INTRODUCTION TO

IELTS WRITING
 LESSON PLAN
1 What is IELTS Writing task 2?

2 How do examiners grade our responses?

3 How to develop ideas in a paragraph?

4 How to write an effective introduction?

5 In-class practice
 WHAT IS IELTS
01 WRITING TASK 2?
 WHAT IS IELTS WRITING TASK 2

• An essay about various topics, ranging from environment,

business and job, education, crime to government’s
policies or technology.
• Should contain at least 250 words but 240 words are still
accepted by some examiners!
• Should have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a
conclusion.
WHAT IS IELTS WRITING TASK 2
So, how many types of questions are there?
There are in total five question types:
• Opinion essay (Argumentative essay)
• Discussion essay
• Advantage – Disadvantage essay
• Cause – Effect essay
• Two – part questions essay
▶ Can be categorized by the given questions.
02
HOW DO EXAMINERS
GRADE OUR RESPONSES?
 HOW DO EXAMINERS
GRADE OUR RESPONSES?
If you want to excel at this task, you need to understand
what do examiners look for!
There are four criteria:
• Task achievement
• Coherence and Cohesion
• Lexical resources
• Grammatical range and Accuracy
 TASK ACHIEVEMENT
This criterion is used to see how well you respond to the given tasks!

25% 75%
TASK ACHIEVEMENT

You must address all parts of the task!

▶ Must answer all given questions!

▶ Must address all key subjects shown!
TASK ACHIEVEMENT
What must you mention?
■ In the prompt:
○ Petrol (must not focus on other
types of energy?)
○ Traffic problems
○ Pollution problems
○ The best way!
■ In the question:
○ You have to agree or disagree with
this view!
○ You have to come up with solutions!
 TASK ACHIEVEMENT
You must fully develop your ideas!

▪ Develop all ideas until they are fully clear!

▪ Avoid listing too many ideas that you cannot explain!
▪ Each body paragraph must only contain 1 – 2 ideas. No
more!!!
 TASK ACHIEVEMENT

Children can benefit a lot from ● How can they learn teamworking skills?
participating in extracurricular activities. ● How can they obtain leadership skills?
Firstly, they can acquire teamworking ● How can they acquire time management skills?
skills by joining group-based work. Not ● How do time management skills help them in
only that, they can obtain leadership
their daily lives?
skills as well in these sessions. They also
● Why is making more friends important?
can learn how to manage their time
● How do all of these skills help them in their
efficiently, which helps them in their
lives?
daily lives. Not to mention that they can
make a lot of friends.
 TASK ACHIEVEMENT
Children can benefit a lot from participating in extracurricular
activities. First of all, they can acquire teamwork skills by joining
group-based work. Cooperating with others and resolving conflicts would
help children learn how to communicate effectively with their peers and,
simultaneously, how to stay calm when encountering different
viewpoints. Especially among those with confidence, they can practice
commanding their teammates to achieve collective goals, thereby
developing their leadership skills as well. Both of these traits are indeed
valuable for children as they grow up and start facing various situations in
life.
 TASK ACHIEVEMENT

You must present a clear position/opinion throughout the whole

response!
● Do not just state your opinion in the introduction and the
conclusion. Your position should be explained thoroughly in the
body paragraphs!
● If you agree with the given view, do not hesitate to prove it in
your body paragraphs!
● Do not contradict your own opinion!
 TASK ACHIEVEMENT
I agree that studying abroad is beneficial to students.
The primary reason is that they can access educational systems of higher
quality. Modern facilities, for instance, and top-ranked lecturers would
help students dig deeper into their respective majors and, by extension,
build a well-rounded foundation of knowledge. However, I know that not
all students, especially introverted ones, can take advantage of those
features. Such a hesitation would easily translate into them falling behind
in their classes and wasting their parents’ money.
▶ The latter half of the paragraph shows that you DO NOT think studying
abroad is beneficial to students -> Agree and Disagree at the same time!
TASK ACHIEVEMENT

To sum up:

▶ Must address all parts of the task.

▶ Must fully develop all of your ideas.

▶ Must present a consistent opinion.

COHERENCE and COHESION
COHERENCE and COHESION

There should be a clear overall progression

• Must not make jumps in your logics.

• Must proceed your line of reasoning GRADUALLY!

 COHERENCE and COHESION
What not to do:

Firstly, skipping universities can result in future failures for

students. Since they will be taught numerous sets of skill in this
academic level, those dropping out or refusing to attend in the
first place would end up not doing a good job in their future work,
leading to inevitable failures.

▶ Examiners can hardly see the links in your ideas!

 COHERENCE and COHESION
What to do:

Firstly, skipping universities can result in future failures for students.

Since students will miss out many value skills, such as teamworking
or leadership, they can find cooperating with their co-workers or
leading their staff members far more challenging. Not to mention
that they will also lack a sizable part of in-depth knowledge of their
respective majors, which would pose difficulties for them to
advance in their chosen careers. Both of these can slow their
professional progress to a much greater extent.
 COHERENCE and COHESION
First of all, homeschooling is of no benefits for children. In fact, each
child’s mind is vastly different from others’. Therefore, parents need
to understand various teaching methods to properly resolve their
children’s difficulties when being asked. Consequently, not many
parents are trained on this matter, it is safe to say that teaching their
children at home is much less efficient compared to putting them
into the hands of teachers. Therefore, homeschooling may not give
deserving outcomes.

So, what is the problem here?

 COHERENCE and COHESION

First of all, homeschooling is of no benefits for children. In fact, each

child’s mind is vastly different from others’. Therefore, parents need to
understand various teaching methods to properly resolve their children’s
difficulties when being asked. Consequently, not many parents are
trained on this matter, it is safe to say that teaching their children at
home is much less efficient compared to putting them into the hands of
teachers. Therefore, homeschooling may not give deserving outcomes.
 COHERENCE and COHESION
● Use cohesive devices correctly and flexibly.

▪ Must not overuse a cohesive phrase.

▪ Must not use ones you do not understand.

▪ Must not always start a sentence with a cohesive device.

 COHERENCE and COHESION
What is wrong with this paragraph?

First of all, technology can adversely affect children’s behaviors.

Being exposed to a variety of toxic contents, such as violence or
sexual, may alter their mindsets about their surroundings. Not only
that, the blue light from mobile phones’ screens is harmful to the
sight of young users and may result in short-sightedness. Comes
with these drawbacks is that children also be addicted to technology
and refuse to exercise, which is detrimental to their physiques.
 COHERENCE and COHESION
Present a clear central topic in each paragraph.

• The topic sentences are the compass of each paragraph!

• Every following sentences must be used to explain the topic

sentences.

• Any sentences or ideas in sub-sentences that are irrelevant to the

topic sentences should be omitted!

 COHERENCE and COHESION
Here is what you should do:

Firstly, technology can adversely affect children’s behaviors. Being

exposed to a variety of toxic contents, such as violence or sexual, may
alter their mindsets about their surroundings. They, for instance, may
also choose violent engagements once being picked on at schools,
which would hurt them severely. Not to mention that, without proper
understanding of sexual education, unwanted pregnancy may
materialize, posing many difficulties to themselves and to their related.
 LEXICAL RESOURCES
AND
GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY

Few important notes:

1. Vocabulary words must be used correctly and flexibly.

2. Check your spelling.
3. Be aware of writing short sentences and run-on sentences.
4. Be flexible when it comes to sentence structures.
03
HOW TO DEVELOP IDEAS
IN A PARAGRAPH?
 IDEA DEVELOPMENT
Here are some topic sentences for you, develop them into a full
paragraph:
1. Firstly, children may learn a great deal by participating in outdoor
activities.
2. Admittedly, studying abroad is beneficial to students’ academic
capacity.
3. Engaging in a romantic relationship in high school causes
students many problems.
 HOW TO WRITE AN
04 EFFECTIVE
INTRODUCTION?
 HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE
INTRODUCTION
An introduction contains three main parts:
● General statement (optional)
This is used to introduce the readers to the topic of the prompt.
● Background statement
This is used to introduce the readers to the specific situation in
the prompt.
● Thesis statement
This is used to state your opinion (in opinion-based question) or to
briefly mention what your responses are about.
 HOW TO WRITE AN
EFFECTIVE INTRODUCTION

“Many people think that university students must

partake in community activities before graduation.

Do you agree or disagree?”

Try to write an introduction for this question!

 HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE
INTRODUCTION
Here is how it should be written:

The question of what happens after university and how can

students better prepare before embarking on their work lives has
become the topic for many to ponder. Many people believe that
volunteering in community events indeed plays a crucial part in
students’ preparation process. In my opinion, I wholeheartedly
agree with this view for several reasons.
 HOMEWORK

Write a short paragraph developing this topic sentence:

“Participating in community events helps

students develop many valuable sets of skill.”