IELTS Writing Task 2 Basics - How to Organize Your Essay

hi there I'm IELTS master Li and this lesson is on IELTS writing task 2 how to organize your essay this is a very important video for those of you who are just learning how to do IELTS writing task 2 but even if you have a lot of experience with writing task 2 this video can help you as well let's get started first let's look at the four paragraph essay but before we do that why is writing structure important why is organizing important well this is because it helps you organize your thoughts write faster which of course is very important on the IELTS and focus on your ideas and language if you need to think about what kind of structure you need then it takes away your ideas and the language or grammar and vocabulary but if you have a good structure then you can focus on your ideas and your language and that makes everything easier so I recommend using 4 paragraphs for the IELTS writing task 2 essay first is the introduction next is body paragraph one third is body paragraph two and last is the conclusion and so again we have the introduction where you talk about the topic and answer the question in a general way the first body paragraph the second body paragraph in both of these you're talking about details and examples and then finally the conclusion where you summarize your ideas and your opinion possibly from the other parts of the essay and you can also add a few small details from the body paragraphs in your conclusion now this isn't the only way to write an IELTS essay but I think it's the easiest why is it the easiest because you can use this structure this for paragraph structure for all of the different IELTS writing task 2 question types and that's what we're going to look at now task 2 question types so first we have the opinion question - for example to what extent do you agree or disagree they have some kind of topic and then they ask you to what extent do you agree or disagree next we have the discussion question it has two different topics or two different sides of one topic and asks you to discuss both sides and give your own opinion after that task type number three is the problem-solving question for example explain this problem and suggest some solutions and then finally we have the two-part question type and we'll take a look at an example of this later but basically instead of just one question like to what extent do you agree or disagree there are two questions all right now there are different ways to talk about question types but I think these four are useful for most almost all IELTS questions but remember opinion questions and discussion questions are the most common types so you need to prepare extra well for these types all right let's continue let's look at opinion question structure so we're looking at four paragraphs for all of these things the introduction body paragraph 1 body paragraph 2 and conclusion 4 opinion questions let's take a look at an example question as well as making money businesses also have social responsibilities to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement alright so it's asking me for my opinion to what extent do you agree or disagree in the introduction first we're going to over one introduce the topic this will be your first sentence in your essay and then you should give your opinion give your general opinion in the beginning now opinions can be different you can agree you can strongly disagree you can disagree you can strongly agree or you can have a balanced opinion where maybe you agree but there are also some parts you disagree with and that's possible for some questions as well so in the introduction you'll introduce the topic and then give your opinion in body paragraph 1 you'll discuss your opinion with the first theme and body paragraph 2 you'll discuss your opinion with the second theme now what are these themes well when I try to think about an essay even if it's just my opinion that I'm writing about I usually try to have different groups of ideas for something so I group these into themes and I try to keep one group of ideas for my opinion in the first paragraph and one group of my ideas for my opinion in the second paragraph if you want some examples of this I suggest you take a look at my IELTS task 2 planning videos we have some opinion questions in there and some of the opinion questions you can see how these themes work for each body paragraph and I'll include the link to those videos in the description below and finally we have the conclusion in the conclusion you're going to re paraphrase the topic or resize the topic and give your opinion with a couple of extra details from your body paragraphs but don't give any new details all right that's very important you don't want to give new details in the conclusion just a couple of extra details from your body paragraphs so if the question is what we have above as well as making money businesses also have social responsibilities to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement my conclusion could be in conclusion I believe that businesses have a strong responsibility to society in addition to making profit because and yeah the idea that you can give a few small reasons from your body paragraphs okay that's just a very easy example of a conclusion now conclusions don't have to be long they can be short and sweet for opinion questions again you can agree disagree or sometimes have a neutral opinion next let's take a look at discussion questions an example question here is some people think that all university students should study what they like others believe that they should only be allowed to study subjects that will be useful in the future such as those related to science and technology discuss both views and give your own opinion now in blue and in green here I've written side a and side B this is not in the real IELTS question okay but it's helpful to know which one is side a and which one is side B what's view a and view B because we have two views we need to talk about and it's very very important to discuss both these views and give your own opinion so in the introduction we're going to introduce the topic both sides and then we're going to give our opinion in the first body paragraph you should discuss one side and in the second body paragraph discuss the other side now one of my special recommendations is that in the first body paragraph you should discuss the side that's the opposite of your opinion and in the second body paragraph you should discuss the side that's the same side as your opinion why because if you do this your conclusion will sound very strong because you're introducing the opposite side first and then you're telling why that sides good but your side is better and then finally in the conclusion you're emphasizing re-emphasizing your opinion after you re paraphrase the topic and give a couple of extra from your body paragraphs remember not to give any new details okay so that's discussion questions and why do we give our opinion in the beginning well I think it's very important to answer the instructions which are discussed both these views and give your own opinion so if you give your opinion in the beginning it will be easier and faster to write a conclusion and if you don't have time to write a really good conclusion you already answered the question in the beginning so you can write a quick and easy conclusion in the end next let's look at problem solving question structure an example question is the number of plants and animals is declining explain this problem and suggest some solutions in the introduction you'll introduce the topic and then suggest that this problem can be solved so you summarized the problem and then suggest that it can be solved you don't need to give a detailed solution but you need to explain there are some solutions and maybe if you can give a very general idea of what kinds of solutions you're proposing in body paragraph 1 you'll explain the problem in detail and give examples in body paragraph 2 you'll suggest some solutions and when you're suggesting solutions try to explain the cause and effect if we do this this will happen ok in your conclusion please summarize the problem and your solution with a few specific details from the body paragraphs don't include any new details and remember your conclusions should be fast and short they don't need to be long ok your ideas for problem solving don't have to be amazing this is not a university essay they are not judging you on the quality of your ideas but your ideas do need to be well supported you need to give examples cause and effect needs to be clear ok so you don't need to be a genius you don't have to be super into elegent it can be a bad idea that's okay but you need to support your idea finally let's look at the two part question structure first the example question happiness is considered very important in life why is it difficult to define what factors are important in achieving happiness further this is a difficult question isn't it in the introduction you need to introduce the topic and then give an overall answer to both questions in body paragraph 1 discuss your answer to the first question and body paragraph 2 is to discuss your answer to the second question and finally in the conclusion you'll reap paraphrase the topic and summarize your answers to each question with a couple of details from your body paragraphs don't include any new details and two-part questions are rare but you should be ready for them alright fantastic thanks so much for listening to this video today I hope it was helpful for you please subscribe to our youtube channel and you can find us at youtube.com slash IELTS master or IELTS - master comm and last but not least tell me what do you want to see next I'm always looking in the comments thanks so much have a fantastic day

Channel: IELTS Master

Views: 288,307

Keywords: IELTS Task 2 Writing, IELTS Writing, IELTS Essay, IELTS Question Types, IELTS Essay Structure, Organizing IELTS Essays

Id: FiP4VAyEw28

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 18 2017