IELTS Writing Task 2: Opinion - Ideas & Introduction

hi I'm Alex I'm an ex IELTS examiner and an expert teacher here at e2 language how do you come up with ideas for your IELTS writing task 2 and how do you develop those ideas into paragraphs in an opinion essay that's what we're going to explore in this video I'm going to talk about idea generation before the test as well as on test day I'm going to share with you a life saving tip which will help you to score bound 7 and above and I'm gonna write an introduction and invite you to do the same so let's talk idea generation before the test we're lucky these days that we have access to the Internet and you should be leveraging that to your advantage in your IELTS preparation when you get an essay topic any essay topic even a really simple one like we're gonna use today you should take the time to google it and try to read or listen to something on that topic not only will it give you a different perspective maybe or somebody else's opinion but it's a great way to find topic-specific vocabulary and collocations that you can integrate into your own writing into your own language here's the topic we're gonna work with today all students should study art and music in school to what extent do you agree or disagree now that's a fairly simple topic and maybe you already have ideas on the subject but in your preparation you should still google it I'm not gonna teach you how to Google but I do want to just give you a couple of suggestions so one is to just type in something like these benefits of art music education see what pops up and another idea is to put the name of a resource or a newspaper that you like in front of it here's a couple that I would really recommend one is the conversation if you type the conversation art education into Google you're going to get access to a range of articles the great thing about the conversation is that the articles are written by academics and often by researchers so in terms of IELTS this is goldmine because a lot of these writers are giving their personal opinion yeah personal opinion but professional opinion is probably a better way to put it and they've often done research into the area as well so you can look at their opinion you can look at their studies look at their research and integrate that when it comes to writing your own tasks too so check out the conversation another really good resource is the Guardian if you type in The Guardian music education or art education you're also gonna find some really interesting articles and we have a resource for you as well our e to Isles topic toolkits these are resources that we release regularly this is the art topic toolkit and each one contains essay topics on that theme as well as speaking questions in this case around the topic of art it has a sample essay it has a list of 15 to 20 words related to that topic as well as this which is what I really want to talk about the resources section so here we've already done the googling for you and we've found a bunch of things for you to read or listen to or watch around the topic and all you need to do is just click on the link and you'll find an article like this one for instance and once you're there of course you can just read the article quickly to get the overall point or you might want to read a bit more deeply looking for the writer's opinion looking for the evidence that they've used the explanations that they've given you could transfer some of the words into your vocabulary system your book your flashcards look for academic collocations you can also write a summary of the article which is or a summary of paragraphs as well a great way to build your IELTS reading skills at the same time as building your writing skills from this particular article I've just drawn out a couple of sentences and I'll show you how valuable they can be here's the first look engaging with art is essential to the human experience almost as soon as motor skills are developed children communicate through artistic expression notice the collocations here engaging with as soon as motor skills artistic expressions great words and collocations that you could use in your own essay also look at the grammar here we've got passive voice let's see another one we find that a substantial increase in arts educational experiences has remarkable impacts on students academic social and emotional outcomes again nice collocations a substantial increase has impacts on and some really good ideas that you could put into an essay the impacts on academic social and emotional outcomes here's another part from the same text have a look through and think about what language or ideas you could integrate into your essay so ideas collocations vocabulary the point is googling is a really good idea before your test but when it comes to test day how do we generate ideas so I imagine you're in the test center you're sitting at the computer or you have your pen and paper at your desk and you've got that essay topic in front of you hopefully you just read an article and listen to a podcast on the topic but either way you need to generate ideas how do you do it and more importantly how do you then develop those ideas into strong body paragraphs now before we start planning definitely before we start writing the first thing that you should do is really read the question carefully even a very simple question like this because there's a lot in it let's have a look it starts all students should study out of music in school all students meaning students of all ages all levels of interest all levels of ability they should all study art and music even this modal verb is interesting all students should study art and music does that mean it should be compulsory or just available and of course our nouns art and music both of them here you have to think about are they both equally important do you think all students should study art and not music perhaps and in school so is that primary school or is that high school for some of these you need to make that decision yourself the most important part is here to what extent do you agree or disagree so this is really the point of this essay it's asking for you for your opinion what do you think about it so of course you could 100% agree you might say yes all students should study art of music in school in high school in primary school it's a good idea you could explain whether you think it should be compulsory or just optional and why and then your essay really needs to get into the benefits of it you might want to disagree perhaps you think art music are a waste of time and that there are more important subjects students should be doing you may feel that art and music could be pursuits that could be followed outside of school hours for instance can you be in the middle so this is a question we get a lot can I be in the middle or can I be both and not really because you can't say yes all students should study art and music in school and no or students shouldn't study art and music in school there are contradictory opinions however you can take what we would call it nuanced position where for example you might say that yes art should be taught throughout high school but music should not so that is sort of considered in the middle nuanced but before we get into that I want to look at these which is the IELTS marking criteria and the reason that I go on about opinion clear opinion is because of the criteria this is what can make or break you in IELTS so let's just zoom in on this criterion over here task response I should mention by the way if you want to know more about how your writing is marked particularly your task 2 essay we do have a video click the link to find out exactly what happens and to find out the difference between an six writing and then seven writing so over here in task response BAM seven the second bullet point says presents a clear position throughout the response clear position I simply cannot afford to confuse your examiner if they get to the end of your essay and feel a little bit unsure about what you think then you're not going to score band seven so it's really in your best interests to make your opinion very very explicit to the examiner if you don't you risk being down here in the four three two zone Ben 3 says does not express a clear position so of course we want to avoid that and be back up here at Bound seven notice this really important word though clear position throughout the response so in this type of essay in particular it is not enough to have your opinion just in the conclusion it has to be throughout if you want to score them seven or above you may have a very clear opinion presented perhaps in body 2 and in the conclusion but the examiner cannot tick band 7 if your opinions not clear throughout so just keep that in mind basically for any IELTS writing task 2 but definitely for opinion essays with that in mind let's think about how we're going to develop our ideas and let's say you 100% agree with this topic you're gonna have the same essay structure that we always use the intro body body and a conclusion we'll just talk about body 1 here this is really where your idea development is going to come into play the first thing your paragraphs gonna have is a main point and this is the topic sentence or the first sentence of the paragraph so in this case it might be something like I think all students should study art and music in school because it is beneficial for their academic development that's the main point you want to make our music have a pause impact on other academic skills then you have an explanation you have to tell me why or how how do art a music have an impact on other academic subjects give me an example or evidence so you could make up a study here or use the study that you know about or just draw on an example from your knowledge or experience as the instructions always tell you in IELTS the other thing to think about is the effect I've got two questions here so what so what I mean by this is we might be saying that our music have a positive impact on other academic subjects and I'll explain how that happens I'll give an example or an evidence or some evidence rather then I've got to ask myself what's the impact of that what's the bigger impact so yes maybe our music will improve student's academic performance but how will that affect the rest of their life how will that affect their future how will that affect education or society more broadly so that question there is just an extra step in your idea development an extra step a very valuable step the other question I've got there is if not this is looking at the question from another perspective it could be what do other people think and why they're wrong or it could be what if students do not study art music in school what might happen there for body two you'd go through that same process asking yourself what's my main point why how what some evidence to support it what's the bigger impact the so what and what's the if not what if this did not happen if you 100% disagree you're gonna go through the same steps main point explanation example effect so keep these questions in your mind they're really useful for any IELTS essay topic ask yourself what why how evidence so what if not let's get on to the introduction here now I'm going to presume that you know how to write an IELTS task 2 introduction and if not you can watch our video here on YouTube or learn more in our IELTS course on e to language comm but of course we're using the same topic here in my introduction I basically want to do three things first of all I want to set the scene or give you some context for my essay the second thing that I want to do is zoom in from there onto the question more specifically so my first sentence might be talking about education in general my second sentence is going to be dealing with the question at hand particularly there art and music factor third thing I want to do is give you my opinion remember clear position throughout the essay so here's an example the school curriculum is a fluid entity often changing to reflect societal and cultural values this is my neutral background statement I'm just setting the scene setting the context now I'm going to zoom in to the question the inclusion of art and music in it in the curriculum is inevitably a source of much debate particularly in schools and communities that consider them to be soft or frivolous subjects third sentence this is going to be my opinion personally as a strong supporter of arts education I feel that these subject ought to be compulsory in primary school and available as optional electives at higher levels so when an examiner reads that introduction there is no doubt in their mind what I think about this question now my job is to maintain that consistency throughout the essay and restate my opinion again in the conclusion it's your turn I want you to have a go now I'm gonna give you another essay topic now still on the art theme and I want you to write your introduction into the comments section below what I'll be looking for is that position it doesn't matter if you 100% agree 100% disagree or take a nuanced position but I want to I want to really understand what your opinion is at the end of those three sentences here is our question creative artists should always be given freedom to express their own ideas in words pictures music or film in whichever way they wish there should be no government restrictions on what they do to what extent do you agree or disagree now before you panic remember that we're not in the test now this is the time to get on Google so have a look at the conversation have a look at the Guardian and feel free to share your own resources with us as well to recap take the time to put in the work before test a youth Google on test day itself be sure to analyze the question carefully before planning before writing youth questions to fully develop your ideas do you remember the questions what why how evidence so what if not and of course make sure that your opinion is clear from top to bottom throughout your essay if you need help we are there for you on e to language come come and join us you can sign up for free we have daily live classes led by our expert teachers you can get feedback on your speaking and writing we have a full IELTS course as well as one-on-one tutorials and heaps heaps more thank you for watching I look forward to reading your introductions and I'll see you in class soon on e t-- language comm I [Music]

Channel: E2 IELTS

Views: 159,500

Keywords: IELTS, E2 IELTS, IELTS E2, IELTS writing, ielts reading, ielts speaking, ielts listening, E2, e2, ielts listening test, the ielts listening test, ielts 2019, ielts reading test, the ielts reading test, e2 language ielts, ielts writing task 2, IELTS Speaking test, IELTS practice, speaking IELTS, e2language, e2 language, ielts band 8, ielts academic, ielts course, ielts tutorial, ielts lesson plan, Writing Task 2, How, to, think, of, Ideas, IELTS Writing, ielts writing

Id: RRi7LgrFPvw

Length: 17min 35sec (1055 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 19 2019