How to write perfect IELTS essays

Cuốn How To Write Perfect IELTS Essays giúp ngừoi học IELTS có thể tự luyện phần writing task 2. Sách sẽ không huớng dẫn ngữ pháp cơ bản, vì thế cho nên thích hợp với những ngừoi đã có nền tảng tiếng anh khá, và đang có target writing từ 6.0 8.0. Đặc biệt, sách cung cấp topic vocabulary cho 6 chủ đề quen thuộc trong IELTS, và một luợng từ vựng hay khác đuợc bao gồm trong các essay mẫu. Một số essay mẫu sẽ đuợc phân tích chi tíêt nhằm hỗ trợ ngừoi đọc luyện writing hiệu quả hơn.

Table of Contents I Introduction II The Marking Criteria And How To Score Band 5, 6, 7, For Each Criterion 1) Task Response 2) Coherence and Cohesion (C&C) 3) Lexical Resource 4) Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRAA) 5) Band Score Calculation III How To Perfectly Fulfill Each Criterion Of the Writing Test 10 Task Response 10 a Basic Knowledge 10 b Brainstorming Techniques 11 c From Plan To Paragraphs 16 i Writing An Introduction 16 ii Writing A Conclusion 21 iii Writing Main Body Paragraphs 22 1) Ideas and idea development 22 2) Application of idea development techniques 24 Coherence and Cohesion 27 a Basic Knowledge 27 b Common Cohesive Devices And The Relationship Between Linking Devices And Idea Development Techniques 28 c Natural linking devices 31 Lexical Resource 32 a Basic Knowledge 32 b Topic Vocabulary 33 1) Populations and Accommodations 34 2) Advertisements 34 3) Education 35 4) Jobs and Careers 36 5) Crimes 37 6) Environment 37 Grammatical Range and Accuracy 38 a Basic Knowledge 38 b Producing complex structures using cohesive devices 39 c Applying simple and complex structures to writing an essay 40 IV Sample Essays And Essay Analysis 42 1) Agree/Disagree Essay (balanced opinion) 42 2) Agree/Disagree Essay (Strong opinion) 45 3) Other Sample Essays (without analysis) 47 i Discussion Essay 48 ii Advantages/Disadvantages Essay 49 iii Agree/Disagree Essay 51 iv Causes/Solutions Essay 53 I Introduction About the author When I was in high school, I found it extremely challenging to learn English At that time, my knowledge of the language confined to simple words and I could only construct simple sentences After I graduated from high school, I intended to study at RMIT which is an international university My university requires an IELTS certificate with an overall band score of 6.5 in order to be qualified for bachelor programs I therefore spent two months preparing for IELTS I used to think that it is impossible for a person like me to achieve band 6.5 for IELTS within only two months But finally, I did My writing score at that time was 6.0 Actually, I was not good at writing at all Because of this, I faced various problems with writing reports in my university I also struggled with the final exams when I had to think and write quickly As a result, after my first semester in university, I spent three weeks learning academic writing I chose to study IELTS writing because I think it can help me with any kind of academic writing After a period of working hard and being determined, my writing skills significantly improved One month later, I took IELTS again My overall score was 7.5 with writing being 8.0 My writing style is concise and effective I not try to use uncommon words in my essays, but I focus on the real content instead Also, I always try to make my essays as easy to understand as possible The reason for this is that I believe that the primary purpose of writing is to communicate something to someone, so we need to make sure that our readers understand what we write Finally, I believe that my approach to writing is suitable for many learners, because they not need to learn so many difficult words and phrases but they can still get a high writing score What is the purpose of this book? Writing is considered by many IELTS learners as the most difficult skill in the test In IELTS writing (Academic), candidates are required to complete two tasks The first one is to write a report to a university lecturer, and the minimum length of the report is 150 words The second task requires candidates to write an essay about a given topic, and the minimum length is 250 words This book is a complete guidance as to how to achieve a high score in the writing test The focus of the book will be on Task The reasons for this are that Task is worth more marks than Task 1, and that learners often face more difficulties in Task than in Task Who is this book for? Since this book specialises in IELTS writing, all IELTS learners can use it However, the book is especially useful for those who want a band 6.5 or higher in writing For those whose target is below 6.0, it is recommended that you try to improve your overall level of English first The brief content of the book Currently, there are many approaches to IELTS writing, but this book introduces a totally new and simple approach to the readers IELTS learners usually hold various mistaken beliefs as to how to get a high score in writing Some of them believe that we will get a high score if we use a variety of academic words, while others think that we need to have a complete masterpiece if we want a really high score for writing This book will address all of these beliefs and prove that achieving a writing score higher than is not that difficult All you need is to meet all of the requirements of writing These requirements include a fully developed response, a good essay structure, a sufficient range of topic vocabulary, and a number of error-free sentences The book will show you how to fulfill each of these requirements II The Marking Criteria And How To Score Band 5, 6, 7, For Each Criterion It is true that a large number of IELTS learners have problems with writing, even when their grammar is relatively good During the time I learned about IELTS, I realized that many people not thoroughly understand the IELTS marking criteria, and even people who scored 7.0 for writing face this situation This section will help you have a better understanding of the marking criteria and what you can to get a high writing score *Note: you can find the complete IELTS Writing band score descriptors on the official web page of British Council 1) Task Response First, you need to clearly understand the topic and make sure that you are directly answering the question If you can this, your score for Task Response will be band or above So what you can next to increase your score further? The answer is that you should clearly express your opinion For instance, the question asks whether you agree or disagree with an opinion, and you responded that you completely agree with the opinion, so throughout the essay you have to show your "agreement" to the readers If you said that you agree that playing games is good for children, but then you gave many harmful effects of playing games, then your essay would lose lots of marks After you complete the main body paragraphs, you will reach your conclusion In the conclusion, you should again clearly state your opinion so that the readers will not be confused After you are confident that you answered the question directly and your opinion is clear, you can get band for this criterion The next step to rise your score to band is to focus on the main body paragraphs of the essay Taking an example of a discussion essay where you are required to discuss both views of the topic Assume that you have two main body paragraphs, you talk about one view in your first paragraph, and you talk about the other in the second paragraph In the first paragraph, you should have one or some supporting ideas for the first view For each of the ideas, you should fully, specifically and logically develop it So what can you to make your idea specific and fully developed? For example, your idea is "money is important because it helps people meet their basic needs" Clearly, the readers can ask you that "what are basic needs?" So in this case you need to give an example of basic needs Basically, for each idea, you should try to analyse it carefully, until it is so clear that no further analysis is needed This means it is not necessary to give examples for every single idea So what is the difference between band and band for Task Response? The answer to this question is simple People who score band did not fully follow my instructions above This means they have tried to give supporting ideas, but some of the ideas might lack focus or not sufficiently developed To sum up, you will be likely to get a band for Task Response if you fully follow the above instructions 2) Coherence and Cohesion (C&C) Coherence is the way you structure your writing In other words, it is about how many paragraphs you have, and what the purpose of each paragraph is The examiner assesses your coherence in terms of whether you structure your essay logically and whether the essay is easy to follow With regards to cohesion, it deals with your ability to connect different ideas in a paragraph If you write an essay without paragraphing, your essay will be considered to be incoherent To get a band for C&C, you have to separate your response into different paragraphs Band-5 writers usually cannot link ideas skillfully, they can just use simple linking devices like “therefore, however, as a result” to link ideas together They also tend to use these words wrongly or repetitively because they not know other linking devices In order to reach band 6, writers have to clearly separate their essay into introduction, main body and conclusion The body also needs to be divided into two or three paragraphs (but my advice is that you should divide your main body into two paragraphs only) In terms of cohesion, band-6 writers have the ability to link the ideas quite effectively, and their use of linking words is usually accurate However, they tend to over/under-use linking devices, or some uses may be inappropriate  Referencing and Substitution: Using linking words is not the only way to link ideas together, you can use more advanced techniques to link your ideas Two of them are called Referencing and Substitution These are often known as natural linking, and they will be discussed in the next sections People who get band for C&C usually not know how to use Referencing and Substitution, or they tend to use them inaccurately In order to achieve band for C&C, the writer needs to use paragraphs effectively, which helps readers understand the purpose of each paragraph clearly In each of the paragraphs, the writer should have a clear topic sentence so that the readers can understand the main idea of the paragraph even when they not read the whole paragraph In terms of cohesion, band-7 writers are able to use linking words skillfully In this band score, only a limited use of referencing and substitution is needed To increase the score for C&C to band 8, you should be able to all the things that band-7 writers can Besides, you should use linking devices flexibly, meaning that you should not use the same linking word so many times (overuse) Occasionally, you should use referencing and substitution instead of normal linking words However, you not need to use referencing and substitution too often, just using them sometimes is enough 3) Lexical Resource Lexical Resource (LR) is simply the range of vocabulary that you use in your essay In order to get band for LR, the writers need a range of vocabulary which is enough for them to communicate However, their range of vocabulary is very limited, and this leads to they repeating the same word many times, and they make a lot of mistakes with word choice, word formation and/or spelling These mistakes make their essay difficult to understand, and therefore it is difficult for the readers to understand what they write People getting band for LR are those who can use a sufficient range of topic vocabulary to answer the question However, the range is still limited, and normally they will make mistakes with word choice and collocations, because they try to use so many uncommon words To reach band 7, the writers need to be able to use lexical items more naturally and accurately, collocations are used skillfully and nearly similar to native speakers They will make fewer mistakes than those who get band 6, but they will still make some errors in word choice, word formation and/or spelling For band 8, the writers need to use lexical items accurately and appropriately, and the range of vocabulary is sufficient to communicate information to the In order to make complex sentences, you can apply either the ‘why?’ technique or ‘so what’ technique Using an ‘if’ clause, you are able to explain the result of or the reason for something For example, when I want emphasize the consequence of children playing games too much, I can say that ‘If children spend less time playing games, they will be able to spend more time studying whereby they can achieve good results’ c Applying simple and complex structures to writing an essay Simple structures are often used to write topic sentences This is because a topic sentence needs to be short and clear so that the readers will immediately understand the controlling idea of the paragraph Complex structures are used to write supporting ideas, because these structures help you explain your ideas in depth A complex structure is not necessarily a sentence that is extremely long If you write a very long sentence, people will find it difficult to follow and they have to read your sentence again and again in order to understand what you mean Writing such sentences is a very common mistake that many people make, because they think that writing long sentences may show their ability to use English In fact, a sign of a good English writer is the ability to write short and succinct sentences but they fully convey a meaning We should try to write concise sentences for two main reasons:  Stylistically attractive If you write a short sentence but it directly conveys what you mean, it is considered a good thing in English You should try to say a lot without using an excessive number of words For this reason, try to be into the point and focus on what you really want to deliver 40  Reduce the chance of making grammatical errors If you write very long sentences, you will be much more likely to lose control of grammar and in turn you will make mistakes Remember that a long sentence does not increase your grammar score, but a concise and error-free one does 41 IV Sample Essays And Essay Analysis This section will provide you with a number of sample essays for different questions The essays will also be analyzed in depth with good vocabulary being highlighted All of the essays were scored by an examiner and they could get band or above 1) Agree/Disagree Essay (balanced opinion) Topic: Some people believe that money is the most important factor for achieving happiness However, others believe that happiness has nothing to with money To what extent you agree or disagree? Essay plan: Partly agree  View 1: money is important - Money enables people to fulfil their basic needs  Example: food, bills, housing - Money makes life easier  Explain: helps us pay for healthcare, healthy meals, education  View 2: other factors are equally important - Derive satisfaction from passions  Example: artists - Friends, family and other relationships are more important than being wealthy 42 People have different views about whether money is the precondition to experiencing a happy life While I accept that money is a vital part of human life, I believe that other factors are equally important for people’s happiness On the one hand, money is important for people to achieve happiness for several reasons One reason is that people have to fulfil their personal needs before experiencing a pleasant life If people not have enough money to make daily purchases, they will find it extremely difficult to support themselves and raise their families For example, as everyone has to buy food, pay for bills and housing throughout the course of their lives, they cannot live happily without having much money Life would also be easier if the majority of people were wealthy This is because money helps them pay for healthcare, healthy meals and high-quality education, which may promote people’s welfare On the other hand, there are other elements that contribute to individuals’ happiness Firstly, some people derive a sense of satisfaction from pursuing their passions and becoming experts in their fields rather than earning a great deal of money Artists, for instance, sometimes find it difficult to earn money, but they still spend years running their art projects because they feel happy when they are able to pursue their careers Secondly, for some individuals, friends, family and other relationships are much more important than being wealthy and able to spend money without consideration In conclusion, while I agree that people have to earn money to meet their basic needs before they can live happily, I believe that other non-financial factors can also contribute to their well-being (279 words, band 8.0) Bold: good use of topic vocabulary and collocations 43 Essay analysis: Here, I used a balanced opinion to answer the question I said that both money and other factors are important for people to achieve happiness This allows me to mention about both sides of the argument For each point of view, I had two supporting ideas I supported the view that money is important for achieving happiness by giving two reasons My first reason is that money helps us fulfil our personal needs By applying the ‘why?’ technique, I realized that the readers would not understand what the personal needs are Therefore, I used an ‘if’ clause to explain that people need to make daily purchases Finally, I gave an example to strengthen my argument that everyone needs money to make daily purchases My second reason is that money makes life easier By applying the ‘why?’ technique, again, I realized that people would not understand why money makes life easier So I explained that money helps them pay for things that can make them feel happy Next, I continued my essay by arguing that other factors are also important for people’s happiness The first factor is people’s passions I used an example of a case in which people derive happiness from passions to make my idea become convincing My example was relevant and it succeeded in supporting my idea, so the readers would become convinced The other factor that contributes to happiness is the human relationships I argued that some people place more importance on relationships than earning money In terms of coherence and cohesion, I divided my essay into four paragraphs I also used a variety of linkers such as ‘firstly’, ‘for example’ to connect my ideas With respect to grammar, a wide range of simple and complex structures were used with flexibility and accuracy, and sentences are error-free, which shows good use of grammar 44 2) Agree/Disagree Essay (Strong opinion) Topic: Many high-level positions in companies are filled by men even though the workforce in many developed countries is more than 50 per cent female Companies should be required to allocate a certain percentage of these positions to women To what extent you agree or disagree? Write at least 250 words Essay plan: Strongly agree  Body 1: it is wrong to let men hold all important positions - Unfair for women  Explain: makes them feel frustrated and lose motivation - Inefficiency  Explain: leads to a slow rate of economic growth  Body 2: all employees should have equal opportunities - Promotion should be based on qualifications, abilities and experience  everyone can progress  give them an incentive  Example: America In many organisations, it is common practice that the majority of important positions are held by men Personally, I totally agree with the idea that companies should allocate a number of these positions to women For a variety of reasons, it would be wrong to let men hold all important positions in a company Firstly, it is totally unfair for female employees not to be promoted to a high position, even if they show great performances in their job This will make them feel frustrated and lose motivation for working hard, and gradually they will become less productive Secondly, since there are many female employees in the workforce, it will be extremely inefficient if we just utilize the male ones The inefficiency in using labourers may lead to a slow 45 rate of economic growth, and in turn it will be more difficult for a nation to develop In my opinion, all employees should have equal opportunities to hold highlevel positions Promotion should be based on individuals’ qualifications, abilities and experience The message to both men and women is that as long as they work hard enough, they will have the chance to progress further in their career In this way, we can utilize the human resources by giving them an incentive to demonstrate great efforts in their job For example, in America, gender is an irrelevant factor in delegating high positions to employees Any individual can become the top manager of a company if they are more qualified than others In conclusion, I fully support the view that women should hold some of the highlevel positions in companies, and it is necessary to provide employees with equal promotion opportunities (280 words, band 8.0) Bold: good use of topic vocabulary and collocations Essay analysis: Here, I used a strong opinion to argue that women should hold some of the highlevel positions in a company I had two main body paragraphs I explained why it is wrong to let men hold all important positions in the first paragraph, and I explained why all employees should have equal opportunities in the other paragraph In the first main body paragraph, I had two supporting ideas One idea is that it is unfair for female employees not to be promoted to a high position despite her 46 efforts I applied the ‘so what?’ technique in order to explain the result of the unfairness for women This would make my argument stronger The other supporting idea is that it is inefficient to utilize only male employees I also asked myself ‘why?’ and answered that it is inefficient because we have many women in the workforce After that, I also applied the ‘so what?’ technique to show the result of this inefficiency In my second main body paragraph, I had only one idea, so I had to explain it in depth I argued that all employees should have equal opportunities and then I explained what ‘equal opportunities’ mean Next, I used the ‘so what?’ technique to show the result Finally, I gave an example to strengthen my argument In terms of coherence and cohesion, I divided my essay into four paragraphs, each with a particular purpose I used a variety of linkers to hold my ideas together More interestingly, I used only simple linking words in my first main body paragraph, and I used no linking word in the second main body paragraph Instead, I applied referencing and substitution to link my ideas This use of cohesive devices may help me get band 9.0 for Coherence and Cohesion With respect to grammar, I used a variety of simple and complex structures throughout the essay Simple sentences were used in writing topic sentences, while more complex sentences were used when I applied the idea development techniques The majority of the sentences are error-free, which shows good use of grammar 3) Other Sample Essays (without analysis) Up to now, you have had an idea of how to analyze an essay, so now I will provide you with several sample essays without analysis One way to be better at 47 writing is to analyze the essays by yourself because in this way it will be easier for you to learn and remember i Discussion Essay Topic: Nowadays a large amount of advertising is aimed at children Parents object to such pressure on children But some advertisers claim that there is useful information in these advertisements Discuss both views and give your opinion Essay plan:  View 1: advertisements are informative - Raise parents’ awareness of the products available in the market  Example: nutritious brands of milk - Inspire children  Explain: help them become innovative advertisers\  View 2: advertisements are harmful - Children are inexperienced  Explain: believe in advertisements  Explain: put pressure on parents  Example: advertisements of unhealthy products such as noodles, soft drinks Currently, many companies tend to choose children as their target market to advertise their products While some advertisers argue that these advertisements are informative, I personally believe that this marketing strategy negatively affects youngsters and their parents On the one hand, there are some reasons to believe that advertisements aimed at children contain useful information Firstly, thanks to commercials, parents may be aware of the products that are useful for their children For example, some nutritious brands of milk are widely advertised on TV, which parents can consider buying for their children if they are confused by the wide variety of brands available in the market Secondly, since advertisements often have 48 creative content in order to get people’s attention, children can be interested in this marketing industry if they are exposed to advertisements regularly As a result, they may work as an innovative advertiser when they grow up On the other hand, I believe that choosing children as the target market to introduce products is harmful to both these individuals and their parents As the young are inexperienced, they may fully believe that the information in advertisements is true If they are attracted by these exaggerated commercials, they will be likely to insist their parents to buy them products which are unnecessary and sometimes even unhealthy For instance, we can easily find advertisements of different brands of instant noodles and soft drinks either on TV or on the internet, and these consumption goods are often known as unhealthy If they are advertised in an attractive way, youngsters will put pressure on their parents to buy them these things In conclusion, while some people believe that advertisements aimed at children are useful, I would argue that this method of advertising has adverse effects on both inexperienced youngsters and their parents (299 words, band 8.0) Bold: good use of topic vocabulary and collocations ii Advantages/Disadvantages Essay Topic: In some countries young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to this 49 Essay plan:  Advantages - Acquire skills and knowledge  Example: communication skills - Studying is stressful and demanding  Explain: need to relax  Disadvantages - Academic knowledge may be eroded  Example: slower at calculation - Lose motivations to study  Explain: because of earning money The young in some nations tend to take a gap year to work or travel after they graduate from high school This has both advantages and disadvantages On the one hand, taking a gap year is advantageous in several ways Firstly, by travelling or working in an organization, students will have opportunities to acquire skills and broaden their social understanding For example, since working involves communicating with people such as colleagues and managers, young people will know how to deal with different kinds of people whereby they can improve their communication skills Secondly, studying is often stressful and demanding, so students need to take a break after a long time attending high school Spending a gap year interacting with society not only helps them to relax but it can also give them a better outlook of the real world On the other hand, these experiences also have some disadvantages The first one is that some academic knowledge will be eroded if it is not used for a long time, which can make it difficult for students to study when they pursue university education For instance, finance is a major that requires a number of mathematic skills, and students taking a gap year will be slower at calculation because they have not done math exercises for a period of time Another drawback is that students may lose motivations for their study if they start to 50 work This is because earning money gives them an incentive to continue to work instead of pursuing their studies In conclusion, while taking a gap year before attending university benefits students in various ways, it also has some negative impacts on them (277 words, band 8.0) Bold: good use of topic vocabulary and collocations iii Agree/Disagree Essay Topic: Although more and more people read news on the Internet, newspapers will remain the most important source of news for the majority of people Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Essay plan: Partly agree  View 1: traditional newspapers cannot be replaced - Portable, convenient to read  Example: Japan - The content is reliable  An advantage over online news  View 2: Online news is equally important - People can always read what they want  Example: Global Financial Crisis in 2007 - Enables people to keep up-to-date  Explain: online news is updated every single minute Currently, it is true that an increasing number of people choose to read online news While I agree with the idea that newspapers will be still indispensable, it seems to me that online news is equally important 51 On the one hand, I believe that traditional newspapers cannot be replaced despite the popularity of the Internet for some reasons Firstly, since a newspaper is portable, people can bring it with them and read it anytime they want, which makes printed news a perfect choice for busy people In Japan, for example, people have to work really hard, so they can only read news while they are on a bus or a train Secondly, the content of a newspaper is checked by a publisher before it is issued, which means that the information in newspapers is always reliable This would be an advantage over online sources of news where individuals can post anything they want On the other hand, it seems to me that online news is as important as newspapers The first reason is that as the Internet can store a huge amount of information, people can always search for the news that they want to read regardless of the date it is published For instance, students who study finance can easily find and read about the Global Financial Crisis on the Internet, even though that event happened in 2007 Another reason is that the Internet enables people to keep upto-date with the current events happening around the world This is because online news is updated every single minute, while newspapers are only available on a daily basis In conclusion, while I accept that physical newspapers are essential, I believe that we should place the same importance on online news (289 words, band 8.0 ~ 8.5) Bold: good use of topic vocabulary and collocations 52 iv Causes/Solutions Essay Many of the cities are currently facing a serious housing shortage What are some of the reasons for this shortage and what solutions can you suggest? Essay plan:  Causes - Land does not increase  Explain: not have sufficient land to meet people’s demand - The increase in life expectancy  Explain: leads to a rise in population  Solutions - Build more apartments  Explain: an apartment can accommodate more people - Restrict the increase in population by enforcing law  Example: China It is no doubt true that in many cities the supply of houses is unable to meet the demand for shelters Although this is caused by several reasons, there are still some feasible solutions to this issue There are two main reasons why housing crisis occurs One reason is that it is impossible for natural resources to increase, which means resources are scarce While the population increases constantly, the amount of land remains the same Therefore, we not have sufficient land to fulfil people’s demand for accommodations Another cause of housing shortage is that, as the quality of healthcare in today’s life has improved dramatically, life expectancy has also increased greatly compared to the past This leads to a significant rise in the world’s population over time, which will place a burden on housing supply 53 However, we still have some feasible measures to tackle this housing problem Firstly, building more apartments instead of houses may help mitigate the problem of resource scarcity Since an apartment can accommodate a tremendously higher number of people than a house can, governments should encourage vertical city development instead of horizontal one Secondly, it is highly recommended that governments restrict the increase in population, which will help decrease the excessive demand for houses This can be done by limiting the number of children born in families In China, for example, because the population is huge, Chinese government enforces the law that each Chinese family must not bear more than one child In conclusion, housing shortage is increasingly becoming a severe problem for many cities, and this arises from various reasons However, we can still cope with this problem if suitable policies are implemented (279 words, band 8.0) Bold: good use of topic vocabulary and collocations 54 [...]... you will be able to meet the IELTS examiner’s requirements, and in turn you will get your desired score 1 Task Response a Basic Knowledge First, in order to get a high score for writing, you definitely should not go offtopic Going off-topic means you write something completely unrelated to the topic that you are required to write about In IELTS, if you write a response that is off-topic, the examiner... This part will show you how you can apply the techniques in the previous section to an essay 24 Topic: Some people believe that money is the most important factor for achieving happiness However, others believe that happiness has nothing to do with money To what extent do you agree or disagree? For this question, I use a balanced opinion to answer, saying that I think money and other factors are equally... important factor for achieving happiness However, others believe that happiness has nothing to do with money To what extent do you agree or disagree? This is an opinion question For this question, you can either use a strong opinion or a balanced opinion to answer In this example, I will use a balanced opinion to answer the question We will learn about how to answer this kind of question later Up to now,... required to allocate a certain percentage of these positions to women To what extent do you agree or disagree? Answer: In many organisations, it is common practice that the majority of important positions are held by men Personally, I totally agree/disagree with the idea that companies should allocate a number of these positions to women To sum up, in order to write a strong-opinion answer, we need to find... overall score will be rounded up to 7.5 if your component scores are 7 7 7 8 9 III How To Perfectly Fulfill Each Criterion Of the Writing Test The previous section gives you a basic understanding of what you can do to reach your desired band score Now, this section will specifically give you instructions on how to write a good essay The instructions will be based on the IELTS marking criteria In this... Regardless of how you answer the essay question, you have to make your opinion clear throughout your essay The introduction for opinion question comprises of two sentences The first one will paraphrase the question in order to introduce the topic, and the second sentence will be the writer’s answer to the question given  Use a strong opinion to answer the question After stating the topic in the first... firstly plan your ideas A good essay plan often leads to a good essay The following are the techniques that you can apply to brainstorming your ideas In IELTS writing, you are asked about topics on human beings and society Therefore, a good way to think about ideas is to think about the effects of something on humans and society as a whole Another method is to think about the nearest and simplest things around... question The first one is the topic, and the second one is a view/statement Our task is to paraphrase the words in the question to state the topic, and then we will state that whether we totally agree/disagree with the given the statement Sometimes the topic and the view are the same thing, so you should read the question carefully before you write  Use a balanced opinion to answer the question A balanced... believe that money is the most important factor for achieving happiness However, others believe that happiness has nothing to do with money To what extent do you agree or disagree? In conclusion, while I agree that people have to earn money to meet their basic needs before they can live happily, I believe that other non-financial factors can also contribute to their well-being 2) Some people argue that... now, you just need to know that a balanced opinion allows us to write about both sides of the argument Before I plan my ideas, I intend to write a 4-paragraph essay In the first main body paragraph, I will talk about how money is important for achieving happiness In the other main body paragraph, I will talk about how other things are equally important for achieving happiness For this topic, you can firstly