In some countries, the average weight of people is increasing and their levels of health and fitness are decreasing. What do you think are the cause of these problems? What measures could be taken to solve them?: IELTS Writing Topic

Bhargavee Sisodia

18 Nov 2024

The IELTS, an internationally accepted English language proficiency test is divided into reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Though there are two different types of tests, academic (for students) and general training (for professionals); both are similar in terms of the aspects on which an individual is judged. 

The writing part available for the academic test consists of two writing tasks, Task 1 and Task 2. In this blog, we will take a deep dig into IELTS writing task 2 which requires you to write an essay, and you are assigned the score based on your way of articulating ideas, vocabulary usage, and grammatical proficiency in writing.

Assessment criteria for IELTS writing task 2

Your writing task 2 for the IELTS writing part will be evaluated based on four different criteria. By averaging the scores across these criteria, your final band score is determined and each of them carries equal weightage. 

Task achievement: You will be judged if you are able to provide a summary, and offer detailed logic-based facts through accuracy to support your main ideas and other sub-parts. You will have to attempt a minimum of 250 words as writing below this minimum word count can cost you a lot in losing marks because the content would lack depth and analysis of your viewpoint or argument. 

Coherence and Cohesion: It will observe how well you are managing paragraphing, relevant vocabulary, and employing cohesive devices. These elements contribute to improving overall clarity and coherence. The development and flow of ideas in each paragraph will ensure that your reasons are organized well. Using connectors and linking words will let you put your thoughts in a natural progression. 

Lexical Resource: To earn more in this category, try to use appropriate words that are accurate and meaningful. When you write correct spelling, it would boost the readability of the essay. Using collocations and diverse vocabulary also ensures that you have a good grasp of language. It is extremely essential to refrain from using informal language, slang, and colloquial expressions. 

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: It is usual to use a variety of grammatical structures and tenses to show your language proficiency and understanding of it. Through a range of grammatical structures, the message will be conveyed clearly. Placing punctuations in the correct places will enhance your score as it is an indicator of a good level of writing skill. 

Tyes of essays for IELTS writing Task 2

While writing IELTS writing task 2, you will get to encounter one out of six types of essay questions. So, it is wiser to understand each essay type in detail:

Opinion essay: It is essential to explicitly declare your stance on the issue, substantiate it with reasonable evidence, and articulate whether you align with the information provided. Your essay should convey your viewpoint to build a persuasive argument, whether in agreement or disagreement. 

Discussion Essay: You will provide your perspective only when requested and examine both sides of the argument without being partial or biased. About stating the opinion, avoid doing it when it is not specifically solicited. 

Advantage/Disadvantage Essay: You will evaluate both the advantages and disadvantages of the given topic and present a comprehensive analysis by demonstrating your ability to critically assess different facets of an issue.  

Problem/Solution Essay: A problem/solution essay, sometimes called a cause/effect essay, involves identifying and explaining the underlying causes of an issue and proposing practical and effective solutions to address it. Relevant evidence and reasoning should be added wherever required. 

Balanced Opinion Essay:  You need to acknowledge and provide support for both sides of an argument. You will be expected to explore the strengths and weaknesses of each side to ensure that you offer a just representation of the perspectives. 

Two questions or a direct question Essay: You may encounter multiple questions that pertain to the topic but those might not be related to one another. For the same, you must address each question in separate body paragraphs.

IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers:

In some countries the average weight of people is increasing and their levels of health and fitness are decreasing. What do you think are the cause of these problems? What measures could be taken to solve them.

Before attempting the essay response, you will go through the planning stage, where you are required to identify the category of your IELTS Writing Task 2 topic by analyzing the instruction words that are included in the part after the statement or argument. 

In the case of the aforementioned sample topic, the instructions ‘What do you think are the cause of these problems? What measures could be taken to solve them’ points out that the essay is suited to be within the cause/solution essay type. 

Here, ‘What do you think are the cause of these problems?’ implies that the essay is seeking the reasons related to the issue of the rise in overweight people. Following that, the second part, i.e. ‘What measures could be taken to solve them’ suggests that you explore the measures and steps that can be taken to eradicate the problem. Based on the types of essays we know so far, the combined essence of the questions points out the fact that it is a cause/solution essay. 

Strategies to find relevant Ideas to write the essay

Most of the students who are not used to writing encounter this fear of going blank when it comes to discovering an idea related to the topic. While idea generation needs strategy, be assured that most of the questions are inclined toward Western countries. Also, it doesn't demand that your ideas are entertaining, but it is necessary to stick to relevant ideas. 

• Common topic familiarization: Familiarize yourself with the 10 most common IELTS writing topics and relevant vocabulary. Apart from that, you can use your free time to read English newspapers and identify potential topics. As you encounter unfamiliar words, take notes on them, understand their meaning from the context, and then verify the definition with a dictionary. 
• Brainstorming: It necessitates that you place a keyword in the center of a page and list all the related ideas. While this method has been propitious for many, there are certain loopholes where a student might get engrossed in discovering irrelevant ones only to lose time in an exam setting. 
• Mind mapping: You will organize your visualized thoughts on paper and form structured ideas. This can be done by placing main keywords in the center and pertinent sub-keywords on the branches. A trick for this to work is to not spend much time perfecting mind maps for visual appeal but rather use it for developing an idea. 
• 5 questions method: One can proceed by focusing on the question words who, what, why, and where, to generate ideas clearly in the writing task. It is particularly useful for those who are prone to thinking logically and possess a bit of knowledge of the topic beforehand. It gives a series of ideas, but it is advisable to choose wo or three to incorporate into your writing. 
• Personal opinion: You are supposed to picture yourself in a situation where you are discussing the topic with a friend or family member in a relaxed environment. This is done as under exam pressure, thinking is challenged but imagining in a relaxed situation can help in thinking and expressing opinions. Also, you can imagine your friend having contradictory opinions which you can jot down. 

Structure of Cause/ Solution Essay

Introduction: Paraphrase and state the background information. 

First body paragraph: Discuss the cause of the problem thoroughly and give examples to validate the argument. 

Second body paragraph: State and discuss the solutions to the problem.

Third body paragraph (optional): If you have extensive reasons for the problem, cover them in the second paragraph and outline the solutions in the third.

Conclusion: Recapitulate everything that has been stated. 

Sample essays

Band 6

The speedy increase in more weighted individual and damaging of their health levels in some countries is a thing of concerning. Mainly due to carbs, people are sufferers. The lifestyle that nowadays most follow is bringing harm. This essay show the posible reasons and steps that could be taken to end the issue. 

Gaining access into sugary product is easy for everyone. It is prevailing because of goverment authority and manufacturers that fail to show minimum concern toward health of the public. The result is that children are lued to taste junk food and sugary drinks at stores, restaurants, and streets around their neighborhood. When they start eating unhealthy things, including a variety of sugar-based and artificial color-added food, they make it a habit. After it grows as a habit, they adjust to such lifestyle which impact their health. 

Curbing the issue is possible with increasing the price of unhealthy and junk foods. This will lessening of selling of unhealthy packaged items, low-sugar drinks, and fast food. It can be done by raising the price of such item to a point that people think twice while buying. When they compare the price with healthier options with a cheap price, it will benefit in shifting their lifestyle to healthy one. An example is instead of high-sugar drinks, low-sugar drink with low prices will be preferable. 

People from obesity is growing in number. So, government intervening is required to help people become fit and choose good food. Otherwise, this would, risk public health. 

Views: The bold in the essay indicates coherence and cohesion where it is observed that the development of ideas could have been better, and transitional parts could have had a smooth flow if appropriate linking devices were used. In italics, there has been spotting of word formation and spelling errors along with a lack of synonym use that comes under lexical resource. Through italics and underlining, it has been shown that grammatical accuracy and range need to be emphasized as there are mistakes in punctuation, tenses, and plurals. Nonetheless, the task is responded to well. 

Band 7

In recent year, there has been significant increase if we see the rate of obesity in the world. Following, there is physical health and fitness ignorance which leads to health issues among individuals. In the essay, we are discussing on what leads to this pattern and finding out ways in which the problem be solved. 

The primary reason for the obesity problem is the proliferation of fast food joints across the countries. One good example is McDonald's, and Dominoes, which promote advertising for children to draw attention and increase young customer. On the other hand, the professional working 9-5 often are seen to have no time in cooking meals at home which makes them grab an unhealthy snack or eat processed sausages. Having these items regular affects their bodies and minds, eventually them not to want to work out. Working longer in workplace has been a reason for unhealthy lifestyles and food choice. 

Significantly, the obesity problem can be tackld with the help of important measures. There is a need for authority and renown personalities to address obesity through media. It should be done through raising awareness about serious health risk that can happen from becoming overweight, such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. Then, it is on the minds of people to develop a mindset towards an active lifestyle. By maintaining work and life, and doing exercises routinely, including using the step-tracking device, there will be motivation to work hard for maintaining a better body and health. 

In summary, there are a variety of reasons from unhealthy food habits to no exercise that have been making people obese and unfit. However, strict teps from the government and individualistic concern can help prevent the problem. 

Views: The central ideas and supporting ones entail a well-developed structure, progression, and paragraphing. Minimal issues concerning linking devices, highlighted in bold, have not hampered the coherence and cohesion in the essay. However, in terms of lexical resources, there have been a few errors seen with appropriate word usage, missing determiners as shown in italics and grammatical errors, including tense-based, which are shown in italics and underlined. 

Band 9

In several countries, the overall health of the global population as indicated by a growing trend encompasses a trend of increasing obesity and deteriorating health standards over recent decades. While numerous factors have contributed to the widespread nature of the issue, this essay will highlight how the principal concern is an unhealthy lifestyle and will advocate for a governmental educational initiative for a feasible remedy to ameliorate the issue. 

Firstly, the scenario of the contemporary generation's predilection for unhealthy dietary choices and excessive intake of substandard food should be acknowledged. The proliferation of processed foods, prepackaged microwave meals, and fast food from chains that are omnipresent and known for enhancing convenience, especially for the working populace, has precipitated a surge in ailments like elevated blood pressure, hepatic steatosis, cardiovascular diseases, etc. Secondly, modern lifestyles have been eschewing routine physical activity, with a prominent tendency among youngsters to prefer indoor and digital pursuits over physical exercise. The combination of these deleterious behaviors underpins the disconcerting state of public health.  

Nonetheless, certain actions can be undertaken to prevent further health crises. A highly efficacious remedy for this issue would be a government-sponsored awareness campaign. Through advertising efforts, the risks of unhealthy diet and lifestyle could be elucidated to augment public cognizance. In schools, physical education curriculum is beneficial in imbuing the mindsets of young children to exercise consistently and following a balanced diet. Furthermore, it is essential that adults self-regulate the consumption of junk food and embrace an active lifestyle. The heightened awareness will motivate individuals to embrace healthier habits. 

In conclusion, the rise in obesity cannot be ascribed to a singular factor. Regardless, the most prudent course of action to mitigate this issue is to dedicate more time and resources to enhancing one’s physical well-being.

Conclusion

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