thesis statement ielts liz

Skip to primary navigation
Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

IELTS Advantage

IELTS Preparation Courses

How to Write a Thesis Statement

This post will show you how to write a strong IELTS thesis statement. It will also explain why you should vary your thesis statement according to the question type you are given in the IELTS writing test.

This post will look at:

what a thesis statement is;
how to identify the different question types;
how to write a thesis statement for each question.

What is a thesis statement?

”A thesis is an idea put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed or analysed.”

A thesis statement is the most important sentence in your IELTS writing task 2 answer. It is contained in the introduction ; each introduction should have one, along with a paraphrase of the question and an outline statement.

A thesis statement is your main idea. I often describe it to students as “the way you feel about the whole issue in one sentence”. It tells the examiner that you have understood the question, and it will lead to a clearer, more coherent essay.

Let’s look at an example of an IELTS thesis statement:

Question: There is a good deal of evidence that increasing car use contributes to global warming and has other undesirable effects on people’s health and well-being.

Do you agree or disagree?

Thesis statement : This essay agrees that increasing motor vehicle use contributes to rising global temperatures and certain health issues.

As you can see, this sentence clearly shows the examiner how you feel about the question. The rest of your essay should support this statement.

How do I know what to write?

The first thing we need to do is to identify which type of question it is and look at the action words. For example, in the question below, the action words are ‘do you agree or disagree?’

Question: There is a good deal of evidence that increasing car use is contributing to global warming and having other undesirable effects on people’s health and well-being.

Do you agree or disagree?

Therefore, we need to tell the examiner clearly whether we agree or disagree, which will influence our thesis statement.

Let’s look at other examples:

Computers are being used more and more in education.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages.

Computers are being used more and more in education. Some people say that this is a positive trend, while others argue that it is leading to negative consequences.

Discuss both sides of this argument and then give your own opinion.

Students are becoming more and more reliant on computers.

What are some of the problems associated with reliance on computers, and what are some of the possible solutions?

The main keywords in each of the three questions above are more or less the same- education and computers. However, if we look at the action words, we can see that we must answer the three questions in very different ways, which will affect our thesis statement.

The action words are:

What are some of the problems, and what are some of the possible solutions?

Therefore, it is important to take some time to analyse the question and establish what it is actually asking us to do .

How do I write a thesis statement for each question type?

Once we have established what the question wants us to do, we can now think about our thesis statement. Below we will look at how to write a thesis statement for four different kinds of questions:

Opinion Question (Do you agree or Disagree)
Discussion Question (Discuss both points of view)
Advantages and Disadvantage
Problem and Solution.

You should remember that although IELTS writing part 2 questions normally follow a standard format as above, they sometimes change, and you should be prepared for that.

Opinion Question

Some aspects of celebrity culture have a bad influence on young people.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

We have three choices with this kind of question:

I both agree and disagree

I tell my students to only choose options one or two . Choosing option three will often lead to a confused and/or very long essay. If you have just one opinion and you stick to this, it will lead to a clear and well-argued essay.

Therefore, you have two choices.

I agree that some aspects of celebrity culture negatively influence young people.
I disagree that some aspects of celebrity culture negatively influence young people.

All of your thesis statements for this kind of question should start with:

This essay agrees that…..

This essay disagrees that…..

We should try to avoid using personal pronouns like ‘I’ and we, therefore, use ‘This essay….’ instead.

Also, remember that we should not copy the question as this is not allowed in the IELTS writing test, and instead, we should paraphrase.

For example, ‘ This essay agrees that some famous people’s lifestyles have a detrimental effect on today’s youth.’

Second Example Opinion Question

Increasing the price of petrol is the best way to solve the growing traffic and pollution problems.

Thesis Statement: This essay disagrees that the best way to resolve increasing pollution and congestion problems is to raise the cost of fuel.

Discussion Question

Computers are being used more and more in education. Some people say this is a positive trend, while others argue that it leads to negative consequences.

For this question, we need to clearly state both sides of the argument and our own opinion.

We do this by simply paraphrasing the question, thus stating both sides, and then giving our own opinion. Our own opinion will be just one side of the argument.

Even if you favour both sides of the argument, state one. Again, this leads to a clearer answer.

Thesis statement: Some argue that schools and universities increasing the use of computers is beneficial, while others oppose this view. This essay agrees that the growing use of technology by educators is a positive development.

As you can see, this student has clearly stated both sides of the argument and stated which side of the argument she prefers.

Second Example Discussion Question

Some people think that parents should teach children how to be good members of society. Others believe that school is the best place to learn this.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Thesis statement: Some argue that teachers should teach youngsters how to be upstanding members of the community, whereas others feel this is the role of the mother and father. This essay agrees that this duty should be filled primarily by parents.

Advantage and Disadvantages Question

In this question, we need to clearly state what we think the main advantage is and the main disadvantage.

Thesis Statement: The principal advantages are the instant information available to students and the ability to communicate with other students. The main disadvantages are the lack of discipline and motivation provided by computers.

Second Advantage and Disadvantages Question

Some experts believe that it is better for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school rather than secondary school.

Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

Thesis statement: The principal advantage is that exposing children to languages as early as possible leads to higher proficiency levels later in life, which outweighs the main disadvantage of young children being overwhelmed by too many subjects.

Problem and Solution Question

What is a problem associated with reliance on computers, and what is a possible solution?

Our thesis statement will need to state one main problem and one main solution.

Thesis statement: The principal problem is students allowing machines to do all the work for them without thinking for themselves, and a possible solution is to have stricter supervision from teachers and parents.

Cause and Solution Question

In some countries, the average weight of people is increasing, and their levels of health and fitness are decreasing.

What do you think is the cause of this problem, and what measures could be taken to solve this?

Thesis statement: The principal cause of this problem is people’s sedentary lifestyles, and a possible solution is to educate society about the dangers of not keeping fit.

This is just a broad overview of IELTS thesis statements, and it should be read in conjunction with my article on how to write an effective introduction to be fully understood.

**Please note**

It should be reiterated that these are the four most common question types that come up in the IELTS writing test. However, these question types sometimes do vary, and you should be ready to change your IELTS thesis statements and introductions accordingly.

To do this confidently on the day of your exam, you must have practised many times beforehand.

You can browse the free IELTS Writing Task 2 materials on my website to improve your skills from home, but free materials can only help you so much. If you need reliable practice questions and feedback on your work, you should join the Waiting List to my VIP Course or contact my team here: [email protected].

Video Lesson: How THIS student scored a Band 8.5 in IELTS Writing

In this video, my student will show you how she scored a Band 8.5 in her IELTS Writing test.

Watch us break down her essay step-by-step, talking about her introduction, thesis statement, how she used vocabulary to score high, came up with strong ideas and much more. Check it out here:

About Christopher Pell

My name is Christopher Pell and I'm the Managing Director of IELTS Advantage.

I started IELTS Advantage as a simple blog to help 16 students in my class. Several years later, I am very humbled that my VIP Course has been able to help thousands of people around the world to score a Band 7+ in their IELTS tests.

If you need my help with your IELTS preparation, you can send me an email using the contact us page.

How to write an IELTS thesis statement.

Ielts essay introductions and thesis statements..

updated: July 27th 2022. When writing the introduction of an IELTS essay there are two steps that need to be taken. Paraphrase the task question and write a Thesis Statement . If the question asks for an opinion then it must be in the thesis statement. It depends on the type of essay you are writing as they are not all the same. It is advisable to write a thesis in the introduction for every type of essay. A good thesis statement can help you get a good band score in task response in the writing section.

The thesis statement tells the examiner what the essay is going to be about and the conclusion of the essay paraphrases the thesis statement. Some teachers have other views and say that a thesis statement is not needed. There are different approaches to writing an IELTS essay. If you have 10 IELTS teachers in a room there will most likely be 10 different opinions on the matter.

In my opinion, a thesis statement is logical and shows the reader what to expect in the rest of the essay. However, do not confuse Thesis statements with memorised outline sentences. See this link here about that.

What exactly is a thesis statement?

‘A thesis statement tells the reader what your essay is going to be about in one or two sentences. It usually includes your opinion or states your position’

Don’t use rhetorical questions in the thesis. The thesis statement is not a question.
Make it clear what you are going to write about briefly (1 or 2 sentences)
If it’s an opinion essay, give 2 reasons for your opinion in the thesis statement.
The thesis statement comes after paraphrasing the question.
Do not write an outline sentence, these look like a cliche and memorised. Examiners are trained to spot memorised phrases, for instance: ‘ This essay would like to explore reasons for this in more detail’
Don’t confuse thesis statements with the above outline sentence. Outline sentences are for very long academic essays. See this lesson here on phrases to avoid.

For each essay type this is what should be in the Thesis statement:

1. Opinion essays: write 2 reasons for your opinion. 2. Advantage disadvantage essays: state the advantage and the disadvantage, 3. Problem solution essays: briefly state 1 or 2 problems and possible solutions. 4 . Discussion essays: after paraphrasing both sides of the argument, give your opinion with a reason why you hold that view. 5. Two part question essays: answer the 1st question then answer the 2nd question briefly.

First you have to identify what kind of essay it is.

The first step before you begin to write is to make sure you understand the question, then identify what kind of essay this will be. There are 5 variations on an IELTS discursive essay click here to see a lesson on this .

Before you write the thesis statement you will need to paraphrase the question , click here for a lesson on this. Click here to see how to write a good introduction to a Problem Solution essay.

1. Discussion essay.

This is the Paraphrased introduction with a Thesis statement.

A number of people believe serious crimes need to have a set punishment, whereas others argue that the situation of the crime must be considered. I agree that the circumstances of the crime itself should be taken into account because every case is different.

Thesis Statement: ‘ I agree that the circumstances of the crime itself should be taken into account because every case is different’

It is important to give a brief reason for your view, the body paragraphs should expand on this. The examiner can clearly see your position in the introduction. In this essay, my position is that every case is different and a prison sentence would not be appropriate.

Note: For a more academic feel, rather than using a personal pronoun to state your opinion, you could state your position like this below:

This essay agrees that the circumstances of the crime itself should be taken into account because every case is different.

2. Opinon essay.

Again you need to paraphrase the question and then clearly agree or disagree , remember to choose just one side.. the words: ‘To what extent do you agree or disagree’ means how much do you agree/disagree, or how far do you agree/disagree. You should mention the other side of the argument but stick to your own opinion. Balanced essays do not necessarily get a higher band score.

Give 2 reasons for your view in the thesis statement here. This is the Paraphrased introduction with a Thesis statement:

It is argued that society would be better off if every type of advertising was prohibited. I disagree that all advertising should be disallowed as this policy would not benefit society and would negatively impact the economy.

Thesis statement: ‘ I disagree that all advertising should be disallowed as this policy would not benefit societ y and would negatively impact the economy.’

In this thesis statement I have clearly stated why I hold the opinion that advertising should not be banned with 2 reasons (no benefit to society and bad for the economy) Remember to keep the introduction to under 55 words or it will be too long.

As mentioned before, you can use a more academic way to state your view, such as:

This essay disagrees that all advertising should be disallowed because this policy would not benefit society and would have a negative impact on the economy.

3. Advantages disadvantages essay.

This is the Paraphrased introduction with a Thesis statement:

In recent times, people can reside wherever they want in the world because of the progress that has made in technology and transport. The main advantage is the career opportunities that a person can get outside their own country, while a possible downside would be the stress of adjusting to living in a different culture.

Thesis statement: ‘ The main advantage is the career opportunities that a person can get outside their own country, while a possible downside would be the stress of adjusting to living in a different culture.’

Try keeping the whole introduction under 55 words as you don’t want it to look like a body paragraph. You can write about 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages, but you need to keep the introduction concise.

Another method is to just refer to the advantage and state the disadvantage, such as:

In recent times, people can reside wherever they want in the world because of the progress that has made in technology and transport. Although there are advantages, the downside would be the stress of adjusting to living in a different culture.’

This allows you to keep the thesis statement concise especially if you want to cover two advantages (or disadvantages)

4. Advantages disadvantages outweigh essay (this needs your opinion).

This type of advantage disadvantage essay is special because it asks ‘ Do the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?’. This means you have to write about what side you think is stronger and reflect that in the essay and also in the thesis statement. You need to state an opinion here.

Some experts argue that children should study a new language at primary school as opposed to secondary school. This essay agrees that the advantages are stronger than the disadvantages because youngsters pick up and master new languages much easier than at a high school age.

Thesis statement: ‘This essay agrees that the advantages are stronger than the disadvantages because youngsters pick up and master new languages much easier than at a high school age .’

I have underlined the reason for my opinion here. Giving a reason for your opinion is important in a thesis statement. The introduction is 44 words long so that will be fine. Remember to also address the other side of the issue in the main body paragraphs, the side you think is weaker.

Another method here is to use this style which is very concise at 32 words but it does not contain a reason for my view.

Some experts argue that youngsters should study a new language at primary school as opposed to secondary school. In my view, the advantages of younger children learning new languages outweigh the disadvantages.

5. Problem solution / causes solution essay.

People living in large cities have to deal with many issues in their day to day lives. The main problems people face are high rental costs and overcrowding. Some possible solutions would be to build more affordable housing and more green spaces.

Thesis statement: ‘ The main problems people face are high rental costs and overcrowding. Some possible solutions would be to build more affordable housing and more green spaces.’

I have listed 2 problems high rents, overcrowding and 2 solutions affordable housing, green spaces . You can choose just one problem and one solution and that would be fine.

6. Two part question (direct question essay).

The world wide web is a huge source of knowledge which has created opportunities for people worldwide to study. However, not all information on the internet can be trusted, so the government needs to put measures in place to protect people from false information.

Thesis statement: ‘ However, not all information on the internet can be trusted, so the government needs to put measures in place to protect people from false information.’

Two part question essays are sometimes called ‘Direct question’ essays. They consist of 2 direct questions in the task question. Sometimes they will ask for your opinion such as: Do you think….? or What do you think…?

If the question asks for the opinion then you must state it. You should briefly answer the 2 questions in the thesis statement then give more detail in the body paragraphs.

Check out the blog posts about how to identify the 5 essay types and also how to paraphrase the question . These are key stages before writing your thesis statement. Make sure your whole introduction is under 55 words or it will be too long.

Take a look here at how to write a good introduction in writing task 2. Now you can try.

Here is a Discussion essay question where you have to give your opinion. Can you write a Thesis statement for it?

Some people believe that the best way to deal with heavy traffic in city centres is for privately owned vehicles to be banned, others however think this is not a realistic solution. Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.

Task question again:

Some people believe that the best way to deal with heavy traffic in city centres is for privately owned vehicles to be banned, others however think this is not a realistic solution. Discuss both sides and give your own opinion.

Paraphrased introduction: Some people argue that prohibiting private cars from city centres is the best way to tackle traffic congestion, whereas others say that this is unrealistic.

Thesis statement: I agree that private vehicles should be banned from city centres and more investment needs to be put into public transportation to alleviate traffic jams.

Full introduction with thesis statement:

Some people argue that prohibiting private cars from city centres is the best way to tackle traffic congestion, whereas others say that this is unrealistic. I agree that private vehicles should be banned from city centres and more investment needs to be put into public transportation to alleviate traffic jams.

With regards to individuals, the impact that online social media has had on each individual person has clear advantages. Firstly, people from different countries are brought together through such sites as Facebook whereas before the development of technology and social networking sites, people rarely had the chance to meet or communicate with anyone outside of their immediate circle or community. Secondly, Facebook also has social groups which offer individuals a chance to meet and participate in discussions with people who share common interests.

On the other hand, the effect that Facebook and other social networking sites have had on societies and local communities can only be seen as negative. Rather than individual people taking part in their local community, they are instead choosing to take more interest in people online. Consequently, the people within local communities are no longer forming close or supportive relationships. Furthermore, society as a whole is becoming increasingly disjointed and fragmented as people spend more time online with people they have never met face to face and who they are unlikely to ever meet in the future.

To conclude, although social networking sites have brought individuals closer together, they have not had the same effect on society or local communities. Local communities should do more to try and involve local people in local activities in order to promote the future of community life.

Comments : This essay shows you the organisation of ideas into paragraphs and also how a clear answer is given in the thesis statement in the introduction and then supported and explained in full throughout the essay. You will also see paraphrasing for advantage / disadvantage language which can be useful for you in other essays. Furthermore, the word length of this essay is typical for anyone aiming for band score 6, 7 or above. Words 280

Useful IELTS Pages for Writing and Other Sections

IELTS Writing Task 2 : Model Essays, Tips, Free Videos and Practice Lessons
Another Model Opinion Essay
Model Discussion Essay
IELTS Listening
IELTS Reading
IELTS Writing Task 1
IELTS Speaking
Vocabulary for IELTS
Recent Exam Questions & Topics

Ideas for Essay Topics E-book

This e-book contains ideas and vocabulary exercises for over 150 common IELTS essay topics. It is now available with my Advanced Writing Task 2 Lessons and my Grammar E-book in my store. Click here: Liz’s Online Store

———————-

Subscribe for Free to get New Post by Email

Email Address

Many people are of the belief that individuals and members of the society have had a huge negative impact due to social media sites like Facebook. While I partially agree with this statement however, Facebook has provided somewhat benefits to the society as well.

We live in a digital age where we are constantly surrounded by social media and the content it produces, Facebook being one of it. Today, anybody can sign up on the platform and start using it immediately without any security checks making it not entirely safe for the user. Like mentioned earlier, anybody can open up an account and start posting, allowing political parties to push through their agenda through these sites and on to the screens of the juvenile population.

As one might expect adults to be mindful about what they post on the social networking sites, it is not always the case for every adult. Social media sites like Facebook are not particularly safe for the younger population as it can be extremely manipulative and vulgar at times. It can be especially harmful in kids between 13-19 years of age where they could easily lose their confidence to the glamorous facade put up by these networking sites.

Facebook though exploitative at times, does have a few advantages. One of them is bringing people closer throughout the globe. Families can get in touch with friends and relatives living abroad with a simple click. Numerous small businesses who do not have the means to pay for advertising can easily promote their brand on Facebook.

To conclude, arguably Facebook has had some amounts of negative impact on the society, although it has paved a way for people to connect and get closer.

I know Liz doesn’t do review. But I would appreciate if other students like me could review my essay.

Some parents buy their children a large number of toys to play with. What are the advantages and disadvantages for the child of having a large number of toys?

Many a parent make a large purchase of toys for their kids to harness or play with, in my unequivocal stance, this notion provides advantages such as more leisure activities for kids, however poor academic performance, and reduced inter personal relationship are undeniable disadvantages. This essay will further examine the pragmatic advantages and disadvantages of this view.

To begin, owning a myriad of toys provide a lot of benefits to kids. However the leading advantage of this notion is the creation of a fun leisure activity for kids. Kids with a lot of toys tend to have more fun in comparison to their counterparts who own only a handful of playing materials or games. In addition to having a fun filled leisure time they possess a variety of toys, games, and playing materials, which makes the kids more entertained. A notable example would be the research paper by a renowned psychologist Mr. John Ata which reported that 92% of kids with a large number of toys have more fun during leisure hours compared to kids with less toys.

It is equally important to mention that some drawbacks are associated with this phenomenon. A substantial drawback is that it affects the academic results of children. It is a prominent fact that kids that own a variety of toys spend a lot more hours playing, and this exceeds the recommended daily leisure time of 2 hours. Furthermore, this has a negative impact on their academics, and learning ability. In 2022 an academic paper released by China recorded that 100% of kids with a lot of toys have difficulties learning. Also, poor interpersonal relationship is a notable downside to this notion, because of the extra hours spent playing with games kids have little to no time interacting with individuals of the same age range. In most cases children in this situation prefer to spend more time at home playing, than interacting, socializing, and building social relationships with their pairs.

In conclusion, a fun packed leisure time is a phenomenal advantage of this view. However poor academic results, and lack of communication skills are undeniable disadvantages. Therefore, parents or guardians should maximize the benefits, and manage the drawbacks effectively to create a balance.

Social networking sites, for instance, Facebook, have had a big detrimental effect on individual people and communities. While social media is beneficial in some ways, I believe that the negative impacts go beyond the advantages. With regards to individuals, the presence of Facebook can lead to scamming. So many people become victims in recent times. Scammers take other user’s photos on Facebook easily and then use these photos for crime. Additionally, Facebook is often deemed to be dangerous due to adolescent kidnappings being burgeoning. The criminals pretend to be someone else to attract teenagers to meet and kidnap them. Furthermore, establishing relationships through social media inclines to be full of pretentious. Users often polish their image, social status, and even profile pictures which may lead to fake relationships as well. Undesirable outcomes are happening badly in society owing to social network usage. People tend to gather with their communities online, instead of attending physical gatherings. It is not a good attitude because people tend to be indifferent to their intermediate community. Moreover, the intermediate cycle is essential to make people grow into well-rounded human beings. People live in real life, and for this reason, involving in such real communities is considerable as a means to help themselves fulfill their natural traits as social beings. Likewise, people are more likely to have stronger bonds in real communities instead of online. To conclude, social media sites have had a huge unfavorable result both for individuals and communities starting from crimes and faking identities to forming apathetic individuals.

The question of whether social media or networking platforms (Facebook) created a myriad of societal and individual problems is a subject of ongoing debate, while many a person argue against this view; in my unequivocal stance, I strongly support this notion. This essay will provide further examination on my nuance opinion.

To begin, since the inception of social media they have been a paradigm shift from the traditional social networking to a technological form of communication, and this phenomenon has developed a plethora of drawbacks. Firstly, the harnessing of social networks has promoted crimes in the society; individuals use these platforms as a tool to facilitate crime. A popular crime as a result of social networking is internet scamming, also known as catfishing. In continuation, individuals can claim the identity of others, and use this to swindle, deceive, and steal from innocent victims. Furthermore, a notable example is the prominent scam that occurred in 2012 in Nigeria; a set of fraudulent individuals claimed the identity of an airport owner (Mr David Orma) and sold an airport to a company, thereby defrauding the company of $5,000,000.

It is equally important to mention that the detriments of social networking on a smaller scale affects individuals. The use of Facebook by individuals for communication has significantly reduced interpersonal relationships. People no longer have physical social gatherings, discussions, meetings and relationships. In some cases, parent to child relationship has been ruined, because of the use of Facebook. A report from a renowned journalist illustrates that since the introduction of Facebook 88% of parents no longer have a good relationship with their kids, this is because people tend to communicate more over the internet.

In conclusion, high crime rate, and lack of interpersonal communication are undeniable drawbacks of social networking. However, people who desire to use Facebook should manage its drawbacks efficiently, while maximizing its potential benefits.

Hi Liz, i hope you doing well. if i want to write the introduction as a balanced opinion, can i write it like the following?

“social networking sites, for instance Facebook, are thought by some people to have had a harmful effect on individual people as well as local community. However, while I believe that such cites are beneficial for individuals and Society, I agree that they have a rather damaging effect on them”

and then BP1 discuss the benefits of social media and BP2 discuss the negative effect of them.

My main question is why you are writing about “cities” in your thesis statement. This essay isn’t about cities, it’s about social media. Also, the word “society” does not have a capital letter. Both of these mistakes will negatively impact your score. About the approach, your essay is only 290 words long (that is the usual max), you don’t have time to write pros and cons of both social media on individuals and social media on society. Lastly, you have turned an Opinion Essay into an Adv/Disad essay or a Discussion Essay. Present a clear position on social media for individuals and social media on society than is clear position for each. For example, you think it is positive for both, you think it is negative for both or you think one if positive and one is negative – all three options are clear opinions for an IELTS Opinion Essay.

Hi Liz, please go through my writing and make corrections 🙏

It is believed by majority of people that social networking sites such as Facebook has a detrimental effect on individual as well as the society.However, while social media have a positive impact on individual, I personally agree that it is of more damaging especially to the society.

Firstly, regarding the positive impact it has on individuals, social networking provide a means of communication between people that are far away from each other especially does from different countries; it also provide a means for people to advertise their products and businesses to help them make income and become popular sometimes.

On the other hand, it brings a lot of damages to the community and society at large because of the way people are now occupied with social networking the tend to give a nonchalant attitude to something important especially when it comes to adolescence there is no more respect or positive contribution to the development of their community as all they are interested in is going online most of their times. People now give value to what they do online more than their real-life. furthermore, most individual become engaged in competition with their peer group and this result to them doing some unspeakable things, hurting people in order to make money and show off and increasing rate of fake life. As a result of this, community and society is fast becoming disjointed, people now prefer to make friends online with people they have never met before than the ones they see face to face.

To conclude, although social networking have bring a lot of people together it has done otherwise to the community and society at large. The society should find should find a solution to that by bringing people locally together and engaging them on activities that will bring them together. That way people meet and interact physically other than always going online.

I don’t offer a feedback service. However, I will say you need to go back to my model essays and learn the proper balance and length of paragraphs. Having a long conclusion is a waste of time and won’t help your score. Having body paragraphs that are not equal in length will lower your score. This is the main writing task 2 page on my website: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/

length also matters?…some expertise say that if examiner easily understand your thoughts then he or she will give you good band score even your essay length will be short or long

Ideas are only marked as to whether they are relevant and well explained. One idea is not a higher band score than other as long as it is relevant and well explained. So, any teacher telling you that one idea is a higher band score than another has not understood the marking criteria probably because they weren’t trained as an examiner.

Recent research has shown that the usage percentage of social networking sites has been considerably increasing for a decade. Given that, the majority of the population believes such networking sites as Facebook have a catastrophic effect on not only individuals but also society. I, personally, find positive impacts on individuals; however, for the community, it is a total disaster. To begin with the impact on individuals, there are significant benefits that can not be avoided. The most useful point which is special just to the internet is the fact that there are no issues about the location for being able to communicate. You can talk to anybody, whenever and wherever you want no matter how many kilometers you have between your locations. This leads you to have the possibility for talking about numerous topics without any restrictions from your common interests to scientific researchs. As a result, for making new friends and thus for socializing, social networking sites are the best opportunities that should not be missed. Yet, the presence of some advantages individually does not eliminate side effects on society. If people start to socialize by only making use of social media like Facebook and Instagram, whole the society begins to crack due to people not seeing each other in real life. Society’s existence is thanks to the people taking part in group activities, working under collaborative circumstances, and spending a considerable amount of time together. But the more prevalent social networking usage becomes, the fewer people can stand seeing each other. In conclusion, social networking sites are advantageous places for mostly socializing individually, yet, there are more serious side effects exceeding the positive points. So, people should pay more attention to having relationships with the community so that, the term ‘society’ won’t disappear.

Anyone (especially, Dear Liz), who is an expert might evaluate my essay with proper feedback.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. It is now possible for scientists and tourists to travel to remote natural environments, such as the South Pole. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words.

In recent years, Travelling to remote areas becoming more popular with scientists and tourists for convenient scientific developments. There are noticeable positive outcomes with drawbacks both in the natural environment and the living species.

First of all, In the last decades, scientific innovation and progress in different sectors resulted in more easily accessible transportation to rural areas which are far from the downtowns. For scientific analysis, a large number of researchers making crowd those areas for new scientific analysis for different parameters. For instance, exploring the fossils in those areas to get ideas about the ancestors of these specific regions. Secondly, While adventurous people always visit new ancient remote areas to satisfy their minds by knowing the unknown places more practically rather than watching TV programs. Finally, places always developing with tourists friendly facilities and increasing the revenue in national funds for these eco-friendly activities, particularly, excessive new-comer spending their money for various purposes including hotel room facilities, meals, and souvenirs. Which positively impacts the world economy and the living standards of local people providing them with more working opportunities.

Whereas, there are many negative aspects to these easily accessible traveling opportunities. Both scientific purpose and tourism activities directly impacting on the local environment and the existing species as well as the local community’s lifestyle. The regional species, particularly, those migrating to a quieter and more natural environment lead a normal life without the disturbance of human economy-boosting activities. Furthermore, many old species have been extinct and right now existing species are almost endangered to extinction from those remote areas. Another concern is almost rising at an alarming rate, certainly environmental pollution. People visiting those places, dumping their wastes here and there, and destroying the eco-system, including plastic materials, those regional environments resulted in different challenging problems for the natives.

In conclusion, the advancement of scientific research facile transportation to even remote areas, like the South Pole, for scientists and tourists with positive and negative impacts on the environment. Corresponding authorities should regulate these activities with proper concern without affecting nature and the species in a specific region.

Please read this page: https://ieltsliz.com/how-many-words-ielts-writing/ and then read all tips on this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/ . If you need detailed tutorials about writing an essay specifically for IELTS for a high score, go to my online store: https://elizabethferguson.podia.com/ . You should be aiming for accuracy with grammar and vocabulary – don’t aim to impress and never take risks. Aim for error free sentences.

Hi please let know how my writing has come along?

In today’s day and age, it has become far more accessible to reach remote areas for scientists and tourists. There are noticeably positive outcomes with drawbacks both in natural environment and the living species.

In ancient times, scientists or tourists would have difficulty in reaching such destinations such as the south pole. But today with scientific developments and studying the natural environment it has become a joy to travel. There are many advantages for scientists and tourists who want to travel for research purposes or adventure. Firstly, for instance, scientists can research fossils in those areas to get in-depth knowledge about the ancestorial landscape. Secondly, tourists, adventure enthusiasts especially travel to explore the wild life, natural beauty of the region, get a breath of fresh air, newness etc.

Whereas, there are many negative aspects as well. Both incoming of scientists and tourists to remote areas has an effect on the local livelihood. The reason for this is that due to the inhabitation of ancestorial species, they are used to a certain lifestyle, the peace and quiet. And when unknown people start coming in, it disrupts their day to day lifestyle. They lead a normal life without the disturbance of human economy-boosting activities. Hence, people visiting these places, dumping their wastes here and there, and destroying the eco-system results in different challenging problems for the natives.

In conclusion, with the advancements of scientific research and development for researches and tourists to travel to such remote areas will always have its positive and negative impact on the environment. Corresponding authorities should regulate these movements with proper concern and not affect the nature and species of this specific region.

It is assumed by many people that social media is creating a detrimental effect on both individuals and society. However, a healthy percentage of people are getting benefitted by its proper usage and implementations in social life although a specific group of people might be using social sites, for instance Facebook in an adverse way which is creating a negative impact in our social community and locality.

To begin with, social media like Facebook has created a drastic change in people’s communication through internet all over the world. Website like this has brought people from all countries around the world in a single tent for communication. Though the communication is initially virtual but soon people are getting to know each other which is serving the purpose of meeting in real life with their loved ones or with their families. Aside of it, some of the other advantages that social media is impacting in our daily life such as; creating business opportunities, helping us to know about the current world information and news updated, creating awareness among people about social norms and duties. The main fruitful thing that can be described as is social media in letting us to know about other people’s culture, norms and activities etc.

On the other side, as we have discussed so many positive sides of social media it has some detrimental sides too that is enhancing some real-life problems in our society and local community. As the main purpose of social media was to connect people but now a days it is seen that this tool is being misused by some of the people for creating fake profiles and pretending to be someone else as a result people on the other side of the screen might be outplayed with a fake emotion. Also, among young generations the dependency and the usage of social media is way too time consuming which is creating a mental distortion gradually. Adding with that, the utmost negative impact that is creating real life problems is vague news and its spread. As a result, people gets more confused in their decision making whom to support and whom to deny. Beside of that, Scammers trading with money, Negative content are threat to our future generation and also for us.

In conclusion I want to agree with the fact that although social media is helping us in many ways in our social life but it has an immense effect in our cultural diversity to get provoked as long if we don’t use it properly. As long as some specific policies and regulations are maintained for its usage, I think that the damage is limited to rare and special cases.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

It’s believed by many people that social networking sites have led to serious detrimental effects on both individual people as well as society and local communities. However, there are numerous beneficial effects of using such sites for the individual and some of the adverse outcomes for the society and local communities.

With regard to the individual persons, the usage of social media sites has given the opportunity to identify the people with the common interests, who are miles away, which was not available before the development of such websites. Besides, It has been easier to establish a face to face connection within seconds with our loved ones, even when they are far away from us.

On the other hand, the continuous usage of social meadia might end up with a dependent behavior, which results in the separation of societal and family bonds. Other than that, believing the facts on online as it is might lead to serious family issues too.

In my conclusion, although the social networking sites keep the individuals closer together, it has a number of considerable negative impacts on society and local communities. Therefore, it is our responsibility to use those sites for he betterment of overselves.

You write : use those sites for he betterment of Overselves

Mistakes: ourselves and you write he in place of the

Hi Liz, Thank you so much for all your time, guidance and help. Really appreciate the content you keep on posting. Have been following your posts since 2019, got 9 in listening, 7.5 overall then. I am planning to write again for GT

here is my response: 274 words

A few individuals believe that cellphones are a bane for kids, whereas others don’t believe in the same. In my opinion, though cellphones are now an indispensable part of any urban human and has multiple benefits, their demerits do exist and those make it more harmful than helpful to children.

Though one can still be in quandary about the ill-effects of cellphones on adults, their impact has been far more detrimental for kids. These devices operate entirely on wireless radiations, and there has been an exponential rise in such radiation. As children’s brain is in development stage, and their skull is still fragile; damages from such radiations can be fatal. Additionally, prolonged exposure to phone’s display is quite detrimental for eyesight and sleep cycle. Moreover, new cellphones (smartphones) can host a lot of social-media applications. As children are growing, so do their hormonal changes, they are more inquisitive about such digital platforms. Though there are age-restriction on these sites, those are easily bypassed by them. Things get sinister when some spoilt peers introduce others to pornographic content which has been known to biologically alter hormonal and psychological patterns in kids.

Though, despite above, phones do offer some benefits such as means of instant communication, exchange of notes, access to free and global online resources, most of these benefits are also available on personal laptops or institute’s kiosks. In case of dire needs, students can access these resources on such kiosks, where students can be prohibited from accessing social or adult content. Hence, though cellphones are now an indispensable part of human life, owing to their detrimental impacts, children should refrain using those.

While many believe that social networking sites impacting both the society and the individual in negative manner, I argue that its certainly impacting social life negatively however, it has positive impact on individuals. With innovation of technology and reach to smart phones by common people has increased the number of people using social networking sites significantly in recent years. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and many more became basic needs of people. This revolution in technology has brought many benefits to people. Now people to people interaction have increased and it has no boundaries. They can easily talk to other people who are located at different part of the globe. Distance, time zone, boarders doesn’t matter anymore. This interaction helps them to enhance their knowledge, grow their business and much more. People can create any type social cause over these social media platforms and get other people’s support from world-wide. While this improvement in technology has benefitted the individuals, it has some drawbacks on society. For example, now people spend more time on these types of platforms rather than spending time in society or social activities. Face to face interaction is minimized, which certainly brings gap in local social group. Many old, aged people are not able to cope with technology and find it very difficult to interact with other people. In conclusion, As with any other invention, technology also has some drawbacks, however if people make smart choices they can surely get rid of these drawbacks and get maximum benefit of this technology revolution in the form of social networking sites.

Today, advancements in technology have brought forth tons of electronic devices that serve to increase the quality of one’s life. Accompanying this would be the surge in social networking sites for people to communicate using these devices. However, many believe social networking platforms have affected society and its people in a negative way. In my opinion, though the presence of social networks has invited several benefits into our lives, I agree that the adverse effects of social media are noticeable. Hence, one has to regulate his or her usage of social media in order to enjoy the advantages without the disadvantages. To begin, social networking sites has allowed many to communicate with their loved ones despite being separated by long distances. With the help of social media, we are able to converse with the ones we miss via text messages, audio messages or even video calls without the trouble of traveling hours to meet them. Besides that, the widening of our social circle has been made easier as a result of sites such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing us to acquaint ourselves with strangers which can be achieved with just a few taps on the screens of our smartphones. By utilizing the above advantages brought to us by social networking sites, a myriad of time can be conserved. However, social media is not without flaws. By allowing people to communicate without meeting up or seeing each other in real life, social media has transformed society into an introverted one, one that resists any sort of physical communication if it can be done online. When people are accustomed to chatting with one another online, it is without a doubt that their social skills will degrade significantly as they no longer have ’emojis’ to express their feelings. Ultimately, we are left with a society that is fragmented in real life and only operable in the virtual world. In conclusion, social networking sites has allowed us to connect with the people we love who are far away from us and thus save us plenty of time in the process. Despite the merits, our society is no longer filled with outgoing people, but those who are lacking in social skills and refuse physical communication, hence resulting in a broken society. Therefore, it is our own responsibility to not be overly reliant on social networking sites to obtain the results that were intended for us in the first place.

It is undeniable fact that learning a foreign language is more popular now a days. Although some people might consider that it is batter for children to begin learning a foreign language at primary school. On the other hand some people might believe that learning a foreign language at secondary school is beneficial , but I believe that learning a foreign language at primary school is extremely beneficial not only because child’s brain is analogous to be empty hard disk that can be uploaded more quickly at this age . Small kids memories the talent, and it is considered that learning a new accent required a strong memory.

This essay will explore who these factors make this development a positive one.

Their are multiple benefits of this development . Firstly one of the major advantage of this development is that they have more space in their mind because their minds are empty they have more ability too gain knowledge and learning a new accent is not too be much difficult for childrens. For example, my younger brother learning a foreign language in his primary school and he almost have done this. Thus,this benefit can almost handedly make this development positive.

Secondly, another major benefit linked with this development is that children have strong memory and it is considered that accent can be learn be a strong memory. All the talent is begin from childhood. For instance, my older sister have a talent of swing clothes and she learned from her childhood. Hence, this benefit can clearly over shadow any disadvantage.

To conclude, I believe that this development is an overall positive development interm of these advantages

Social media ever since its inception has taken the world by storm. It is not uncommon to find a person with a social media account even in the remotest of the areas. Such has been its profound impact that most of the top brands these days use social media for its promotion. Some of us opine that these social networking sites are impacting the individual as well as the society at large. I agree that these networking sites are useful in crisis times but mostly feel that these sites are doing more harm than good for the following two reasons. First of all, decision making in this generation is severely impaired due to influence of social media sites. People these days are compelled to base their opinion on sources which can be hardly termed as fool proof due to its abundance. This information is butter fed into an individual mind in a implicit way, before the person recognising it. Take for instance, the way political campaigns are being run these days only with an aim to drive their own agenda, projecting their view which will be beneficial to them. True, a mature person can still see through these filters, but the same cannot be guaranteed for teen minds, who form the majority of the users for these applications. Their nascent minds will be damaged beyond repair, ultimately affecting the society’s future of which they are a part of. Second of all, fake ad campaigns claiming money for self-motives have increased manifold with advent of social media sites. The major issue concerning these campaigns is that even genuine contributions are going into wrong hands; what does it mean is that when the real person is in need of help, he hardly gets it. The above issue is becoming a huge predicament for those people in need. Generous people who come forward to help are forced to think twice. Non-availability of help for those who require it even with the abundance of donors is a bane for the society for which social media sites are one of the prime reasons. There are some good things arising out of these sites, like blood donors availability, communication for help during natural calamities etc. In the times of disaster, they play a very handy role in helping the deserved. But that said, they require internet connection to work, which might not always be the case, especially in the time of crisis. To conclude, these social media sites help us in some ways subjected to some limitations like network connectivity. Considering this and the negative impacts it brings to the table, like influencing young immature minds, providing platform for fake ad-campaigns I mostly opine that these are mostly harming the individual as well as a society.

Social networking site (such as Facebook) is believed by many people to have negative effect for both individual and society. However, while I believe there is negative impacts, these effects are small compared to benefit the site offers. Firstly, some people that think about negative effect are just looking at small cases in their surroundings. For example, they see that the youth is addicted to social media such Facebook. They cannot stop checking and looking at site’s newsfeed. However, this is just because the people they observed are them who does not have ability to manage priority and time. Meanwhile, compared to those small amount of sample, it’s observed that in adult and working environment people are not addicted to the media. Hence, if an individual could manage their priority and time, the negative impacts should be nothing. Secondly, in this modern era, information is gold. That means whoever has the information will have more advantage in life than who does not. Social media is the major factor for information transfer. In a blink of eye, wherever and whenever we are, we could send and get information to other people. Not only that, the most critical value of social media is it can influence many people, society, and even a country, because everyone could present his opinion and argument and then persuade others.

In the end, although social media can ruin life of an individual, the positive impacts its offer are greater than negative effects. People who have a problem in time and priority management, should be taught how to manage it.

It is thought by many people that some social media websites affect the individuals, and the society, in a negative impact. I agree that social networking websites such as Facebook and Youtube can distract some people while others can benefit from them.

People who use social media intensively will be distracted from doing their daily tasks. A lot of people spend most of their time on Facebook, Youtube and other applications watching videos, putting likes and posting comments, at the end of the day they discover that they lost most of their day doing nothing. For instance, I am addicted to the online pages on Facebook and I was always buying a lot of things from those pages. While I was preparing for the IELTS exam, I realized that I am wasting my time and I have to do something to stop this. I deleted the applications that distracted me and I became more focused on my studies. When each individual is affected like the way that I got, the society will face a distracted generation in the future. This is why such social networks have sometimes a negative impact on individuals and society.

On the other hand, social networking websites can help people in achieving their tasks. A lot of websites and applications provide an easy way to communicate and giving assistance. Since Facebook is a universal application, a lot of people use it, thus, it is easy to make connection with others and looking for a teacher or an information using it. For example, a student can find a lot of resources on the websites to look for an information. It is easier to the students to use social media websites rather than leaving their home and wasting time on looking for someone to help, nowadays, this can be done by just searching on the websites. This will save more time and each individual can achieve more in their day which leads to a productive society. That’s why social networks are important to individuals and in turn to the society.

To conclude, although networks distracted some individuals from achieving their tasks that happens due to the addiction that they got, other individuals can take the advantage of these websites and use them correctly. This will be reflected on the whole society.

Hello Mrs Liz, please evaluate my essay. It has been considered by some individuals that harmfulness of social media such as Facebook have hit not only people but communities as well. In my standpoint, social media has negative and positive impacts, both. However, its positive impacts outweigh its negative effects on people and societies. first of all, at this age, technology has been evolving rapidly that even mankind have been able to invent internet and by using internet they have been capable of making social media platforms to connect people all over the world. social network such as Facebook is an application that made it possible for us to get connected with friends and families no matter where we live. Besides, this application has made us able to share our knowledge and our photos and many more to the characters all around the globe. Nevertheless, despite having countless advantages, social networks do have negative impacts as well. Frequently usages of social media can cause addiction. In addition, it will cause us fail in real life while we are busy watching others life styles. Instead of learning and gaining knowledge, most of our young generation tend to scroll on social media a lot and waste their crucial time. At the end they will be facing difficulties in real life. in conclusion, spending and allocating a limited time for using social media is not only good but beneficial. However, wasting most of our time on it will cause negative impacts.

Many individuals think that social networking sites, for instance Facebook, have had damaging effect on individuals as well as local communities and societies. For this essay, I will discuss why disagree that social networking sites have damaging effect on individuals and agree that these sites have damaging effect on the societies. Social networking sites have less adverse effect on individuals. Firstly, it has been seen that a major way people meet new people and make new friends are from these platforms. An individual can be in Nigeria and meet a new person from Australia via Facebook. Having a close relationship by keeping close communication daily on this platform, these two can eventually become life partners. Secondly, it has been reported from a research done by Frank Idowu in 2019, that most people become aware and participate in seminars, workshops and meetings on social networking sites. This has helped reduce the stress of physical meetings. Social networking sites have detrimental effect on the local communities. In a world of technology, most people advertise their business majorly through social media platforms. Firstly, a survey carried out by Seyi Makinde, a student of University of Ibadan reported that most people in Ibadan buy most of the things they need from online stores. This in turn has affected the sales of physical stores in Ibadan. Secondly, I strongly agree that social networking sites are of detrimental effects to the societies because most people spend more time meeting new friends online than building relationships with those in their local communities. In conclusion, social networking sites are of great benefit for an individual to meet new friends and build a career network. However, they have detrimental effect on communal relationships.

It is thought by many people that social networking sites and applications have a detrimental effect on people as well as society. While I agree that there could be some harmful effects of using these sites, I believe that the negative impact can occur only when there is an addiction to the usage of these apps. Otherwise, they are mainly beneficial to the individual. People tend to consider social networking sites as a negative development for many different reasons. Firstly, when people spend excessive time on these types of sites, meeting with new people, Without real interaction in the real world, they might find it hard to differentiate between reality and illusion. In other words, people usually try to show their perfect aspects on these sites; thus, it will be difficult to know a person’s real and moral behaviour through online chatting. Secondly, spending too much time could lead to a low academic performance for young students or low productivity for adults. Consequently, this will have a damaging effect on society. On the other hand, such networking sites have brought numerous advantages to humans, and these adverse effects can only be present when there is an addiction to these types of sites. One possible benefit of these sites is that they help people to communicate easily no matter what is the distance or barrier and without any restrictions. Owing to this, the world is considered a small village, and people can keep up with their friends and relatives all around the earth. Another positive aspect of these apps is that they help introverted people to socialize better, particularly when a person is shy to meet face to face. In conclusion, while social networking sites have negatively affected both individuals and the community, I believe that overall, these sites brought many advantages to humans and society, and the damage is only limited to rare and special cases.

The introduction of social media has made life so much less complicated for mankind. However, a group of people believe that social networking sites does more harm then good to an individual and the community. I completely disagree with this notion and in this essay i will discuss why i disgree

To begin with, prior to the introduction of modern technology people used to communicate with there family, friends or loved one through letters and landline phone calls. This method of communication was not only expensive but also very time consuming, however with the luxury of social media such as facebook, twitter, instagram people can easily interact with there loved ones by making video calls, whereby they can see them even being miles away and simply sending them a message which they will receive instantly. It also has the feature whereby people can post pictures and update there closed one about there daily lifesFurthermore, social networking sites can also be very informative in many ways such as keeping us updated with the daily news around the world, the latest trend in clothes, life hacks and also about our health and wellbeings. This helps us to stay on par with the rest of the world.

On the contrary, the negative impacts of social media can be that many people have started to spend more time on these social media app rather than going out and meeting people in there community. Instead They choose to interact woth people online whom they have neber met befire or may probably never meet in the future. It has also reduced the amount of time people spend outdoors to indulge in physical activities as they are constantly stuck to there phone or computer browsing through social media. This as a result has taken a toll at people health with introduction of non communicable disease like heartattck and diabetes

To conclude, the benefits of social media outweighs the the drawbacks as it not only helps us to keep in touch with people who live far but also keeps us updated with whats trending around the globe

Social media websites have suffered great criticism, as many people believe that such platforms shown to be have great negative effects, i totally agree with this notion since they’re perceived to be addictive and linked to high rates of depression among teenagers.

Despite the popularity of social media sites, famous platforms such as Facebook and Instagram been proved to cause addiction, designed in a way to keep users hooked, more and more people of all ages are spending long hours liking each other’s pictures, texting, and doing whatever, causing dopamine spikes in their minds, making it harder to find motivation to accomplish something through the day and as a result end up neglecting other aspects of life.

Another huge negative impact is the role such sites play in highlighting differences in lifestyle, causing envy among young people and creating the favorable conditions in which hate speech can be normalized, promoting bullying and as a result, rising depression rates among teenager. A clear example of the effect social media has on the youth is a case that made controversy in the USA, a story of a young teenager that took his friend to court, bullied by him on Facebook, the teenager’s friend tried to push him to suicide recommending it a solution for his mental problems causing him greater deal of pain and worsening his depression.

To conclude, the purpose of social media sites was to improve people’s lives bringing them closer, out of charge, offering a better alternative to paid cellular communication, However, ironically, the effect these platforms had was worser than we thought causing individuals and society more bad than good.

Impressive 👍 essay keep it bro❤️

In order to minimize the pressure health care sector is ought to deal with due to rising numbers of health problems related to obesity, some people think that adding physical exercise sessions to school curriculums is the most efficient approach. In my view, making students physically active isn’t the key to solving this overweight pandemic, as I think, having good eating habits is more important.

On one hand, adding sport lessons to children can be of great help because it will improve their overall heath making them more fit as they grow by spreading a culture of body care that will insure a healthier future for the coming generations. Furthermore, pushing kids to practice different sports will optimize their mind to muscle connection making it easier for them to engage and excel in any type of physical activities in comparison with their none active peers, therefore, rising their chances of maintaining an active lifestyle.

On the other hand, doing sports and being active without a proper diet can have a reverse effect on one person’s health, making him vulnerable to injuries, increasing the risk of heart attacks and causing him sleeping disorders. In addition to that, the myth that physical exercise is the best way to lose weight has been debunked by recent studies proving that diet is the most scientifically effective way to lose extra fat by minimizing the caloric intake.

In conclusion, it is obvious that physical exercise is crucial to have and maintain a healthy body, however, when it comes to losing fat, it been proven to be less effective in contrast with a proper calories restricted diet.

According to people, Using social media as facebook causing negative impact not only on individuals but community also. I agree that it has some drawback for society but i can see some of the advantage for individuals as well. In one hand, If i talk about a person using network site,So it’s not only giving opportunity to find friends globally but also giving idea of variety of culture uses by each state or nation . People are getting each other’s rituals and languages without even meeting them in person or visiting their hometown. That’s how social networking is an advantage for everyone to know everyone and their traditions online. In other hand, Community have one disadvantage that they may miss their son’s or daughter’s presence during meal time or while walking outside alone when they are busy in facebook in knowing someone or finding something interesting. These days youth specially try to search any mate outside home mostly in social media so that they can share their feeling or experience to them instead of sharing to any family member, so may be it’s our mistake that we are not that much friendly with our children that they are making friends outside to share it. We are loosing their faith hence it’s our responsibility to gain it again then only this problem can be solved. In each society and family, there should be freedom for their children as a result they will feel comfortable in home because of friendly atmosphere and will start spending time with parents as well. They will let their parents know about the friends and culture which they have known through facebook so that community get to know plus points of using it.

Social media has tremendously impacted our daily life in several ways. Some argue that social media disadvantages outweigh its advantages and builds a lazy unproductive generation. In my opinion, social networking facilitate communication between people; however, cyber bullying is the most dangerous negative impact of social media.

Nowadays, almost everyone is on a social media platform such as Facebook, Instagram and twitter. Many use these platforms to communicate with their pairs, friends and family members on regular basis since it is cheap, convenient and has different options such as voice or video calls. Moreover, people can post and share content and news on the social media apps. Furthermore, many businesses use the platforms to reach out customers and advertise about their products and services.

On the other hand, social media can be a dangerous tool in the hands of bullies and aggressive persons. Sadly, some use social media platforms to blackmail others or bully them which has a negative impact on one’s mental health specially teenagers. Also, many models and social media influencers use beauty filters that shows a completely unrealistic skin and body image burdening young females with distorted body image and body shaming which I believe is a dangerous impact on their personality development and mental health.

In conclusion, social media can be used to bring people closer and share news and daily life events. However, it can be a dangerous environment where someone might get cyber bullied or body shammed. I believe that social media has both negative and positive impacts depending on the way we use it and the content we get exposed to.

Thank you Liz for the excellent material you have on your website. I scored an overall 8.5 (L 9, R 9, W 7 and S 8) and I would like to attribute a part my score to your helpful tips, YouTube videos and sample tests on this site which allowed me to better understand how to answer. Even though one might feel very confident being a regular English speaker, there is a proper method to cracking IELTS.

Really appreciate the stuff you have generously shared, and for free. God bless!

It’s great to see your scores – very well done you!! You clearly nailed IELTS 🙂

Majority believe that there are alarming disadvantages to the use of social networking sites. I am in complete agreeance to this statement as there have been numerous negative effects on individuals and society. The use of social media has led to the rise in depression. As people post their eventful memories in social media, a lot of people have been feeling discontentment in their own lives. Constant comparison is made and consequently, they start to question whether they’re living their best life. Another effect of using social media to individuals is the quality of face to face interactions. Most people choose to talk through social applications on their phones rather than meet with each other in person. Humans are social beings, thus the fall in the quality of personal interactions affect one’s well-being. In addition, society is also affected as many use social media to spread false news. Caution must now be practiced whenever a news article is presented as there is a probability that it is untrue. People are now wary and unbelieving. There is a growing distrust in the community due to countless attempts to fool society with lies. An example could be the false news spreading on social media during election time – this is critical as society might elect an official based on untrue words. Also, through social sites, online bullying has become more rampant. It takes little to no effort to target someone with disrespectful words and comments anonymously. This can be seen everyday as people post baseless hate comments. In conclusion, it cannot be denied that social networking sites has a lot of disadvantages in both society and individuals. People should practice using such platforms with caution and make sure that their mental health can handle it.

Nowadays, with the rise of streaming services and high prevalence of gadgets people spends significant amount of time on social media. However, this eventually possesses some negative effects on individual as well as on society. Therefore, I strongly agree with this statement that these sites have strong damaging effects. Firstly, it becomes fashion everywhere of using mobile phones and spending much time on social networking sites. People prefer to chat with other person who lives far away or to whom they do not know. These acts drain some devastating effects on their social life. For example, people prefer to talk to people who lives at distances but ignores the immediate relationships that deserves to have their time most like parents and grandparents. This acts would eventually affects the society also. Secondly, their health may also compromise as they refrain themselves from physical activities and sitting on gadgets for long hours. For instance individual may suffer from diabetes due to less physical activity and may be through heart issues. On the other hand, social networking may be useful for societies like individuals may get connected with the love ones whom they cannot meet physically and it becomes the blessings to get connected with them through these sites. Furthermore, by getting connected with different people one can increase his knowledge about different cultures and their way of living. In this advanced technological era it is important to get in touch with worldly activities to enhance the standards of living. To conclude, although there are many pros of using social networking sites but their cons outweighed it. To my point of view if someone is being neglecting by his family members in spite of living under one shelter then its benefits of social interactions does not matters.

Nowadays, technology becomes one of the most significant ways people can connect and interact with each other. However, the majority of people think that social networking, for instance, Facebook, has an enormous bad effect on both individuals and society. I strongly agree that social networking has a negative side at the same time, also it has a positive impact, whereas it influences personal and community on both sides.

First and foremost, 100,000,000 people use the internet on different sites. For example, Facebook has a huge number of followers like to utilize, and connect through it such as chatting, sending pictures, meeting new friends from different areas around the world, learning, and interacting with people who speak various languages and have different cultures. Furthermore, stealing private information via Facebook becomes nervous for a lot of people clearly, mention in BBC news that more than 500,000 people around the world had stolen their Bank account, with an intelligent method, even though Facebook is still at the top of apps that people prefer to share and connect.

On the other hand, the new generation especially spends more time on the internet and social networking. Indeed, it affects a family relationship, lack of connection and discussion between them, and no gain of information, less about knowledge, and skills and hobbies will disappear from our society. Because with this ability, and activity the community will grow and develop. Hence, the consequence will have a negative impact. Of course, Facebook has plenty of information, document, picture, and charts, that show how other countries improve. For that reason, Facebook can share information that lets people read and see images about the countries, culture, and society, so it will help to attract tourists to come, and the economy will rapidly increase.

To summarize, social networking has benefits and drawbacks on both sides, such as individual and community.

Wonderful Really, I like it

Most people feel that Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have had a very negative effect on both the people and society. I’m of the opinion this isn’t accurate, and the below essay will explain why.

Social media has rapidly become the most preferred option of communication. It has worked as an effective method to connect with people no matter how far they are from each other. Twitter has given this generation a power that was never available, the ability to spread a message to millions of people at the click of a button.

Social media has enhanced people-to-people connections between enemy nations as well. If you see the activities of someone else from a different geography, you realise that the people there are not so different. For instance, through social media, I realised that many people in Pakistan love the actor, Shah Rukh Khan as much as my family does. Furthermore, there are countless other stories of how these platforms have helped people find lost ones, get blood donors, and financial donors under challenging times.

Though admittedly, like most tools, social media can have a harmful use if in the wrong hands. Also, the echo chamber created by the algorithm of social media has led to the growth of fascist ideologies worldwide. Though I don’t believe the websites are to blame, the user is the culprit.

In conclusion, I believe social media, if regulated to an extent, is a boon to society. Its growth should not be discouraged.

Social Media has grown immensely in the last 10 years and had become an integral part of our life. Owing to its popularity, a lot of people had made their midset that Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many more had a detrimental effect on individuals as well as society. I concur, that it is affecting the lives of teenagers, kids, and even older people, along with also harmed our diverse society.

Primarily, Social media is affecting Society in broader aspects, people are spending long hours just strolling on these Social Networking Sites without taking any valuable aspect to improve themself. As a consequence, people are not able to gain the essential social behavior and proving nothing among their community. Instead, they are wasting their time, on these sites, blindly following an influencer which they would rarely meet in their whole life. For instance, there are many kids which are highly influenced in gaming, following the influencer on these sites. These kids have changed their way of living by spending most of their time playing computer or mobile games rather than involving in some physical sports, which is highly affecting their education, health as well as they lack most of the social skills, which indeed affecting the society, especially the one with local communities.

Moreover, the dramatic increase in the demand for Social media had created a way for fraudsters, to spread their curated news easily on the daily basis, following certain sophisticated tactics they tend to gain people’s beliefs and make it so much appealing that they tend to believe or form opinion related to whatever they have seen on this sites. As a result, false or misleading information presented as news is spreading more and more, which may affect individuals and also society. To illustrate, there was a celebrity Ranbir Kapoor, on which the fake allegation of dealing with drugs was put on, by the trend on Twitter, people had started creating their opinion, which had a huge impact on his professional and personal life. Later on, After investigation, it was cleared that the news which was spread was entirely false. As stated, these sites had highly affected our society and our beliefs.

In conclusion, Social media is growing at a high pace, and with technological advancement, it will continue to thrive in the future as well, but had a huge deteriorating impact on our society and our own life. To mitigate such an impact, it’s highly difficult and challenging. Fraud news on these sites is spreading almost daily, people are wasting a lot of time perpetually strolling on this platform, affecting their own life, causing them not involved in social activities in their society.

Thank you Liz for your free tips

You’re welcome 🙂

Thanks for this powerful site, Liz!

I read through the whole page, and your responses are of great assistance. I feel confident to seat for the test.

Thank you so much, Liz. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Good luck with your test 🙂

Hi Liz , it’s Guri I have been following you for last 2 to 3 years,,,I always watch your videos on youtube even on your own website, ,,I want to ask why did you stop to post videos on youtube regarding IELTS,, since last 5 years ,,,, do you provide online IELTS course ,,,kindly let me know please ,, Sincerely Gurpreet Singh From India 🇮🇳

Hi Gurpreet, I stopped making videos because my health crashed in 2015 and I’ve been struggling since then. Each time I start recovering, I get sick again. It’s a long slow battle. But I hope next year will bring me better luck. This website contains all my free lessons and tips for each part of the test. But I also have some Advanced Writing Task 2 Lessons and two e-books relating to Writing Task 2: an ideas for topics e-book and a grammar e-book. You can find them in my store: https://elizabethferguson.podia.com/ . Once I’m better, I’ll start making more videos for my store and my Youtube channel 🙂

Hi Liz, I started watching your videos a month ago for IELTS, and I learnt a lot from your clear and informative presentations. Then I purchased the writing task 2 pack about 10 days ago – my best decision forever! I will have the IELTS test (academic) tomorrow which I aim at 7 in each category for accreditation as a medical professional in Australia. Whether I got the score or not, I will keep doing the practice to improve my English. Get well soon! Kind regards, Charlie

Best of luck with your test !! 🙂

I pray to god that u recover as soon as possible because every ielts beginner needs your help and assistance .

Get well soon

Kindly take care of your health.

Get well soon ! We are keen to see you again on your Youtube channel

Hello Liz, Get well soon dear…

I learnt a lot from your YouTube channel and I am confident enough to attend the exam.

Thanks 😊 Srini Reddy India

get well soon Liz . a lot of wishes and love from India.

I wish you quick recovery

oo, pls get well soonest Liz you have been an inspiration honestly, you make Ielts look so easy

Hey Liz, How are you now? Still no new videos or uploads. Are you alright?

Thanks for asking. My illness is long-term. It’ll take time before I can make videos – I’m still not well enough.

It is considered by many that social media sites have had a bad impact on individual people as well as the society and community. Though such sites provide considerable benefits, I too believe that the negative impact outweighs them in various angles.

On one hand, Social media websites like Facebook,Youtube and Instagram bring people together and help them communicate by a few clicks on a website. Before the development of such sites, people rarely meet with anyone outside of their community or country. Additionally Facebook also has social groups where users can act promptly during any emergencies such as natural disasters or social awareness campaigns and contribute to such programs in various ways.

On the other hand , It is clear that based on online activities there are many individuals easily being targeted by online scammers for serious traps such as sensitive data fraud and love scams. Additionally youngsters spend most of their time being active on Facebook and they are unlikely to spend time with their family or community cycle they live in. This leads to a broken society around the individual and soon the individual can be distanced from community and easily be fallen into depression or may feel helpless incase of being victimised by a scammer. Furthermore individuals face serious health issues such as back pain,migraine and spinal injuries due to long hours on social sites which ultimately form an unhealthy community.

Finally, in my view, Spending time on social media should be limited and undercontrolled by individuals in order to maintain a good mental as well as physical health. Over use of such sites will definitely lead to unrecoverable impact not only on individuals but also on the community cycle around them. Individuals should be extra cautious on usage of such sites to continue forming a healthy environment.

Wow fantastic writing thankyou so much for help me to write the good answer

Have you started essay marking services which was suppose to start in oct. 2020?

No. Sorry. I’m still sick. I won’t be starting a marking service until I’m better. Hopefully late next year.

Get well soon, mam.

hi Liz, Please is this a good answer to give for this advertisement question?

Some people say that advertising encourages us to buy things that we really do not need. Others say that advertisements tell us about new products that may improve our lives. Which viewpoint do you agree with?

Generally, people believe that publicity gives us the courage to purchase things we are not in need of, while others think that publicity gives a broader view about new products that may be of high signigicant to our lives. I strongly agree with both views as publicity gives us the courage to purchase items we dont need and also a information on items that are beneficial to us. This essay will give an in-sight to the points.

Advertisement gives us the courage to purchase things that are not essencial. For example, I saw a smart watch on aliexpress earlier this week which has almost all the features and applications an android phone has. This really got my attention and without further exitation, i purchased the smart watch online. Thinking about it few hours later, i honestly do not see the need for the smart watch. Furthermore, publicity of products are everywhere we can imagine like in the newspaper, social media, different websites, television and on the radio. A friend once said, we humans are mostly driven by what we hear which leads us to make that immediate decision occasionally. Although, some promotions of product and services totally discourages some people from purchasing it due to errors or wrong information released.

Publicity give an in-sight of new products that are beneficial to our lives. For instance, some products like the advanced portable blood pressure machine newly produced is not easily accesible in our physical stores. This is because it is still on high demand and its to be pre ordered for if needed urgently. This gives people the doubt of purchasing such product blindly as there is no complete assurance to the specifications with just words of mouth. But with the new advertisement released on the benefits of this product, there is a broader knowledge of the importance of the product.

In my opinion, i strongly agree that people are driven to purchase some irrelivant items and also an in-depth knowledge is given on the benefits of some products that are beneficial to our lives. This can mostly be achieved through publicity.

In conclusion, publicity does not only encourages us to purchase irrelevant items, it also gives a broader view of how important some products are to our lives.

Many people are fond of using the internet especially the social networking like Facebook, Twitter and etc. They have spent most of their time handling their mobiles and computer just to have connection to other people and this one made sense to them. Primarily, the negative effect of over usage of the streaming and social networking is not being productive in a usual day. Apart from that, many individual has a feeling of envious towards other people which is not good in personal development.

Another point to consider is that many false-beliefs and intrigues are affecting the individual. Nowadays, many untruthful related issues are being brought up in the internet and it does not contribute to our interpersonal skills instead, hence it gives negative values. These controversial would not help us to become a better person. In other hand, our society is also affected by these social networking by increasing the rate of people who are no longer engaged in interpersonal relationship. They prefer to use Facebook or other media to communicate thus, personal interaction is no longer observed.

On the contrary, Social networking has benefit to us as an individual. It provides us a good communication line to other people by sharing common thoughts and interests and to keep each other close immediately.

To conclude, social networking has an imperative impact in totality to individual and society but negative impact is more evident with regards to individual personality and behavior as whereas what it brings to the community.

Can you please evaluate Ms. Liz Thank you

Based on social facts, many are into social networking which has been believed by most people, has enormous significant negative effect for both personal and in the society. I completely agree that social media has a big impact to individuals and in the community. Many people are fond of using the internet especially the social networking like Facebook, Twitter and etc. They have spent most of their time handling their mobiles and computer just to have connection to other people and this one made sense to them. Primarily, the negative effect of over usage of the streaming and social networking is not being productive in a usual day. Apart from that, many individual has a feeling of envious towards other people which is not good in personal development. Another point to consider is that many false-beliefs and intrigues are affecting the individual. Nowadays, many untruthful related issues are being brought up in the internet and it does not contribute to our interpersonal skills instead, hence it gives negative values. These controversial would not help us to become a better person. In other hand, our society is also affected by these social networking by increasing the rate of people who are no longer engaged in interpersonal relationship. They prefer to use Facebook or other media to communicate thus, personal interaction is no longer observed. On the contrary, Social networking has benefit to us as an individual. It provides us a good communication line to other people by sharing common thoughts and interests and to keep each other close immediately. To conclude, social networking has an imperative impact in totality to individual and society but negative impact is more evident with regards to individual personality and behavior as whereas what it brings to the community.

Can you please evaluate my writing skills and content. Thank you Ms. Liz

Please check my introduction: Social networking websites like Facebook, Instagram, etc. are thought to have affected individuals and society and local communities alike. While I agree that social media has had some clear advantages for an individual person, there’s also a downside in that they’ve made a dent on solidarity among people of the society.

Social networks is crucial in this modern age and everyone is getting adapted to this trend irrespective of the ages. More number of people have a understanding that using social network platform will definitely lead to some disadvantages on people and environment. However, I entirely believe that they contribute aspects that are helpful to the individuals and improves the society.

Majority of people have a flawed understanding over social networking sites, for instance, instagram, whatsapp, facebook are some applications where one can communicate to another only through internet which is not safe. People believe that it might lead to addiction which later cause health issues in terms of stress. According to a research from the Harvard university, there is a increasing number of people aged between 8-25 are facing serious health problems due tot he reason of using many networking sites constantly.

Conversely, there are some beneficials in using the networking applications in order to improve education. For example, owing tot he COVID situation, most of the teaching method are changed virtually, where one can learn easily by staying at home. Society on the other hand receive benefits. Recent in Tamil Nadu a protest named “Jallikattu” gone viral and reason behind was because of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and many such social networking applications which payed a way to throw light on the States’s culture and tradition in order to conduct the jallikattu event.

To recapituate, social networkings can have both negative and positive effect. Meanwhile, it is in the hands of the individual to make it better and useful. In my opinion, I strongly agree that these network sites enable us to explore more and bring in true colours of Nations’s development.

Hi Jeevitha. Your essay seems nice at a glance. But, beware of spelling errors. Found few. Ahead.

if somebody can evaluate my essay that would be great help A few masses of people reckon that social sites are detrimental for society and human, while other masses believes they are beneficial in their own good ways. I personally agree that these sites are leaving various negative impact on surrounding. Talking about the benefits of social networks including Facebook, Instagram, Linkdin, first and foremost benefit is ; connection to people worldwide.in earlier times, people used to use postcards, letters and telegrams to send their messages to different countries but today with the help of these sites messages can be sent worldwide with the flick of a finger. Secondly, these sites are major platform for marketing and business as well. For example, we can display our ideas and products on such sites ; which will be helpful in raising money on individual levels. Finally, it helps the students to follow different pages on social media, where a pupil can find guidance to their career and can find solution to their daily base study problems. on the other hand, the major disadvantage of these sites is the cutting off of people from the society. People, nowadays, like to spent their time more on entertainment sites; as a result , people are getting detached from their near ones. They don’t have time for their partner and parents’ feelings. Because of this, society is facing major crisis in maintaining healthy relationships. other major drawback of these sites is its worst effect on health i.e. people are becoming more prone to diseases day by day. For example, obesity, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases. Overall, it can be said that people should use sites only when needed and they should spent major time involved in physical activities . In this way their life will lead to happy and fruitful life i.e. free of diseases.

Jasdeep, please use punctuation marks cautiously. You must start every sentence with capital letter. Your points are all good, need to be arranged in a better manner though.

Many people believe that the social networking platforms has drastically affected the individuals and as well as the whole society. However, others believe that these platforms have benefited us as well in many ways. This essay will enlighten both these aspects of social network platforms and I personally favours the former view i.e. it has overall put a negative impact on our personal and social life.

There is no doubt that such platforms has completely broken the distance barriers. it gives us the leverage to connect and communicate with people globally and share the cultural and social values with each other. We are just one click away from any person across the globe and can seamlessly communicate with anyone and anywhere either using text or voice call or video call facility. Also, such platforms especially Facebook are also being used for advertisements thus people are growing their businesses. Also, these platforms keeps us in regular touch of our friends by seeing their events and posts online and appreciate them.

Now, the reason why these platforms have a negative effect is the over indulgence by people into them. People of all walks of life are using them in so excess that they have dramatically affected and changed their life style completely. Today, most people prefers communicating online rather than in person because of the ease provided by technology. It may have removed the distance barriers but created a big social gap between people. Due to this, many people and even the children are suffering from mental health problems.

In conclusion, Social networking platforms are very good and have many benefits if used wisely. However, these platforms have created a void in our social life and created a emotional and social barrier barrier between people.

This is much better than that which is mentioned above 😂

Thank you. Glad you liked it. Hope it helped. 👍

Sorry, but Liz’s essay is a Band 9 while Vineet’s essay is full of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes so he can only qualify for a band 7 as a maximum score.

More importantly, Liz’s essays are stylish, impeccable and are worth your respect.

Kind regards Wei

Well done bro👍

The world is now a global village..This has been made achievable by the introduction of social sites such as Facebook. Some people have seen this development as rather detrimental to individuals and the society as a whole. Most are of the opinion that, this is addictive and destroys community bonding. However, on the other hand, some people and me inclusive believe it has brought a lot more benefits such as bringing people from far closer and has provided opportunities for most communities.

Sites such as Facebook , when used over and over again, it builds up our cognitive function to always be logged in to it. Research has proven that individuals spend most of their day glued to their mobile phones while on these sites. With regards to this productive time is being lost which would have been used to do other meaningful activities. Furthermore, as more people indilge on online sites, interpersonal communication gradually becomes diminished.when looked upon from a community level, less and less persons get to be involved with one another further making division and weakening community bonding. Despite all these, others have embraced this positively. A strong reason for this is it has broken the distance between people living in different countries and continents.with Facebook you can place and video call and see an oversees relative or friend within seconds.This has overcome the traditional letter writing which took months to be delivered and tarried information. At a community level, projects such as clean water provision, electricity and schools have been successfully carried out by non governmental organisations when this were put up on Facebook as challenges within some communities. This has added to infrastructural development and reduction in diseases. To conclude, despite some drawbacks the Internet age has brought, I believe its advantages are enormous and surpasses it cons.

It is been believed by a large section of society that social media sites have been negatively impacting both individuals and society. In my opinion, I agree that social networking sites have negative repercussions on the people and its society as it impacts individual and hence society overall development One of the reasons to consider the opinion of many people that social networking sites have a downside impact on individuals is that with the emerge of these sites, people have disconnected themselves from the real world, while have reduced focus on physical health, social bonds and emotional quotients. Physical and mental health is very important for one’s growth. The downfall of these important parameters not only affect the self-development of individuals but also influence society’s health and unity, which in turn reshapes the individual in a vicious circle.

Another point to consider is that spending more time on sites like FB, Google, etc leads to spending less time on constructive work such as research etc, which in turn, holds the overall productivity of society. In other words, the development of a nation depends on people’s effectiveness and efficiency. Spending time on such sites reduces the possibility to utilize more time on greater innovations and discoveries, thereafter, causing the defeat of society’s future advancement and evolution.

In conclusion, people spending time on social networking sites increases the risk of depleting their actual capability, aptitude and skills, and hence rusting their progressive thinking, impacting not only their self-evolution but also impacting the nation’s social and economic progression.

To some people, social media networking sites such as Facebook are perceived to have negative impacts on both individuals and society. I agree that networking sites can be utilized for positive causes like information sharing and to reach people instantly. However, there are also some drawbacks derived from social media such as catfishing and fraud. Besides, social media addiction is becoming more prominent in recent years.

Networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were made to help society to be more connected in a short time manner. It does help us to reach our relatives who live abroad faster. It can also be the platform to share our thought and our lifestyle. With social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, we can share what we are doing currently and post it on our profile. Furthermore, networking sites can be a source of Informations, from seeking a place to stay on vacation to more academic-related information like the value of Pythagoras, from the information-sharing platform given in the networking sites. For the bigger picture, we see that networking sites have eased us to sell information that benefits businesses and corporations to execute strategy effectively, which further boosts the economy. We can see from the above discussion that Networking sites have multiple benefits.

However, with the rising of networking sites as our way of life when it comes to searching for information or simply just sharing, there are some disadvantages of networking sites. With the ability to chat virtually, there are lots of people who stole others’ identities for numerous reasons. This is called catfishing. This is maybe harmless but people who are fooled by them maybe feel betrayed and hurt. Furthermore, the ability to freely access information can be a backlash, with the acts of fraud such as phishing becoming more striking recently. Social media addiction is also a notable problem nowadays. Children prefer to stay on their roof browsing the internet instead of going outside with their friends, Forming the new generation to become mature faster than previous generations. We see evidence that children in the current generation, generation Z to develop emotions such as stress and depression before they even reach puberty.

In conclusion, networking sites benefit ourselves and society for the efficiency to be connected with others and to be exposed to abundant sources of information. Nevertheless, networking sites can cause several disadvantages and therefore there should be strict regulations to regulate the networking sites.

Please reply with your suggestions. Thanks

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, are believed to have a really bad impact on individuals by some people and they also think it has a worse effect on society. In my opinion, I agree with the problems that are associated with the use of social platforms to an individual and society.

As the growth of social platforms has increased among the individuals, they started to become less responsive in terms of interacting directly with others which causes a bad impact on their overall lifestyle. With this, everyone likes to check statuses of others on social media rather having a one-on-one conversation with the other person which results in lack of social and interpersonal skills in individuals.

Individuals deeply indulged in social-media platforms while using public transport are becoming a victim in various road accidents which is not only an unpleasant situation for them but for their family too. This describes, that these networking sites have a severe effect on families who are associated with a user of social media.

On the other hand, people who opt to use social platforms for more time than intended are unaware of the societal problems that are arising in their surrounding. They undoubtedly believe in every news which they see on social media and forgets about the implications it can have on their society. With this, no one cares much about society and what message it brings to all of us.

In conclusion, networking sites had a really ill effect on individuals who interact with these sites on a regular basis and this contributes to other problems that are related to society.

Thanks for sharing, but I don’t offer feedback on writing. Hopefully someone else will drop you a review.

Social networking sites have changed the way our society communicates. While there have been many positive outcomes of it such as increased connectivity, sharing new ideas and understandings of different cultures, there have been some major drawbacks as well which have led many people to question their contribution to the society.

One of the main disadvantages of social media is that it affects the mental health of individuals. Youth in particular, are quite vulnerable to fall into the trap of believing the false reality on social media. They may also be susceptible to live their lives for the approval of others, which may result in them to have less overall life satisfaction. Many people often find themselves depressed by the constant competition on the social media and superficial connections that exist virtually, leaving them no time or energy to establish deep connections, which may prove very detrimental to their mental health.

In recent times, we have seen Social media sites having the power to change public opinion, which is very dangerous in some ways. Since the revenue model of these sites are advertisement driven, big powerful corporations can spend a lot of money on these sites to shift public opinion favourably towards them. It also limits competition in certain segments as small businesses are unable to capture user’s attention.

Like everything that exist, social media has advantages and disadvantages, In my opinion, to provide a fair balance, there needs to be education around its usage and some regulations which does not allow individual or corporations to abuse the platforms for their benefits.

In this Link – https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-agree-disagree-essay-sample-answer/ , you have mentioned that for opinion essays, we should be writing one opinion only through out the essay. But in this page , I could see that both sides of the arguments were discussed. I’m confused. Could you please clarify.

I think you are getting confused about one opinion and a one-sided opinion. These are not the same thing. When you have an Opinion Essay, you can choose your opinion. It will either be a one-sided opinion when you agree 100% with one side or it will be a specific opinion (balabced view), when you don’t agree fully with either side and you present your own specific view. Once you decide your opinion, you present it in the introduction. From that point on, you can’t change your opinion. Your essay must follow the opinion you have given in the introduction. So, you choose your opinion and stick to it. Please get my Advanced Lessons to get proper training: https://elizabethferguson.podia.com/

May God bless you to get well soon Liz.

Get well soon Liz…..

Thanks. I appreciate that.

Get well soon Liz.

a good many people believing that social media is affecting adversely on males and females in many communities. However, In my opinion, it also causes some serious health problems if we use it too much per day. Nowadays, social media took an essential role in our life and I admit that it takes most of the time for a good majority of people, despite that it can help u communicate with others worldwide it also made a huge gap between society relations, for example, if you are missing someone and want to see him, probably you would call him via video instead of seeing him in some place or in his or her house because we used to visit each other in the past, check if we need anything, he may be in the hospital and need someone to cheer him, support him to recover and tell him that we are here for them.

In addition, even family nights have now vanished, we just sit with each other without talking, just surfing the internet instead of playing some game or share any problem that we are struggling with, even the emotions now are electronics not honest one from deep of our hearts, so this would adversely affect our life and make it meaningless.

to sum up, social media is a need to handle our life, but too much of using it will back in a negative way that affect our health and habits.

I just read the comments section and found out that you have been suffering from some disease for a long time. It is a shocking news for me. I have learnt a lot from you and consider you one of the most respected teachers of mine. What happened Liz??? How are you now?? I hope that you are getting better day by day and get fully recovered very soon 🙁

Thanks for your concern. I’m still sick and there are times when I struggle a lot. But I do have hope that I will get better. Hopefully next year will see some improvement. Meanwhile, I try to keep this website going and keep posting lessons and tips. Hope you are staying safe at this time.

BEST Wishes!! Get well Soon!!

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Hi, I am waiting to write my IELTS in two hours. While revising concepts from your website, I just realised about your health. I pray to almighty for your speedy recovery. 🙂 Please take care. You are the best!!!

Thanks. I’m so sorry I didn’t see this message before so I could have wished you luck. However, I do hope your test went well !!

Thank you so much Liz for all your sessions and inputs. I scored 8887 LRSW in General test, had my speaking today and will be appearing tomorrow for the rest, this time academic. Take care get well soon. You have been a great support to me.

Hey Liz, I have not known you personally but you are one of the teachers I have the highest regard for. I am appearing for my IELTS soon and I have checked out many IELTS videos on youtube but by far your 4-5 years old youtube videos are still the best. Everything is explained so well that I can’t thank you enough. I saw that your youtube channel videos were posted in 2014 and was confused why being such a nice teacher, you haven’t uploaded any video recently. So to see that and to learn more I landed up to your website and then on the comments. I am really sorry to hear that you are suffering from a health issue for a long time. I am sure you will get well pretty soon considering the 1.4 million + student community which you have built must be wishing you well.

Thanks for your message. Yes, I’m still sick. My recovery has been hit many times by bad luck. But I am still hopeful. Your positive message is encouraging 🙂

get well soon..lots of blessings and best wishes from me ..

Take Care Liz!

I hope to get well soon.

I’m sorry to know that, I hope you recover soon and get back to normal.

your blog contains better content ,wish to see you active again.GET WELL SOON LIZ.

I am from India, and I have received so much help from your free videos and lessons.

Praying for your speedy recovery. I am sure you will be fit and fine soon.

If prayers do miracle, then Ms.Liz, you got many around the world, yours students, we are earnestly appealing to God, a speedy recovery for you.We can’t lose our dear teacher.

Common Liz.. Me and my wife not yet done our Ielts yet.

Thank you for your best wishes. My health is improving slowly but I still need to rest a lot. Hopefully I will have better news at the end of the year. Meanwhile, I work part time on this website and will keep it open and post free lessons regularly.

I don’t know what is your exact illness. Any way I pray to Almighty God for early recovery from your illness.

Wish you a quick recovery and may you be fit than ever. Please stay safe our dear Liz.

May you recover soon Liz. You will be as just you are before sick. Keep strong, everything will be okay 🙂

In Bangladesh, its spread that you has been suffering dangerous illness. Is it true or Fals?

I have been very sick for a long time and I am still not well. But I am able to run this website. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to make videos again.

Liz, please get well soon. You’re important to us here more than you’ll ever know. From Nigeria.

Get well soon, praying for you Liz!

get well soon liz 🙂

Oh no, sorry to hear about that Liz. Hopefully is not something very serious. Get well soon, hugs!

Your are precious to many of us. Please get well soon and contribute more of your excellent english knowledge to the world. May god bless you. Take care of yourself dear..

It’s so sad to hear that u r not well. Get better soon Liz.

get well soon dear Liz

I’ll pray for your speedy recovery. You are truly a gem 🙂

OH DEAR, GET WELL SOON DEAR. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU BACK IN FULL ENERGY SOONEST.

Hi Liz, I am confused, question asked, to what extent do you agree but you mentioned both positive and negative sides. Are we supposed to take only one side in such essays or both?

You can take a one sided approach or a balanced approach (partial agreement).

Hi Liz, I do like your web: It s organized, concise, and helpful. Keep on producing valuable posts as you have done. Appreciate you from Indonesia

Social networking sites such as Facebook considered having had a detrimental effect on both individuals as well as society. In my opinion, I disagree with the above-mentioned statement because the pros outweigh the cons by far. Social networking sites are not only used to communicate but also used as an effective mode of establishing or run businesses. Researchers said that the social networking sites in the 21st century are considered as “MONEY MAKING MACHINE”. Social networking sites are used as a tool for sole traders, entrepreneurs, businesses to sell and advertise their products and to target the specific segment of the society. They have had used these sites as a platform to launch their products and get instant feedback from end-users. For example facebook banner ad. Social networking sites connected people and friends despite the fact where they lived. In my opinion, it has had a positively impact on people’s lives because they are linked and known every activity for their beloved ones. Social networking makes the world a global village; you just click on one button and share your thoughts, emotions, and pictures with your friends and family. In the past, people had no connection except writing letters and waited almost 2 to 3 weeks for a response but now you just instantly made a video and audio call for free is it not amazing? To conclude, social networking sites have had a positive impact on individuals because they are connected and share their experience which is helpful for the young lads. Furthermore, it has had also used for creating job opportunities, advertise products, and know what are the needs of consumers.

Hi Liz, Can we give our opinion in the introduction and then in the conclusion too?

You introduce your opinion in the introduction and then conclude it in the conclusion.

Hi Liz, What do you think about this?

Social media sites have become extensively popular around the world and majority of the population argue that such kind of sites to have ill effect on everyone. In my opinion, I disagree with this statement because I believe the pros outweigh the cons by far. It has had enormous amount of benefits such as creating job and wealth opportunity as well as has allowed many to connect with friends across the globe.

Research shows that social media is seen as the 21st century ‘money making machine’ whereby many sole traders, entrepreneurs and big business can use this kind of platforms to advertise and promote their products or services. Business are able to use it as a trading platform to sell. Because many people use such sites, it’s easier to reach target consumers for example through Facebook banner ad. In addition, it has also enabled startups to get instant feedback on their products.

On the other hand, it is used as a main platform for communication among many. Not only do social sites allow you to share pictures and videos but also enable you to make ordinary and video calls. Furthermore, you can share you day to day experience with friends and family in a form of short clips. For example, if there was no Snapchat, how would I have been able to share videos instantaneously?

To conclude, social sites have plenty of benefits and has positively contributed to the society and businesses over the years. I believe that it has empowered us to use it for a range of purposes and also has allowed businesses to trade.

Thanks Liz for always helping. Kindly help with corrections.

It is argued that social networking sites like Facebook have had a harmful effect on individuals and local communities. This essay agrees that Facebook has advantages while it also has a dangerous impact on the public.

Thanks in advance

The instructions ask for your own opinion. I need to use “I” or “my” to express a personal opinion.

Liz, it is not wrong if I use I MUST SAY and IN MY OPINION in body paragraphs. Iam really confused what to do, while in opinion essay such as dou you agree or disagree case

It is actually vital to use those words if you are asked for your own opinion. I don’t put up model essays onto my site that are not safe to learn from.

Hi Liz , could you please help me with the. structure of agree and disagree statement as well as opinion essay .I’m confused about it .as my tutor told that I have make 3 body paragraph 2 with whom I agree and one for another side ?

An “agree disagree essay” and an “opinion essay” are 100% the same thing. The instructions are a paraphrase and the essay type the same.

Hi Liz, I have come across below discussion essay question; “Today’s teenagers have more stressful life than previous generations”. Discuss this view and give your opinion

Can I have an opinion such as ” Even though current generation is facing stressful life, it is lesser than the struggles faced by earlier generation”?

If I can have such an opinion, my essay body should explain about the stress life of current generation or earlier generation? Kindly advice. Thanks in advance.

Your thesis statement is fine, but make sure you use “I believe” or “in my opinion” to make your own personal view clear. Your essay would then explain your view: a) why you think the current generation is facing a stressful life b) why you think it is less than the struggles faced by earlier generations.

Thanks to you Liz. Please hear me out.

Please with opinion essays, can you write a point from outside the given QUESTION?

For example; the question asks ” To what extent do you think laws will ensure people recycle more at their homes”

My opinion – (After paraphrasing my introduction)” Although education plays a key role in increasing recycling, I agree laws will enforce the need for recycling more in our homes”

the point i introduced here is EDUCATION. Is it okay to write that?

This is an opinion essay about solutions. This means you give your opinion about the solution offered and whether it will actually solve the problem. Your answer would be that you agree it is a useful solution, but there is a better solution for this problem. That is fine. However, your thesis statement is written incorrectly. The clauses are the wrong way around and therefore don’t match the question. You should have written: Although laws to enforce recycling would have an impact, a better measure would be to raise more awareness of the benefits of recycling through education”. It is essential that you grasp the order of the clauses.

Thanks again Liz, this means so much.

Hi Liz, i have prepared writing task 2. Can you please evaluate my essay. Thank you in advance Many people think that every individual is responsible for their happiness, but some people believe there are other external factors that influence us. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Undoubtedly, pleasure is a state of mind for which every person itself is accountable whereas, some schools of thought hold the notion that other materialistic things are responsible to give happiness to the individual. My crumb of writing will shed the light on both views in the subsequent paragraphs. To commence with, firstly the individual itself is responsible to make himself satisfied in his day to day life in various ways. To substantiate, every person has control on his postive and negative emotions. Thus, to being postive bring a feeling of joy. However the way of getting satisfaction is vary from person to person . For instance some folks feel happy by spending some quality of time with their kiths and kins while other feel better by giving time to themselves as by doing yoga, meditation gives inner peace to them. On the flip side, others believe that the feeling of happiness comes due to the presence of external factors. Owing to this, having luxurious house, car and highly paid job give them good feeling. To elaborate, this is true that the materialistic things make life far more comfortable and easy. For illustration, the people who have good job earned more so they can afford better living facilities which leads happiness in them. Due to the wealth and other factors they are like pleased as punch.

To encapsulate, it can be concluded that both elements play an indispensable role to give pleasure in life. But I think inner peace is essential to keep our mind healthy and happy rather than focusing on external factors.

Wow, this is a very good academic essay, though there are few grammatical errors.

According to some people, social networking sites have had a detrimental impact on individuals and society as a role. I agree with this to a greater extent.

The first negative effect that overrides the rest is its addictiveness. This is very destructive both academically and mentally. A vast number of millennials cannot go on for long periods of time without checking their social media. This results in poor grades and when grades are poor, little to none can be done to achieve academic success. The other frustrating this about social media is how people zone out in the middle of conversations at functions because a notification just popped up on their smartphone. They have become so addicted that they cannot put away their phones for a few hours just so they can connect with others.

Another undesirable effect is how it puts pressure on individuals and society to live up to certain standards. Social media accommodates both genuine and fake people. The latter tends to post content of their supposed achievements. This can result in a follower feeling like they have failed at life. The result spans from mild to severe depression which can ultimately lead to suicide. Misdemeanours and hard core crime can also result as members of society try to gain possessions in order to live up to high standards.

In conclusion, social media really poses a great harm to people and the society as it is a causative agent of academic stagnation, various forms of crime and an early demise.

Thank you for this essay. I’m a little bit confused!!! In this essay you agree that social networking sites have had a damaging effect on local community. In the first paragraph you talked about the benefit and in the second paragraph you talked about negative effect. My question is, why didn’t you write 2 supportative ideas instead of writing in the first paragraph about benefit and in the second paragraph about negative effect like you did in the essay of “the growing number of overweight people”. THANK YOU

Look more carefully at the thesis statement which explains the position taken in this essay: However, while I believe that such sites are mainly beneficial to the individual, I agree that they have had a damaging effect on local communities.

Which one you agreed isn’t clearly understood

I believe that such sites are mainly beneficial to the individual I agree that they have had a damaging effect on local communities In the question, there are two issues – one is individual and one is society. I have given my opinion of each.

Dear Liz, I have prepared Writing Task-2 answer. Please go through given below details give feedback. Thanks in advance.

Writing Task-2 Topic: In some countries a few people earn extremely high salaries. Some people think that is good for a country, while others believe that the government should control salaries and limit the amount people can earn. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Few countries , one sector of people are earning huge wages. These type of scale of earnings is better for specific country development. On the other side argument government should reconsider to reduce wages and optimize earning in the form of money and income. As per my opinion, government should redefine policy about higher wages and develop who are earning low earning wages.

Firstly, While getting higher income people are adopt to luxury life, unnecessary expenses such as cars, building excessively. For those type of comfortable life , will some pros and cons for their health and lifestyle. If you forgot about diet and physical fitness automatically health problems will raise. Sometime those utilities will save time, speed, accuracy and security for their works. Modern life style competition, comparison, comfort factors are much influence to earning huge income.

On the other side of the people are completely deny and compliance about higher wages which are most practical issues rich going to be rich again, neglecting economical poor and below poverty line peoples, low earning money wagers, mostly staying in downtowns. As many Economist and financial analysts also suggesting government rethink about all sector people and redefine policy and adjust according to manage all sectors of the people.

Many countries are economically depends on agricultural, food and beverage sectors and daily wage people are best examples of low income getting sector. Need to provide low interest bank loans and subsidies for them will help to their respective field development. Very few sectors will get huge income such as Information Technology, Service sectors, Business, Tourism sectors are getting higher revenues.

To summarize, government provide some benefits and redefine policies who are getting low income sectors also focus on development and lowering taxes and develop agricultural , food production, consumer goods and equally mange higher revenue sectors focus on country economy should maintain sustainable.

Hi Liz, I have prepared Writing Task-2 answer. Please go through given below and give feedback. Thanks in advance.

Writing Task- 2 Task : Art is considered an essential part of all cultures throughout the world. However, these days fewer and fewer people appreciate art and turn their focus to science, technology and business. Why do you think that is? What could be done to encourage more people to take interest in the arts?

Art is an important factor which is more impact on specific traditionally and culturally connected any part of the world. On the other hand some people argues technology and scientific innovations , new businesses mostly prefer choosing as profession for their future. According to ancestors art is legacy and enormous relationship has been developing between countries and all over the world. In every tradition and communities expression about their cultural and life style express in the form of pictorial representation using different colours. Those are easy to understand anyone rather than any language. Everybody thinking one picture will explain thousand words. According to historical cultural and start their house constructions and their life style which can be represents and express their views in the form of arts and paintings. Each country need to maintain and protected their historical ways of lives, foods, jewellery and usage of things stored, which archaeology department found and stored in the form of arts and galleries along with in museums. Many people perception choose profession of artist is less scope of earning money, delay, less interest about arts. However, if seriously focus on best ways choose arts will give better opportunities not only in domestic possible in internationally. On the other side, human tendency need to growth faster along with technology evaluations, new innovative scientific research effectively utilize technology. Similarly , searching more opportunities finding in the business sectors to develop start-up economical growth and development their career prospective. If seriously thinking that all science and technology developed from legacy from ancestors. For example, many discoveries such as telephone, Telegram, and based on bird flying aeroplane , various new advanced scientific evidences discovered earlier. To summarize, government and electronic media should encourage arts as mandatory subject in academics encourage artists, provide awareness programs such as exhibitions and develop museums , historical events, handicrafts , communicate to the people.

Liz don’t do proofreading for free.

I don’t offer any proof reading service – not even for money. My health prevents me offering more services.

Hi This is my first time am practicing IELTS writing task 2. Please evaluate my essay. Some people prefer to raise children in the cities while others believe that children should be raised in the countryside. Ans: Children’s upbringing is an important issue for every parent as lifestyle changing this becomes a debatable issue in society. Some would like to take care of their children in a pollution-free and healthy environment in the village far from cities. While others are in favor of raising them in an environment with modern amenities and infrastructure. In this essay, both views will be discussed, although in my view it is optimal to raise a kid in the city. As a matter of fact, the city environment has plenty of advantages and opportunities for future generations. They have easy access to all the technology for their study with extra co-curricular activities. In other words, children can do much apart from their studies, they can participate in cultural events organized in various parts of cities to get in touch with their tradition. They can go to museums, libraries that are highly technology-driven which can help children in their studies. In addition, there is more choice for parents to find the best-suited institution for their children according to children’s passion and interests. Another key point, cities have numerous job opportunities for children once they complete their higher studies. They do not have to move further for job searches. In the same fashion, the village lifestyle for raising children has its own supremacy. In this case, it provides children a clearer and pollution-free environment in comparison to cities. By the same token, a clean environment is best for children’s health and keeps a better immunity system prone to other health issues associated with aging. The most compelling evidence for the village life is less traffic that leads parents to worry less for their children about being hit by vehicles. Apart from these advantages, village life has its own limitations such as the education system. In the village, there are a limited number of schools and higher studies opportunities for children. Ultimately, once they have completed their secondary education, the only option left to move to cities for better institutions. Their access to modern technology like the internet is limited. They have hardly any exposure to the outside world. In the end, certainly, the countryside lifestyle has benefits related to health for bringing children, but we are living in the 21st century for that we have to live accordingly and need to adapt to the city’s lifestyles.

Hi, Liz I did a practice on writing part 2 and I want to know your thought about it.

Question: The qualities and skills that a person requires to become successful in today’s world cannot be learned at a university or other academic institutions. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In the modern world, success is determined through wealth and social status of an individual. However, the qualities and skills can be achieved in various aspects of life, not just in university or other academic institutions. Although schools may provide the fundamental academic teachings, the best avenues for learning the most important qualities and skills in life to be successful are not limited to them.

Primarily, success is defined as attaining prosperity and fame in today’s world. In order to succeed, one must have certain abilities such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, leadership, and problem solving. In the schools today, they mainly focus on the systems that can enhance the capabilities of a student through various teaching materials according to their strength under those abilities. However, the presented idea is only limited to a portion that a person must possess so as to reach a successful life. In this regard, the knowledge that we acquire in an educational establishment does benefit an individual, though the setting must not be restricted to schools alone.

On the other hand, there are certain traits that we must own, apart from the academics. Towards the victory of success, knowing how to build up socialization, to negotiate, to manage money, and to have the proper behavioral skills which are trained outside the schools, occupy an essential part. This is well-demonstrated in South Korea where an actress named Mi-hee Oh, made one’s mark as a successful celebrity, even if she was not able to graduate a university. Therefore, certain qualities in achieving success come from different facets which are not found in a university and academic institutions.

In conclusion, the abilities that an individual requires to become successful in the present world cannot be completely accomplished at a university or other academic institutions. As a matter of fact, there are significant qualities reached from without the schools that we must possess, with the aim of gaining success. Hence, balancing of both the qualities may lead to the successful life in the world today.

Waste management is a big concern today, especially when more than 7.5 billion people produce a massive amount of garbage each day. The cause behind rising pollution is lack of recycling efforts and our throwaway habits are responsible for an unmanageable amount of rubbish production. Government need to take strict actions to control this issue.

To begin with, the world population has crossed 7.5 billion and it’s only natural that an increasing population produces more rubbish than ever before. Moreover, these days every product is packaged before it is sold. It is so widespread a trend that common products like bananas and apples are packed individually just to make them look attractive to the consumers. Use of plastic, polythene and many other nondisposable materials make the situation worse as they are not biodegradable. Increasing use of plastic and polythene and its adverse effects on the environment is a global concern. As a consequence, we are producing more waste and threatening our environment. Sadly, our consumerism and throwaway habits are making the situation graver as we like to have all the latest products and discard old ones easily.

Government can reduce the growing amount of waste in several ways. First of all, government needs to introduce strict laws regarding the use of plastic and polythene. Large companies like coca cola and Pepsi needs to find alternative ways to sell their products. This single measure can reduce waste production to a certain extend. Moreover, government should run awareness campaigns to educate people about the negative consequences of plastic and its usages

To conclude, an ever increasing population and their consumerism habit primarily produce a huge amount of debris every day and it has already become a global concern. It is hope that government would take effective measures to control it to reduce environmental damage.

Hi Liz, Greetings and I have watched all your videos and those are really helpful. Please I need your feedback on this. I have IELTS after 3 weeks and want to be sure whether I am not making same mistakes.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are said to have detrimental effect at the individual level as well as to our society. However, I believe that these social networking platforms have positive effect on the individuals but negative effect on the society. This essay will discuss both the opinions below.

To begin with, I believe that the social networking websites imparts good and positive impact on the individuals. Firstly, these websites can help to communicate easily through chat or direct messages with other people in any part of the world. Whereas, in earlier days it used to take days and weeks to send letters to other and hence, it was difficult to communicate. Secondly, these websites offer educational stuff like videos which students can benefit from. Moreover, housewives can also benefit by following their favorite chefs and can see and learn various recipes.

Nevertheless, these social networking sites have much long term and negative impact on the society. As people spend more and more time on these sites, they do less social interaction with other people like their families and friends. Consequently, if they spent less time with other people, then they feel isolated from the society and get mental stress. In addition to that, sometimes inappropriate contents are posted on these sites. Young people especially children get easily encouraged and indulged in doing crimes.

In conclusion, I agree that the social networking sites have good and positive impact on the individuals but negative impact on our society. Regulations should be put in place so that these websites are appropriately utilized for the benefit of both individuals and society as whole.

Hello dear Liz Your wonderful smile on your beautiful face is the first attractive point in this blog! Anyway, thank you for your thorough explanations and tuturials, they are so useful for me so far. Now, is this combination is correct: ” rarely do the people have chance to…”

The use of “the” with the word “people” depends on various factors. Otherwise, the phrase is correct. However, try to avoid learning phrases for use in your IELTS essay. When you do that, they are often used unnaturally and do not impress the examiner.

Hi Liz, I have watched your advanced tutorial for the opinion essay. And I am just kind of unsure about the disagree introduction. Should I mention all the reasons in my thesis statement why I disagree with this statement? Below is my introduction, could you please have a look and give me some advice? I would appreciate it.

Fees for analyzing and treating diseases are considered very expensive, so it is argued by some that prevention should be implemented rather than cure. From my perspective, not all diseases can be prevented, and therefore, I completely disagree with this statement, treatment is necessary in order to cure patients.

Is this the essay question: “Prevention is better than cure.” Out of a country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to spending on health education and preventative measures. To what extent do you agree?

Hi Liz, Please evaluate my essay and suggest where need improvement so that accordingly i can subscribe to your course.

Some people believe that that the government is wasting money on arts and that this money could be better spent somewhere else. To what extent do you agree? The notion of spending government’s budget on arts is not much appreciated because some people opine that this money can be well utilized on other public services. However, this essay disagrees with this statement because arts promotes cultural heritage and produce creative thinkers. To begin with, India is a land of diverse cultures and traditions. India is well known recognized for its varied forms of arts and as a result of which, it has been attracting many visitors since prehistoric times and thus, helps in introducing Indian culture all across the globe. For example, a famous dance in Punjab called bhangra, festival of vibrant colors called holi, ancient sculptures and paintings in caves and temples all across the nation and many more are a spot of attraction for many tourists. Thus, funding in arts is quite important to maintain the existence of cultural heritage. Moving further, arts is considered as an incredible thing in developing creativity power of an individual. Imaginative qualities are being inculcated in human beings at a primary and secondary level of school and as a result of which, students becomes more creative in their teenage times and produce excellent ideas later in their professional life. For instance, now a days, fortune five hundred companies look for leaders who have extra ordinary creative and innovative skills along with main required skills, who can think out of the box and produce creative ideas to boost financial status of a company and these qualities are being developed at school level only via arts as subject in school’s curriculum. So, funding in arts is indispensable. To conclude, investing money on arts is equally important as investing money on other services because arts plays significant role in identifying nation’s ancient times and also helps produce creative minds.

Hi Liz, I have been following your website, book and advanced lessons which are really useful for IELTS taker. The advanced writing lessons are stated clearly and explained in details, but I got little bit confusion in opinion essay. I feel one-sided opinion essay is easier than balance approach, but I found using balance approach and two main body paragraphs rather than applying one-side opinion and two body paragraphs in many essays of your website. Can you please tell me about the situations using both approaches and paragraphs ?

I explained in the video that the number of paragraphs is based on the number of ideas you have. Two ideas = two body paragraphs. Three ideas = three body paragraphs. No more than three and no less than two. The approach you choose is up to you. They are all worth the same. But some essay questions are easier with a one sided approach and some with a balanced view. It depends on the question and it depends on your opinion.

In many places, new homes are needed,but only space available for them is in the countryside. Some people believe it is more important to protect the countryside and not to build new homes there. What is your opinion about this. I found this question in one of the Cambridge test. My doubt is in deciding ideas. For example can I disagree in my opinion with two reasons constructing new houses will affect the environment( para 1) and distrubs their people life ( para 2) Or should say why people do not want new building at countryside ( para 1) Para 2 – why I feel it should be allowed or not allowed. Am confused now. Could you please clear my doubt. Thanks you so much

You can’t ignore one issue. A one sided approach is you believe A and you do not believe B. Your whole essay would explain why A and not B. A partial agreement is written when it depends on specific factors: ie in developing countries or developed countries.

Hey liz, I winder how I can get access to your grammar e-book, since I live in Iran, and according to the sanctions I cannot do online shopping from overseas sites. May you guide me in that. Thanks in advance 🙏🏻

The e-book will be ready in early May. Either May 5th or just after. My online store allows major cards from most countries. Check it out: https://elizabethferguson.podia.com/

Hii mam, i have one doubt that is ,does using personal pronouns affect writing band score?

This is an aspect of grammar that I cover in my new Grammar E-book which is coming out on May 5th. Get that when it’s ready.

Hi Liz, i am maya, i really have a hard time every time i am doing the opinion essay. I learnt form my tutor that we have to answer the question in the introduction. I think it will be easy to answer agree or disagree, disadvantage or advantage, in the introduction. However, i am so confused to put the answer of the opinion essay in the introduction paragraph. Do i really need to put the answer in the paragraph or i can answer it later in the next paragraphs? Thank you.

You would have to write an example essay question with an example introduction for me to understand more fully what you mean.

Hiii Liz…..

I have one doubt as my trainer has advised me not to use ‘WH’ family like what, why, when etcetera in IELTS writing and according to her these words are not allowed to write in formal IELTS writing but still I am not convinced, so i need an expert feedback over this if you could help me.

This is 100% not true. It is completely fine to use “what / when / why / where” etc in an IELTS essay. It is generally recommended not to write questions in your essay because your aim is to present statements which answer questions, not raise questions. So, we wouldn’t use those words to write questions. However, we would use the “WH” words to write noun clauses or any other type of clauses: The reason why people should recycle is because … People should go on holiday when it is ….. These sentences are 100% acceptable for IELTS and in fact are considered complex grammar features because they are clauses or noun clauses. This means they would actually boost your score. My new Grammar E-book which will be released in early May will not only explain this, but also help you create noun clauses and other types of clauses. It’s a great e-book which will really help you develop your English level and IELTS score 🙂

Thank you Liz..eagerly waiting for your E-book…

Dear Liz, My name is Elisa and I have been following and reading all your IELTS tips. Thanks so much, it is extremely useful! However, studying and writing a bit more, I have found myself a bit in doubt about an opinion verb essay question. “Nowadays some buildings such as offices and schools are open-space design instead of separate rooms. Why is it so? Do you think this is a positive or negative development?. Looking at all the opinion essay Online, I cannot find a similar one; this requires you not only to give your opinion (positive or negative), but also to state the reasons behind this new approach. Therefore, I don’t know how to write the intro. Is it better to start with “In my opinion, despite this/it might be seen as a smart way to reduce costs within a company or a school, an open-space environment represents a detrimental and under-productive solution”. OR “This essay will outline some possible reasons why open-plan offices are getting more and more popular in today’s world and it will explain why this approach has a detrimental and counter-productive effect on both workers and students”.

I hope it was clear enough. Thanks so much for your help, Elisa

This is usually called a “Direct Questions Essay”. Each teacher gives essays slightly different names and categorises essay differently. This requires you to give the causes and also say if it is positive or negative. As with all essays in IELTS, you start with a background statement. The thesis statement, which follows, will provide the direct answers to the questions without details. Details go in the body paragraphs.

Hi Liz, I noticed that “I believe that/I agree that” is written only in the introduction, is it okay? I thought it wasn’t enough for an opinion essay in which I am explicitly asked to give my personal opinion. Thank you in advance!

“I believe” makes it very clear it is your belief. In my opinion / I think / it is my opinion that = all fine.

Hi liz, My tutor taught you should not write “have had” . it might be caught by the examiner …. what is ur opinion?

Unfortunately, I don’t really understand your comment. Are you saying that your tutor told you there is a rule in IELTS that says you can’t use the “present perfect” tense = “have had”?? This is 100% not true at all.

If the question asks – “To what extent do you agree”, Can i Completely disagree with the statement?

You can take any stand you want as long as the position is clear.

Hey Liz; I wrote a test yesterday where I had to state the entent to which I agreed that the positives of an opinion is more than its negatives. I remember using words like “overshadow” and “override”to show my support for the positive opinion. Should I be worried I didn’t state if I completely or strongly believe?

Not at all. You do not need to state if it is a strong opinion or not. All you need to do is present an opinion (a position) and explain it.

I have a doubt about the length of writing Task 2. Can anyone write 350 or more words? Minimum should be 250 but for maximum what ould be the word limit?

See this page for tips about the length of an essay: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/

Hi Liz! thanks for the helpful page! here is my question.

one of my students concluded each of the body paragraphs by restating his topic sentence. although this seemed to have wrapped up each paragraph, i thought that the repetition of the idea is not good for the essay.

what is your opinion on this?

This is very common. Some teachers train students to do this. It isn’t necessary at all and too much repetition is not a good thing. IELTS essays are not long and it is a waste of a sentence to repeat the main point in that way when the student could instead use that sentence to strength their point and develop the idea further which is what the examiner is actually looking for.

many thanks for your time, Liz!

Hi Liz mam, To what extent you agree?like this type of essays, is it mandatory to always write agreee side of the statement

The instructions are just asking for your opinion. This means the whole essay presents and explains your opinion on the issue or issues given. If you don’t agree with the statement, then you don’t agree and you explain why.

My task 2 today Disussing both view that Should young ones listen to advice from older ones or to criticize when they do wrong (Paraphrased)

is it okay to start with “children of today are the heritage of tomorrow’? thanks

You want to ask me if you should learn a phrase / memorise a phrase in order to impress the examiner? My answer – never do that. It doesn’t impress the examiner and doesn’t help your score.

Hi Liz! Thanks a lot for the work you are doing for all IELTS takers! I’ve taken your advanced lesson and am grateful for such incredible content!!! There’s one question I’d like to ask, do we need an outline sentence after our thesis statement? Because in your tutorials you never mention about an outline statement. Also, concerning examples, do ew have to put an example in every body paragraph? Looking forward to hearing from you!!! Thanks in advance!!!

No. This isn’t an academic essay for university. It is a simple straight forward essay for IELTS. You do not need to paraphrase instructions – the examiner knows what the task is. I’m glad my Advanced Lessons were useful 🙂

Dear Liz, You particularly mentioned “facebook” as an example as said in the question. Can we mention other sites such as YouTube & Instagram as an example and explain them as well or just stick to the example stated in the question??

I definitely would not ignore the example given in the question. However, it is fine to add more examples such as those you have stated.

I always assumed IELTS as a test that evaluates ability and expertise of any individual to communicate in english effectively rather than fancy vocabulary. However, after going through lots of videos and free advices online I ended up believing that I will need to upgrade my vocab if I want to score decent. All the tips and advices shared by you are very helpful, it presents the real picture of what is expected from any IELTS taker if they want a good score. I am more confident than earlier i was, thanks to you.

My IELTS test is scheduled for 17th August. Will definitely share my test taking experience and results over here as well.

Good luck 🙂

Same here for the 17th.Presently not doing so well with the essays.

Is it ok if I underline some words in my essay to highlight them to examiner?

You should not do that. The examiner does not need you to highlight words. IELTS examiners are trained professionals and are trained to assess language.

Undoubtedly,the vogue of studying abroad has reached on the top slot thesedays owing to acquire new knowledge and experiences.while the are some drawbacks of this trend,i personally reckon that its benefits are far higher.

Hello mam, could u check this introduction of task 2 (nowadays,mostly students like to study abroad. discuss advantages and disadvantages of this.)

The word “vogue” is not suitable for the topic of education. “Reach the top slot” is informal and not suitable for formal IELTS essays. Your aim should NEVER be to impress. Your aim is to be accurate and appropriate at all times to avoid errors. More errors = lower band score.

And I think that the word “reckon” is informal. Just use THINK

Can we use ‘the author of this essay’ instead of I?

No, you can’t. You need to use “I” or “my” for a personal opinion. When you are asked “Do you think men and women should be in the armed forces” in a formal interview, would you say “the speaker of these words believes…” = no, you wouldn’t. There are many false rules and ridiculous things being said about IELTS online. There are no tricks in IELTS. If you need to give your opinion, be clear and direct: I believe or In my opinion. It is not only fine to do that it is vital to do that.

Hi Liz, please I need a little clarification on d difference between these two types of essay questions ‘do you agree or disagree’ and ‘to what extent do you agree or disagree’. I’d really appreciate your response.

There is no difference. No difference at all. They are 100% the same.

Oh thank you very much

Hi Liz, could you tell me the difference between “to what extend you agree” and “to what extend you agree or disagree”

There’s no difference. They are the same.

Will we get more score if using advanced vocab while writing instead of simple words like ranacid instead of rotten .

It is not about using “advanced vocabulary”, it is about using appropriate vocabulary. If you use “advanced vocabulary” when it is unnecessary, the only thing you are showing the examiner is that you cannot choose words appropriately and that will lower your score. Aim for accuracy in English, do not aim to impress.

You are writing to much elaborate. Come straight to the point.

Hi Liz, In a question asking: buying household appliances ( TV , Cooker) have increased in many countries. Is this a positive or negative development? Does this outline sound good? Intr.: state general idea, rephrase the question, and say although it has negatives but I believe it is positive Body 1: talk about negatives: pollution of environment by manufacturing these appliances + decrease in cultural values (ie: not cooking big meals + not playing together) Body 2: talk about positives: cost effective entertainment + time saving (ie: personally prefer this so I get have more time with my family) Conclusion: summarize above and emphasize on the phenomenon being positive

What do you think? Thanks

If you believe it has positives, it also means you do not think there are negative points. This isn’t a discussion essay. If you want to mention both sides, put that as your opinion: “In my opinion, while these appliances may cause environmental problems, they are extremely beneficial for time saving or as entertainment.” – now you have quantified your view. Also don’t give examples about you or your family. Keep it all formal. Your experience is about your experience of the world – People like to spend time with their families. Hope those points help.

hi liz, I referred to ur advanced lessons they r very useful Please guide me for a silly thing repetively asked , but i em still unclear.

Doing an enjoyable activity with a child can develop better skills and more creativity than reading.To what extend do u agree or disagree.

My query is if i write i agree with the view should by paragraphs be like this: 1)BP1: Y i agree child learns better through enjoyable activity 2)BP2: Y reading is not good way of teaching

Em much confused in this X rather than Y type question approach regards, Bhavya

Exactly right 🙂 When you have two issues in the question, you must address both. If you agree with X, it also means you don’t agree with Y. Then your body paragraphs explains those two aspects of your opinion. A balanced opinion would be X is good for younger children who need to learn motor skills, social skills and develop creativity, whereas Y is essential for older children.

Liz, Love u a lot U made the day Thanks liz God bless u, get well soon

Thanks so much for helping us with the precise structure of the essay. However,I am little bit confused about the score band of this example as it doesn’t provide examples to your pints in paragraphs.Could you please elaborate on this?I have seen few videos on you tube and general structure of single opinion paragraph contains: point,explanation and example.

Many thansk

You will find that many teachers like to teach formulas. This means they choose a fixed content for paragraphs and teach it to their students. It is easy to teach and easy to learn. But it isn’t flexible. Those formula are not rules for IELTS – they are teaching methods created by teachers. I prefer to teach flexibility because the people who benefit from my lessons are high level candidates who need that flexibility.

Hi Liz, thank you for the great essay.

For this question, is it OK to have a balanced opinion, such as:

“Although I accept that social networks negatively affect individuals and society, I would argued that they bring more benefits to users and communities as a whole.”

Then body paragraph 1 I’ll write about the negative impacts on BOTH individuals and society. Body paragraph 2 will be about the benefits, again, on BOTH individuals and society?

Could you please adivse?

It is confusing and will also be very lengthy to write – so not really a good strategy. Remember success in IELTS is often down to the choices you make. Aim for simplicity in your approach at all times.

Will there be no marks deduction for not using any conditional or question sentences in your essay?

IELTS examiner does not deduct marks. The score for grammar is based on range and accuracy. You can’t force a type of grammar into your essay unnaturally. As long as you use a good range and you aim for accuracy, you will be fine.

Can you be more clear on general sections writing Task 2 how many paragraphs are expected?

Regards, Sancia

Please see this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/ . You use the same lessons and tips for GT and Academic writing task 2.

thank you once again for your marvellous website!

Would you please comment if I got it right: As far as I see, the model essay above was written in response to “To what extent do you agree” question, but the structure rather is similar to “do adv-s outweigh disadv-s”. (First you speak about one side and then give more support for the ideas you agree to.)

An essay of this type asks for your opinion. You decide your own opinion. The opinion given above is a quantified, specific view point. “while I believe that such sites are mainly beneficial to the individual, I agree that they have had a damaging effect on local communities.” The body paragraphs explain the view point.

Mam, would you mind to let us know when will we get E-BOOK. for writing task-2. waiting for that

Update: MY Ideas for Topics E-book is now available. Click here: Liz’s Online Store

Thank you is literally a small word for all the things you are doing fo pr helping students in IELTS. Can you please share a link or any other source where we can find some band 9 writing samples.

Thank you, Sandeep

My main writing task 2 page contains model essays: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/ . With other websites, it is your choice if you wish to rely on model essays that may not actually be safe to use.

Is it possible to get the book before 27 April? I have my exam on 27th April. You used a balanced approach in this please reply to me if I am right?

Update: My Ideas for Topics E-book is now available. Click here: Liz’s Online Store

Hello, Liz My name is Alice. I got band 7.5~8.5 for all the other subtests which are not bad but with my writing, I got 5.5 and I was really wondering why that would have happened. I avoided contractions and informal language and kept the word limit. Few grammar errors might happen in my essays but I don’t believe that is what’s causing me to have such a low score compared to the other scores I got. Could you suggest me what possibly would have caused the situation and tell me the dos and don’ts, please? I’m just..lost. I had no idea my writing score would betray me like that.

The IELTS writing score is not based only on English language. There are specific requirement that IELTS have set and you need to know what they are and how to do it all properly. Go to the RED BAR at the top of this website and visit the main pages for writing task 1 and writing task 2. On those pages, you will find a link to band score tips and requirements. You can also purchase Advanced Writing Task 2 lessons through the RED BAR.

I tried to pay for your writing tips and I was asked for my location. Does it mean I will be sent a hardcopy of your material? If yes, please how long will it take, because my exam is in less than 2weeks. Also, can I please get it sent to my mail rather than where I stay. Thank you.

The country will decide the currency. The videos are streamed online and the documents downloaded. An automatic email is sent once payment is complete with the access link to the video lesson. Make sure you enter the correct email address and spell it correctly.

Thank you Liz, Doing that now.

Hi liz, In the last sentence on the conclusion of your essay, you wrote “local communities should do more to try and involve local people in local activity…..”. Is it ok to give a solution at the end of the conclusion which is not discussed in body paragraphs ? Thanks a lot for your efforts to help us…

Having a final comment in the conclusion is optional. It is not a requirement. You certainly should not offer a new solution in any essay about solutions. Likewise, you would not add a final opinion in the conclusion of an opinion essay. You need to be careful about using final comments in a conclusion.

liz you look so cute while teaching in lecture.I fall in love with you while listen your lectures.

Hi ma,am, Thankyou for your informative preparation tips. I had a query ma’am. Is it okay to use it’s instead of it is?

There are no contractions in any formal IELTS writing.

Hi Liz, Thank you for this essay my opinion for this essay was that facebook is detrimental, so i have so many reasons for this, such as living in a virtual world, ostentatious life style, spread of wrong information, addiction to facebook. Can i put all this into my essay? would it be too much? what if i use two body paragraphs to explain these points and use a 3rd body paragraph to talk about the beneficial aspects? thank you.

If you think facebook is detrimental that counts as one main idea which you explain in one body paragraph. IELTS writing is not about having lots and lots of ideas that you enjoy writing about. It is about selecting only the key ideas, discarding other ideas and organising them logically. Keep control of your essay at all times. More ideas does not mean a higher score.

I wanted to know whether we can use ”contractions” in writing tests? I read in one of the resources that they must not be used. Need clarification on this!

Thanks in advance.

PS. The content is really effective. I would highly recommend this in my network.

Hello liz, I got my ielts result and my writing score is less.. I just have a doubt in the introduction part. Some parents buy their children a large number of toys to play with. What are the advantages and disadvantages for the child of having a large number of toys ? This is the introduction I wrote Nowadays most of the parents spend their money to get more number of toys to their children. Toys develop children brain activity and their skills. However it would lead to addiction of technology devices and don’t enjoy time spending with other energetic and enthusiastic outdoor games. Is my introduction correct for the question?? Or what I should change for getting band 7 ? Thanks in advance

Your technique is 100% fine. Your English language is the problem. There are so many errors in this that getting a band 7 would be very difficult. In fact, it would be almost impossible with this level of English and this many mistakes.

Hi Liz. Is it wise to write an interrogative sentence as an example to an idea or a supporting idea? For example, something like, “How often do we meet people who are such good communicators online but fail badly to express and communicate in person? “. Or does this violate the technique of being formal in essay writing?

Your aim is to present supporting points and main ideas, not to open up questions for discussion.

Hi, Liz I am taking your advanced lesson of Opinion Essay. For balanced approach, you mentioned that it does not mean sitting on the fence and discussion both sides. For a topic like “Some think xxx is more important than yyy. To want extend do you agree?” Can I write that I disagree, because I consider xxx is equally important as yyy. Then I have two balanced body paragraph discussing both sides. Is this an acceptable approach? Thank you in advance and looking forward your reply.

That is sitting on the fence. In which case is XXX important and in which case is YYY important. Be specific. Quantify you view.

Thanks for the quick response and useful information 🙂

Exceed to word limit . more than 350 words I think

Hello Thank you for all materials they are so useful and I love your webpage !!! Liz I can see that there are some essay questions which are asked as “what is your opinion” & some of them ” Do you agree”; I wonder if their written structure is the same or should it be a bit different ? Thank you for your answer in advance!

It’s exactly the same. IELTS like to paraphrase instructions. The meaning and aims are 100% the same.

After considering all the above points we can conclude that,…… is it a good way to conclude the essay ?

You are marked on your own personal use of English, not your memory. EAch sentence must be uniquely written by yourself in the exam room. That is a learned phrase and not your own English. Don’t try to cheat the test. Don’t memorise phrases or sentences. You can learn ideas, you can learn grammar and you can learn words, but not phrases or sentences.

that is quite confused . Sorry for asking but if i try to remember the linking words , structure things like (not only … but also…) or ( furthermore , if clause 1,2,3 , despite of , in spite ,.. ) , is that ok? what is the different between learning phrases and grammar ‘s structure ?

Memorised language in IELTS refers to people learning whole sentences word for word or even whole paragraphs. These are people who want to use other people’s English in their English language test. This is not accepted by IELTS. You need to learn expressions and grammar which you then use to create your own sentences in the test. However, be careful of learning too many phrases and only use them when they are appropriate to use. They should only form one part of the sentence you create. As for grammar, you learn linking words and clauses to help you create your own sentences in the test. This is not memorised word for word, it is a way to create unique sentences. I hope that helps you understand.

Hi liz is really awaresom with your videos. I PRAY FOR SOUND HEALTH AND QUICK RECOVERY

Hi Liz, I wish you the quickest recovery.

Thank you for your perfect site.

There is NO difference at all. They are paraphrased instructions for the same essay.

Speak Your Mind Cancel reply

Notify me of new posts by email.

Advanced IELTS Lessons & E-books

Click Below to Learn:

IELTS Test Information

Copyright Notice

Privacy Policy & Disclaimer

Click here: Privacy Policy
Click here: Disclaimer

Return to top of page

IELTS Luminary - Free Tips, Strategies, eBooks and Detailed Essay Feedback . Overall, this is the best free IELTS and other test prep website.

How to Write a Thesis Statement in IELTS Essay

Hey there, IELTS aspirants! We know writing a captivating essay can be a daunting task, especially when you're aiming for a high band score. The key to a well-structured and compelling IELTS essay lies in its foundation: the thesis statement. Understanding how to craft a powerful thesis statement can drastically improve your writing and, in turn, your IELTS band score.

In this in-depth guide, we'll delve into the nuts and bolts of creating a winning thesis statement using an authentic IELTS essay question as our example. And don't forget, if you want a complete roadmap for acing your IELTS writing, make sure to check out our comprehensive eBooks covering all IELTS modules, including grammar and vocabulary.

How to Achieve a High Band Score in IELTS Academic Task 1 Report - eBook by IELTS Luminary

What is a Thesis Statement?

Let's face it, the IELTS writing task can seem overwhelming. You're under a time crunch, and you have to juggle grammar, vocabulary, and coherent arguments. That's where a thesis statement comes into play, acting as the backbone of your essay. When we say it's a 'one-sentence summary,' we mean that this single line encapsulates your standpoint and the essence of what you're about to discuss.

Think of your thesis statement as the mission statement of your essay. You wouldn't start a business without a mission statement, right? Similarly, your essay needs this crucial element to define its purpose and guide its structure. It sets the context and helps the reader anticipate what's coming next. If you're aiming for that band 8 or 9 in your IELTS writing, our eBooks on grammar and vocabulary can provide you with additional insights into crafting perfect thesis statements.

Why is a Thesis Statement Crucial in IELTS Writing?

Now, you might be wondering, "Is a thesis statement really that important?" The answer is a resounding yes! In IELTS Writing, it's not just about what you say, but how you say it. A clear and concise thesis statement is essentially your roadmap, indicating the main points you’ll traverse to reach your conclusion. It serves multiple purposes:

Clarity: The examiner needs to understand your standpoint quickly. A well-articulated thesis statement provides that clarity.

Cohesion and Coherence: As you proceed with your essay, every paragraph should be a natural extension of your thesis statement, creating a cohesive flow. It's much easier to maintain this flow when you have a clear reference point.

Argument Quality: A strong thesis statement often makes for a strong argument. It forces you to think about the points you need to make to substantiate your statement, leading to a more persuasive essay.

Scoring: If you're looking to go from a band 6 to a band 8, a well-crafted thesis statement is your ticket. It can make a significant difference in the "Task Response" and "Coherence and Cohesion" scoring categories.

If you've ever found yourself lost while writing or revising your essay, then our IELTS Essay Correction Service could be a game-changer for you. An examiner will give you tailored advice, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your thesis statement, and offer in-depth explanations and strategies for improvement. Trust us, the insights you'll gain are invaluable for acing this challenging task.

So, start investing time in crafting a powerful thesis statement. With the right approach and practice, it'll become second nature to you. And if you're looking for that extra edge, don't forget to dive into our treasure trove of eBooks and take advantage of our Essay Correction Service .

How to Write a High Band Scoring Task 2 Essay - eBook by IELTS Luminary (IELTS Essay eBook)

How to Write an Effective Thesis Statement: A Step-by-Step Guide

Writing a compelling IELTS essay begins with a well-crafted thesis statement. If you’ve been struggling with this crucial component, you’re not alone. But don’t worry, we've got you covered. In this in-depth guide, we’re going to dissect the process step-by-step, using a real example from a past IELTS exam. And for those looking to sharpen their skills further, we'll show how our eBooks and Essay Correction Service can give you an unbeatable edge. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Understand the Question

Before you even think about writing, you need to thoroughly understand the question. Our example comes from a recent IELTS exam:

“Some people believe that school children should not be given homework by their teachers, whereas others argue that homework plays an important role in the education of children. Discuss both views and give your opinion.”

This question requires a balanced view and your personal opinion. It's crucial to identify the essay type because your thesis statement will differ based on what the prompt is asking for. For more insights into identifying different question types, our in-depth eBooks are a great resource, offering a plethora of examples and tips.

IELTS Vocabulary List with Meanings and Examples

Step 2: Formulate Your Opinion

Now that you've decoded the question, it’s time to take a stand. Do you believe homework is essential or detrimental? Your viewpoint will form the crux of your thesis statement. If you're unsure or conflicted, our Essay Correction Service can be invaluable. You can submit practice essays based on similar questions, and our examiner will provide detailed feedback on the clarity and effectiveness of your stance.

Step 3: Write the Thesis Statement

You’re now ready to articulate your thesis statement. Make sure it is concise yet encapsulates both sides of the argument and your opinion. Based on our example question given above, a good thesis statement could be:

“While some argue that homework can be burdensome for students, I believe that it is indispensable for a well-rounded education.”

This statement not only addresses both sides of the argument but also clearly states your own viewpoint.

If the process still feels daunting, our Essay Correction Service is the perfect aid. When you submit your essay, our examiners don’t just correct your mistakes; they also provide comprehensive feedback on elements like your thesis statement. They will offer detailed insights into the strength of your argument, how well your thesis statement aligns with your essay, and even provide a band 9 sample response as a benchmark. It's an excellent way to get personalized, actionable advice to improve your writing.

Remember, crafting a stellar thesis statement is more than just a writing skill; it's a strategy that will take your IELTS essay to the next level. While it might seem tough at first, practice and insightful feedback can make it second nature. Make sure to check out our valuable eBooks for in-depth strategies and take advantage of our Essay Correction Service for tailored advice.

So why wait? Start practicing your thesis statement writing today and set yourself on the path to achieving your ideal IELTS band score!

IELTS Speaking eBook - How to Achieve a High Band Score in IELTS Speaking - IELTS Luminary

Wed. May 1st, 2024

English Syllabus Guru

Your Ultimate English Syllabus Learning Resource

How to Write Strong Thesis Statements for Your IELTS Essays

By Waqas Sharif

Writing a strong thesis statement for your IELTS essays is a valuable skill. It can improve your writing and increase your overall score.

Your thesis statement acts as a roadmap for your reader. It guides them through your essay, clarifying your main argument and the direction of your writing.

This article will teach you how to create a clear and impactful thesis statement for your IELTS essays. It will provide you with the necessary tools to excel in this critical part of your writing.

Understanding the Importance of a Strong Thesis Statement

Key components of a thesis statement for ielts essays.

A strong thesis statement for IELTS essays should clearly state the writer’s opinion. It should introduce the main points of the essay. The thesis should mention the topic, the writer’s stance, and a brief overview of the arguments in the body paragraphs.

Action words like “discuss,” “argue,” or “analyze” can improve clarity. For instance, in an essay about computers in education, the thesis could be “This essay will explore the advantages of integrating computers in education, such as increased access to information and interactive learning. It will also consider potential disadvantages like distractions and reduced emphasis on traditional forms of education.”

Using specific language and relevant keywords enhances the thesis. A well-crafted thesis sets the foundation for a comprehensive essay structure. This leads to a higher band score in IELTS writing.

Process of Writing Thesis Statement for IELTS Essays

When writing a thesis statement for an IELTS essay, it’s important to clearly state your opinion on the topic. The thesis statement should be in the introduction. It should outline the main points to be discussed.

For example, when discussing the advantages and disadvantages of computers in education:

Thesis statement: “While computers offer career opportunities for students, they also present false information challenges.”

Crafting a strong thesis statement is crucial for a high band score in IELTS writing tasks. It helps examiners and teachers understand the main focus of your essay.

Analyzing the Essay Question

Analyzing the essay question for IELTS writing task 2 should start with identifying the main topic. Determine if the question asks for an opinion, advantages, and disadvantages, or a discussion. Use key language like “advantages,” “disadvantages,” “climate change,” “traffic congestion,” and “education” in the thesis statement to show understanding. Avoid pitfalls such as missing aspects of the question, providing false information, and lacking coherence.

Include action words addressing main points, both sides of an argument, and a realistic solution for a strong thesis statement that meets the task requirements. This approach demonstrates understanding to the examiner.

Identifying the Main Topic of the Essay

To identify the main topic of an IELTS essay, follow these steps:

Analyze the essay question carefully.
Break down the question into specific components.
Identify keywords in the question.
Determine the type of essay question (problem-solution, advantage-disadvantage, discussion, two-part question, etc.).

Pay attention to action words in the question. Understand the statement being made and identify the main points to address in the thesis statement.

Use specific language and keywords related to the topic, such as climate change, traffic congestion, education, career opportunities, and investment, to guide the thesis statement.

Avoid vague or general statements. Ensure the thesis statement is focused and addresses specific arguments or opinions for the body paragraphs.

By clearly stating the main topic in the thesis statement, maintain coherence and cohesion in the essay. This will lead to a stronger argument and a higher band score from the examiner.

Crafting a Clear and Concise Thesis Statement

Crafting a clear and concise thesis statement for IELTS essays involves using specific language and keywords related to the topic at hand. For example, “advantages,” “computers,” “climate change,” and “education.”

By incorporating action words and clearly stating the writer’s opinion or argument, the thesis statement becomes focused and precise. Avoiding vague or general statements is essential to address the specific question type, whether it’s a two-part question, problem-solution essay, or discussion essay.

Identifying the main topic of the essay is crucial as it helps determine the direction of the argument in the thesis statement. For instance, when discussing the impact of traffic congestion in city centers on CO2 emissions, the thesis statement should highlight both the advantages and disadvantages of investing in public transportation as a realistic solution.

This approach demonstrates coherence and cohesion within the essay structure and showcases a deeper understanding of the topic to the examiner.

Utilizing Specific Language and Keywords

Crafting a strong thesis statement for IELTS essays requires using specific language and keywords. Action words and directly addressing the question type make the statement clear and effective.

For example, in an IELTS Writing Task 2 about traffic congestion in city centers, the thesis statement can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of public transportation and privately owned vehicles in reducing CO2 emissions. This specific language guides the argument and sets the essay’s tone.

On the other hand, vague statements in a thesis can lead to a lack of coherence and make it hard for the examiner to follow the main points.

For instance, saying “society should invest in education for career opportunities” without specifying realistic solutions or the roles of parents and teachers may lack clarity.

Avoiding Vague or General Statements

When writing a thesis statement for IELTS essays, it’s important to be specific and avoid vague statements.

A clear thesis statement establishes the direction of the essay and should present a clear opinion or argument.

For instance, instead of saying “Computers have advantages and disadvantages,” a more specific thesis could be “While computers create job opportunities, their use in urban areas contributes to CO2 emissions.”

This specificity guides the discussion in the body paragraphs.

In IELTS Writing Task 2, which includes question types like two-part questions and problem-solution prompts, using action words and precise language enhances coherence and cohesion.

By addressing both sides of an issue and proposing a practical solution, writers can steer clear of vagueness and structure their essays effectively.

Teachers and examiners appreciate the clarity of a strong thesis statement, which can result in a higher band score.

The writing section of the IELTS test accounts for 33% of the overall band score. british council

Tips for Writing a Band 7 Thesis Statement in IELTS Essays

Utilize pronouns for coherence and cohesion.

Pronouns are important for connecting ideas and maintaining a consistent flow in essays. When writing a thesis statement for IELTS essays, pronouns help convey the writer’s opinion and introduce the main points.

Effective use of pronouns ensures clarity and conciseness in the thesis statement, guiding the rest of the essay. For instance, when discussing computer benefits in education, pronouns can connect back to the introduction points smoothly.

Additionally, pronouns assist in addressing different sides of an argument, like the advantages and disadvantages of car use in city centers concerning CO2 emissions and traffic.

Using appropriate pronouns enhances overall essay coherence, potentially leading to higher scores from examiners and teachers.

Organize Ideas and Arguments Effectively

Crafting a strong thesis statement for an IELTS essay requires effective organization of ideas and arguments. Here are some key strategies to keep in mind:

Clearly state your opinion in the introduction using action words.
Structure the body paragraphs to address both sides of the argument.
Example : Discussing advantages and disadvantages of city centers, like traffic congestion and CO2 emissions.
Offer realistic solutions, such as addressing traffic jams.
In the conclusion, reiterate the thesis statement and address wider implications.
For instance, consider the impact of car use on society due to increased CO2 emissions contributing to global warming.

These strategies not only enhance coherence but also boost your band score in the IELTS writing task 2.

Incorporate Strategies to Support Your Thesis

When writing an IELTS essay, it’s important to use strategies that support the thesis statement to get a high band score.

One effective approach is using specific language and action words in the statement. This helps to clearly present the writer’s opinion and main points.

For example, when discussing car use in city centers to reduce CO2 emissions, terms like “investments in public transportation” and “traffic congestion” can strengthen the argument.

Recognizing different essay types, like problem-solution or discussion essays, allows for a more coherent structure. This leads to a cohesive argument supporting the thesis statement.

By analyzing both sides of a topic, such as the impact of heavy traffic due to privately owned vehicles, writers can provide a realistic solution without including false information.

Comparing Advantages and Disadvantages

Crafting a strong thesis statement for IELTS essays is important. It should clearly state the writer’s opinion and main points. This acts as a roadmap for the reader and helps the examiner or teacher understand the argument.

When comparing different viewpoints, it’s best to provide a balanced perspective. For example, discussing the advantages of public transportation in reducing traffic congestion while also mentioning the disadvantages of increased investment in transportation infrastructure can lead to a more cohesive essay structure.

To avoid vague statements, use action words that indicate the type of essay. For instance, stating that the essay will discuss solutions to reduce CO2 emissions from privately owned vehicles offers a more realistic approach than a general statement about traffic congestion. Be specific and concise in the thesis statement to effectively convey the main points and potentially achieve a higher band score in the IELTS writing task 2.

Identifying Different Types of Essays

Types of essays vary in structure and purpose. Some examples include:

Narrative essays, which tell a story.
Expository essays, which provide information.
Persuasive essays, aim to convince the reader of the author’s opinion.
Descriptive essays, focus on creating a vivid picture through sensory details.
Compare and contrast essays, highlighting similarities and differences between two subjects.
Cause and effect essays, explaining the relationship between events.

Having a clear thesis statement in the introduction, outlining the main points for discussion in the body paragraphs, is essential.

For IELTS writing task 2, understanding the question type is crucial for achieving a high band score.

Coherence and cohesion in essay structure are vital, whether it’s discussing traffic congestion or addressing CO2 emissions.

Analyzing key action words in the task question can help develop a strong thesis statement addressing both sides of the argument.

Using specific examples, like the impact of car use on climate change, can strengthen the argument and provide realistic solutions to global issues.

Strategies for Writing Band 8.5 Thesis Statements in IELTS Essays

Learn from christopher pell’s essay writing techniques.

Christopher Pell believes that having a strong thesis statement is crucial in IELTS essays. The statement should clearly show the writer’s opinion and guide the essay’s content. Using action words and specific language helps create a clear and focused thesis statement.

In two-part questions or problem-solution essays, including keywords related to the topic improves the statement’s clarity. Structuring the introduction with the main argument points and the stance taken sets the tone for the essay. Pell also suggests considering both sides of an argument in the thesis to demonstrate a balanced approach.

This not only adds depth but also shows the writer’s ability to analyze the topic critically. Following Pell’s techniques can help writers enhance their thesis statements and achieve higher band scores in IELTS writing tasks.

Enhance Writing Coherence through Brainstorming and Planning

Brainstorming and planning are important for writing tasks like IELTS essays.

By brainstorming ideas first, you can structure them logically to create a clear thesis statement.

This helps set the stage for the main points in the body paragraphs.

For example, when discussing the pros and cons of car use in city centers to reduce CO2 emissions, a solid thesis statement can guide the argument.

Brainstorming also helps identify key action words in the task question, indicating the type of essay.

This strategic planning helps achieve coherence and cohesion in your essay structure, meeting language requirements for a higher band score.

Careful planning and offering realistic solutions to issues like traffic congestion and global warming can showcase your knowledge effectively.

Implementing Techniques to Achieve Band 8 Thesis Statements

Crafting a thesis statement for IELTS essays requires using action words and specific language. This helps express the main points and opinions clearly. Incorporating keywords like “CO2 emissions” or “traffic congestion” makes the thesis statement more focused.

Avoid vague or general statements. Provide clear examples or arguments to strengthen relevance and coherence. For example, when discussing car use in city centers, specify the impact on traffic congestion and pollution levels. This enhances the clarity of the thesis statement.

Structure the statement to address “both sides” of the argument in a problem-solution or discussion essay. This allows for a balanced approach that engages the reader. By following these strategies and including relevant language requirements, IELTS writers can achieve a higher band score. This is done by presenting a well-organized and articulate thesis statement that sets the tone for the entire essay.

Examples of Strong Thesis Statements for Your IELTS Essays

A strong thesis statement for IELTS essays should present the writer’s opinion on the topic. It should also outline the main points that will be discussed in the essay.

For example, in an argument essay about the advantages and disadvantages of computers in education, a strong thesis statement could be: “While computers offer career opportunities and access to information, their overuse by students can lead to distractions and false information.”

By including action words and specific keywords like “career opportunities” and “false information,” the thesis statement becomes more impactful and relevant to the reader.

To ensure clarity and conciseness, the thesis statement should address the specific question type in the IELTS writing task 2. It should be supported by coherent body paragraphs that elaborate on both sides of the argument.

In the conclusion, the thesis statement should be reiterated to provide a cohesive structure to the essay. By using appropriate language and addressing the main points of the topic, a well-crafted thesis statement can lead to a higher band score and effectively communicate the writer’s stance to the examiner.

Over to you

Crafting a strong thesis statement for your IELTS essays is important.

By breaking paragraphs into shorter sentences and including facts and data, you can make your thesis statement more impactful and convincing.

This will help you present your argument and demonstrate your understanding of the topic.

A well-crafted thesis statement sets the tone for your essay and guides the reader on what to expect.

It is a crucial part of your essay that highlights your main idea and the direction of your argument.

Remember to keep it concise and focused to make a strong impression on the reader.

A thesis statement is a concise summary of the main point or claim of an essay. It is important in IELTS essays because it guides the reader and helps the writer maintain focus. Example: “The legalization of marijuana has both positive and negative impacts on society.”

To craft a strong thesis statement for your IELTS essay, clearly state your position and outline your main points. For example, “This essay will argue that government funding for education is crucial for societal development.”

An effective thesis statement in IELTS essays includes a clear topic, a concise argument, and a preview of supporting points. For example, “The government should prioritize renewable energy sources to combat climate change” is a strong thesis statement because it states a clear position and previews supporting arguments.

Here are some examples of effective thesis statements for IELTS essays: “In conclusion, strict regulations on fast food advertising are necessary to combat rising rates of obesity among children.”. “Overall, implementing renewable energy sources is crucial in reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change.”.

To ensure your thesis statement is relevant and clear, make sure it directly addresses the essay question and provides a roadmap for your argument. For example, if the question is about the impact of technology on education, a clear thesis statement could be “Technology has greatly enhanced learning opportunities in the classroom by increasing access to information and promoting interactive methods of instruction.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for IELTS Writing Task 2 ?

The IELTS Writing Task 2 is a challenging task that requires you to write an essay on a given topic in 40 minutes. One of the most important parts of your essay is the thesis statement. The thesis statement is the main argument or idea that you will be discussing in your essay. It sets the tone for your essay and guides the reader on what to expect. In this blog, we will discuss how to write a thesis statement for IELTS Writing Task 2.

What is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is a sentence or two that summarizes the main point of an essay or research paper. It is usually placed in the introductory paragraph and provides a roadmap for the rest of the essay. The thesis statement should be specific, clear, and concise. It should also be arguable, meaning that there should be different opinions or perspectives on the topic.

Why is a Thesis Statement Important in IELTS Writing Task 2?

The thesis statement is an essential part of your essay in IELTS Writing Task 2 . It tells the reader what to expect from your essay and sets the tone for the rest of the essay. A well-crafted thesis statement can help you to score higher in the exam. It shows that you have a clear understanding of the topic and have the ability to organize your ideas coherently.

Tips on Writing a Thesis Statement for IELTS Writing Task 2

1. understand the prompt.

The first step in writing a thesis statement for IELTS Writing Task 2 is to understand the prompt. The prompt will provide you with a topic, and you need to ensure that you understand the topic before you start writing. Analyze the prompt and try to identify the keywords or phrases that can help you to develop your thesis statement.

2. Brainstorm Ideas

Once you have understood the prompt, the next step is to brainstorm ideas. Jot down all the ideas that come to your mind and try to connect them to the topic. Think about the main points that you want to make in your essay and how they relate to the topic. This will help you to develop a thesis statement that is specific and clear.

3. Make a Claim

The thesis statement should make a claim that is arguable. You should take a stance on the topic and provide a clear argument for your position. This will make your essay more interesting to read and help you to score higher in the exam. Avoid making a statement that is too general or vague, as it will not help you to develop a strong thesis statement.

4. Use Strong Language

Your thesis statement should use strong language that clearly states your position. Use phrases such as “I strongly believe that” or “It is clear that” to indicate your stance on the topic. Avoid using phrases such as “In my opinion” or “I think that,” as they make your thesis statement weak.

5. Keep it Concise

Your thesis statement should be concise and to the point. It should not be too long or complicated. Aim to write a thesis statement that is one or two sentences long and clearly conveys your main argument.

Examples of Thesis Statements for IELTS Writing Task 2

1. Prompt: Some people believe that social media has a negative impact on society. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of social media and give your opinion.

Thesis Statement: While social media has its advantages, such as connecting people from different parts of the world, it also has its disadvantages, such as the spread of fake news and cyberbullying. In my opinion, the negative impact of social media on society outweighs the positive impact.

2. Prompt: Some people believe that children should be allowed to use mobile phones in school. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge.

Thesis Statement: Although mobile phones can be useful for educational purposes, such as researching information and communicating with teachers, they can also be a distraction and hinder students’ learning. Therefore, I believe that children should not be allowed to use mobile phones in school.

3. Prompt: Some people argue that the use of renewable energy is the key to a sustainable future. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable energy and give your opinion.

Thesis Statement: Renewable energy has many advantages, such as reducing carbon emissions and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels, but it also has its disadvantages, such as high initial costs and intermittency. In my opinion, the benefits of renewable energy outweigh the drawbacks, and it is crucial for a sustainable future.

4. Prompt: Some people think that parents should be responsible for teaching their children how to manage money. Others believe that schools should be responsible for this. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Thesis Statement: While parents play a crucial role in teaching their children about money management, schools can also contribute to this by providing financial education and practical skills. Therefore, both parents and schools should share the responsibility of teaching children how to manage money.

In conclusion, writing a strong thesis statement is crucial for success in IELTS Writing Task 2. The thesis statement sets the tone for your essay and guides the reader on what to expect. To write a strong thesis statement, you need to understand the prompt, brainstorm ideas, make a claim, use strong language, and keep it concise. By following these tips, you can develop a thesis statement that is specific, clear, and arguable. Don’t forget to provide supporting evidence and examples in your essay to strengthen your argument. With practice, you can master the art of writing a strong thesis statement and achieve success in IELTS Writing Task 2.

WhatsApp us

IELTS Scores
Life Skills Test
Find a Test Centre
Alternatives to IELTS
General Training
Academic Word List
Topic Vocabulary
Collocation
Phrasal Verbs
Writing eBooks
Reading eBook
All eBooks & Courses
IELTS Writing Task 2
IELTS Thesis Statements

Writing a Thesis Statement in IELTS

The thesis statement is an essential part of an essay introduction, and it is very important that you know where to put it and how to write it.

Getting it wrong could very likely reduce your IELTS score as it could affect the coherency of your essay and if it's an opinion essay, it may mean that your opinion is not clear.

They are a crucial part of writing an introduction .

If you prefer you can also watch this video lesson about thesis statements for IELTS:

Undertanding Thesis Statements

What is a thesis statement.

Very basically, it tells the person reading your essay what will be in it . It may also give your opinion if the question asks you for this.

It is the last sentence of your introduction.

Don't get it mixed up with the topic of your essay - this is usually at the beginning of your introduction.

How do I write a thesis statement?

In order to make it effective, you must have first identified the task of the essay. If you are unsure about this, check out this lesson on identifying the task .

The task is what you have to do , and is usually at the end of the rubric . For example, look at this IELTS essay question:

As global trade increases, many goods including those we use on a daily basis are produced in other countries and transported long distances.

Do the benefits of this trend *outweigh the drawbacks?

What you have to do (the task) is explain whether you think, overall, an increase in the production of goods in other countries and their subsequent transportation over long distances is more advantageous or disadvantageous .

So your essay is obviously going to be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this issue, and this is what needs to be made clear in your thesis statement.

It is also an opinion essay as it is asking you to make a decision on whether you think there are more advantages or disadvantages. So you need to make this clear as well.

Here is an example introduction, with the thesis in bold:

Due to the increase in global trade, many of the goods that we consume every day are made in a different country and then transported over a long distance in order to reach us. In my opinion, this trend has more disadvantages than advantages .

You would then go on to write about the advantages and disadvantages of global trade ( focusing more on the disadvantages as you think there are more of these).

*Just a quick note on the word ' outweigh '. This word often confuses students and they end up writing a thesis statement opinion that contradicts what they write in the essay.

The simple answer - don't use the word! It is just asking you if there are more advantages than disadvantages. So just state what you think in the thesis without using the word, as in the example.

Thesis Statements for Different Essay Types

We will now look at how thesis statements can vary with different question types. However, you should not try to learn set phrases or sentences to fit certain essays.

There are some broad types of essay question that are common to see, but they can all vary slightly.

The golden rule is to always read the question very carefully ( never rush this as you may not fully answer the question ) and work out what you have to do.

Your thesis statement will then follow on from this, depending on what you have decided you need to write about in order to answer the question.

So below are some suggestions of what you could do for certain common kinds of essay question, but this is not to say these are right and other ways are wrong. There are numerous ways to write good thesis statements and these are just possibilities.

Writing about Two Opinions

Some questions ask you specifically to discuss two opinions and to give your opinion .

Some people think that young children should be allowed to do paid work, while others think that this should be illegal.

Discuss both opinions and give your opinion.

There are various ways you could choose to write an introduction and thesis for this.

You could begin by paraphrasing the two opinions, then stating in the thesis what you will do:

Some people believe that it is acceptable for young children to undertake jobs that they are paid for, whereas others believe that this is wrong and should be illegal. This essay will discuss both sides of the issue.

This is quite simplistic but it makes it very clear what you are going to do.

You will obviously need to give your opinion as well in the essay, but stating this in the thesis ("This essay will discuss both sides of the issue and then give my opinion") sounds awkward so it is better without it.

Another possible way to do it is by having a sentence to introduce the topic first, and then paraphrasing the two opinions to make them your thesis:

At present, more and more young children are becoming involved in paid work. Whilst some people are of the opinion that this is an entirely acceptable practice, others believe that this is completely wrong and should be made illegal.

This is fine as your thesis will match with your essay - you go on to discuss the first opinion and then the second one.

Or of course you could modify this slightly to include your opinion:

At present, more and more young children are becoming involved in paid work. Whilst some people are of the opinion that this is an entirely acceptable practice, I believe that this is completely wrong and should be made illegal.

As long as you go on to discuss both sides of the argument, this is fine.

Agreeing or Disagreeing

Another type of question is when you are asked to agree or disagree with one opinion.

Currently there is a trend towards the use of alternative forms of medicine. However, at best these methods are ineffective, and at worst they may be dangerous.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

For this type of question, you need to state what your opinion is in the thesis statement.

Although you could feasibly do this in the conclusion, I think it is better to do it first so it is clear to someone reading the essay what your opinion is upfront. It is not wrong though to put it in the conclusion - this is your choice.

Your thesis statement here will depend on whether you agree, disagree, or partly agree. Here are some examples of each:

A thesis statement that agrees with the opinion :

Alternative medicine is not new. It is accepted that it pre-dates conventional medicine and it is still used by many people all over the world. However, I strongly believe that this form of medicine does not work and is possibly a danger to those using it.

A thesis statement that disagrees with the opinion :

Alternative medicine is not new. It is accepted that it pre-dates conventional medicine and it is still used by many people all over the world. I am unconvinced that it is dangerous, and feel that both alternative and conventional medicine can be useful.

A thesis statement that partly agrees with the opinion :

Alternative medicine is not new. It is accepted that it pre-dates conventional medicine and it is still used by many people all over the world. I agree that for certain conditions this type of medicine is ineffective and could even be dangerous, but for some illnesses it is a good alternative choice.

These examples illustrate why it is important to ananlyze the question carefully and brainstorm your ideas first so you have a clear idea of what you will be writing and what your opinion is.

Other Essays

Some other essays may not ask you for your opinion specifically, but may ask you to discuss, for example, problems and solutions , causes and effects , advantages and disadvantages .

If you are asked to do this, then you should just clearly state that you will be discussing these two things in your essay. Here are some examples:

Problems and solutions:

Overpopulation of urban areas has led to numerous problems.

Identify one or two serious ones and suggest ways that governments and individuals can tackle these problems.

Sample thesis in bold:

Many countries of the world are currently experiencing problems caused by rapidly growing populations in urban areas. It is critical to understand what these issues are and how both governments and individuals can overcome them.

Causes and Effects:

The percentage of overweight children in western society has increased by almost 20% in the last ten years.

Discuss the causes and effects of this disturbing trend.

Over the last ten years, Western societies have seen close to a 20% rise in the number of children who are overweight. It is important to understand not only why this is happening but also the consequences of this worrying trend.

Advantages and Disadvantages

In order to solve traffic problems, governments should tax private car owners heavily and use the money to improve public transportation.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution?

Traffic congestion in many cities around the world is severe. One possible solution to this problem is to impose heavy taxes on car drivers and use this money to make public transport better. These measures would have both benefits and drawbacks.

This lesson has provided you with some broad guidance on writing a thesis statement for different types of essay.

It is important to stress again though that questions can vary so you must always analyze if carefully and identify exactly what you need to do and what should therefore be in your thesis statement.

Remember, a thesis statement is just telling the reader what the focus of your essay is and giving your opinion if necessary.

Follow this link to see some examples of IELTS essay questions .

More Task 2 IELTS Lessons:

How to Identify the Task in an IELTS Essay

Learn how to identify the task in an IELTS task 2 essay question. This is one of the most important steps in responding to an essay question.

Can you use Personal Pronouns in Essays for IELTS?

Learn how to use personal pronouns in essays for IELTS correctly. Can you use "I", "we" and "you"?

Generating ideas for IELTS essays for writing task 2

Generating ideas for IELTS essays for writing task 2 can be difficult but complex ideas are not expected.

Writing an IELTS Essay Conclusion

The IELTS essay conclusion is the final part of your IELTS essay. This lesson guides you on how to write a conclusion quickly but effectively.

Tips on How to Score IELTS Band 8 in Writing and Speaking

To score IELTS Band 8 you need to understand exactly what is in the IELTS Band Descriptors for an 8 for writing and speaking first.

IELTS Problem Solution Essay Strategies and Tips

In IELTS problem solution essays you have to discuss a particular issue and present ideas to solve that problem.

IELTS Music Essay: Understanding a Complex Question

An IELTS essay about music is used to show you how to answer a more complex IELTS essay question that does not have a clear 'task' given to you.

The 3 Types of IELTS Opinion Essays in IELTS

IELTS opinion essays in IELTS can be placed into three types. This lesson explains the different types and how to analyse these essay questions.

Using Pronouns to Improve IELTS Essay Coherency

Find out how to use pronouns to improve your coherency for IELTS task 2 essays.

Writing an IELTS Essay Introduction

Tips on how to write an introduction for an IELTS essay introduction in a quick and easy way.

Paragraph Writing for IELTS: Building strong arguments

This paragraph writing lesson provides tips on constructing the best paragraphs for your IELTS essay.

Requirements for IELTS Band 7 in Writing

Getting to an IELTS Band 7 is a struggle for many candidates. This lesson explains exactly what you have to do to reach this band score.

How to use brainstorming and planning to generate essay ideas.

Brainstorming and planning is a key step in developing your IELTS essay. This lesson has tips on how to coming up with ideas and organising them.

Improving Writing Coherence for IELTS essays

25% of the writing grade is on how you organise your essay so this lesson shows you how to improve your writing coherence.

IELTS Advantage Disadvantage Essay Tips and Strategies

An advantage disadvantage essay is one type of essay that you may get in the test. This lesson shows how to write a pros cons essay.

How to Write an IELTS Essay: The key steps

Learn key steps on how to write an IELTS Essay. This guides you on how to write a great essay plus other lessons to improve your writing skills.

Transitional Phrases for Essays

Learn transitional phrases for essays to get a band 7 or higher in your IELTS writing for coherence and cohesion.

How to Identify the Topic of an IELTS Essay Question

In IELTS you must identify the topic of your essay as this is a key to making sure your essay is on topic.

IELTS Task Response - 25% of your essay grade

The IELTS Task Response criteria in the scoring makes up 25% of your band score for your essay.

Using Substitution in IELTS to Improve Writing Coherency

You can use substitution in your IELTS essays in order to improve coherency and coherence.

Any comments or questions about this page or about IELTS? Post them here. Your email will not be published or shared.

Before you go...

Check out the ielts buddy band 7+ ebooks & courses.

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

Click on the HTML link code below.
Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Band 7+ eBooks

"I think these eBooks are FANTASTIC!!! I know that's not academic language, but it's the truth!"

Linda, from Italy, Scored Band 7.5

IELTS Modules:

Other resources:.

All Lessons
Band Score Calculator
Writing Feedback
Speaking Feedback
Teacher Resources
Free Downloads
Recent Essay Exam Questions
Books for IELTS Prep
Useful Links

Recent Articles

Fillers for IELTS Speaking: Avoid 'Eh', Uhm', 'You know'.

Apr 27, 24 05:48 AM

Decreasing House Sizes Essay

Apr 06, 24 10:22 AM

Latest IELTS Writing Topics - Recent Exam Questions

Apr 04, 24 02:36 AM

Important pages

IELTS Writing IELTS Speaking IELTS Listening IELTS Reading All Lessons Vocabulary Academic Task 1 Academic Task 2 Practice Tests

Connect with us

IELTS is a registered trademark of University of Cambridge, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia. This site and its owners are not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.

Inquire Now
Call Me Back

Your Guide to Thesis Statements for All 5 Types of IELTS Essays

October 06, 2022

Getting the exact IELTS band score you need for your dream program can be challenging, especially when it comes to the writing section. However, by learning effective writing skills, you will be sure to improve and get the score that you need.

For writing task 2, one of the most important skills for a high band score is thesis statement writing.

Read the post to learn more about thesis statements or skip to the section that most interests you.

Why do I need to write a thesis statement?

According to the British Council, the rubric for IELTS Writing Task 2 is made of four sections: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resources, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy.

The second section, Coherence and Cohesion, is all about how effectively you can arrange information and connect your ideas. In short, this part assesses your essay structure.

If you want to show your teacher or test grader that you have great essay structure, learn to write a clear and strong thesis statement.

When an instructor or grader sees a good thesis statement, it signals that the essay writer knows what they are doing. It shows that the essay will be constructed of thoughtful points that are carefully connected, hopefully with transition phrases and other tools that create cohesion and readability.

In other words, a good thesis creates a good first impression.

What is a thesis statement?

An entire book could be written about the thesis statement, but it can be summarized as follows: one or two sentences that summarize the main points of the essay.

One way to think of a thesis statement is as a kind of preview or summary. Consider the last time you discovered a new show on Netflix or another streaming service.

There is probably a good chance that you picked that show for a few reasons: the cover image looked cool, the trailer seemed interesting, and the summary paragraph made the show sound enticing.

A thesis statement is like that preview paragraph on Netflix. Just like Netflix tells us what a show is about, the thesis statement tells us what an essay is about.

How do I write a thesis statement?

Before we discuss thesis statement writing, let’s quickly review the basic structure of IELTS essays.

As mentioned in our last post about IELTS Writing Task 2 , IELTS essays generally have four paragraphs:

One introduction paragraph.
Two body paragraphs.
One conclusion paragraph.

The body paragraphs should each focus on one main point or idea. The thesis, which should be part of the intro paragraph, combines these two main points into a single sentence.

For example, if your essay is about reasons why Toronto is a great place to live, then your thesis will summarize the two main reasons like this:

Toronto is a great place to live because of job availability and endless options for leisure activities.

For the above topic, the first body paragraph will focus on job availability, and the second body paragraph will focus on leisure activities.

How can I write a thesis if I don’t know what my main points are?

The answer is that you don’t.

Contrary to popular belief, you should not write your introduction first . Instead, start with the body paragraphs, then go back and write your introduction. This allows you to figure out what your main points are before combining them into a thesis statement.

If you write your thesis statement first, then you might have to change it later if you get a better idea when you’re writing your body paragraphs.

This technique is much easier to use if you are doing a computer-based test, but if you are doing a paper-based test, you can simply leave the top 1/3 rd of the page empty so that you can add your intro later.

Another option is to create a basic outline of your essay before you start writing. This way, you will have an idea of what your main points are before you start writing, and you can focus on using correct language, rather than worrying about your ideas.

Whatever technique you choose, remember that you have only 40 minutes (sometimes less if you spent a lot of time on Writing Task 1), so you better work quickly!

Can you show me an example?

Review the sample below. The highlights show how the thesis statement summarizes the main ideas from the two body paragraphs. Green shows the main idea of Body Paragraph 1, and yellow shows the main idea of Body Paragraph 2.

Question: Many people feel that cars contribute to global warming. Do you think this is true?

Introduction: Driving a car is a normal part of the day-to-day life of most people. However, in the last several years, many are considering alternative transportation options due to fears that driving contributes to global warming. It is true that using cars is a contributing factor due to CO 2 emissions and overreliance on vehicles.

Body Paragraph 1: CO 2 emissions have an obvious impact on climate change. It has been proven that CO 2 and other greenhouse gases have a warming effect on the earth’s atmosphere. What’s more, about 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions are from CO 2 , meaning that any reduction in CO 2 emissions would be good for the environment.

Body Paragraph 2: Most people use vehicles more often than they need them. It is okay to use vehicles for long trips or to transport large amounts of heavy equipment or goods, but it does not make sense to drive a car to the corner store when you can work there instead. To reduce CO 2 emissions, the population must use alternative means of transportation, such as bicycles and public transit.

Should my thesis statement be different for every essay type?

As discussed in our previous IELTS Writing Post , Writing Task 2 has five types of essays. Even though there are five types of essays, the method for writing a thesis statement is always the same. The thesis statement must always summarize the main points of the essay, no matter the type of essay.

Look at the chart below to notice the similarities between the thesis statements of different types of essays.

How do I practice?

One way to practice thesis statement writing is to find a list of IELTS Writing Task 2 questions, such as those on IELTS Liz . After you have a good list of questions, follow these four steps:

Look at the first question on the list.
Time yourself for two minutes.
Write a thesis statement as fast as you can.
After two minutes, move to the next question and repeat the process, even if you are not done.

If you follow these steps, eventually, you will become comfortable with writing thesis statements quickly, which is required for a real IELTS test.

For more information about language requirements for our programs, visit the language requirements page . If you have further questions, email [email protected]

Stress to Success: Managing Personal Challenges to Improve Academic Honesty

Learn about the complex reasons behind academic dishonesty.…

The Benefits of Studying Abroad

Find out how living abroad can change your life for the better.…

How to Have the Full College Experience: Student Clubs

Enjoy your college years and learn about the exciting possibilities of joining a student club.…

Your Fleming. Your Future.

Student Life
Virtual Campus Tour
Student Testimonials
Personal Support Worker Certificate
Business Diploma
Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate
Global Business Management Graduate Certificate
Health Care Management – Canadian Context Graduate Certificate
International Business Management Graduate Certificate
Project Management Graduate Certificate
Supply Chain Management - Global Logistics Graduate Certificate
English Language Bridge (ELB)
How to Apply
Admission Requirements
Language Requirements
Tuition & Fees
Scholarships & Bursaries
Important Dates
Withdrawal and Refund Process
Admission FAQs
Ontario Secondary School Diploma Equivalents
Request an Official Transcript
Student Retention and Records
Getting Started & College Essentials
Arrival Services & iCent
Immigration Student Advising
Orientation
Career Services
FCT Library
Student Living & Housing
Health & Wellness
Convocation
Accessibility Services
Local Community Support
Policies & Procedures
Immigration FAQ
Study Permit Extensions
Co-op Work Permits
Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP)
Temporary Resident Visa Extensions
On-Campus Work
Off-Campus Work
Career Fair
International Student Health Insurance
Canada’s Health-Care System
Mental Health Resources
Additional Health and Wellness Resources

You can use these terms to further define your search.

tabs testing

Request More Information

Welcome Guest!

IELTS Listening
IELTS Reading
IELTS Writing
IELTS Writing Task 1
IELTS Writing Task 2
IELTS Speaking
IELTS Speaking Part 1
IELTS Speaking Part 2
IELTS Speaking Part 3
IELTS Practice Tests
IELTS Listening Practice Tests
IELTS Reading Practice Tests
IELTS Writing Practice Tests
IELTS Speaking Practice Tests
All Courses
IELTS Online Classes
OET Online Classes
PTE Online Classes
CELPIP Online Classes
Free Live Classes
Australia PR
Germany Job Seeker Visa
Austria Job Seeker Visa
Sweden Job Seeker Visa
Study Abroad
Student Testimonials
Our Trainers
IELTS Webinar
Immigration Webinar

IELTS Opinion Essay – Topics, Structure and Sample Answers

10 min read

Updated On Feb 22, 2024

Share on Whatsapp

Share on Email

Share on Linkedin

IELTS Opinion Essay – Topics, Structure and Sample Answers

Limited-Time Offer : Access a FREE 10-Day IELTS Study Plan!

IELTS opinion essays mainly focus on agreeing or disagreeing with a particular fact or information. It presents two opposite views and you have to develop your argument supporting one view (strictly one!) You get 40 minutes to complete this task. You have to write at least 250 words on the topic given.

Given below are some examples of IELTS Writing Task 2 opinion essays along with their structure. So, let’s understand how to frame the IELTS opinion essay from the sample answers given in the blog!

What is the IELTS Opinion Essay Format?

If you’re gearing up to tackle the Opinion Essay in IELTS Writing Task 2, know that it’s all about writing your opinion on a specific topic with supporting examples. To make sure your essay ticks off all the criteria of a band 8+ essay, organizing it in the right way is key!

Let’s now look at a proper format to learn the structuring of an IELTS opinion essay.

Introduction:

Keep it short, usually around 2-3 sentences.
Introduce the topic and clearly state your opinion.
Provide a brief overview of the main points you will discuss in the body paragraphs.

Body Paragraphs (Usually 2 paragraphs):

Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea that supports your opinion.
Start with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea.
Provide evidence, examples, and reasoning to support your main idea.
Aim for coherence and cohesion within each paragraph by using appropriate transition words.
Make sure to use appropriate vocabulary and grammar while explaining an idea in the body paragraphs.

Conclusion:

Summarize the main points discussed in the body paragraphs.
Restate your opinion, emphasizing its importance or relevance.
Avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion.

IELTS Opinion Essay Sample Answers

Given below is an example of an IELTS Writing task 2 opinion essay. Let’s understand how to frame the essay from the ideas we have.

Sample Question 1

In the future, nobody will buy printed newspapers or books because they will be able to read everything they want online without paying. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Given below is a brief outline of what to write in the essay after identifying the essay type.

Opinion Essay

Introduction

Paraphrase the topic of the essay using synonyms for the words used in the topic statement. Clearly state the view on the topic.

Body Paragraph 1

Technological improvements have increased the level of ease and convenience to a point where people can access news and information at the click of a button. This has led to print media becoming outdated.

Body Paragraph 2

The development of news websites and sites that freely distribute information and print media in a digital form has led to a trend of availing such services and content without paying.

Summarize the essay and re-state the opinion on the topic.

Struggling to Crack the IELTS opinion essays? Our 8+ band trainers have got you! Sign up for a FREE demo now!

Sample Answer

Presently, newspapers, books, journals, magazines, etc. are still actively used by a section of the global population. However, with the arrival of news sites and the availability of books, magazines and other forms of media online, totally free of cost, many believe that such forms of media are on their way to becoming outdated. I agree with this statement, and will explain it further with relevant examples in the essay.

It is a well-known fact that in this day and age if an individual wants to read a book or just go over the news of the day, the first step that they take is to search the internet. Devices such as smartphones and tablets have improved the time efficiency of searching for information online to such an extent that a person can access their preferred form of media in the comfort of their homes in a matter of minutes. Consequently, people have started to abandon their preference for print media due to the presence of much more convenient alternatives.

Additionally, the various forms of print media enjoyed by people can often be availed free of charge on several websites. For instance, most news organizations publish their daily news on their official website, which can be accessed by anyone. Also, some numerous sites and databases provide popular books, journals and magazines in a digital form to the public for a nominal subscription fee or sometimes even for free, leading to a majority of readers of such forms of media shifting away from buying hard copies.

Nevertheless, there is still a sizable chunk of the population that enjoys the conventional forms of print media. That being said, with the cost-effective nature of making such information and content available online, organizations will soon completely shift to internet-based services.

In conclusion, I would like to say that people always prefer the more comfortable alternative that is available. Therefore, it can be safely said that in the coming years, there will be a complete shift from traditional print media to online media services and products.

Sample Question 2

Some people say that international sporting events contribute greatly to peace and stability in the world. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Paraphrase the topic sentence using synonyms.

Mention the view on the topic.

Body Paragraphs

International sports tournaments are events where teams and the general public of various countries come together and collectively participate in the event.

Sports events, especially cricket and football help distract the minds of the citizens from the ongoing difficulties in their country and enjoy these events.

Summarize the essay and state the final view.

Sample Answer

Sports has always been a magnificent platform for the finest talents of a country to showcase their skills and represent their nation. At the same time, sports is also one of the few occasions where every citizen of the country unites in support of their favourite teams. It is considered by many that sports are a great approach to maintain stability among countries. This essay will elaborate on the given topic and justify why sports can successfully bring and preserve global peace.

One of the greatest characteristics of any popular sporting event is that supporters of every team involved in the tournament almost always attend the matches that are organized in their cities. Some veteran fans even travel to different parts of the country to witness a match between their favourite teams. These events also unite the populace of a nation as every patriotic individual prays for the success of their national team. For instance, the entire nation wishes for the victory of their national team in the Olympic Games as winning an Olympic Medal is one of the most prestigious honours that can be bestowed upon a country.

It is a well-known fact that the people of a country collectively face several challenges on a day-to-day basis. These issues can be caused by numerous factors and are the typical difficulties that ordinary citizens have to overcome. Sports help people enjoy a few moments of excitement and take a break from the monotony of everyday life.

That being said, sometimes the passion of overenthusiastic sports fans ends up leading to harmful and conflicting situations among communities. Nevertheless, the overall impact of sports on our lives is undoubtedly positive.

Finally, sports are one of the aspects of human life that bind a whole community together. This is enough evidence to understand that sports help maintain peace and stability in a nation.

Ready to grab the latest IELTS writing task 2 question papers of 2024?

Sample Question 3

Our personalities are predetermined as a result of our genes before we are born and there is nothing that can be done to change our character traits. To what extent do you agree?

Paraphrase the topic and mention the view.

Genetics are only a part of the entire list of factors that affect a person’s personality.

One of the most important influences on an individual’s personality is their childhood and upbringing.

Summarize the essay and mention the final view in brief.

Even between small periods of time, there are subtle variabilities in our disposition. Such alterations are quite natural and are a part of a human being’s existence. However, it is often assumed that our personality is entirely dependent on genetics. The following paragraphs will explore the different aspects of personality and justify why genetics are not the only factor influencing our personality.

An individual has countless experiences in their life from childhood to adulthood and finally until death. Every one of these experiences has an impact on a person’s mind, no matter how giant or small. The kind of people present in a person’s immediate surroundings also has a huge influence on their nature and characteristics. Thus, it can be safely surmised that a person’s genes are not the only contributing factor when it comes to personality.

One of the most significant influences on our personality is our childhood experiences and the teachings of our parents. Children are always known to follow in the footsteps of their parents. Thus, if the parents of a child are successful in teaching their children the right values and morals, they are bound to grow into responsible and decent individuals.

It is true that the personality traits of an individual are determined by the features of their parents. Nevertheless, these traits can be altered over the course of many years and different experiences.

In conclusion, genetics affect our personalities in a trivial manner as compared to all the other aspects of our temperament. That being said, our life experiences and learnings are the consequential factors in developing our character.

The Latest IELTS Opinion Essay Topics of 2024

A few IELTS opinion essay topics are listed down below, which you can practice. These opinion essay questions may appear in the actual examination.

In the future, it seems more difficult to live on Earth. Some people think more money should be spent on researching another planet to live on, such as Mars. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Many people say that the only way to guarantee a good job is to complete a course in university education. Others claim that it is better to start work after school and gain experience in the world of work. How far do you agree or disagree with the above views?

Although more and more people read the news on the internet, newspapers will remain the most important source of news for the majority of people. Do you agree or disagree?
Students in schools and universities learn more from their teachers than through other means such as the Internet, libraries, and TV. To what extent you agree or disagree?
Nowadays university education is very expensive. Some people say that universities should reduce their fees, especially for the less fortunate students or for those coming from rural areas. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Some people think that governments must insist on preserving the traditional appearance of old buildings undergoing renovation or redevelopment. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement?
Some people believe that international trade and communication with other countries is a positive trend, while others think it is harmful to nations and they might lose their identities. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give your own opinion and relevant examples.
Many people believe that schools should teach children to become good citizens and workers rather than independent individuals. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your own opinion and relevant examples.

People should follow the customs and traditions when they start to live in a new country. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

It is impossible to help all people in the world, so governments should only focus on people in their own countries. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Prevention is better than cure. Do you agree or disagree that out of the country’s health budget, a large proportion should be diverted from treatment to spending on health education and preventive measures?

Top 3 Common Mistakes of IELTS Opinion Essays

In IELTS opinion essays, it’s easy to make some common mistakes that can lower your band score. Getting aware of them is the key to not committing them knowingly or unknowingly while you prepare!

The top 3 common mistakes to avoid are:

Not giving a clear opinion.
Presenting arguments for both sides of the issue.
Failing to support your opinion with well-defined reasons and examples.

Tips to Answer IELTS Opinion Essay Questions

In the IELTS opinion essays, you need to write your opinion about a topic and back it up with proof and examples. If you use a clear structure and good writing methods, you can improve your chances of doing well!

Spend 5 minutes on a mind map before writing.
Stick to one viewpoint throughout the essay.
Use a single main idea to support the topic in each of the two body paragraphs.
Express your opinion throughout the essay, not just in the conclusion.
Keep the introduction short, a maximum of 50 words.
Ensure each body paragraph explains a main idea within 100 words.
The conclusion should be shorter than the introduction.
Write a complete essay following the given structure.
Aim for a word count of 280 words or less.

Here are the 10 Examples for the Opinion Essay Topics IELTS:

Also check:

Tips to write introduction in IELTS Writing Task 2
Tips to write great writing essay
IELTS Sample essays
How to get band 8 in IELTS Writing Task 2
IELTS Writing recent actual test
IELTS 2024 Study Plan for 1 month (30 Days) / 15 Days / 7 Days

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the structure for writing the introduction for an opinion essay?

Is it mandatory to state my opinion in the introduction? Can I skip it and introduce my opinion in the body paragraphs?

What are the words that I can use to state my opinion?

Can I underline the important sentences, to attract examiner’s attention?

Is it mandatory to write the essay in first person?

Practice IELTS Writing Task 2 based on Essay types

Start Preparing for IELTS: Get Your 10-Day Study Plan Today!

Nehasri Ravishenbagam

Nehasri Ravishenbagam, a Senior Content Marketing Specialist and a Certified IELTS Trainer of 3 years, crafts her writings in an engaging way with proper SEO practices. She specializes in creating a variety of content for IELTS, CELPIP, TOEFL, and certain immigration-related topics. As a student of literature, she enjoys freelancing for websites and magazines to balance her profession in marketing and her passion for creativity!

Explore other Opinion Essays

City Planners New Designs Include Setting Up Commercial Places in Different Areas – IELTS Writing Task 2

Janice Thompson

Nowadays More People are Choosing to Socialize Online Rather than Face to Face- IELTS Writing Task 2

Whitney Houston

Post your Comments

Purnima Koli

Posted on Oct 5, 2021

In fast-paced global economy, it is imperative to have both knowledge and skill. Ability to learn on the job paves way for more hands-on training than discussing case studies at university. Doing a course can be time taking and can surely burn a hole in our parents’ pockets, the middle class knows it better. Getting straight to business of things, meaning starting to work soon after school is beneficial in many ways.

Working in office gives us professional perspective about how business processes are streamlines, turning creative ideas into tangible projects and most importantly getting paid for the amazing work I put out. I feel it’s great to have my ideas being incorporated as solutions to processual issues. Personal growth due to long years of work experience makes us future-ready for the big dream job. Alternatively, some also start their own business after getting gaining a good reputation for their work.

In my personal experience my university education looks good on my CV but has not been financially rewarding for I still have to even out my return on investment. I regret joining an elite institution where I felt out of place as I came from a humble upbringing. However, I learnt a lot about living away from home, managing finances, making new friends, living independently, honed my communication skills.

All in all, I feel it is better to join workforce early on than to do a full-fledged university course. This saves time, money and energy from studying on campus which can be channelized to working with a small business which has ample scope to learn on the job. Later, one can switch to bigger companies with the achieved industry experience after a few years of rigorous hands-on training and development.

In the future, it seems more difficult to live on Earth. Some people think more money should be spent on researching another planet to live, such as Mars. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

The available land for household, industrial and recreational usage is shrinking. We see large scale infrastructure development in India. But for all these activities we need more land on earth itself, not on some other worldly planet, Mars. I would have to disagree that Mars has answers to all our earthly problems. I think it’s more about gaps in planning, policy making and the way we conduct our lives on a day-to-day basis. If we base our routine on sustainable habits, we are already solving more problems than we create. The problems are created on earth so they need solutions on earth itself, I believe.

The problems like polluted resources such as air, water, land, soil have ample ways to be fixed as we read in scientific journals and other informational sources. The popular ‘3 Rs’ such as Recycle, Reuse and Reduce need to be inculcated for us to have clean air, water, soil, land. We need community development along with economic development so the civil society, environment and the development process can go hand-in-hand. Overcrowding in urban areas due to migration for work, education or marriage can be solved by having proper laws. On the other hand, achieving conservation targets for endangered flora and fauna is a vital step towards holistic saving the ecosystem.

Consequently, I strongly believe that having ideas about Mars being an inhabitable place in the future is surely fantastic idea. But It’s a childish way to think of a better world somewhere else than fixing problems at hand. Let’s face it, our survival instincts have made us exploit resources faster than the nature can replenish them. And we see the negative outcomes like sea-level rising, frequent coastal flooding, drastic weather changes, global warming. As a global community of conscious individuals, we need our planet more than it needs us.

Posted on Sep 11, 2021

In a new country one faces multiple challenges to overcome the culture shock. Different people may adopt the new ways of life at different pace. But I do agree that willing to accept and change with the circumstances can ease the burden.

As we know that change is inevitable, we need to get accustomed to the new culture. There’s no harm in getting the best of both worlds, from your country of origin to this new land of surprises. Festivals, celebrations, new people, new places, new things tend to broaden our perspective on life. We come out much stronger by dealing with the new possibilities. Initially, the surrounding might be tough to make sense of, but with time it should get better.

The decision of moving to a new country is yours so you’d be the person who needs to adapt to get the best possible advantage. Human psychology is common but mannerisms might be different. So, one can learn that through social observation, trial and error and asking questions.

To belong at a place, we must take the initiative to learn the traditions and customs of the new country. To feel welcomed, one must socialize with like minded individuals, take part in group activities at workplace or educational institute or even neighborhood social clubs. Try to get out there, find your niche, excel at what you do, travel and get to know people. It’s easy if you are willing.

Otherwise, you’ll end up losing new experiences which enliven our senses. To live more each day, we need to blend with the culture. Traditions tells us stories of the past which we could relate with stories back at our homeland as well. This way it’s going to be much easier to make bonds, live a cheerful life.

Posted on Sep 15, 2021

Okay. Thanks for your reply. The 4 paragraph structure goes for all other types of (Task 2) essays too?

Posted on Sep 13, 2021

Overall band: 6

Follow the 4 paragraph structure so that it is easy for the examiner to mark you for coherence. . For opinion essays, it is better to write one line after your opinionated paragraphs. Just one line that you are aware of the other side.

Recent Articles

Some People Prefer to Eat at Restaurants While Others Prefer to Prepare and Eat at Home – IELTS Writing Task 2

Raajdeep Saha

In the Future More People Will Go On Holiday in Their Own Country – IELTS Writing Task 2

Our Offices

Gurgaon city scape, gurgaon bptp.

Step 1 of 3

Great going .

Get a free session from trainer

Have you taken test before?

Please select any option

Get free eBook to excel in test

Please enter Email ID

Get support from an Band 9 trainer

Please enter phone number

Already Registered?

Select a date

Please select a date

Select a time (IST Time Zone)

Please select a time

Mark Your Calendar: Free Session with Expert on

Which exam are you preparing?

Great Going!

Ebooks & Courses
Practice Tests

How to Plan & Write IELTS Opinion Essays

IELTS opinion essays, also known as ‘agree or disagree’ essays, come up frequently in the writing exam. In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to plan and write them step-by-step.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

3 Common mistakes
Essay structure
How to plan
How to write an introduction
How to write main body paragraphs
How to write a conclusion

Click the links to see lessons on each of these Task 2 essay writing topics.

Once you understand the process, practice on past questions. Take your time at first and gradually speed up until you can plan and write an essay of at least 250 words in the 40 minutes allowed in the exam.

The Question

The first part of the question for an IELTS opinion essay will be a statement. You will then be asked to give your own opinion about the statement. Here is some typical wording that might be used:

What is your opinion?
Do you agree or disagree?
To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Want to watch and listen to this lesson?

Click on this video.

Here's a question from a past test paper.

A big salary is much more important than job satisfaction.

Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

I’ll be using this question to guide you through the process of planning and writing an IELTS opinion essay.

3 Common Mistakes

These three errors are common in IELTS opinion essays.

Not stating an opinion.
Giving arguments for both views.
Not supporting your opinion with clear reasons.

The most common mistake that students make is not giving an opinion. The question will clearly state that you must choose one side of the argument. If you fail to do this, you will get a low score for task achievement.

It doesn’t matter which side of the argument you take or even, that you agree with it. Choose the one you can develop the best argument for.

Make sure that you don’t change your opinion part way through the essay, and don’t give reasons for the opposing view.

Essay Structure

Now let’s look at a simple structure you can use to write opinion essays. It’s not the only possible structure but it’s the one I recommend because it’s easy to learn and will enable you to quickly plan and write a high-level essay.

1) Introduction

Paraphrase the question
Give your opinion
State two supporting reasons

2) Main body paragraph 1

Topic sentence – outline 1st reason for supporting this view
Explanation – explain this idea
Example – give an example or expand the idea

3) Main body paragraph 2

Topic sentence – outline 2nd reason for supporting this view
Example – give an example or expand the idea

4) Conclusion

Summarise opinion and key reasons

This structure will give us a well-balanced essay with 4 paragraphs.

We now need some ideas to add into the structure and we’ll have everything we need for our essay.

How To Plan IELTS Opinion Essays

# 1 decide on your opinion.

The question I've chosen to work on is quite straightforward and easy to understand so we don’t need to spend time analysing it. The first task, then, is to decide on our opinion.

Here’s the question again:

A big salary is much more important than job satisfaction.

Do you agree or disagree?

For this essay, I’m going to disagree with the statement and argue that job satisfaction is more important than a big salary.

# 2 Generate ideas

The second task is to generate some ideas to write about.

Since I‘m going to argue that job satisfaction is more important than a large salary, I need ideas to support this view.

There are several different ways to think up ideas. I cover them fully on the IELTS Essay Planning page.

With this particular question, I immediately thought of a couple of examples of situations where job satisfaction did prove to be more important than a high salary, so I’m going to use the ‘example method’ of generating ideas.

Once you’ve thought of an example or two, ideas to include in your essay should come to you easily.

You might want to try this yourself before reading on for my ideas.

Here are my examples and some ideas they generated.

Both the examples are partly true but I've adapted them to better fit the essay. It's fine to do this as the examiner won't check your facts.

Uncle Barry – boasted about high salary but hated his job. Nervous breakdown – lost job & can’t work.
Me – gave up teaching. Now enjoy my work and am much more relaxed and happy even though I earn much less money.
High-salary jobs are generally more stressful
Stress leads to ill health, both mental and physical
40 hours a week at work – a third of the day
Money doesn’t bring happiness
Better quality of life
Sense of fulfilment
Less stressed – healthier and happier

I’ve got more ideas here than I need so I’m going to pick two to develop in the essay – one for each of the main body paragraphs.

Idea 1 – High-salary jobs are generally more stressful and can lead to ill health.

Idea 2 – Job satisfaction gives a sense of fulfilment.

We’re almost ready to start writing our IELTS opinion essay but first, we have one other small task to do.

# 3 Vocabulary

In an IELTS essay, it’s important to be able to say the same things in different ways, either by paraphrasing and/or using synonyms. During the planning stage, quickly jot down a few synonyms of key words you could use to save you having to stop and think of the right language while you’re writing.

For example:

satisfaction – fulfilment, achievement, sense of accomplishment, content, sense of well-being

salary – income, wages, pay, earnings

important – significant, valued, has more meaning

job – work, employment, position

With that done, we can focus on the first paragraph of the essay – the introduction.

How To Write an Introduction

A good introduction has a simple 3 part structure:

1) Paraphrased question

2) Thesis statement

3) outline statement.

An introduction should:

Have 2-3 sentences
Be 40-60 words long
Take 5 minutes to write

1) Paraphrase the question

Start your introduction by paraphrasing the question.

Question: A big salary is much more important than job satisfaction.

Do you agree or disagree?

Paraphrased question:

It is argued that earning lots of money has more significance to people than being content in their work.

Note that I’ve used some of the synonyms I listed, although it’s fine to repeat one or two words if you need to. Above all, your language must sound natural.

In IELTS opinion essays, the thesis statement is where you state your opinion. For example,

Thesis statement:

This essay totally disagrees with that statement.

That’s all you need to say.

If you decided to agree with the statement, you would write:

'This essay completely agrees with that statement.'

Finally in the introduction, you must outline the two main points (ideas 1 and 2 above) that you’ll cover in the rest of the essay. Do it in one sentence, or you can add them onto the end of the thesis statement if appropriate.

Outl ine statement:

I believe that people are increasingly concerned about the risk of stress-related ill-health frequently experienced by people in highly paid positions and they care more about feeling fulfilled at work.

So, let’s bring the three elements of our introduction together.

Introduction

This introduction achieves three important functions:

It shows the examiner that you understand the question.
It acts as a guide to the examiner as to what your essay is about.
It also helps to keep you focused and on track as you write.

The two ideas in your introduction will become your two main body paragraphs.

Main body paragraph 1 – concerns about the risk of stress-related ill-health

Main body paragraph 2 – a sense of fulfilment at work

How To Write Main Body Paragraphs

The structure of a good main body paragraph has 3 parts:

Topic sentence
Explanation

If you can’t think of an example, you can add further supporting ideas but we already have our two examples so that’s not an issue here.

A common problem when writing main body paragraphs for IELTS opinion essays is having too many ideas. Again, we have already chosen the two ideas we are going to develop, so we are all set to start writing.

You can see how important the planning stage is and how it makes the actual writing of the essay far quicker and easier.

Main Body Paragraph 1

The topic sentence summarises the main idea of the paragraph. That’s all it needs to do so it doesn’t have to be complicated.

It plays an important role in ensuring that your ideas flow logically from one to another. It does this by acting as a signpost for what is to come next, that is, what the paragraph will be about.

If you maintain a clear development of ideas throughout your essay, you will get high marks for task achievement and cohesion and coherence.

We’ll now take the idea for our first main body paragraph and create our topic sentence.

Main idea 1 – concerns about the risk of stress-related ill-health

Topic sentence:

Employees earning a large income are generally under significant mental and emotional pressure to perform well and achieve targets.

Next, we must write an explanation sentence . This explains to the examiner what we mean. It expands on our first idea.

Explanation sentence:

This causes many individuals to suffer high levels of stress which can result in both mental and physical health problems.

Finally, we add an example to support our main point. I thought of this in the planning stage so I have it ready to use.

If you can’t think of a real example, it’s fine to make one up, as long as it’s believable. The examiner isn’t going to check your facts.

Example sentence:

This happened to my uncle. He used to boast about his huge salary but the boss kept increasing his sales targets and in the end, the stress became too great and he had a nervous breakdown. Now he regrets being driven by the money.

That’s the 3 parts of our first main body paragraph complete. Here’s the finished paragraph.

We now follow the same process for our second main body paragraph.

Main Body Paragraph 2

Main idea 2 – Job satisfaction gives a sense of fulfilment.

First, we write the topic sentence to summarise the main idea.

Topic sentence:

Having a job that they enjoy doing, and in which they feel valued, is a major concern for most of the modern workforce.

Now for the explanation sentence to explain this idea.

Explanation sentence:

A significant number of people are giving up well-paid positions to do jobs which pay less but that they find more enjoyable and less stressful.

Finally, an example to support our main point. As before, I thought of this in the planning stage so just need to form it into a couple of sentences.

I am an example of this myself. A year ago I left the teaching profession because the workload had become too great and I am now a gardener. I feel really fulfilled in this work and I am much more relaxed and happy even though I earn far less money.

That’s the 3 parts of our second main body paragraph complete. Here’s the finished paragraph.

Now we need a conclusion and our IELTS opinion essay is done.

How To Write a Conclusion

Conclusions to IELTS opinion essays should do two things:

Summarise the main points
State your opinion

This can generally be done in a single sentence.

If you are below the minimum 250 words after you’ve written your conclusion, you can add an additional prediction or recommendation statement.

Our essay currently has 233 words so we’re on target and don’t need this extra sentence but you can learn more about how to write a prediction or recommendation statement for IELTS opinion essays on the Task 2 Conclusions page.

The conclusion is the easiest sentence in the essay to write but one of the most important.

A good conclusion will:

Neatly end the essay
Link all your ideas together
Sum up your argument or opinion
Answer the question

If you achieve this, you’ll improve your score for both task achievement and cohesion and coherence which together make up 50% of the overall marks. Without a conclusion, you’ll score below band 6 for task achievement.

You can start almost any final paragraph of an IELTS opinion essay with the words:

In conclusion

To conclude

Now all you need to do is briefly summarise the main ideas into one sentence.

Here’s a top tip . Go back and read the introduction to the essay because this is also a summary of the essay. It outlines what you are going to write about.

To create a great conclusion, you simply have to paraphrase the introduction. Let’s give it a go.

Introduction:

Here is the same information formed into a conclusion:

That’s it. We’ve completed our essay. Here it is with the 4 paragraphs put together.

Question:

A big salary is much more important than job satisfaction.

Do you agree or disagree?

Finished IELTS opinion essay.

Go through this lesson as many times as you need to in order to fully understand it and put in lots of practice writing IELTS opinion essays from past exam questions. Practice is the only way to improve your skills.

5 More Model IELTS Opinion Essays

This pack contains another step-by-step lesson and model essay. P lus 4 additional opinion essay questions with model answers.

Carefully created to help you achieve 7+ in your Writing test.

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

Click on the HTML link code below.
Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Like this page?

More help with ielts opinion essays & other task 2 essays.

IELTS Writing Task 2 – T he format, the 5 question types, the 5 step essay writing strategy & sample questions. All the key information you need to know.

The 5 Types of Task 2 Essay – How to recognise the 5 different types of Task 2 essays. 15 sample questions to study and a simple planning structure for each essay type.

Understanding Task 2 Questions – How to quickly and easily analyse and understand IELTS Writing Task 2 questions.

How To Plan a Task 2 Essay – Discover why essay planning is essential & learn a simple 4 step strategy, the 4 part essay structure & 4 methods of generating ideas.

How To Write a Task 2 Introduction – Find out why a good introduction is essential. Learn how to write one using a simple 3 part strategy & discover 4 common mistakes to avoid.

How To Write Task 2 Main Body Paragraphs – Learn the simple 3 part structure for writing great main body paragraphs and also, 3 common mistakes to avoid.

How To Write Task 2 Conclusions – Learn the easy way to write the perfect conclusion for a Task 2 essay. Also discover 4 common mistakes to avoid.

Task 2 Marking Criteria – Find out how to meet the marking criteria in Task 2. See examples of good and poor answers & learn some common mistakes to avoid.

The 5 Task 2 Essay Types:

Step-by-step instructions on how to plan & write high-level essays. Model answers & common mistakes to avoid.

Opinion Essays

Discussion Essays

Problem Solution Essays

Advantages & Disadvantages Essays

Double Question Essays

Other Related Pages

IELTS Writing Test – Understand the format & marking criteria, know what skills are assessed & learn the difference between the Academic & General writing tests.

IELTS Writing
Opinion Essays
Back To Top

* New * Grammar For IELTS Ebooks

$9.99 each Full Set Just $ 23.97

Find Out More >>

IELTS Courses

Full details...

IELTS Writing Ebook

Discount Offer

$7 each Full Set Just $ 21

Find out more >>

Testimonials

“I am very excited to have found such fabulous and detailed content. I commend your good work.” Jose M.

“Thanks for the amazing videos. These are ‘to the point’, short videos, beautifully explained with practical examples." Adari J.

"Hi Jacky, I bought a listening book from you this morning. You know what? I’m 100% satisfied. It’s super helpful. If I’d had the chance to read this book 7 years ago, my job would be very different now." Loi H.

"Hi Jacky, I recently got my IELTS results and I was pleased to discover that I got an 8.5 score. I'm firmly convinced your website and your videos played a strategic role in my preparation. I was able to improve my writing skills thanks to the effective method you provide. I also only relied on your tips regarding the reading section and I was able to get a 9! Thank you very much." Giano

“After listening to your videos, I knew I had to ditch every other IELTS tutor I'd been listening to. Your explanations are clear and easy to understand. Anyways, I took the test a few weeks ago and my result came back: Speaking 7, listening 9, Reading 8.5 and Writing 7 with an average band score of 8. Thanks, IELTS Jacky." Laide Z.

Contact

About Me

Site Map

Disclaimer

IELTS changes lives.

Let's work together so it changes yours too.

IELTS is a registered trademark of the University of Cambridge, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia. This site and its owners are not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.

Thesis Statement In IELTS Writing

Post author By Simple IELTS Solutions
Post date May 6, 2022
4 Comments on Thesis Statement In IELTS Writing

When writing an introduction to an IELTS Task 2 essay you want to include 3 things:

Paraphrase the question
Thesis statement
Outline statement

This post is for anyone who is unsure of what a thesis statement is or how they should write one. By the end of this post, you will know exactly why a thesis statement is important and how to make sure you are writing them correctly. On top of that, you will be able to write a brilliant introductory paragraph every time.

Let us look at an example question.

This is an opinion essay question:

Some people think that governments must insist on preserving the traditional appearance of old buildings undergoing renovation or redevelopment.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement?

I will write the introduction paragraph by doing 3 things; paraphrasing the question, writing a thesis statement and writing an outline statement.

Paraphrasing the question

You paraphrase the question by saying a similar thing but using different words and phrases. This is a good way to start your essay and ensure that you are talking about the correct topic.

It is only the first part of the question that we paraphrase. If I were to paraphrase the above question, I may say something like this.

This is the original question:

But I don’t want to use the same words as the questions so I use synonyms instead.

Many people believe that governments should ensure that historic buildings maintain their original aesthetic appearance.

This sentence says the same thing as the first part of the question but it is going to impress the reader (examiner) because it uses different language.

What is a thesis statement?

The thesis statement tells the reader (or IELTS examiner) what the essay will be about and introduce the main ideas. Also, if the question is asking your opinion this is where it should first be included. It is typically just 1 or 2 sentences and is going to act a little like a topic sentence for the whole essay.

If you don’t know about topic sentences, follow this link.

How to write a thesis sentence

The thesis statement introduces what the essay will be about but it may be slightly different depending on the different types of essay questions.

This is a summary of things that you may want to include in the topic sentence for each essay type:

Opinion Essay – Write 1 or 2 reasons for your opinion (you don’t need to explain further at this stage)

Advantages & Disadvantages – Write and advantage and disadvantage

Problem & Solution Essay – Give 1 or 2 problems and a solution

Discussion Essay – Talk about both sides of the argument and give your opinion (if asked).

Double Question Essay – Answer both questions but only briefly.

Let us have a look at an example question, I’ll paraphrase the question and write a thesis statement for it.

My thesis for the question that we talked about may look something like this:

I absolutely agree that preserving historic buildings is a vital part of protecting a country’s historical culture for future generations.

The above is the thesis statement, it tells the reader what I think.

The outline statement

Finally, you must outline the things that you will talk about in the rest of the essay. This gives the reader (examiner) an idea of what will be covered in the essay and helps keep you focused on your writing.

An outline statement for our example question in the introduction paragraph may be something like this:

This essay will explore the reasons why protecting old buildings is so important, the main reason being to safeguard an area’s history.

Now let us see this all together. Firstly, let us look at the question again.

This is my introduction paragraph including the thesis statement and outline statement.

Many people believe that governments should ensure that historic buildings maintain their original aesthetic appearance. I absolutely agree that preserving historic buildings is a vital part of protecting a country’s historical culture for future generations. This essay will explore the reasons why protecting old buildings is so important, the main reason being to safeguard an area’s history.

The thesis statement is in bold.

This is a discussion essay question, write the introduction paragraph by paraphrasing the question and adding the thesis statement.

Some people think that getting a degree from a university is the best way to guarantee a good job, others believe that it would be better to go straight into work and get experience instead.

Discuss both sides and give your opinion.

Tell me your thesis statement in the comments below.

Next time you are writing an IELTS writing task 2 essay (or any essay) make sure to include a thesis statement to help the reader to know exactly what your answer will be about.

To find out how I would plan an IELTS Task 2 essay, follow this link.

4 replies on “Thesis Statement In IELTS Writing”

[…] To learn about another important part of your introduction follow the link to a post about the &#821… […]

[…] To find out how to write the perfect introduction paragraph every time, follow this link. […]

Hello there! This post couldn’t be written much better! Looking at this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept preaching about this. I will forward this post to him. Pretty sure he’ll have a great read. Thanks for sharing!

Many thanks, I am very glad that you like it.

Writing Correction Service

Free IELTS Resources
Practice Speaking Test

Select Page

IELTS Discussion Essays [Discuss Both Views/Sides]

Posted by David S. Wills | Jun 14, 2021 | IELTS Tips , Writing | 3

In this lesson, I’m going to explain what an IELTS discussion essay is and how you can write a good one. I will talk about structure and content, as well as looking briefly at discussion essay thesis statements, which many people find tricky. I’ve also written a sample essay, which you can find at the bottom of this page.

What is a Discussion Essay?

As the name suggests, a discussion essay is an essay that discusses things! More specifically, it is a type of IELTS writing task 2 essay that requires you to look at two different points of view . You can easily recognise these essays by the following phrase:

Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Sometimes it is phrased a little differently. It might say:

Discuss both sides and give your opinion

Discuss both points view and give your opinion

The important thing is that these all mean the same. When you see any of these, you know that you need to write a discussion essay. Importantly, this instruction tells you that you need to do two things:

Discuss both views (there will have been 2 views mentioned in the previous sentence(s))
Give your opinion (i.e. state which view you agree with)

If you failed to do either of these things, you would not have satisfied the basic criteria for Task Achievement .

Example Discussion Essay Questions

Here is a list of 5 discussion essay questions either from the IELTS exam, reportedly from the IELTS exam, or from reputable publications that have copied the IELTS question style. (Not that you absolutely should avoid fake IELTS questions when practising.)

Some people say that parents should encourage their children to take part in organised group activities in their free time. Others say that is important for children to learn how to occupy themselves on their own. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Some people prefer to spend their lives doing the same things and avoiding change. Others, however, think that change is always a good thing. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Some people feel that manufacturers and supermarkets have the responsibility to reduce the amount of packaging of goods. Others argue that customers should avoid buying goods with a lot of packaging. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Some people believe that higher education should be funded by the government. Others, however, argue that it is the responsibility of individuals to fund their higher education. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Some people believe that it is important for children to attend extra classes outside school, while others believe that they should be allowed to play after school. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

You can see in these questions that there is a similar pattern. In each case, the question phrase (“Discuss both views and give your own opinion”) is the same and in the previous sentence or sentences, there are two opposing views. This, then, makes “discuss both views” questions a sort of opinion essay .

How to Answer IELTS Discussion Questions

First of all, it is important when answering any IELTS task 2 question that you read the question carefully so that you understand it, then provide an answer that directly responds to the question, following its instructions carefully.

As discussed above, you are required to do two things: 1) Discuss both views, and 2) Give your own opinion. You absolutely must do both of those. It doesn’t really matter what your opinion is or whether you give equal weighting to both sides of the argument. Instead, you must cover both sides and also give some sort of opinion. (It is important, though, according to the marking rubric , that you are consistent in your opinion.)

Your answer of course should be structured carefully so as to present your ideas in a thoroughly logical way that is easy for your reader to interpret. I almost always use a four-paragraph structure in my essays, but some people prefer to use five paragraphs in this sort of essay. The difference would look like this:

You might be wondering why I have given my opinion in the body of the five-paragraph essay but not in the four-paragraph essay. Well, actually I would give my opinion in the body of both. However, my opinion would be more subtly woven into the text of the four-paragraph essay. I personally find this to be a better method, but it is equally possible that you could write an amazing five-paragraph essay. That issue is discussed further in this video:

Discussion Essay Thesis Statement

In academic writing, a thesis statement (sometimes called an essay outline ) is the part of the essay where you insert your opinion. It typically comes at the end of the introduction and guides the reader by explaining your opinion on the issues that have been introduced.

But do you really need to provide one in such a short essay? Well, a 2018 study into successful IELTS essays concluded that thesis statements were “obligatory” – i.e. you absolutely do need one. In fact, that study found that thesis statements appeared in 100% of successful IELTS discussion essays! Therefore, we can conclude they are very important.

Because a discussion essay will tell you to “Discuss both views and give your opinion,” you must introduce the two views and then give your opinion in the introduction. Here is an example:

Introductory paragraph:

In some parts of the world, children are forced to go to cram schools and other facilities of extracurricular learning, but many people believe that this is unfair and that they should be allowed to enjoy their free time instead. This essay will look at both perspectives and then conclude that it is indeed unfair.

My first sentence clearly introduces two different ideas:

Children should do extra classes
Children should not do extra classes

Note how I have successfully used synonyms to avoid repeating anything from the question. I have also framed the issue in a new way so that I am not just paraphrasing. (You can learn why paraphrasing is not always helpful here .)

My second sentence is the thesis statement. In this sentence, I outline what the essay will do (“look at both perspectives”) and then give my opinion (“it is unfair”). This is a simple but effective thesis statement.

Thesis Statement Advice

Your IELTS discussion essay thesis statement should do two things:

Tell the reader what the essay will do
Present your opinion

Because this is a formal essay, it is best not to be too personal. Instead of saying “I will…” or “I think…” it is better to say “This essay will…” Here are some simple templates that you can follow most of the time:

This essay will look at both sides and then argue that…
This essay will discuss both views but ultimately side with…

Just make sure to avoid being overly vague. You are required to give your opinion consistently throughout the essay, so don’t say “This essay will look at both sides and then give my opinion .” It is not really the best approach because the examiner wants to see that you can be consistent in presenting an opinion. That is clearly stated in the marking rubric. For band 7, it says:

presents a clear position throughout the response

It could be concluded, then, that your opinion is not clear from the start and so you have not done enough to warrant a band 7 for Task Achievement.

Body Paragraphs

As I mentioned above, there are really two main approaches you could take to the body paragraphs:

Discuss one view per paragraph and incorporate your opinion into each.
Discuss one view per paragraph and then have another for your opinion.

I suppose there is also a third option:

Compare and contrast the two viewpoints in each paragraph.

This last one may be a little harder to do successfully without jeopardising your score for Task Achievement or Coherence and Cohesion , but advanced candidates may find it useful.

Remember that there is no single perfect formula for an IELTS essay. That’s not how languages work and that’s not how IELTS works. Different people could come up with different ways to present a successful essay. The most common essay structures are mere guidelines for particularly useful methods of approaching an essay.

Does a Discussion Essay Have to be Balanced?

Because the question says “Discuss both views,” it is quite logical to think that you must provide some degree of balance, but you certainly don’t need to give equal weighting to both sides. Remember that you are also going to give your opinion, so if you come down strongly on one side of the issue, it might be odd to give equal attention to both.

If you do feel very strongly about one side, you might want to present your discussion of the other side as quite negative. However, IELTS is a thinking exam as well as an English exam and an intelligent person can always look at both sides of an issue and explain – at the very least – why someone might believe a thing that is different to his own view. This seems quite important, but there is nothing explicitly mentioned in the marking rubric.

I would suggest that if you think a two-sided issue is basically one-sided (i.e. you strongly disagree with the other view), you should still write one or two sentences about why people believe that and then devote the rest of your essay to disputing their view.

Another approach is to write BP1 as a very short paragraph that explains why people might think one thing, but then have BP2 as a very long paragraph that debunks the opposing view and then explains why the other is correct.

(You can read more about IELTS essays and balance here .)

Sample Answer

Here is my full sample answer to the above question about whether or not children should be made to do extracurricular activities:

In some parts of the world, children are forced to go to cram schools and other facilities of extracurricular learning, but many people believe that this is unfair and that they should be allowed to enjoy their free time instead. This essay will look at both perspectives and then conclude that it is indeed unfair. In countries like South Korea, most children are made to go to an array of cram schools outside of regular school hours. Their parents do this in order to give their child a better future because it helps the child to learn more and thus gives them the academic advantages needed to apply to the best universities or jobs in future. These schools often provide children with an advantage over their peers because they improve their foreign language or math skills more quickly, and thus the children who do not attend these schools might have comparatively poor grades. However, whilst this attitude may result in better academic performance, it is certainly not good for the mental health of these children. It is no coincidence that places like South Korea have the highest rates of suicide among their young populations. The fact is that children are not equipped to spend fourteen or sixteen hours per day in classrooms, memorising facts and figures. In a sense, it is a form of child abuse. Children should be allowed to go home and spend time with friends and family to build social skills. They should be allowed to occupy themselves in order to become more creative and learn how to understand their own mind instead of being trained to repeat what they are told. In conclusion, it is understandable that some parents want their children to go to extra classes, but this is damaging to children and they should be given the freedom to play and socialise outside of regular school hours.

In BP1, I have looked at the topic of cram schools (ie the side of the argument in favour of extra lessons). I explored why parents might want their kids to do this and show the supposed benefits. Note that I never embraced any of these benefits. I was careful to use language that distanced these ideas from my own opinion, which was the opposite, so I said “Their parents do this in order to…”

In BP2, I looked at the opposite side. I was careful to make sure that my first sentence linked to the previous paragraph, highlighting that the benefits are quite minor compared to the drawbacks. All of my sentences here justify my position, which is that it is cruel to force these extra lessons on children.

My conclusion ties all of this together. The first clause references BP1 and the second summarises the main argument in BP2.

You can find two more sample essays here:

A discussion essay about sports facilities
A discussion essay about sports abilities

About The Author

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

Present Continuous for Talking About the Future

May 28, 2016

IELTS Topics: Music

September 21, 2020

How to Prepare for the IELTS Reading Test

October 28, 2017

Letter of Advice [IELTS Writing]

March 1, 2021

It is sometimes debatable whether asking children to get extra education after school or letting them play that is actually beneficial for them. Even though both viewpoints have benefits and drawbacks but I believe ,in the childhood age, children have to take rough and discipline education after school to be succeed in the future.

To begin with, many educational experts believe that playing is one of the essential aspects that have to be gotten by children to grow and happy. By using the playing approach, children can have a good mental and psychic health. Besides, letting children play after school can also support them to increase their emotional stimuli and get a positive social interaction. With this way, experts believe children can grow as a better adult in the future and have a freedom to get a better life in the upcoming times.

However, I completely contra with the first idea because I believe childhood is a better time to train children about academic or other skills that benefits them in the future. Based on scientific journal that I read, the ability of children in learning new things are more spectacular compared to adults. A lot of artists, scientist, and even football player who currently becoming a superstar in this era is a string of process that is began since their in the childhood. For instance, nowadays, I am working in the field of election supervision, it because since in my childhood my father love to force me learning about social and political issues by getting additional class. Thus, making children to get extra class after school is an appropriate preference if parents desire to see their son getting a good future.

To conclude, based on experts children have to get a freedom to play after schools but in my viewpoint it will be more advantages if they utilize the playing time with joining additional class after school.

VERY GOOD MR DIRWAN But actually you mixed both of the ideas , you need to take one side for this sort of essay writting, as it is mentioned in the above instruction. By the way WELL DONE . love from Pakistan to my sweet brother.

I have not checked in here for some time because I thought it was getting boring, but the last few posts are really great quality so I guess I’ll add you back to my everyday bloglist. You deserve it my friend. ??

thesis statement ielts liz

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS

How to Write a Thesis Statement

Video Lesson: How THIS student scored a Band 8.5 in IELTS Writing

About Christopher Pell

How to write an IELTS thesis statement.

What exactly is a thesis statement?

For each essay type this is what should be in the Thesis statement:

First you have to identify what kind of essay it is.

1. Discussion essay.

2. Opinon essay.

3. Advantages disadvantages essay.

4. Advantages disadvantages outweigh essay (this needs your opinion).

5. Problem solution / causes solution essay.

6. Two part question (direct question essay).

Take a look here at how to write a good introduction in writing task 2. Now you can try.

Full introduction with thesis statement:

Leave a comment below if you have any questions..

IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample Answer Band 9

Speak Your Mind Cancel reply

Advanced IELTS Lessons & E-books

Click Below to Learn:

Copyright Notice

Privacy Policy & Disclaimer

How to Write a Thesis Statement in IELTS Essay

What is a Thesis Statement?

Why is a Thesis Statement Crucial in IELTS Writing?

How to Write an Effective Thesis Statement: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Understand the Question

Step 2: Formulate Your Opinion

Step 3: Write the Thesis Statement

How to Write Strong Thesis Statements for Your IELTS Essays

By Waqas Sharif

Understanding the Importance of a Strong Thesis Statement

Process of Writing Thesis Statement for IELTS Essays

Analyzing the Essay Question

Identifying the Main Topic of the Essay

Crafting a Clear and Concise Thesis Statement

Utilizing Specific Language and Keywords

Avoiding Vague or General Statements

Tips for Writing a Band 7 Thesis Statement in IELTS Essays

Organize Ideas and Arguments Effectively

Incorporate Strategies to Support Your Thesis

Comparing Advantages and Disadvantages

Identifying Different Types of Essays

Strategies for Writing Band 8.5 Thesis Statements in IELTS Essays

Enhance Writing Coherence through Brainstorming and Planning

Implementing Techniques to Achieve Band 8 Thesis Statements

Examples of Strong Thesis Statements for Your IELTS Essays

Over to you

Share this:

Related Post

How to Write a Thesis Statement for IELTS Writing Task 2 ?

What is a Thesis Statement?

Why is a Thesis Statement Important in IELTS Writing Task 2?

Tips on Writing a Thesis Statement for IELTS Writing Task 2

2. Brainstorm Ideas

3. Make a Claim

4. Use Strong Language

5. Keep it Concise

Examples of Thesis Statements for IELTS Writing Task 2

Writing a Thesis Statement in IELTS

Undertanding Thesis Statements

How do I write a thesis statement?

Thesis Statements for Different Essay Types

Writing about Two Opinions

Agreeing or Disagreeing

Other Essays

Problems and solutions:

Causes and Effects:

Advantages and Disadvantages

More Task 2 IELTS Lessons:

How to Identify the Task in an IELTS Essay

Can you use Personal Pronouns in Essays for IELTS?

Generating ideas for IELTS essays for writing task 2

Writing an IELTS Essay Conclusion

Tips on How to Score IELTS Band 8 in Writing and Speaking

IELTS Problem Solution Essay Strategies and Tips

IELTS Music Essay: Understanding a Complex Question

The 3 Types of IELTS Opinion Essays in IELTS

Using Pronouns to Improve IELTS Essay Coherency

Writing an IELTS Essay Introduction