments
  • If you happen to know very relevant data, quotes, sources, etc, you should probably explain why, to show that it isn’t made up
  • One or two sentences is enough support for each argument that you write about
  • Make sure that the body paragraphs are similar lengths to each other

 

Summary/ Conclusion

  • All IELTS Academic Writing Task Two essays should end with a summary and then your own opinion
  • One sentence is okay for a final paragraph
  • If you looked at both sides, you need to clearly show why one side is more important (for young people, in your country, in the future, etc) when you come to a conclusion
  • If what you have written leads to a conclusion that is the opposite of your own opinion, write the former rather than the latter
  • It’s okay to totally sit on the fence between two positions in your conclusion

 

Editing

  • Make sure you leave at least three or four minutes for a final edit
  • Count the exact number of words to check that you have reached the word limit
  • Count the number of words in two lines, calculate how many words per line, then count how many lines to check that you have reached the word limit
  • Make sure that the examiner can understand without having to read anything twice
  • Make sure that your essay is really neat (= tidy = not messy)
  • Use an eraser to get rid of all mistakes
  • It’s okay to correct by crossing things out, using triangles/ arrows to add words, etc
  • You can insert one or two extra sentences with an arrow to improve the structure or reach the minimum number of words
  • Add higher level language/ more impressive language while you edit
  • Also get rid of repetitions (rephrasing, using reference expressions, etc) while editing

Hint: 22 tips above need to be crossed off.

Compare your ideas with the suggested answers below.


Suggested answers

The bad advice is in bold.

Preparation for the test

  • It’s worth doing extra timed writing practice even if no one can correct it
  • The answers at the back of exam practice books are perfect models which you should copy as much as possible
  • Memorise model answers from the internet and just change a few words and sentences to make your answer in the exam
  • Make a note of your typical errors in IELTS Writing and go back to them many times to check that you can remember the correct versions

 

Analysing the question

  • Always underline important words in the question
  • There’s no need to read and underline instructions like “Give reasons” because they are the same in every question
  • “To what extent do you agree or disagree?” questions are basically the same as “Look at both sides and then…” questions
  • With “To what extent do you agree or disagree?” questions, you always have to look at both sides of the argument
  • With “To what extent…?” questions, you must say how strong or weak your opinion is
  • With a looking at both sides question like “What are the advantages and disadvantages of…?”, one advantage and one disadvantage is enough
  • If a question includes a word with -s like “causes”, “reasons”, “effects”, “solutions” or “advantages”, then you have to write about more than one

 

Planning/ Paragraphing

  • If you can think of a good paragraph structure/ organisation/ plan right away, there is no need to do any brainstorming, and you should avoid brainstorming if you can
  • Brainstorm as many ideas as you can before deciding on the structure of your essay/ your plan
  • Spend about 10 minutes planning
  • Most IELTS essays have four paragraphs (two main paragraphs in the body plus an introduction and summary or conclusion)
  • If you are only looking at one side of the argument, you can have three main paragraphs in the body, with one paragraph for each of the reasons for your opinion
  • If you look at two advantages and two disadvantages, you need four paragraphs in the body (i.e. six paragraphs in total)

 

Introduction

  • Rephrase the question in your introduction
  • Before rephrasing the question, you might need to give background to the question (why it is important, relevant, something that you might want to write about, etc)
  • Any background sentence is okay, so you can always use “… is a controversial topic”
  • Spend a couple of minutes to make sure you don’t repeat any words from the question when you are rephrasing it
  • If you can’t think of a word with the same meaning as one in the question when you are rephrasing, just change the grammar (e.g. change from a verb to a noun)
  • If you can’t think of a word with the same meaning as one in the question when you are rephrasing, just use one with more or less the same meaning
  • Give your own opinion in the introduction if you will only look at one side of the argument
  • Give your own opinion in the introduction if you will look at both sides of the argument
  • End the introduction with a sentence that explains the structure of the essay/ the topic of each paragraph below

 

Writing

  • Use different kinds of support (personal experience, other people’s experiences, things you read or heard, data, logical arguments such as cause and effect, etc) for each argument that you mention
  • Make up imaginary data to support your arguments
  • Make up quotes and the places they came from to support your arguments
  • If you happen to know very relevant data, quotes, sources, etc, you should probably explain why, to show that it isn’t made up
  • One or two sentences is enough support for each argument that you write about
  • Make sure that the body paragraphs are similar lengths to each other

 

Summary/ Conclusion

  • All IELTS Academic Writing Task Two essays should end with a summary and then your own opinion
  • One sentence is okay for a final paragraph
  • If you looked at both sides, you need to clearly show why one side is more important (for young people, in your country, in the future, etc) when you come to a conclusion
  • If what you have written leads to a conclusion that is the opposite of your own opinion, write the former rather than the latter
  • It’s okay to totally sit on the fence between two positions in your conclusion

 

Editing

  • Make sure you leave at least three or four minutes for a final edit
  • Count the exact number of words to check that you have reached the word limit
  • Count the number of words in two lines, calculate how many words per line, then count how many lines to check that you have reached the word limit
  • Make sure that the examiner can understand without having to read anything twice
  • Make sure that your essay is really neat (= tidy = not messy)
  • Use an eraser to get rid of all mistakes
  • It’s okay to correct by crossing things out, using triangles/ arrows to add words, etc
  • You can insert one or two extra sentences with an arrow to improve the structure or reach the minimum number of words
  • Add higher level language/ more impressive language while you edit
  • Also get rid of repetitions (rephrasing, using reference expressions, etc) while editing

Brainstorm useful phrases for doing the things in italics above.

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