hi I'm Mikey welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you can learn how
to write an IELTS task 2 essay task 2 in
the IELTS writing exam is the biggest
challenge in IELTS for many students you
have 40 minutes to write an essay which
could be on almost any topic in this
lesson you'll see a model question and a
possible answer to it you'll learn how
to write your own IELTS essay and we'll
share useful tips to help you improve
your IELTS writing score let's start
with our sample question some people
believe that everyone should be free to
make their own lifestyle choices even if
those choices are unhealthy other people
think that the government should
intervene to influence people's choices
for example by putting high taxes on
unhealthy products discuss both of these
views and give your own opinion give
reasons for your answer and include any
relevant examples from your own
knowledge or experience so where do you
start
you're under time pressure in the IELTS
writing exam this means that many IELTS
candidates read the task quickly and
start writing as fast as possible it's
understandable but it's also a mistake
to write a good answer you need to
understand the task well and you need to
have a plan for what you're going to
write it's easy to misunderstand the
question or to misunderstand a key word
in the question this will hurt your
score so you need to analyze the task
how can you do this first read the
question and try to explain what it's
asking in your own words look at our
sample question again can you rephrase
this question in your own words try to
make it as simple as you can think about
it here are some suggestions should
people be allowed to make their own
lifestyle choices even if they're very
unhealthy should the government try to
make people live healthier lives even if
it means that people lose some personal
freedom of course there are other
possibilities this is an important step
if you don't have any ideas here it
suggests you haven't understood the
question fully that means you need to go
back and read it again and think about
it more what's next
secondly you need to identify how many
things the task is asking you to do not
all IELTS questions are the same some
questions ask you to do one or two
things other questions ask you to do
three or four things what about here how
many things is this question asking you
to do you have to discuss both of these
views that means you need to discuss the
idea that everyone should be free to
make their own lifestyle choices and you
also need to discuss the idea that the
government should intervene to influence
people's choices you need to give your
own opinion
you need to reach a conclusion about
which viewpoint you agree with finally
you need to give reasons for your answer
and include relevant examples so you
need to do four things here when you
read the question in your IELTS exam add
numbers to the task like this this way
you can check when you're planning or
writing and make sure you aren't leaving
anything out
let's review when you analyze the task
you should try to rephrase the question
in your own words and then work out how
many things you need to do what comes
next
this is a super important step even if
you feel that you don't have time if you
don't plan it's hard to write a clear
well-organized essay and that makes it
difficult to get higher scores when
planning you need to one decide what
your conclusion is going to be and to
decide how many body paragraphs you're
going to have let's think about these
steps for our sample question there are
three basic conclusions you can reach
here you could say that people are free
to make whatever unhealthy choices they
want and the government should not get
involved you could say that the
government should intervene to influence
people's decisions and that people are
not free to make absolutely any bad
choices they want or you could go for a
balanced conclusion where your position
is a compromise between both sides what
do you think if you are writing this
essay what would your conclusion be
remember that one conclusion isn't
better than another you can say whatever
you want however you should know what
your conclusion is before you go any
further otherwise it's impossible to
make a coherent plan next you need to
plan your body paragraphs an important
point each body paragraph should have
one main point and only one main point
don't put many different ideas in one
paragraph you also need to make sure
your body paragraphs are consistent with
your conclusion if your conclusion is
that people are free to make unhealthy
choices then you can't include a body
paragraph talking about the negative
effects of unhealthy lifestyle choices
let's look at three sample plans body
paragraph 1 people are free to decide
what to do with their own bodies body
paragraph 2 it's not the government's
job to be a parents to pee
conclusion people are free to make
whatever unhealthy choices they want
here's another possibility body
paragraph 1 people's unhealthy choices
have a negative effect on other people
and society as a whole body paragraph 2
the government should make unhealthy
lifestyle choices expensive difficult or
illegal conclusion people are not free
to make any unhealthy choices they want
and the government has a duty to
intervene finally here's a third
possible plan body paragraph 1 people
are free to decide what to do with their
own bodies body paragraph 2 people's own
healthy choices have a negative effect
on other people and society as a whole
body paragraph 3 the government should
encourage healthier choices and
discourage less healthy ones conclusion
people are free to make whatever
unhealthy choices they want but the
government should also push people
towards making healthier choices which
plan is better that all good plans one
isn't better than another and of course
there are many other possibilities it
depends on the ideas you have for this
lesson we're going to use the third plan
to write a model IELTS essay let's
review quickly your plan needs to do two
things one your plan needs to be
consistent with your conclusion so that
all your ideas support your final point
two you need to have one and only one
main idea in each body paragraph at this
point you're ready for the next step
there are three things you can do in
your introduction first you can provide
a hook something which shows why the
topic you're writing about is
interesting or relevant this could be
some background information a rhetorical
question
an interesting fact or something similar
secondly you can reframe the question to
show how you are going to approach it
and how you are interpreting the key
ideas in the task finally you need to
give an indication of what your essay
will talk about and what your conclusion
will be the first part is the least
important if you can think of a great
hook great if not don't worry about it
the second part reframing the question
is important if you're aiming for higher
scores if you're aiming for a lower
score you don't have to do this be
careful with reframing and paraphrasing
many IELTS candidates have problems with
this not doing it at all is better than
doing it badly the third part is
essential your introduction must signal
which direction you intend to take and
what your conclusion will be this shows
the examiner that you have a coherent
plan and you know where you are going
let's look now at a model introduction
are you free to destroy your own health
if I want to smoke 60 cigarettes a day
eat fast food for every meal or drink a
liter of vodka daily am i free to do so
in this essay I will show you that while
you cannot stop people from making bad
choices the government can and should
play an active role in encouraging
people to live more healthily you can
see all three parts in this introduction
the first sentence is partly a hook
partly a reframing of the question
you're using a rhetorical question
to address the topic directly the second
sentence reframes the question in terms
of personal freedoms this is relevant
because in the body of the essay we're
going to focus on this aspect of the
task the third sentence explains very
clearly where the essay will go reading
this the examiner will know what your
conclusion is going to be that is a good
thing in a coherent essay your
conclusion should not be a surprise
let's review quickly when he writes an
introduction you absolutely must signal
which direction you'll take and what
your conclusion will be you should
consider reframing the question to
highlight the ideas you want to focus on
in your essay you can optionally include
a hook or some background information
but it isn't necessary after your
introduction you need to move on to your
body paragraphs
start your body paragraph by writing a
topic sentence the topic sentence
summarizes the main idea of your
paragraph let's remember the plan we're
using so our topic sentence for the
first body paragraph could be the
sentence from the plan people are free
to decide what to do with their own
bodies or you could say something more
sophisticated like people frequently
make self-destructive choices and to a
certain extent they should be free to do
so this is better not only because it
uses more advanced grammar and
vocabulary but also because it signals
the conclusion people are free to make
bad choices but that freedom has limits
after your topic sentence you need to
develop your idea by going into more
detail for example choosing what to eat
or drink how much exercise to do how
many hours to sleep and whether to smoke
or not are personal matters and very
basic freedoms this is fundamentally the
same idea as the topic sentence but more
detailed where the topic sentence is
general the second sentence is more
specific if possible as an example to
support your point like this for example
consider a man who does know exercise
and regularly eats large amounts of
processed junk food his habits are
clearly unhealthy but equally clearly
they are his decisions to make you can
see that the paragraph starts with a
generalization and then gets more and
more specific this is a good person to
follow in your body paragraphs finally
it's good to end your paragraph with a
mini conclusion which restates the
central idea of the paragraph it is hard
even to imagine a world in which people
are forced to exercise
regularly or prevented from eating what
they wanted the idea is manifestly
ridiculous so in the last sentence
you're going back to generalization but
using the specific ideas you mentioned
in the paragraph maybe you're thinking
that's easy for you but I don't have the
vocabulary to write something like that
maybe maybe not but you can still follow
the same ideas start with a topic
sentence go into more detail add an
example if possible and then restate the
central idea of the paragraph at the end
follow the same structure for your
remaining body paragraphs and then it's
time to write your conclusion
conclusion you need to do two things one
state your opinion clearly to connect
all the key ideas from the tasks that
you've discussed in your body paragraphs
start your conclusion with a very clear
direct statement of your opinion for
example I strongly agree that everyone
should be free to make their own
lifestyle choices including unhealthy
choices the government should do more to
discourage people from making unhealthy
lifestyle choices
both of the views expressed in the
question are correct
this shows the examiner that you're
addressing the question directly and
that you have a clear opinion this has a
big effect on your IELTS writing score
next you need to connect the key ideas
from the task that you've discussed in
your body paragraphs be careful not to
simply repeat ideas look at a model
conclusion now both of the views
expressed in the question are correct
people are and should be free to make
unhealthy lifestyle choices if they want
to however because of the wider impact
of such choices the government also has
a responsibility to encourage healthier
lifestyles and disincentivize unhealthy
habits you can see that we covered the
idea of personal freedom from paragraph
one the idea that individual choices
have broader consequences from paragraph
two and the idea that the government
should encourage people to make
healthier choices from paragraph three
this is a strong conclusion because it
provides a clear position and also
connects everything together in a
coherent way you can see the full text
of the model essay on our website
oxfordonlineenglish.com there's a link
underneath the video we have a question
for you what topics do you find easiest
or most difficult
to write about in IELTS essay questions
please let us know your ideas in the
comments thanks for watching see you
next time