the conclusion of your IELTS Task 2 Academic Essay, will be the body. We will look at how

to structure your argument, your response and at ways of linking your paragraphs and

linking the ideas within your paragraphs. We will do this by demonstrating how your

essay needs to meet the assessment criteria for task response and for cohesion and coherence.

In academic writing you have to make an argument, that is give your opinion and support it with

evidence and link your ideas and your paragraphs. That's why two of the four criteria for Task

2 Writing are task response and coherence and cohesion.

Let's look at task response first.

Task response requires two main things from you. Firstly, that you address all the parts

of the question and secondly, that you present a clear, supported argument. This outlines

what is expected of you in terms of what should be included in your essay for the IELTS Academic

Writing Task 2. These items become particularly relevant when we talk about the body of your

essay. As that is the largest part of your essay, you need to be sure that it covers

everything in the task. The first thing your essay needs to do is

address all the parts of the task.

Here is our task: 'To what extent do we agree or disagree with the idea that space exploration

is a luxury we cannot afford and instead governments should be spending money on global problems'.

These are the parts of the question that we need to address supported by our reasons and

examples. So what steps can you take in those first 5 minutes of your Task 2 time to set

yourself up for addressing the question?

Once you have read the question you must remember to analyse the question. How many parts are

there? And ask yourself, what is my opinion? Do you think that governments should be spending

money on space exploration? Or would that money be better spent on fighting global problems such

as poverty and disease? It's an interesting question so it's time to brainstorm some

ideas. If you agree, why? If you disagree, what makes space exploration more important

than fighting poverty? What are your reasons and do you have any examples to include? Once

you've got some ideas down it's time to make a brief plan.

Following these steps will help you to ensure you address all parts of the question.

In the IELTS Task 2 Writing Test instructions, you are told to, 'Give reasons for your answer

and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.'

So, the next requirement is that we present a clear position and support it with relevant

reasons and examples. This is called, constructing an argument.

In your IELTS essay, you can build an argument by following this pattern; make a general

statement and be sure that it refers back to the points you outlined in your introduction.

Then, give a reason and/or give an example. In an academic essay you have to back up your

argument with factual evidence such as statistics. In the IELTS exam, you do not have access

to research materials such as books, journals, or newspapers, but you can still make general

statements based on your own knowledge and your experience to support your argument.

Look at the following sentences. Which one is more convincing, A or B? A, 'Too much fast

food is bad for your health.' Or B, 'Scientific studies show that too much fast food is bad

for your health.' If you answered B you are correct. An opinion

that is held by many people or by scientists or by a respected person is more convincing

than an opinion which is only held by one person, the writer.

When giving opinions, reasons and examples try to include some general statements in

your essay. For more ways that you can make general statements take a look at the following

examples.

Here is some useful language for making general statements.

It appears that many people prefer to drive themselves to work rather than catch public

transport. It seems that many people prefer to drive themselves to work.

It has been claimed that advances in technology will lead to greater unemployment in the future.

It is often said that this nation does not properly value its artists.

On the whole, childhood obesity is not a serious problem in my country.

As I said previously, you need to give reasons and examples to support your ideas and your

general statements. Here is some useful language for giving reasons.

And here is some useful language for giving examples.

There is also some language you need to avoid. After an expression like 'such as', it is

appropriate to list a couple of ideas but use 'for example', rather than the abbreviation

'e.g' . Another abbreviation to avoid is 'etc'. Even the full word 'etcetera' or expressions such as 'and so on',

are too vague.

We definitely don't want our essays to be vague; instead, it's important that each

paragraph has just one central idea. So when you have finished that paragraph, with a

general statement, a reason and/or an example, it is time to move on to the next paragraph

with a new main idea. Make sure once again, that it's an idea that you have outlined

in your introduction and one that supports your overall argument. Let's take a look

at an example.

So here is the task again.

And here is the introduction. Let's see whether the writer of this example agreed

or disagreed with the statement in the task.

The writer states that 'space exploration programs are a waste of money.' We can see

that the writer's position has been clearly stated and the writer agrees. The rest of

the essay has been outlined and we should expect to see three body paragraphs focusing

on poverty, disease and the environment. Let's take a look.

That looks good. We can see that the body of the essay has three paragraphs and each

paragraph covers one of the ideas outlined in the introduction and there is just one

main idea per paragraph. So we know that the essay has a clear overall position and addresses

the task. Let's have a look at each paragraph in a bit more detail. We want to see a general

statement and that the ideas are supported with reasons and/or examples. We also want

to see that the paragraphs have been linked to each other using cohesive devices. These

work like the glue that sticks them together.

Take a moment to read the general statement and the reason with examples.

In the second paragraph, we can see a link to the previous paragraph. Then, there

is a general statement which is surrounded by examples. In this paragraph we can also

see another sentence supporting the central idea of the essay that governments should

not be spending money on space exploration. Take a moment to read the paragraph.

Here is the third body paragraph and we know it is the last body paragraph as it starts

with the linking phrase, 'Finally, …'. This is followed by the general statement and then

the reason.

As you can see, each paragraph must have just one central idea introduced with a general

statement and then supported by reasons and examples. And each one of these paragraphs

in the body of your essay needs to support the overall position that you have taken. You must

also ensure that you have addressed all of the parts of the question. If you keep all of

these things in mind as you write the body of your essay you should be able to do a good

job of responding to the task.

Cohesion and coherence requires three main things from you; not only do you need to use

paragraphs and link them logically as we have seen in the examples above, you also need

to link the ideas within paragraphs and use a range of cohesive devices appropriately

to do that. Thirdly, you must present a clear, central topic in each paragraph.

Let's look at our sample essay again and examine the use of cohesion and coherence

within the paragraphs.

One of the keys to cohesion and coherence is using a variety of referents, words that

refer to the same thing that allow your paragraph to flow smoothly.

In paragraph one, the central idea is that poverty is a bigger issue than space exploration

and governments should help people living without food and shelter first. The whole

paragraph refers to 'people who are living in poverty'. But each time the writer refers

to them a different expression is used: 'These people', 'They' and '...this problem'. This

demonstrates the writer's ability to use a range of language to refer to the same thing

thus linking the ideas and examples in the paragraph, and making the ideas cohesive.

In paragraph two, the writer has done the same thing for referring to diseases, using

words like epidemics and pandemic.

In the third paragraph there are a variety of referents for the central ideas of the

environment such as 'our own (world)' and the effects of climate change.

What other devices can you use in a paragraph to connect ideas and introduce opposite ideas?

These words and expressions are known as linking devices. We saw some being used between paragraphs

earlier, such as 'Another urgent problem that threatens us all' and, 'Finally'. But within

a paragraph you can also use words like 'Although', 'While' and, 'Instead of' to introduce an

idea that you want to examine both sides of. Like in the first sentence, 'Although we are

living in prosperous times, with people in many countries enjoying a higher standard

of living than ever before, there are still millions of people in the world who are living

in poverty.' The writer admits that many people are not poor and have a high standard of living,

but at the same time there are still many people living in poverty.

And of course, there is also the language you can use to introduce examples and reasons,

such as, 'other diseases' which is then followed by a list of those other diseases, such as 'AIDS' and 'malaria'.

Try to use words and expressions like these to link the ideas between your paragraphs

and in your paragraphs. Remember that variety is the key. Bearing these things in mind will

keep you on track with cohesion and coherence.