when an IELTS examiner reads your writing task 2 essay they have to decide have you answered the
question in full and quite often the answer is no or at least not quite and that's why today I want
to talk to you about five unofficial types of task 2 questions and how you can make sure that you
answer each of them in full and get a higher score it's Asiya let's get started [Music]
I've chosen a recent task to topic here it is some companies allow the employees to work from home others still
expect people to work in the office discuss both these views and give your own opinion give reasons
for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience right at
least to 250 words so this is our first type two views and your opinion also known as a discussion
I say it asks you to do three things write about two opposing or different positions and
to express your opinions on them you always have two statements in this case the company policies
regarding working from home or making everyone go to the office then you're asked to write a
about those points of view and share your views so here are some ideas of how we can best prepare
for this type of question first of all note down a maximum of two or three points in favor of the
first statement working from home do the same for the other go into the office then choose
which aspects to concentrate on take a position it doesn't have to be strongly in favor of either
side you can perhaps favor one side while still seeing that it has drawbacks the important thing
is to have an opinion then think of one or two great examples to illustrate your points make sure
they are really relevant for example if you argue that staying at home makes you more productive
don't back it up with an example of how work atome parents can spend more time with their children
that's not very productive you notes should take three or 4 minutes and then spend another minute
thinking about how you organize your paragraphs our paragraph structure could look like this
first of all paraphrase the two positions and express your opinion then present and discuss
the first statement adding your point of view then present and discuss the second statement
again adding your point of view and finally conclude by summarizing your opinion in terms
of the two positions presented so o and O you will have four paragraphs it looks a little complicated
and that's why it's advisable to restrict your ideas to just one or two main ones it's a matter
of quality not quantity in a 250 to 300w essay there is no time or space to write about more
than two or maybe three aspects in this case to take one aspect we could write about both remote
and office work how about the idea that thanks to technology remote work can be as effective and
productive as office work this could be counted in the following paragraph by pointing out that all
the technology in the world cannot really replace good old face-to-face meetings if you're more in
favor of working at home you could point out that online meetings and video your conferences can be
just as good success in task two is built on good structure and Clarity to show The Examiner how
well you can organize your ideas so how different are the other essay types really I thought it
would be interesting to create some other tasks based on the same topic here is what I came up
with companies should allow their employees to work for from home if they wish to what extent do
you agree with this statement give reasons and so on this is an opinion or agree disagreeing it only
has one statement and we must give our opinion on it just how different is this type the difference
is that there is only one statement not two but be careful don't assume that because a statement
says work from home it's not referring to work in the office always remember that the aim of
task two is to judge how well you can write about a topic from different points of view in this case
again you must include a couple of main points in favor and against working from home however you
must also take a position of course to what extent allows us to be strongly in favor or
against or take up some position in the Middle with a mix of pros and cons it's up to you the
paragraphs could follow this pattern paraphrase the statement and take up a position regarding it
then present some arguments against your opinion provide some arguments in favor of your opinion or
the other way around and finally make a concluding statement repeating your opinion again what we're
doing is mixing objective statement ments with personal views in this structure I put present
some arguments against as the second paragraph or the first body paragraph because then we can
begin to look at them critically before going on to present our opinions in the next paragraph but
you may wish to present the arguments you agree with first it's up to you the important part is
that your opinion is clear you shouldn't say that you agree with one thing in one paragraph and then
disagree with the exact same thing in the next when you're presenting arguments against your
opinion you should explain why you disagree with them and why you think your arguments are stronger
it's such an important aspect of your writing in my courses we pay a lot of attention to how
you can present arguments you don't agree with and still make your opinion clear it's called to
overturn counter arguments so how about the third type advantages and disadvantages or
a comparison essay here is my version of it the number of people working from home has grown in
some countries in recent years do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages don't forget
by the way that the wording of the questions can vary here you asked to compare the pros and cons
in the general training test we might just have what are the advantages and disadvantages it
would be simpler then you're asked to describe not to compare getting back to our examples the
question asks you to compare something in terms of its pros and cons it's good and bad points
of course it's also asking for your opinion the paragraphs could be in the introduction
paraphrase the question and take up your position let's say you decide on advantages present the
disadvantages present the advantages and then write a conclusion where you repeat your views
as you can see this type of question produces a very similar pattern to they discuss both views
and to the to what extent do you agree or disagree type the differences May lie in some details so
here are three short extracts from each of the three types we've looked at so far the question
is which is which let's read through each one as I read think about what type it belongs to type
one type two or type three extract number one one draw drawback that is frequently mentioned
regarding working remotely is that some people tend to feel isolated and miss the Creative Energy
that office-based teamwork can offer however this could be mitigated through online chat or
brainstorming sessions with colleagues as well as occasional days spent working at the office what
do you think discussion comparison opinion extract number two some companies emphasize the benefits
to teamwork and ultimately productivity that come from being together in the office while there is
undoubtedly some truth in this it has also been my own experience that remote teams can maintain
highly productive standards by sharing information and online chats or video calls again any ideas
and extract number three I strongly believe that office staff should be given the chance to decide
whether they would prefer to work primarily or in some cases entirely from home one reason for this
is that the technology now enables us to work remotely under conditions comparable to those
in the office have you decided which is which let's have a look the first one is more likely
to be from type three comparison it points to a drawback or a disadvantage and then counters it
in the second sentence extract two is more clearly a type one discussion or two views and comes from
the paragraph outlining reasons why companies want their staff to remain in the office it includes
an example from personal experience extract three is opinion we see a clear expression of a
person of opinion I strongly believe in the first sentence and that is backed up with a reason or
justification in the second sentence I know what you're thinking what about the other two types
of question don't worry here they are they're often called two part questions and there are
two of them here is the first it presents a kind of problem solution scenario there is a statement
followed by a first question about the underlying causes or reasons for this phenomenon why is this
happening what are the causes the second question looks for a solution and here is an example few
students are studying modern languages at school and University why is this what can
be done to encourage more students students to study languages the second kind our type five
consists of a statement followed by two direct questions about it students are encouraged to
study Science and Technology rather than subjects like history and literature do you think history
and literature are still relevant today should children spend more time studying these subjects
at school in both cases the idea is to explore topic by answering questions the task does not
explicitly State whether or not we must give our opinions but as always in task two when we support
our arguments with examples then of course we're expressing our opinions we must present reasons as
to why something has happened and offer possible solutions or explain consequences in the classic
type four whereas type five questions are more open even though the two questions are related
in both you can apply this four paragraph structure paraphrase the statement and the
two questions answer the first question answer the second question and summarize so these are
the five types of iot writing task two questions the next step is to learn how to write each type
of essing how to organize your paragraphs to fully answer the question and to make your opinion clear
throughout another requirement you must fulfill and if you'd like to take stepbystep lessons where
you can learn everything you need in as little time as possible check out my online courses I'll
link them in the video description and I actually have an indepth lesson on how to write a perfect
introduction from my courses on YouTube as a free preview and it would be a great next step for your
learning thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye