Modern forms of communication such as email and messaging have reduced the amount of time people spend seeing their friends. This has a negative effect on their social lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree? IELTS Writing Task

Bhargavee Sisodia

15 Nov 2024

In the second section of the IELTS writing test, producing an essay is a common task for both the Academic and General Training categories. During this part of the test, applicants are given forty minutes to compose an essay that must be at least 250 words long. This article will cover how to approach IELTS essay topics successfully and provide a wealth of ideas and answers for writing assignment 2. IELTS essay topics may take various types.

IELTS essay segment: Categories of Essay

There are six major groups into which IELTS essay topics often fall, and each group has a unique response pattern. In order to assess the given problem and formulate an appropriate solution, you need to be fully familiar with each format. If you are unable to decide which category your topic falls in, your score on the second IELTS writing assignment will decrease.

• Problem Solution: It is necessary for these essays that you investigate the causes and consequences of important problems related to your subject. Personal opinions or recommendations should not be included in writings of this nature.
• Advantage & Disadvantage: You have to enumerate the benefits and drawbacks of the chosen topic in this kind of essay. With distinct paragraphs addressing the advantages and disadvantages of the selected topic, the major body of your essay should be well-balanced. If it is not necessary to discuss the topic, do not voice your viewpoint.
• Discussion: You can discuss conflicting points of view when you write an essay in this manner. If it's not requested directly, don't provide your opinion. There will be times when these essays ask for your opinion, so you will have to provide it.
• Balanced Opinion: You must clearly and concisely express your thoughts about the subject in this kind of essay. You must defend both sides of the argument; you cannot favor one over the other. You should convey your opinions objectively at the start and end of the essay.
• Opinion: In this essay, you have to express your viewpoint—whether you agree with it or not. Make compelling claims and provide proof to back up your claims. It is not permitted to endorse or oppose the subject at hand in part. It is imperative that you stick to your position no matter what.
• Direct Question/Double Question: Each topic question should be covered in a separate paragraph inside the main body of the essay, using suitable transitional language. This type of essay offers one or more direct questions, to which you should reply in the form of an essay using succinct, understandable language and examples.

The IELTS writing band score is derived from four primary evaluation categories, with each category accounting for 25% of the total score. In order to do well on each assessment, you should focus on each of the following. The degree to which you fulfill these evaluation standards will determine your final score. 

IELTS Writing: Assessment criteria 

The four key assessment criteria for IELTS writing task 2 topics are: 

• Task Achievement / Task Response: The effectiveness with which you were able to respond to the question in your IELTS writing assignment 2 themes is assessed by this criteria. The assessment determines if you completed the required minimum of 250 words within the designated 40 minutes, correctly paraphrased your writing, and included examples and evidence to support your points of contention.
• Coherence and Cohesion: The term coherence describes the logical progression and coherence of ideas. There are a lot of disparate concepts in this badly organized text. Cohesion refers to the capacity to write in a way that makes sense and flows naturally between 
• Lexical Resource: This criterion evaluates the applicant's flawless usage of a broad vocabulary set in the appropriate situation. You can do better in this evaluation category if you employ a large vocabulary together with good examples.
• Grammatical Accuracy and Range: This section evaluates your grasp of the grammatical range in terms of correctness, complexity, and precision. It takes into account criteria such as the use of nouns, appropriate punctuation, and the right tense, among other things. 

Do’s and Don’ts of IELTS Writing Task 2

To score a good band in IELTS writing task 2, there are some basic things you should follow during preparation and the actual exam. There are also a few things that need to be avoided while attempting the IELTS essay section. They are as follows:

Do’s for the IELTS essay section

• Read magazines and journals for inspiration
• Answer all parts of the question mentioned in the topic
• Make good use of examples and anecdotes inspired by your life events
• Analyze your points and elaborate on them whenever possible
• Stay away from generic statements and examples
• Make good use of vocabulary with sensible sentences that have a creative stroke
• Use a lot of linking words
• Use your time strategically
• Use proper paragraphing for each section of the essay
• Keep it simple and relevant
• Give your opinion if it is explicitly asked in the question
• Use the correct structure of the essay depending on the category of the topic

Don’ts for the IELTS essay section

• Use unparliamentary, unidentified, and unrecognized language
• Misplace the punctuation marks as it might give your essay a whole different meaning than intended
• Take extra sheets that might lead you to write more than required
• Make spelling mistakes
• Make punctuation errors
• Repeat the use of the same vocabulary
• Skip linking words or repeat them
• Use emotional language or idioms
• Write sentences without a purpose or relevance
• Memorize or copy any previous answers or samples
• Begin every sentence with linking words
• Write paragraphs with single sentences
• Use bullet pointers

 IELTS writing task 2 topics with answers  

Identifying your essay category

The most important and first step after receiving the IELTS writing assignment 2 topics is to decide which category your topic belongs in. For each category of IELTS essay topics, there are response syntactic rules that need to be strictly adhered to when writing the essay.

For example, if your essay topic is  “Modern forms of communication such as email and messaging have reduced the amount of time people spend seeing their friends. This has a negative effect on their social lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree?”, then you need to identify the keywords which instruct you to provide your answer. These keywords are called instruction keywords. For this topic, the instruction keywords are:

• “To what extent do you agree or disagree?”: This question indicates it's an “Agree / Disagree” type of topic also known as an “Opinion Essay”. 

As a result, the essay you are writing is an Opinion Essay, where you must clearly state whether you agree or disagree with the topic. A diplomatic stance is not accepted with regard to the issue statement. In order to support your ideas and assertions, you should also provide pertinent instances in your essay.

Structure of the Opinion Essay

Introduction: Paraphrase the topic statement and mention your rigid perspective on it. 

Main Body: Two paragraphs should make up the main body of the essay. Its syntax will suffer if the entire essay does not provide a unilateral opinion or perspective.

• 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: Give it a fitting conclusion and restate your particular viewpoint (disagreement or agreement) on the issue statement.

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

IELTS writing band score 6

Human interactions are reducing day by day because of modern forms of communication like emails, messages and video calling. Many people debate the disadvantages of this kind of shift, but I personally disagree with them which is why I shall explain my opinion in the below essay.

Firstly, modern means of interaction have made our lives more better especially with regard to services like email, texting, and phone conversations that are very helpful to common people for social interaction. With the use of such technical means of communication, interaction with people at any location on earth is possible with ease. For example, people have healthy interactions with their collegues over meeting platforms without physically meeting them, friends who live far away from each other can have interactive sessions on video calling apps and parents who miss their children since they relocate can speak to them over calls anytime and from anywhere.

Additionally, social engagment is now more cheaper and accessible for people from all types of people all over the world. These methods of communication also have the benefit of being afordable, simple and easily accessible by all age groups of people. For example, old people interact with their distant family and friends over telephone calls and messages where as younger people rely on video calling to communicate with their friends.

In conclusion, modern means of communication have way more utility than negative aspects in terms of a healthy social life. Thus it is good to accept them and enjoy its utility.

Notes on the above answer: 

• The words in both underlined and italics represent Grammatical mistakes that degrade the score in this criterion. 
• The underlined words indicate a lack of paraphrasing the topic statement decreasing the score in Task Achievement. 
• Spelling errors are indicated with italicized words reducing the Lexical Resources score.
• The number of linking words is much lower, and words in bold like “social”, “interaction”, and “communication” have been repeated, decreasing the score of Cohesion and Coherence. Also phrases like “more better” and “more cheaper” are grammatically redundant, which further degrades the score in Coherence.

IELTS writing band score 7

The emergence of new technologies for communication has drasticaly changed how regular people communicate with one another. A lot of people argue about the drawbacks of such a move, but I do not agree. Therefore, in the essay that follows, I will go into more detail about my position on this topic and how it affects our social lives.

To begin with, thanks to excellent services like phone calls, texting, and email, technological means of interaction have greatly improved and simplified our lives. It is possible to communicate with people all over the world with the help of such technological means of interaction. For example, internet voice and video calling capabilities allow consumers to communicate with friends and family from anywhere in the globe. Gradually, letters have been replaced with emails, face-to-face interactions have been swapped with video calls and text messages which have been enhanced the way of interactions.

Furthermore communication technology has made social interaction cheaper and affordable for people from all strata of the world. These communication approaches also have the advantage of being inexpensive, having flexible scheduling, and providing a genuine socializing environment. For instance, childhood friends can continue having the same bond with the help of electronic modes of communication. Also, older parents can speak to their children who live in another part of the world due to such advancements. 

To sum up, as modes of engagement change with the growth of innovation in the scientific world, humans are gifted with several virtues, necessary in modern society. So, its perks outweigh its burdens, hence it should be accepted well. 

Notes on the above answer:

• The words in both underlined and italics represent Grammatical mistakes degrading the score in this criterion.  
• The number of linking words is not too high, and words in bold like “communication”, “interaction”, and “people” have been repeated, causing the score of Cohesion and Coherence to decrease. 
• Spelling errors are indicated with italicized words reducing the Lexical Resources score.

IELTS writing band score 9

The inception of new means of communication through technology has significantly altered the pattern of interaction among common people. Many people argue about the negative aspects of such a transition, but I beg to differ. Hence, I will elaborate on my stance on such a progression of communicative automation and its impact on our social life in the following essay.

To begin with, technical means of interplay have made our lives much smoother and easier, with the help of top-notch services like voice calling, video conferencing, texting, and electronic mail. Thus, distance is no longer an impenetrable barrier to refraining from interactions due to the ease of connectivity through electronic discourse. For example, people can speak to friends and family from any part of the world with the help of online voice calling and video calling options. On top of that, one can avoid the post-office fee and send letters by typing them in emails. Also, remote work culture is a gift of such advancement, due to which millions of people managed to earn a living during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Moreover, technological advancements in the department of communication have enabled even introverts to have a healthy and interactive social circle. Other benefits of these methods of contact are their low cost, flexible timings, and real socialization environment. To illustrate, friends who gather together physically at restaurants and cafes, spend a substantial amount of money to engage with their friends. But with internet group calls, the same banter can be continued with the push of a button, from the comfort of their homes, at minimum expense, with a bonus of maximum unfiltered connections. Apart from that, one can ignore the people they wish to not interact with, without emotionally hurting them. 

To sum up, humankind is endowed with several perks that are essential in contemporary society, and these ways of involvement develop in tandem with scientific advancement. It is a positive shift that should be welcomed with open arms since its benefits exceed its drawbacks.

Conclusion

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