Hi
An IELTS candidate we’ve been tutoring asked us what she should do in IELTS Writing task 2 if she has to write about a topic that she isn’t familiar with.
In her previous test, the candidate said she’d got the following topic and that she didn’t know much about it.
“Some people believe that recent increases in cheap air travel have many benefits. However, others believe that this has some drawbacks for the environment. Discuss both views and give your opinion.”
If you find yourself looking at an essay writing task with no idea what to write about, one strategy you could use is to…
- think about the topic from different perspectives, e.g. economic, environmental, social, cultural, psychological or philosophical
In the example above, you could write about…
- the economic benefits of cheap air travel, e.g. the tourism industry in many countries has grown
- the social benefits, e.g. friends or families living in different countries can now visit each other more often
- the philosophical benefits, e.g. it has given people who can afford to travel a sense of freedom and a belief that they can go anywhere
And, of course, you should also write about…
- the environmental costs, e.g. the increase in air travel has increased air pollution
To get some practice, have a look at the IELTS essay question in my post ‘Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? (2)‘ and think about the topic from different perspectives.
Pete
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Is it compulsory to write a conclusion for task 1? I was taking a private tutorial and the lecturer said only to talk about key features, comparison/contrast and the main trend.
PLEASE HELP ME
That’s a question a lot of IELTS candidates have, Lanieta.
In IELTS Academic Writing task 1, where you have to summarise the information in a graph, chart, table or diagram (or more than one of these), you need to include an overview.
An overview is a statement that summarises the main features shown, and it can come at the beginning of your summary after your introduction or at the end of your summary as a conclusion.
Have a look at my posts ‘Do you need to write a conclusion?‘ and ‘What does the chart show? (2)‘.
Pete