hi there it's Asiya
let's take an ielts writing task 2 topic reported in one of the recent exams
and i'll show you how to write an answer that can get a band 9 score
you'll be able to download the sample essay too
ready let's get started
here is our topic some people think that the government should subsidize fruit and vegetables
to make healthy food more affordable others argue that the government should tax unhealthy
food instead discuss both these views and give your own opinion give reasons for your answer
and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience write at least 250 words
okay right now i highly encourage you to get your pen and paper ready
and write your practice essay together with me i promise you learn so much more if you do that
the very first step after you read the topic is to determine the type of task
i know some former examiners say that there are no types of tasks there is just one writing task 2
it is true that all task 2 essays are assessed in exactly the same way one part of this assessment
is checking if you fully answered all parts of the task so what are these parts and this is where
our types of tasks are helpful our question is discuss both these views and give your
own opinion so whenever we have this question we need to do three things address the first
view the government should subsidize fruit and vegetables to make healthy food more affordable
you also need to discuss this second view the government should tax and healthy food instead and
you should give your opinion you may agree with the first view or with a second view or have a
balanced opinion i personally think that the government should do both subsidize healthy food
and tax and healthy food but even if i agreed with the first view only i would still have to
discuss the second view in my essay compare it to the so-called opinion essay question
one of them is to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement
if you say that you fully agree you should give reasons to explain why you agree
but you won't be discussing the reasons why you disagree basically if you understand how to answer
each type of question and what parts you should address it's easier for you to write the essay and
that's why in my courses we discuss each of them but now let's concentrate on our task the next
step is to find ideas and structure your essay for an essay about two views and your opinion
there are two main structures again in my courses you can learn about both but here i'm going to use
the most common of them an introduction the first view the second view and a conclusion
have a look at this structure is it complete does it cover everything
this task is about two views of other people and i think most candidates already know that
they need to express their opinion in the conclusion but many still make a common but
serious mistake basically they discuss why other people agree with the first view then they discuss
why some other people agree with the second view and in the conclusion they say something like this
to conclude i agree with the first few in this case the examiner doesn't know what you think
until very much the last sentence of your essay they will never discover why you think so because
in the body paragraphs you only discussed what others think not what you think and that's why
you should make your opinion clear throughout your essay and in this essay structure i'm going
to include my opinion in both body paragraphs okay in this video we're not going to discuss
how to find ideas and prepare a plan for your essay i know these topics are very important
but to be brief we'll skip them so go ahead pause the video plan the essay the way you usually do
and write your answer and then resume the video and i'll show you my answer ready to continue
okay my introduction is health issues arising from consuming excessive amounts of
junk food are a cause of great concern in many countries this is a short background statement
there are calls for governments to either reduce prices of healthy foods through subsidies
or to raise the costs of unhealthy products through taxation so here i've presented both views
and the word foods is plural because i'm talking about different kinds of food in my opinion
a combination of the two is the best way forward you don't have to give your opinion
in the introduction but i like to do that to make my opinion extra clear so here is the
first body paragraph on the one hand i agree that the tax option can help to reduce the consumption
of potentially harmful foods the linker on the one hand helps me link my introduction
and the first body paragraph and in this sentence i directly say i agree now an example for example
the so-called sugar tax imposed in the uk on soft drinks with the high sugar content has
had some positive effects when you're looking for ideas you may think about something personal for
example i like coca-cola and it's just become more expensive in your task 2 try to turn your personal
experience into more general examples the price of soft drinks with high sugar content has increased
now i'm going to explore the other side of this example
however soft drink manufacturers have reacted by reducing sugar levels to just under the amount
life of attacks and as a result most people tend to buy this slightly healthier version without
really changing their overall dietary habits that much basically i'm saying that
taxing and healthy food has some advantages but this alone doesn't solve the overarching or
the main problem now i have one more argument furthermore it could be argued that this policy
represents a kind of punishment for those consumers least likely to seek better alternatives
for financial reasons furthermore is a formal linking word that helps us add
another idea i'm also keeping the style of this essay formal by using the passive voice instead of
people argue which is also fine i wrote it could be argued the passive voice is more
impersonal and more formal using it can help you vary your sentence structures and achieve
a higher score for your grammar now the second body paragraph subsidizing healthy foods such as
fruit and vegetables has therefore been proposed as a policy that would represent a reward rather
than a punishment this sentence is closely linked to the last sentence in the previous paragraph
the linker therefore shows that my idea here is a logical conclusion i drew from my previous idea
indeed this strategy of passing on price reductions directly to the consumer seems to have
a greater impact on eating habits and i see it as an important step towards encouraging people to
eat better in this sentence i presented a benefit of this policy and showed that i agree this is
important so i'm not just talking about what other people think i'm expressing my own opinion too
of course one drawback is that persuading governments to spend money
rather than collected through taxation is no simple matter here i'm showing that
subsidizing healthy food is not a perfect solution either so i'm discussing both views
from different sides all i need now is a conclusion to conclude i believe that the best
way forward is to employ both strategies in tandem this is my opinion and i presented very clearly
now i need to summarize the main arguments from the body paragraphs that led me to this conclusion
imposing attacks on unhealthy foods and drinks can discourage people from buying them
and the money raised can then be used to subsidize fruit and vegetables thus making them more
attractive for consumers here i'm not presenting new ideas i'm just summarizing what i've said
before and show how all these ideas work together this essay is 294 words long which is perfect
it's long enough to develop ideas but not too long to take too much time to write of course this is
just one way to write an essay on one topic for your exam you should learn what types of tasks
exist in task 1 and task 2 and how to answer each of them and what to write about in each
part of your answers and more generally you should learn what ielts writing requirements
are and how to meet them i've designed my online courses specifically to teach you all this step
by step and help you get clarity on what you need to pass your exam and how to get there
in less time and with less stress i have ielts academic and general packs which i'm gonna link
below actually you haven't seen the essay in full yet you can download it in the pdf format
right now and if you wrote your essay well done please post it in the comments below
and thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye