Best IELTS Essay Planning – Introductions – If you’re taking IELTS, you obviously want to earn the highest possible score. The writing test, particularly Task 2, appears to be the most intimidating section of the exam for many students.
I believe we all feel that way at first when we have to sit down and write any essay, so I’d want to break down IELTS essay writing into basic phases. First and foremost, we must consider the format or structure of an IELTS essay. It’s broken down into three sections:
- The Introduction
- Body Paragraphs (2)
- The Conclusion
You must know what points you will include in each of these sections when planning your essay.
In this piece, I’d want to take a closer look at your IELTS essay’s introduction.
The Introduction: First and foremost, consider the influence we wish to have on the IELTS examiner. We want them to read the introduction and then do the following:
The Introduction should contain the following:
- Paraphrase: By definition, paraphrasing means using different words to restate the topic of the essay. A simple example: If I make a simple sentence, ‘Most men drive cars to work’, I can also paraphrase this by saying ‘The automobile is the main means of transportation for the majority of the working male population’. So changing the flow of words, changing the structure of a sentence or using synonyms, any or all of these 3 things will allow you to paraphrase easily.
- This essay completely agrees with this viewpoint’. Essentially, you are letting the reader know right upfront in the introduction that you are taking a particular side and you are going to structure your essay from this side’s perspective. IELTS Coaching, Study Abroad Consultants
- Outline Sentence: The purpose of an outline sentence is to let the reader know as to what your essay will contain; in other words, what you are going to write about in the body paragraphs. Again if we take the same Agree/Disagree essay example where you have agreed completely, your outline sentence should very clearly and specifically mention the 2 reasons for your agreement, in brief. It should not be a generic outline sentence saying ‘This essay will discuss the reasons for my agreement’. This generic outline sentence does not provide any clarity to the reader as to what your reasons are for agreement and will not get you any marks for coherence.
3 parts (Paraphrasing, Opinion Statement and Outline Sentence) talked about above.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Sample Introduction:
Opinion Statement: I completely disagree with this viewpoint.
By combining the above 3 parts, this is how the introduction will look like:
I completely disagree with this viewpoint. That essay will discuss how preserving arts leads us to better understand and appreciate history and culture and how increased spending on arts leads to increased tourism for the country.
Following this basic strategy for creating introductions in IELTS Writing Task 2 will put you on the right track. for more articles about IELTS or PTE test preparation please visit our official blog.
