Now let’s talk about approaching the body of your essay. Between the introduction and
the conclusion of your IELTS Task 2 Academic Essay, will be the body. We will look at how
to structure your argument, your response and at ways of linking your paragraphs and
linking the ideas within your paragraphs. We will do this by demonstrating how your
essay needs to meet the assessment criteria for task response and for cohesion and coherence.
In academic writing you have to make an argument, that is give your opinion and support it with
evidence and link your ideas and your paragraphs. That's why two of the four criteria for Task
2 Writing are task response and coherence and cohesion.
Let’s look at task response first.
Task response requires two main things from you. Firstly, that you address all the parts
of the question and secondly, that you present a clear, supported argument. This outlines
what is expected of you in terms of what should be included in your essay for the IELTS Academic
Writing Task 2. These items become particularly relevant when we talk about the body of your
essay. As that is the largest part of your essay, you need to be sure that it covers
everything in the task. The first thing your essay needs to do is
address all the parts of the task.
Here is our task: 'To what extent do we agree or disagree with the idea that space exploration
is a luxury we cannot afford and instead governments should be spending money on global problems'.
These are the parts of the question that we need to address supported by our reasons and
examples. So what steps can you take in those first 5 minutes of your Task 2 time to set
yourself up for addressing the question?
Once you have read the question you must remember to analyse the question. How many parts are
there? And ask yourself, what is my opinion? Do you think that governments should be spending
money on space exploration? Or would that money be better spent on fighting global problems such
as poverty and disease? It’s an interesting question so it’s time to brainstorm some
ideas. If you agree, why? If you disagree, what makes space exploration more important
than fighting poverty? What are your reasons and do you have any examples to include? Once
you’ve got some ideas down it’s time to make a brief plan.
Following these steps will help you to ensure you address all parts of the question.
In the IELTS Task 2 Writing Test instructions, you are told to, 'Give reasons for your answer
and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.'
So, the next requirement is that we present a clear position and support it with relevant
reasons and examples. This is called, constructing an argument.
In your IELTS essay, you can build an argument by following this pattern; make a general
statement and be sure that it refers back to the points you outlined in your introduction.
Then, give a reason and/or give an example. In an academic essay you have to back up your
argument with factual evidence such as statistics. In the IELTS exam, you do not have access
to research materials such as books, journals, or newspapers, but you can still make general
statements based on your own knowledge and your experience to support your argument.
Look at the following sentences. Which one is more convincing, A or B? A, 'Too much fast
food is bad for your health.' Or B, 'Scientific studies show that too much fast food is bad
for your health.' If you answered B you are correct. An opinion
that is held by many people or by scientists or by a respected person is more convincing
than an opinion which is only held by one person, the writer.
When giving opinions, reasons and examples try to include some general statements in
your essay. For more ways that you can make general statements take a look at the following
examples.
Here is some useful language for making general statements.
It appears that many people prefer to drive themselves to work rather than catch public
transport. It seems that many people prefer to drive themselves to work.
It has been claimed that advances in technology will lead to greater unemployment in the future.
It is often said that this nation does not properly value its artists.
On the whole, childhood obesity is not a serious problem in my country.
As I said previously, you need to give reasons and examples to support your ideas and your
general statements. Here is some useful language for giving reasons.
And here is some useful language for giving examples.
There is also some language you need to avoid. After an expression like 'such as', it is
appropriate to list a couple of ideas but use 'for example', rather than the abbreviation
'e.g' . Another abbreviation to avoid is 'etc'. Even the full word 'etcetera' or expressions such as 'and so on',
are too vague.
We definitely don’t want our essays to be vague; instead, it's important that each
paragraph has just one central idea. So when you have finished that paragraph, with a
general statement, a reason and/or an example, it is time to move on to the next paragraph
with a new main idea. Make sure once again, that it’s an idea that you have outlined
in your introduction and one that supports your overall argument. Let’s take a look
at an example.
So here is the task again.
And here is the introduction. Let’s see whether the writer of this example agreed
or disagreed with the statement in the task.
The writer states that 'space exploration programs are a waste of money.' We can see
that the writer’s position has been clearly stated and the writer agrees. The rest of
the essay has been outlined and we should expect to see three body paragraphs focusing
on poverty, disease and the environment. Let’s take a look.
That looks good. We can see that the body of the essay has three paragraphs and each
paragraph covers one of the ideas outlined in the introduction and there is just one
main idea per paragraph. So we know that the essay has a clear overall position and addresses
the task. Let’s have a look at each paragraph in a bit more detail. We want to see a general
statement and that the ideas are supported with reasons and/or examples. We also want
to see that the paragraphs have been linked to each other using cohesive devices. These
work like the glue that sticks them together.
Take a moment to read the general statement and the reason with examples.
In the second paragraph, we can see a link to the previous paragraph. Then, there
is a general statement which is surrounded by examples. In this paragraph we can also
see another sentence supporting the central idea of the essay that governments should
not be spending money on space exploration. Take a moment to read the paragraph.
Here is the third body paragraph and we know it is the last body paragraph as it starts
with the linking phrase, 'Finally, …'. This is followed by the general statement and then
the reason.
As you can see, each paragraph must have just one central idea introduced with a general
statement and then supported by reasons and examples. And each one of these paragraphs
in the body of your essay needs to support the overall position that you have taken. You must
also ensure that you have addressed all of the parts of the question. If you keep all of
these things in mind as you write the body of your essay you should be able to do a good
job of responding to the task.
Cohesion and coherence requires three main things from you; not only do you need to use
paragraphs and link them logically as we have seen in the examples above, you also need
to link the ideas within paragraphs and use a range of cohesive devices appropriately
to do that. Thirdly, you must present a clear, central topic in each paragraph.
Let’s look at our sample essay again and examine the use of cohesion and coherence
within the paragraphs.
One of the keys to cohesion and coherence is using a variety of referents, words that
refer to the same thing that allow your paragraph to flow smoothly.
In paragraph one, the central idea is that poverty is a bigger issue than space exploration
and governments should help people living without food and shelter first. The whole
paragraph refers to 'people who are living in poverty'. But each time the writer refers
to them a different expression is used: 'These people', 'They' and '...this problem'. This
demonstrates the writer’s ability to use a range of language to refer to the same thing
thus linking the ideas and examples in the paragraph, and making the ideas cohesive.
In paragraph two, the writer has done the same thing for referring to diseases, using
words like epidemics and pandemic.
In the third paragraph there are a variety of referents for the central ideas of the
environment such as 'our own (world)' and the effects of climate change.
What other devices can you use in a paragraph to connect ideas and introduce opposite ideas?
These words and expressions are known as linking devices. We saw some being used between paragraphs
earlier, such as 'Another urgent problem that threatens us all' and, 'Finally'. But within
a paragraph you can also use words like 'Although', 'While' and, 'Instead of' to introduce an
idea that you want to examine both sides of. Like in the first sentence, 'Although we are
living in prosperous times, with people in many countries enjoying a higher standard
of living than ever before, there are still millions of people in the world who are living
in poverty.' The writer admits that many people are not poor and have a high standard of living,
but at the same time there are still many people living in poverty.
And of course, there is also the language you can use to introduce examples and reasons,
such as, 'other diseases' which is then followed by a list of those other diseases, such as 'AIDS' and 'malaria'.
Try to use words and expressions like these to link the ideas between your paragraphs
and in your paragraphs. Remember that variety is the key. Bearing these things in mind will
keep you on track with cohesion and coherence.