How To Write A Perfect IELTS Writing Task 2 Answer

IELTS Writing Task 2 Format

You have 40 minutes to complete Task 2 and must write a MINIMUM of 250 words. There is no upper limit.

The first 5-10 minutes should be spent making notes and preparing an answer, then around 25-30 minutes writing the essay and then the last 5-10 minutes proof-reading your essay.

Question Formats

Most questions follow one of the following formats:

• Discuss both sides of the argument.
• Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
• What are the solutions? How can this be solved?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages?
• What are the positives and negatives?

Depending on the type of question, you must decide how you want to approach it. For a question asking you to discuss both sides of an argument or advantages/disadvantages or positives/negatives, you’ll need to brainstorm both sides of the argument quickly.

For a question asking you whether you agree or disagree, you’ll need to decide which side of the argument has the better arguments that you can develop easily and go with that. Don’t try to take the position with fewer good arguments even if you agree with it as you’re just making life hard for yourself.

At the end of the day, the examiner is not interested in what your position is or what you support. They only care about how well you can present and develop your arguments.

For a question asking you about how something can be solved or fixed, you need to quickly think up as many solutions as you can and then run with the solutions you think are best and can be developed the most easily.

Structuring Your Task 2 Essay

Once you have made your plan (pick a position and written down the key points), you need to start writing the actual essay.

For a question asking for you whether you agree/disagree, what is your opinion, the structure is:

Introduction – state your position and don’t repeat the question.

Point 1 – justifications/reasons

Point 2 – justifications/reasons

Point 3 – justifications/reasons

Point 4 – justifications/reasons - optional

Conclusion – reiterate your position and finish, doesn’t need to be long.

For a question asking for the pros and cons, advantages/disadvantages etc, the structure should be as follows:

Introduction – introduce both sides of the argument and which one you think is stronger. (Here we think the advantages are stronger.)

Point 1 – state the advantage and then state the relevant disadvantages.

Point 2 – state the advantage and then state the relevant disadvantages.

Point 3 – state the advantage and then state the relevant disadvantages.

Point 4 – state the advantage and then state the relevant disadvantages - optional.

Conclusion – state why you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

If you think that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, then you would flip this, so it would be:

Point – state the disadvantage and then the relevant advantages.

If you pick three strong points, then you will have enough content to write a lot more than 250 words. That is a total of five paragraphs: an introduction, one paragraph for each of the three points and a conclusion. Writing a fourth or fifth point/paragraph is unnecessary.

For a question like `What could be done to encourage more people to take interest in the arts?`, you would need to brainstorm as many ideas as possible and then explain how:

Introduction

Point 1, 2, 3: How to get people involved in the arts. Why this method would work, any downsides.

Conclusion

Practical Example

Let’s put all this into practice and take a look at a practical example of how this might look like.

In many countries, people now wear western-style dress such as suits and jeans rather than traditional clothing.
Why is this? Is this a positive or negative development?

For this question, we need to think of the positives and negatives of wearing western-style clothing instead of more traditional clothing.

To save time, I’m not going to write an introduction or conclusion and will just focus on the how to structure the paragraphs, which are the nuts and bolts of the essay. I’ve also put this question through the ielts.bot idea generator and you can see the results below:

As you can see, it’s given us a good place to start. After reviewing the arguments, I’m going to go with the positives which are: access to better paid jobs, comfort and greater personal freedom. You may disagree and go with the negatives. It really doesn’t matter what your position is, so long as you are able to develop your arguments in a coherent and logical way.

The cool thing about the ideas generator is that it’s also given me some supporting points, so I already have somewhere to start – all I need to do is put these arguments together.

For the first argument, I need to state how western clothing helps people get access to better paid jobs.

I think that by adopting western dress, people in developing countries can gain access to better paid jobs and ultimately make themselves wealthier. Most companies around the world require people to dress formally which usually means wearing a suit and tie or a formal dress for a woman. By dressing in a standardised way, this signals professionalism and builds trust behind different parties when collaborating at a multinational level.

This is my first argument which I took straight from the ideas generator. I stated the purpose of this paragraph in the first sentence, then backed it up with a couple of supporting ideas in the proceeding sentences.

That’s it. That’s called “developing an argument” in IELTS parlance. This is not rocket science or arcane academia. You don’t need to give evidence, quotations or citations to support what you’re saying. So long as the ideas are related and make sense, then you’re onto a winner.

Give your reason why you support it – then back it up. Then do this a couple more times and conclude the essay. That’s what the examiner wants and that’s what will score you a high mark for Task Response and Coherence & Cohesion.

Now, let’s just remind ourselves of the Band Descriptors for a Band 9 and start with Task Response:

The prompt is appropriately addressed and explored in depth. A clear and fully developed position is presented which directly answers the question/s. Ideas are relevant, fully extended and supported. Any lapses in content or support are extremely rare.

By taking this approach, we have addressed the prompt appropriately and in depth. We gave our answer: “it’s positive” and then we gave reasons as to why it’s positive and supported those reasons with valid arguments which adds the “depth” aspect.

The rest of the Band Descriptor is rather repetitive, so we can say that we are on course for a Band 9 here.

Now let’s look at Coherence & Cohesion:

The message can be followed effortlessly. Cohesion is used in such a way that it very rarely attracts attention. Any lapses in coherence or cohesion are minimal. Paragraphing is skillfully managed.

Now, if our Task Achievement was done properly, then we get a 9 for Coherence & Cohesion for free. We stated our position clearly at the beginning and we developed our arguments appropriately as mentioned earlier. Our paragraphs were set up as mini essays – argument / reason / reason structure, so our paragraphing should be perfect here too.

If you follow this method when you take IELTS writing Task 2, you can easily score highly for Task Achievement – there is one catch though. If your grammar and vocabulary are weak, then it’s impossible to get a good score here, so you must firstly sort that out, then work on writing logical and coherent paragraphs and essays.

There’s no way to scam or bullshit your way through the test. You have to have strong grammar skills with very few mistakes in each sentence. The best way to work out how many mistakes you’re making per sentence is to sign up here and submit essays. IELTS Bot will show you which sentences have errors and how to correct them.

For the real test, my advice is that you should avoid using sentences where you are not fully confident whether they are correct or not. If you keep making mistakes, then you will get hammered for grammar and it will ultimately affect your score as a whole.

One finally tip is that you should refrain from using fancy words when there is a simpler alternative. This is a really common fallacy held by candidates on how to score well for lexical recourse. To get a decent score for vocab, you don’t need to have the examiner reaching for a dictionary every five seconds.

Just keep it simple and make sure the examiner can easily follow your arguments and points. By doing so, you can achieve a high IELTS writing score.