Hello. This video is about the essay structure for IELTS Academic Writing Task 2.

In this video, you'll learn

how to analyse and understand Task 2 questions and how to structure your response for all Task 2
questions. Later in the course, you will look at the structure of each paragraph in more detail.
In Task 2, you are given a question consisting of a statement and an instruction. In this lesson, you will
look at the following question:
Which part is the statement and which part is the instruction?
The first part of the question is the statement. And the second part is the instruction. It is important that
you understand the statement and the instruction as you need to address both of these in your answer.
You should read the question carefully to identify the topic and help you decide what information to
include in your essay. One way to do this is to identify the topic words, limiting words, and instruction
words.
Topic words tell you the broad topic that you must write about. In this question, the topic words are:
the internet.
Limiting words tell you which specific areas of that topic you need to address in your essay. Here, the
limiting words are: easier, people, and communicate.
Instruction words tell you what you need to do and the type of essay you need to write. Have a look at
the example question. What do you think the instruction words are? Does this question ask for your
opinion? The instruction words here are: do you agree? Which means that you need to express an
opinion that could agree or disagree.
Task 2 questions can contain a range of instruction words, for example, discuss both sides. To what
extent do you agree? Or, describe the problem and provide some solutions.
Here, you will look at a model essay that follows a structure you can use for all Task 2 questions. The
essay has four paragraphs. The first paragraph is an introduction. The two middle paragraphs are body
paragraphs. And the final paragraph is a conclusion. Let's look at the purpose of each paragraph.
Download the full essay underneath the video so that you can look at it more closely. Look at each
paragraph and identify the overall purpose or how each paragraph helps to answer the question.
The purpose of the introduction is to introduce the topic and state your thesis. The thesis tells the rate
of this specific part of the topic that your essay focuses on. This will vary depending on the exact
question. For example, it could state your opinion or summarise what the essay will discuss. In the
example essay, the thesis is an opinion.
The purpose of body paragraphs is to provide details that support the thesis. The information you
include in your body paragraphs depends on the question and how you choose to develop it. For
example, it may include reasons, advantages and disadvantages, or causes and effects. This essay
includes two arguments to support the opinion in the thesis.
Finally, the purpose of the conclusion is to restate the thesis and summarise the main points. It is
important not to add any new information here.
In future lessons, you will learn the structure of each paragraph in more detail.
Now that you are familiar with the overall structure of the Task 2 essay, let's move on to some more
lessons, which will give you a deeper understanding of how to write the essay.

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