How do you plan an IELTS Writing Task 2 essay?

THE SHORT ANSWER

What should you do before writing?

Read the whole question and underline the exact instruction: does it ask for an opinion, comparison, advantages and disadvantages, or possible solutions? Decide your response, outline two supportable reasons and reserve time to check coherence and language accuracy. A clear argument is better than a memorised introduction that only partly addresses the task.

IELTS Academic and General Training Writing each include two tasks in 60 minutes. For Task 2, IELTS advises about 40 minutes and at least 250 words; Task 2 carries twice the weight of Task 1 in the Writing score. This guide is for the shared Task 2 essay skill; Academic Task 1 visuals and General Training Task 1 letters are different. Check the official Academic writing format and General Training writing format.

FICTIONAL PRACTICE PROMPT

Worked example: should cities invest in public parks?

Original practice question, not an official IELTS item: Some people believe city governments should spend more money on public parks, while others think the money should go towards improving public transport. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Before writing, separate three demands: (1) explain a fair reason for better parks, (2) explain a fair reason for transport investment and (3) present a reasoned preference of your own. A response that simply describes parks without analysing transport would miss part of this fictional task.

AN ORIGINAL FOUR-PARAGRAPH PLAN

Turn the question into a structure

1. Introduction: paraphrase the allocation problem and give your view—for example, transport should be prioritised where congestion is severe, while parks must not be neglected.
2. Argument for parks: explain access to exercise, shade and shared community space. Qualify the argument: benefits depend on where parks are located and whether residents can use them.
3. Argument for transport: explain access to jobs, education and services; well-used buses and trains can reduce travel barriers. Acknowledge that infrastructure costs and poor design can limit benefits.
4. Conclusion: make a concrete recommendation linked to your reasons, not just an unqualified repetition of the opening.

A valid alternative is to favour parks in a neighbourhood with severe heat exposure and few public spaces. What matters is a coherent and supported position responding to both viewpoints, not copying the tutor's preference.

SHORT MODEL PARAGRAPH

What does a developed point look like?

“Reliable public transport deserves priority in cities where long journeys prevent residents from reaching work or education. A bus network that connects underserved areas can improve access without requiring each household to own a car. Yet additional services alone will not help if vehicles are infrequent or routes ignore the people most in need. City planners should therefore focus first on the reliability and coverage of existing services before announcing expensive new projects.”

This paragraph is a short original demonstration, not a complete 250-word answer, a published examiner response or a claimed Band 9 sample. It makes one argument, explains a plausible consequence and recognises a limitation. A complete answer would still need both viewpoints, an explicit overall judgement and accurate connected language.

REVISION AND FEEDBACK

Four checks that match IELTS Writing criteria

1. Task response: Did you cover all parts of this prompt and support your own view with relevant development rather than unrelated examples?
2. Coherence and cohesion: Does each paragraph have a purpose? Can the reader follow your argument without mechanical connectors in every sentence?
3. Lexical resource: Is the vocabulary precise and naturally used? Replacing every simple word with a rare synonym often reduces clarity.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy: Are sentences varied where appropriate and still easy to understand? Check articles, tense, agreement and punctuation.

Those categories reflect the official IELTS Writing assessment criteria, but these practice questions are not an official scoring rubric applied by a certified examiner. This guide cannot determine a band from one paragraph.

FIVE COMMON PITFALLS

How do you avoid losing relevance?

1. Ignoring the instruction: “Discuss both views” means both must be addressed; do not write only your preferred side.
2. Memorised generic templates: stock phrases may sound sophisticated but often fail to answer the actual question.
3. Invented statistics: avoid pretending that a percentage or study is factual if you cannot substantiate it; examples may be reasoned and hypothetical.
4. Underdeveloped reasons: one assertion is not a paragraph; explain how and why it supports the main view.
5. No proofreading: leave time to fix unclear references, repeated vocabulary and grammatical errors.

Try it: Give yourself three minutes to rewrite the introduction with a different defensible opinion. Then explain one body paragraph aloud before writing it. This tests whether your reasoning is stronger than your memorised wording.

NEXT STEP

A ten-minute practice routine

Spend two minutes identifying the instruction and both views; three minutes outlining two developed reasons and a counterpoint; four minutes drafting just one body paragraph; one minute checking whether the paragraph actually answers the question. Repeat with a different original question, then expand the method into a timed full Task 2 response.

Use the official IELTS writing preparation resources to compare current format expectations. Your receiving organisation decides which IELTS test and component scores it accepts. An independent tutor cannot guarantee a particular band, visa, university admission or examination outcome.