How to Write IELTS Writing Task 2 Answers

Specifically, you will learn;

• How to write an introduction
• How to write a body paragraph
• How to write a conclusion
• How to proofread
• What to do next

In fact, after you’ve analysed the question and generated the main ideas, this is actually the easy part.

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How to write IELTS Writing Task 2 Introductions

The introduction is the first paragraph of every Task 2 answer.

The paraphrase

The paraphrase is the first sentence you write in every Task 2 essay.

To do this, take the question statement from the top and rewrite it in your own words.

The part highlighted in the question below is what you need to paraphrase.

The most important thing is that your paraphrase has the exact same meaning as the question.

Also, the purpose of the paraphrase is to tell the reader what your essay is about. That means to be effective; it must be clear.

To help you paraphrase properly, imagine the reader won’t have the question, and your paraphrase is the only thing they’ll see.

Of course, where possible, use synonyms but never if it will affect the meaning or clarity of what you write.

If you need to copy some words or phrases from the question, that’s okay.

I would break the sample question above into 4 phrases;

1. some people say that
2. online courses are the most beneficial
3. others believe
4. traditional classrooms are more advantageous.

Now, I will reword each of these phrases to the best of my ability.

Here’s my paraphrase;

There are those who feel that studying online is best, but others who think that traditional classrooms are better.

The outline

As Cambridge advises, you’ll already have your main ideas generated already.

To improve your Coherence and Cohesion score, it’s best to include these main ideas in the outline. This recommendation is also on the IDP website.

The outline might be one sentence, or it might be two sentences. The number of sentences isn’t important, and the main focus is to communicate all your main ideas clearly.

Those who prefer virtual schools do so because they save a lot of time, whereas those favouring traditional classrooms like the friendlier environment. I’m of the opinion that internet-based classes are better because the students can choose their teacher.

And that’s it. The introduction is finished, and we’re ready to move on to the next part of how to write an essay for IELTS Task 2

How to Write IELTS Writing Task 2 Body Paragraphs

In each body paragraph, it’s important to have just one central topic, and the British Council confirms this advice.

Here is my plan for the first main idea;

• Main Idea 1 – save time – driving to the school – when I studied Vietnamese

So this is what the first body paragraph looks like;

Studying online is better because the students save a lot of time. As they learn from home, there is no commute to and from a classroom, and that time can be used for other activities. For example, when I studied in a language centre, a two-hour lesson required over three hours of my time when the drive was accounted for.

If you generally don’t know enough synonyms, you’ll need to complete my lexical resource lesson to help improve your vocabulary.

While developing your main idea, you have a good opportunity to show your grammar ability to the examiner.

If you’re unsure how to do this, you can learn the best approach in my Grammatical Range and Accuracy lesson.

The process is the same for the next two body paragraphs.

Here are the body paragraphs

The advantage of learning in a real classroom is that the environment is more friendly. It’s much easier to develop a relationship with someone when you meet face-to-face compared with meeting online. In conventional classrooms, students develop close relationships with their teacher and classmates, but this rarely happens when studying online.

I believe that classes conducted over the internet are the best way to learn because the student is allowed to select the teacher. In a typical school, the administration assigns a teacher to each class, but with online schools, the student can see all the teachers first and decide which one is most suitable.

How to write IELTS Writing Task 2 Conclusions

This is the last paragraph of every Task 2 answer, and it outlines what the reader has learned from your essay.

It is essentially repeating what you already said in the introduction.

Once more, we want to use different vocabulary if possible, but we will not take any risks.

Here is the conclusion I wrote for the question we’ve been looking at;

In conclusion, some people prefer to attend online courses because of the extra time they will have for themselves, but others rather the friendlier environment when studying in a conventional classroom. My personal preference is online schools because of the ability students have to pick their teachers.

And that is the essay completed.

There are those who feel that studying online is best, but others who think that traditional classrooms are better. Those who prefer virtual schools do so because they save a lot of time, whereas those favouring traditional classrooms like the friendlier environment. I’m of the opinion that internet-based classes are better because the students can choose their teacher.

Studying online is better because the students save a lot of time. As they learn from home, there is no commute to and from a classroom, and that time can be used for other activities. For example, when I studied in a language centre, a two-hour lesson required over three hours of my time when the drive was accounted for.

The advantage of learning in a real classroom is that the environment is more friendly. It’s much easier to develop a relationship with someone when you meet face-to-face compared with meeting online. In conventional classrooms, students develop close relationships with their teacher and classmates, but this rarely happens when studying online.

I believe that classes conducted over the internet are the best way to learn because the student is allowed to select the teacher. In a typical school, the administration assigns a teacher to each class, but with online schools, the student can see all the teachers first and decide which one is most suitable.

In conclusion, some people prefer to attend online courses because of the extra time they will have for themselves, but others rather the friendlier environment when studying in a conventional classroom. My personal preference is online schools because of the ability students have to pick their teachers.

And with that, you know almost everything about how to write an essay for IELTS Task 2.

There’s just one last thing you need to do; proofread.

How to proofread

This is a great way to improve your final Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range & Accuracy scores, so I can’t recommend this enough.

However, you shouldn’t just read your finished essay in the hopes of finding something.

Instead, focus completely on the typical mistakes that you make.

Obviously, this means that you’ll need to know what your typical mistakes are before you do the IELTS test.

These will be different for everyone, so make sure you have a shortlist of the three or four typical mistakes you make and only look for these.

If you don’t already know your typical mistakes, join the free Live Feedback Lessons for subscribers every week.

I recommend that you read your finished essay one time for each of your typical mistakes and only look for one of these during each reading.

A focused approach like this will result in more corrected errors and a higher score.

This is also a good opportunity to replace any words that you’ve used too often but only do this if you’re confident that the new word is also accurate.

If you’re doing the paper-based IELTS test, it’s fine to cross out words you’ve already written and write the correction above. It might look a little bit messy, but as long as the examiner can read your writing, the mess won’t affect your score.

What now?

Now, you’ll need to complete any of my Task 2 lessons that you haven’t already done. These are;

However, you must realise that there’s a difference between knowing how to do something and being able to do it.

Continue with your IELTS Task 2 preparation until you can do everything you need to do.

You can read Task 2 sample answers and write Task 2 essays to help you but make sure that these aren’t the only activities you do to improve your scores.

Make sure to work on any weaknesses you have in vocabulary, grammar, question analysis and idea generation. Do these one at a time instead of trying to do everything together.

Also, until you’re getting the scores you need in each band score, don’t worry about writing your answers in 40 minutes. Make sure you know how to write IELTS Writing Task 2 essays to the correct standard first, and then you can start to focus on how long it takes you.