5 Steps to a Band 8 in IELTS Writing Task 2

1. Understand the question.

You must understand the question before you attempt to
answer it. This way, you’ll know exactly what the examiner is
looking for. One of the biggest mistakes students make is not
answering the question fully, which stops them from getting a
score higher than a Band 5.

To analyse the question, you must first identify the question

type, then identify the keywords in the question and finally
identify the instructions words. This will help you understand
exactly what the examiner wants you to do with the question.

1.1 How to analyse the question

This article will help you understand IELTS writing questions

and answer these questions more effectively.

One of the main reasons students fail to get the score they
deserve in writing task 2 is not analysing the question
effectively. I had one student recently who had great
grammar and vocabulary, but always failed to read and
analyse the question properly and therefore didn’t understand
the question. He was so confident in his ability that he went
straight in to writing without really thinking about what the
examiner wanted him to write. He should have got at least a 7
or 8 but ended up with a 6 instead.

Some students think that analysing the question will take up

too much time, but they are normally the students who don’t
do as well as they should. I know teachers say over and over
again ‘read the question’ but what does this actually mean?
The examiner is actually looking to see if you have
understood the question properly and a failure to take the
time to do so could result in you dropping down a few band
scores.

So why do some students not do so well? There are four

main reasons:

1. Failure to take the time to actually read the question;

2. Writing about the topic generally and not answering the

specific question;

3. Failing to recognise the kind of question being asked

and

4. Misunderstanding the question.

Luckily, there are simple steps you can take in the exam that
will save you time and help you to understand and analyse
the question effectively, therefore boosting your band score.

These 3 easy steps are simply identifying three easy things:

1. The topic words;

2. The micro-topic words and

3. The instruction words.

I will explain how you can do this below.

What do questions normally look like?

It is a good idea to at least have a look at the different types
of questions that normally come up in this part of the exam.
You will be much more confident in the exam and there will
be no surprises.

The question will always start off with one or two statements.
It will then give a set of instructions that will differ from
question to question. For a summary of question types,
click here.

Now we know the format, we can get in to analysing the

question.

1. Identify the Topic Words

Each essay will be about a general topic and we must identify

this first.

Let’s look at an example question:

The internet allows us to stay connected with each other

no matter where we are. On the other hand, it also
isolates us and encourages people not to socialise.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answers and include any relevant

examples from your own knowledge or experience.

The topic word here is obviously ‘The internet’. If it is obvious

why am I telling you about it? Because too many students will
simply write generally about the topic and this is how you lose
marks. It is fine to write about the topic, but it is must be
linked to the rest of the question. This is where ‘micro-topic’
words come in.

2. Identify Micro-Topic Words

These words define the question and tell you which particular
part of the main topic the question would like you to discuss
and what the examiner is looking for. They often give an
opinion or qualify the statement in some way.

Let’s look at our example question again:

The internet allows us to stay connected  with each other

no matter where we are . On the other hand, it also
isolates us  and encourages people not to socialise .

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answers and include any relevant

examples from your own knowledge or experience.

So as you can see, we should only include things in our

essay that are relevant to the words highlighted above. If we
discuss anything else, such as how the internet helps us
study, how it is dangerous for children, the history of the
internet or how the internet is used for entertainment, then
you are not being relevant.

Let’s look at another question:

Many children these days have an unhealthy lifestyle.

Both  schools  and parents  are responsible  for
solving  this problem.

To what extent do you agree with this statement.

The main topic is children’s unhealthy lifestyle. This is a very

wide topic and we can’t write about it in general. Instead, we
have to look at the second sentence for the micro-topic
words. Here we have to look at both schools and parents and
how they are responsible for solving this problem.
Remember; write about the micro-topic words, not the topic in
general.

3. Identify Instruction Words

The next stage is looking to see what the examiner wants us

to do. They could ask us to give an opinion, or evaluate the
advantages and disadvantages or present problems and
solutions. For a guide on the different question types
click here.

2. Plan your answer.

The students who get the highest marks in Writing Task 2
always plan their answers for up to 10 minutes. Planning
helps you organise your ideas and structure your essay
before you write it, saving you time and helping you produce
a clear and coherent essay.

2.1 The Benefits of Planning

There are normally around 16 students in my IELTS classes.
Every new class gets at least a 30 minute session with me on
planning and how much it improves your essays. I normally
give the students 20 minutes to plan a Task 2 essay which
they finish for homework.

This is always interesting because normally only 2 or 3

students actually follow my instructions and use the time to
plan. The rest of them go straight into writing the essay. The
result? The students who took the time to plan always (and I
mean EVERY time) produce better essays.

Writing an IELTS essay without a plan is like trying to put

IKEA furniture together without any instructions. You will get
halfway through it, get lost and frustrated and you will lose
control of your entire essay and end up with something like
this:

A good plan should be like a map that guides you through the
essay and makes sure you get to where the examiner wants
you to go. Every sentence should have a purpose, if you are
just writing for the sake of writing then it won’t be a very good
essay. Less is more in many cases and a good plan makes
sure that every single sentence has a purpose.

How To Plan
Planning has  4 stages:

1. Question Analysis 

2. Idea Generation 

3. Structure 

4. Vocabulary  

Question Analysis
This is probably the most important stage. The number one
problem most IELTS students have is not answering the
question properly. Did you know you can’t get above a band
score 5.0 if you don’t address all parts of the question?

Let’s look at an example question:

One of the consequences of improved medical care is that

the people are living longer and life expectancy is
increasing.

Do you think the advantages of this outweigh the

disadvantages? 
The keywords here are ‘improved medical care‘. This is our
general topic. It is important to know this, not for what
we should write about but about what we shouldn’t write
about. A common mistake is to highlight the main keywords,
or main topic, and write about this very generally. If you do
this you have not answered the question.

We, therefore, need to think about things more specifically

and look for what I call micro-keywords. They are ‘living
longer‘ and ‘life expectancy is increasing‘. We, therefore,
need to write about these and how improved medical care
has increased life expectancy. But we can’t just write a
general essay about this, we must look at the instruction
words next.

The instruction words are ‘Do you think the advantages of

this outweigh the disadvantages?‘ 

In this example, we will have to decide which side

(advantages or disadvantages) is stronger. If you choose
advantages then you will have to say why these are much
stronger than the advantages and why the disadvantages are
not so strong. If you just discuss the advantages you will not
answer the question correctly. We will also need to make our
opinion about his very clear.

So, in summary, we must: 

 Find keywords (general topic) 

 Find micro-keywords (specific topic) 

 Find instruction words (how to answer the question) 

Idea Generation
Lots of teachers and books about IELTS advise students to
brainstorm (thinking of as many ideas as possible) at this
stage. I don’t think that brainstorming is very effective
because it leads to irrelevant ideas and wastes valuable time.

Instead of brainstorming, we need to answer the questions

directly. If one of your friends asked you this question in a
coffee shop, you would have no problem thinking of an
answer, so do the same in the exam. It helps to frame it
within ‘Why?’ questions.

So for the example above we could ask ourselves two

questions:

Why are the advantages of increased life expectancy

strong?

Why are disadvantages of increased life expectancy weak?

We can then simply think of one or two relevant ideas for
each of these questions.

The advantages of increased life expectancy are strong

because most people think it is good if their friends and family
don’t die too quickly and everyone is happier.

The disadvantages are that there is more demand for food

and resources but this a weak argument because technology
can solve these problems.

We now have two very relevant ideas and we can now move
on to our next stage.
Structure
Next, we need to put our ideas into a structure. This is very
important because it helps us organise our ideas in a
coherent way, just like the examiner wants us to.

There are several different types of essay and each of them

has a different structure.

For this essay our structure will look like this:

Paragraph 1- Introduction

1- Paraphrase Sentence

2- Thesis Statement

3- Outline Statement

Paragraph 2- Why advantages are strong

4- Topic Sentence

5- Explanation

6- Example

Paragraph 3- Why disadvantage are weak

7- Topic Sentence

8- Explanation

9- Example

Paragraph 4- Conclusion

1- Summary of main points

We can these fill in our ideas:
 Paragraph 1- Introduction

Sentence 1- Paraphrase Sentence

Sentence 2- These Statement – advantages outweigh

disadvantages

Sentence 3- Outline Statement – Advantages- happiness

Disadvantages- technology 

Paragraph 2- Why advantages are strong

Sentence 4- Topic Sentence – happiness

Sentence 5- Explanation – death causes unhappiness and

longer lives lead to happiness

Sentence 6- Example –Okinawa and Sardinia 

Paragraph 3- Why disadvantage are weak

Sentence 7- Topic Sentence – technology 

Sentence 8- Explanation – technology can solve any of

the drawbacks 

Sentence 9- Example – GM crops and renewable energy

Paragraph 4- Conclusion

Sentence 1- Summary of main points

Vocabulary
Another common problem students have is repeating the
same words, especially words from the question, over and
over again. This lowers our mark for vocabulary because it
shows that we can’t think of synonyms. A solution to this
problem is to identify words in the question that we might
need to use more than once in the question.

Let’s look at the question again:

One of the consequences of improved medical care is that

the people are living longer and life expectancy is
increasing.

Do you think the advantages of this outweigh the

disadvantages? 
We can think of the following synonyms:

Improved medical care- enhanced medical treatment

Living longer- improved longevity

Life expectancy is increasing- the length of time people

live is rising

Advantages- benefits

Disadvantages- drawbacks

3. Write an introduction.
The introduction should tell the examiner what the rest of the
essay is about and also answer the question directly. This
tells the examiner that you know what you are doing straight
away and helps you write your main body paragraphs.

3.1 Common Problems

1. Talking too generally about the topic.
Most of these essays start off with ‘Nowadays……’ or ‘In
modern life….’ followed by general information about the
topic. In my opinion, this is the worst start you can possibly
make. Remember that you are supposed to answer the
question not write generally about the topic.

2. Not including a thesis statement

This is the most important sentence in the essay. Not

including one will lose you marks in several different ways. I
will tell you more about this below.

3. Not outlining what you are going to do

If you don’t include a sentence outlining what your essay will

say, the examiner doesn’t really know what you are going to
write about in the rest of your essay. This will also lose you
marks. I’ll show you how to write an outline sentence below.

4. Trying to write a ‘hook’ or be entertaining

Remember this is an IELTS exam, not a university essay.

There are no extra points for being interesting, in fact being
boring will probably help you. This will help you avoid ‘flowery’
language.

5. Using an informal style

Know your audience. You are expected to write in an

academic style.
Good and Bad Examples
Question: There is a good deal of evidence that
increasing car use is contributing to global warming and
having other undesirable effects on people’s health and
well-being.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this

statement?

Good Introduction
Rising global temperatures and human health and fitness
issues are often viewed as being caused by the expanding
use of automobiles. This essay agrees that increasing use of
motor vehicles is contributing to rising global temperatures
and certain health issues. Firstly, this essay will discuss the
production of greenhouse gases by vehicles and secondly, it
will discuss other toxic chemicals released by internal
combustion engines.

Bad Introduction
Nowadays, cars are a very popular way of getting around.
Day by day many more people drive cars around but others
feel that they cause global warming. Global warming is one of
the most serious issues in modern life. They also affect
people’s health and well-being which is also a serious issue.

As you can see the bad example talks about the topic very
generally, copies words and phrases from the question and
doesn’t include a thesis statement or outline statement.

If your introductions look something like this, don’t worry.

Most of my students write introductions a lot like this when
they first start in my class and the structure below always
helps them fix any problems and write very effective
introductions.
Structure of a Good Introduction
If you use this structure you will not only score higher marks
but you will also save time in the exam. If you practice
enough, introductions will become easy and you will do them
in just a few minutes. This will leave you lots of time to focus
on the main body paragraphs where you can pick up lots of
mark.

An IELTS writing task 2 opinion essay should have three

sentences and these three sentences should be:

1. Paraphrase question

2. Thesis statement

3. Outline statement

That’s it. Simple! Let’s look at each sentence in more detail.

1. Paraphrase Question
Paraphrasing means stating the question again, but with
different words so that it has the same meaning. We do this
by using synonyms and flipping the order of the sentences
around.

Question: There is a good deal of evidence that

increasing car use is contributing to global warming and
having other undesirable effects on people’s health and
well-being.
Paraphrase: Rising global temperatures and human health
and fitness issues are often viewed as being caused by the
expanding use of automobiles.

The synonyms I’ve used are:

Increasing- expanding

Car use- use of automobiles

Global warming- rising global temperatures

People’s health and well-being- human health and fitness

As you can see, I then switched the order of the sentence

around.

I have therefore demonstrated to the examiner that I can

paraphrase and have a wide range of vocabulary. These are
two of the things that the examiner is specifically looking for
and you will gain marks for including them.

You should practice this with past paper questions.

2. Thesis Statement
This is the most important sentence in your essay. This is
your main idea and I often describe it to students as how you
feel about the whole issue in one sentence. It tells the
examiner that you have understood the question and will lead
to a clear and coherent essay.

Let’s look at the thesis sentence from the previous example:

Thesis statement: This essay agrees that increasing use of

motor vehicles is contributing to rising global temperatures
and certain health issues.
It is always just one sentence long so you will have to
practice summing up your opinion in one sentence. It should
also address the micro-keywords and not the topic in general.

You should start your thesis statement with:

This essay agrees that….. or this essay disagrees that…..

(Opinion essays)

The main cause(s) of this issue is….. (Causes and solutions)

The principal advantage(s) is (xxxxx) and the main

disadvantage is (xxxxxx). (Advantage and disadvantages).

For a discussion (of two points of view) essay you should

state both points of view clearly.

Let’s look at another example:

Some aspects of celebrity culture have a bad influence

on young people.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this

statement?

To keep things simple, we have two options-

1. Agree that some aspects of celebrity culture have a bad

influence on young people.

2. Disagree that some aspects of celebrity culture have a

bad influence on young people.

My essay will argue that celebrity culture does have a bad

influence and my thesis statement will there be:
This essay agrees that the some famous people’s lifestyles
have a detrimental effect on the youth of today.

I have stated my opinion in one sentence and used synonyms

to make sure I don’t just repeat the question.

Thesis statements are very important but only in question that

ask you for your opinion. Some IELTS questions do not ask
you for your opinion and in these cases you can leave it out.

3. Outline Statement
Now that you have paraphrased the question and told the
examiner what you think in your thesis sentence, you are now
going to tell the examiner what you will discuss in the main
body paragraphs. In other words, you will outline what the
examiner will read in the rest of the essay. This should be
one sentence only.

Example:

Question: There is a good deal of evidence that

increasing car use is contributing to global warming and
having other undesirable effects on people’s health and
well-being.

Outline statement: Firstly, this essay will discuss the

production of greenhouse gases by vehicles and secondly, it
will discuss other toxic chemicals released by internal
combustion engines.

So what I have done is just look at my main body paragraphs

and wrote about what they contain. You should have only one
main idea per paragraph. In this essay, I have only two main
body paragraphs, so I only need to say two things in the
outline statement.
Main body paragraph 1- production of greenhouse gases by
cars.

Main body paragraph 2- toxic chemical produced by car

engines.

Again, your main body paragraphs should have

only one main idea so it should be easy to spot these and
then write a sentence about them.

Final Example

Question: Learning to manage money is one of the key

aspects to adult life. How in your view can individuals
best learn to manage their money?

Good answer: One of the keys to adulthood is appreciating

how to budget your finances. It is clear that the best way
someone can learn this is by managing money during
childhood. Firstly, the essay will discuss the importance of
parental involvement during childhood and secondly, the
essay will look at the importance of having a part-time job
during childhood.

As you can see, the above introduction follows the structure I

laid out above.

4. Write the main body paragraphs.

This is where you give the examiner more detail. You do this
by stating your main points and supporting these with
explanations and relevant examples.
If we look at the public band descriptors or my guide on
the difference between band 5 and band 8 answers you
can see that the examiner wants you to respond to the
question with ‘relevant, extended and supported ideas.’ This
means that your ideas must actually relate, or be linked,
specifically to the question and then you have to explain what
your ideas mean and then support them with examples.

Good and Bad Examples 

Look the following examples and think about what the

examiner wants. Which one is a good essay and which one is
not?

Question- Some parents think that childcare centres

provide the best services for children of pre-school age.
Other working parents think that family members such as
grandparents will be better carers for their kids. 

Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Sample 1– Many parents in full-time employment prefer to

leave their children with grandparents when they are at work
because they feel their child will be safer with someone from
within the family circle. In other words, they do not trust a
stranger to look after their child and feel confident that no
harm will come to the child whilst being looked after by
grandma or grandpa. For example, a 2013 study from
Cambridge University showed that 62% of working mothers
prefer a member of the immediate family to provide care
when they are at work.

Sample 2– Grandparents are the best people to look after

children for very obvious reasons. Grandparents really love
their grandchildren and would never harm them. Also, the
children really love their grandparents and feel comfortable
with them. Finally, grandparents have lots of experience
taking care of children because they are old and looked after
children for many years themselves.

Can you tell which one is better? 

Sample 1 has one main argument- parents prefer

grandparents because they trust them. They have stated this
very clearly in the first sentence and then explained why this
is, in the second sentence. They have also used a very
specific example to support their idea. This is exactly what
the examiner wants.

Sample 2 has many different arguments and most of them

are very general. They have not been extended with
explanations and lack examples. This is exactly what the
examiner does not want.
How to Write a Topic Sentence

The very first sentence in your supporting paragraph should

be the topic sentence. Each paragraph should have one main
idea only and the topic sentence tells the reader what this
idea is. This makes your paragraph and the whole essay
clearer and easier to read. You will gain marks for coherence
in the IELTS writing test if you do this. Think of them as
signposts that direct the reader to where you want to go.

We think of topic sentences in an argument (agree or

disagree) essay by thinking of ideas why we support one side
or the other.

Let’s look at another question:

Most high-level positions in companies are filled by men

even though the workforce in many developed countries
is more than 50 % female. Companies should be required
to allocate a certain percentage of these positions to
women. Do you agree?

So we have to think of reasons for and against allocating a

certain percentage of positions in the workforce to women.

For: 

 Fairness

 Equality

 Prevent discrimination

 Women outperform men in many jobs

  Women outperform men in many schools and university

subjects

Against:

 Should be based on merit, not gender

 A few jobs, like construction, are better suited to males

I support the ‘for’ category so I am going to pick two of those

reasons and write topic sentences for them. You should
always pick the ideas you know most about, or in other
words, can explain and support with examples.

Topic Sentence 1: Women should be allocated a certain

percentage of roles because to not do so, discriminates
against them because of their gender.

Topic Sentence 2: Females should be given a bigger share

of jobs because women currently outperform males in most
university subjects.

As you can see, all I have done is simply introduce my ideas

in a very clear way. There is no need to use very advanced
language to do this, stating your position in simple language
is all you need to do.

Task: Try taking some of the other ideas above and writing a
topic sentence.

Explaining Our Ideas 

Explaining ideas is a problem for most students, not because

they can’t do it, but because they don’t see the point in doing
it. They think that the examiner must be an educated person
and explaining simple ideas to them is wasting their time.

You should never assume this and instead, I tell my students

to assume that the reader has no knowledge of this subject at
all and you need to explain what you mean in order for them
to understand.

There are certain phrases we can use to explain our ideas

such as:

 That is to say…. (linking)

 In other words… (linking)

 This is because… (giving reasons)

 The reason is…. (giving reasons)

 As a result…. (describing result)

 As a consequence…. (describing result)

 Therefore…. (describing result)

Use one of these phrases to explain what your topic sentence

means, the reason why, or the result of your topic sentence.
You don’t need to do all three, just one. Make sure that
anyone with no knowledge of the subject can understand
what your main point is.

Example 1– Women should be allocated a certain

percentage of roles, because to not do so discriminates
against them because of their gender. As a result, women will
be denied jobs, not because of their intellect or skill, but
simply because of their sex.

Example 2– Females should be given a bigger share of jobs,

because women currently outperform males in most
university subjects. That is to say, those young women are
just as qualified as men, if not more, and should, therefore,
be given at least an equal share in the job market.

The last point I will make about explanations is they should

relate specifically to the question. They should not generally
explain what the idea is; they should explain how the idea
answers the question.

Make sure you read the question again before you write a
topic sentence or explanation.

Supporting Examples 

The last part of a good supporting paragraph is a relevant

example. Examples give your points more authority and make
your argument stronger.

The two main problems here are not being able to think of
examples and examples not being specific enough.

In the IELTS test, if you can’t think of a good example, make

one up. In school or university, you should research and use
real examples, but in the test, it is fine to make them up. It is
not a test of your knowledge; it is a test of your written
English. The examiners will never check the examples and
they are only worried about how the examples support your
ideas.

If you can think of real examples from your own experience,

these are always best. However, this is often not possible, so
as a last resort, you can make them up.
Two good ways to make up examples are using newspaper
articles or university research. I often do this when I am
writing sample answers and they also help you be more
specific (see below).

The examiner wants your examples to be as specific as

possible. To illustrate this we will look at three examples

5. Write a conclusion.
In your conclusion, you should provide a summary of what
you already said in the rest of your essay.

IELTS Conclusion Quick Tips

1. Never write any new ideas in your conclusion. A

conclusion should always simply restate the ideas you

 have in the rest of the essay. New ideas should be in the

main body and not in the conclusion.

2. Make sure you answer the question in the

conclusion. The conclusion should state what you think

about the question and make it clear how you feel about

the issue.

3. Vary your language. Just because you are restating the

ideas you have in the rest of your essay, doesn’t mean

you use the same language. Instead, you show the

examiner you have a wide vocabulary by paraphrasing.

4. Don’t try to include everything. You are not required

to go into detail, you have already done that in your main

body paragraphs. Instead, you will just summarise your

main points.

5. Always write one. It is very difficult to get a good score

in task 2 if you haven’t finished your essay with a

conclusion. Even if you are running out of time, make

sure you write one.

Introduction
It is argued that students should be taught real-life skills,
like how to look after money. This essay agrees that they
should be part of the curriculum because everyday
competencies benefit people later in life and not being
taught how to manage money at an early age can lead to
dangerous consequences in adulthood. 

I have completed an effective introduction by doing three

things:

1. Paraphrasing the question

2. Stating my opinion

3. Outlining what I will talk about in the rest of the essay or

in other words, the main points I’m using to support my

opinion.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this essay supports the idea that
teenagers ought to be taught functional subjects like
financial planning because it helps them in adulthood
and a lack of education related to these topics can have
serious consequences. 

So all I have done is restate my opinion and included my

main supporting points. However, I have not simply copied all
the words, I have used synonyms and paraphrasing to vary
my language.

Note that I have repeated some words. Paraphrasing does

not mean change every single word. If you cannot think of a
way to change every word, feel free to repeat that word. In
general, you should try to vary your vocabulary as much as
possible, but it is often impossible to change every single
word. Better to repeat a word accurately than change it to
something that is wrong.

Here are the paraphrases I used:

This essay supports- This essay agrees

should- ought to

students- teenagers

functional subjects- real-life skills

look after money- financial planning

later in life- adulthood