Nowadays, a growing number of people with health problems are trying alternative medicines and treatments instead of visiting their usual doctor. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?: IELTS Writing Task

Bhargavee Sisodia

18 Nov 2024

IELTS writing task 2 comprises a single essay writing section that needs to be completed within the allocated 40 minutes and should consist of a minimum of 250 words. You need to prepare yourself by going through several IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers to understand the pattern of essays and their answers. 

IELTS Writing Essay: Types

There are six main categories of IELTS essay topics, and each has a particular pattern. Before structuring your answer, you must assess the allotted topic thoroughly and understand each format; otherwise, your IELTS writing band score will suffer.

• Problem Solution: These essays require you to investigate the origins and effects of significant problems of your essay subject. It is not recommended to include personal opinions and recommendations in these kinds of essays.
• Advantage & Disadvantage: For this type of essay, you must list the merits and demerits of a particular topic. Your essay's main body should be balanced, with each paragraph discussing the benefits and drawbacks of the assigned topic. Refrain from giving personal standpoints if the issue doesn't ask for it.
• Discussion: You may address all sides of an issue while writing an essay in this format. Don't share your opinion if it doesn't ask for your input explicitly. 
• Balanced Opinion: This type of essay requires you to adequately convey your ideas on the issue. You can't support one side of the debate over the other; you have to defend both. The essay should begin and conclude with your personal perspective. 
• Opinion: You must discuss your perspective on the given issue in this essay, generally stating whether you agree or disagree. To persuade the examiner, provide relevant facts and arguments. You cannot impart partial agreement or disagreement on the assigned topic.
• Direct Question/Double Question: This kind of essay poses one or more direct questions, to which your response must be organized clearly and succinctly as an essay. 

IELTS Writing: Assessment criteria 

A total of 25% of the IELTS writing band score is determined by each of the four criteria that are used to evaluate the essay section of the writing exam which are: 

• Task Achievement / Task Response: This evaluates your knowledge of the topic and your comprehension of the key arguments presented in your response. Make sure your essay is at least 250 words long and that you have enough time in the 40 minutes given to proofread it. 
• Coherence and Cohesion: Coherence refers to the way concepts make sense. You must arrange your ideas clearly and write understandably to make your writing coherent. Cohesion is the appropriate method of tying various literary elements together with appropriate connectors. 
• Lexical Resource: The examiner would evaluate your work for correctness, vocabulary depth, spelling errors, and effective word choice and usage to determine this point. Making effective use of a large vocabulary might help you score higher on this criterion.
• Grammatical Accuracy and Range: This section evaluates your use of correct language, sentence construction, and punctuation. To ace this part, you should employ a wide variety of grammar. 

IELTS writing test: Lexical Resources

In ordinary terms, Lexical Resources mean Vocabulary Range. In this context, it is imperative to understand the expectations of the examiner who would be evaluating your IELTS writing test. 

The examiner doesn’t anticipate uncommon or difficult words while evaluating your lexical range within the essay. They contemplate the accurate and relevant use of words based on the topic of your essay. For example, instead of writing “doctor”, you can write “physician”, or “specialist” which would increase the precision of your sentence.  

Factors that lower Lexical Resources score

• Repetition of words: Repetition or overuse of words can adversely impact your IELTS writing band score. This shows your lack of vocabulary range which is one of the most important criteria for excelling in the essay section of IELTS.. 
• Using words directly from the question: It is an absolute necessity to paraphrase sentences while writing your essay. You should avoid using the same words from the question or topic of the essay within your answer and paraphrase them eloquently to showcase your vocabulary range.
• For instance, if the question is “What are the colors you dislike?”, then the common answer is “I dislike the color yellow.”. Instead of that, you can write “I am not fond of the color yellow”.
• Using ineffective paraphrasing: It is very important to strike the right balance between overusing and underusing paraphrasing within your essay writing. You should accept the fact that not all words can be paraphrased and forcing a substitution might result in an alteration of the meaning of the word which would harm the flow of your sentence. 
• For example, “youngsters” are used as a synonym for “teenagers”, but they are different from one another. “Youngsters” is used to describe people within the age of 30, whereas the term “teenagers” can be used for people between the ages of 13 and 19. Thus they cannot be treated as a substitute for one another. 

IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers  

Determining the category of your essay

One ofthe most important things you should do while planning your essay is to verify which category your essay belongs in. Failing to identify the correct genre of the essay will earn you a score lower than band 5.

For example, if your topic is “Nowadays, a growing number of people with health problems are trying alternative medicines and treatments instead of visiting their usual doctor.

Do you hink this is a positive or negative development?”

There are two keywords in the question. 

• “Do you think”: Asks for your “Opinion”  on the topic.
• “positive or negative”: Asks for a single point of view on the topic. 

Thus, the above topic belongs to the “Opinion Essay” category where you need to state your opinion on a particular standpoint along with examples. You cannot be diplomatic and agree with both perspectives. Your stance on the topic should be unwavering and clearly stated within the essay. 

The Essay Structure: Opinion Essay

Introduction: Paraphrase the topic statement and mention your stance on the topic. 

Main Body: The main body should consist of 2 paragraphs.

• Paragraph 1: First idea on the topic statement along with relevant examples.
• Paragraph 2: Second idea on the topic statement along with relevant examples. 

Conclusion: Restate your unapologetic opinion on the topic statement (agreement or disagreement).

Now let's have a look at the possible answers to the above topic from the “Opinion” category for the IELTS writing band scores 6, 7, and 9. 

score 6

Many people are going for alternative medicine and treatments rather than seeing their usual doctors. I believe that this has many negative impacts on people's health, which is why I will discuss my thoughts on the matter in this essay.

Medicines has a particular dose and course, which only a doctor chooses for their patients, and because of that it is important to consult a doctor before taking any medicine as it can harm your body. For example, doctors do not give antibiotics to a patient unless it is very much required. That is because antibiotics are harmful to human body and it affects the immune system. But if someone takes medicine without consulting a doctor, they fail to know the difference and end up harming their health even more. 

On top of that, many people nowadays believe everything written on the Inernet and treat themselves according to the treatment mentioned there. However, only a doctor detect the disease their patients are suffering from and prescribe the exact course of treatment to free them from their illness. For instance, I have tried several hacks from online blogs, advice from friends, and even some age-old home remedies for my pimples and hair fall but nothing seemed to work. It was only after I visited a dermetologist, that I got to know about the cause behind my skin problems and his prescription worked for me.  

In conclusion, in my opinion, people should rely on qualified doctors for treatments instead of going for alternative methods of treatment because they can end up increasing their illness or giving side effects.   

Notes on the above answer: 

• The words in both underlined and italics represent Grammatical faults that lower your Accuracy score. 
• The underlined words indicate a lack of paraphrasing of the topic statement which lowers the score in Task Achievement. 
• The words in Italics indicate spelling mistakes which along with a lack of vocabulary range Lexical Resources. 
• The number of linking words is low, and words in bold like “doctor”, “treatment”, and “people” have been repeated. The sentence in bold is long and unclear lowering the overall score of Cohesion and Coherence.

score 7

Many people have recently decided to go for different medical approaches rather than see their doctors. I feel that this changeover can have a bad influence on people‘s health, therefore I will explain my opinion on the subject in this essay.

Each drug has a dosage and course that only a licensed doctor can analyze for their patients. Hence, it is important to check with a doctor before beginning any medical treatment. For example, I have seen my house help rely on the local pharmacy for a clinical advice. Most of the time, her ailment is elevated because of that and she has to visit the local physician for treatment. This is the common approach for many people just to avoid paying the visitation charge for the doctors. They ignore the fact that this carelessness ends up messing their health more. 

Moreover, relying on local pharmaceutical stores, or the Internet for finding cures for their illnesses might further harm their health and intensify their suffering. A doctor knows exactly what dosage of medicine should be prescribed to their patients and the exact period of the course, ignoring which causes more illness. For instance, under-dosage of any medicine fails to cure the illness from the roots and over-dosage might even result in death of the patient. The right proportion depends on the health and immunity of the patient that a physician is capable of recognizing. 

To summarize, I believe, a medical practisioner can recommend the best course of therapy for a patient. So, instead of attempting other ways of cure, we must speak with them and follow their prescription. 

Notes on the above answer: 

• The words in both underlined and italics represent Grammatical faults which have decreased the score in this criterion.  
• The number of linking words is not enough, and words in bold like “health”, “doctor”, “medical”, and “cure” have been repeated, which has decreased the score in Cohesion and Coherence. 
• Words in Italics indicate spelling mistakes or a lack of Lexical Resources. 

score 9

In recent times, numerous people have chosen the path of self-medicating themselves instead of visiting their designated physicians. I believe this switch can negatively impact the health of an individual and thus I shall elaborate on my perspective on the issue in this essay. 

First and foremost, every medicine and regimen has its mandated course of actions like time of intake, state of intake, days of intake, and antidotes for side effects. Only a certified specialist is capable of weighing all the options and prescribing the best cure for their patients. Hence, it is imperative to consult a medical practitioner before starting a course of remediation. For instance, my mother is allergic to a set of antibiotics, which was detected after a blood test advised by our general physician. This course of action was necessary to detect the problem and without a clinical advisory, it wouldn’t have been possible. 

Furthermore, relying on local pharmaceutical stores, non-medic friends and relatives, or the Internet for healthcare advice can cause serious ailments and deterioration of fitness since every treatment has a different set of reactions in people depending on their age, weight, physical condition, and stamina. Besides, going beyond or under the anticipated dosage can mess up our immune system which causes numerous complications in our bodies. For example, I read about the tragic death of a child after her parents gave the wrong dosage of medication for a fever without properly consulting a medical expert. Besides that, I heard about a cancer patient losing his life due to arbitrarily starting ayurvedic therapy after reading about it on the internet.

To sum up, just the way a software engineer is capable of fixing a technical bug, and a mechanic is an expert in fixing cars, a doctor is well versed in advising the best course of treatment for a patient. Thus, in my opinion, instead of trying alternative ways to heal ourselves, we should leave it to the experts to heal ourselves. 

Conclusion

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