These activities are designed to help you with the structure of Writing Task 2 essays.
Exercise
Please click the Exercise 1 link to continue.
Activity: generating ideas
Take question 2 (Some people think that governments need to do more to reduce pollution. Do you agree?).
Use a table format to record your ideas. Draw two columns, one for Agree, and one for Disagree. Write down as many arguments in each column as you can. Don’t worry that you have too many for your essay. In pairs or small groups, compare your tables and answer these questions:
- do you have similar ideas, or different?
- do you have more arguments for agree or disagree?
- has your personal view changed after seeing other people's arguments?
Activity: main ideas and supporting details
Each paragraph will have one, or maybe two, main ideas. These are general sentences which make a statement about the topic.
However, paragraphs are incomplete unless they are supported by further details which present evidence and/or examples. These supporting ideas present the reasons why the main idea is valid.
Look again at your ideas for the essay above.
- Identify the main ideas.
- Next, identify the supporting ideas.
It may help to use a mindmap, with the main idea in the centre.
Writing your opening paragraph
It is important to state your position at the start of the essay. Your position is your personal response to the question, so there is no one correct answer. For example, both of these are valid responses to Question 3, above:
Every country depends on its own natural resources to create economic prosperity. Although the environment does need some degree of protection, this should not be at the expense of people and businesses that need to use resources.Although natural resources bring great economic benefit, they will not last forever if we keep using them at the current rate. Therefore the environment must be protected now, and urgently, or else everyone will be much worse off in the future.
It is important that the examiner is able to clearly see your position, otherwise you will lose marks. Can you see the positions in the two paragraphs?
Exercise
Please click the Exercise 2-3 link to continue.
Writing a conclusion
Your conclusion should summarise your position for the reader and, if appropriate to the task instructions, present your final decision on a question. You can also be impartial i.e. take no side, or state that you have no conclusion to draw.
Phrases like these can be useful in a conclusion:
- To sum up
- Overall
- In the final analysis
- Clearly
- In conclusion/ To conclude
- Ultimately
- In the end
- Taking everything into consideration