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 participating in ● How can they learn teamworking skills?
extracurricular activities. Firstly, they can acquire ● How can they obtain leadership skills?
teamworking skills by joining group-based work. ● How can they acquire time management skills?
Not only that, they can obtain leadership skills as ● How do time management skills help them in
well in these sessions. They also can learn how to
their daily lives?
manage their time efficiently, which helps them in
● Why is making more friends important?
their daily lives. Not to mention that they can make
● How do all of these skills help them in their
a lot of friends.
lives?
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.”
