IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures & Idea Generation (NEW)

Have you ever failed the IELTS Writing test but don’t understand why?

For IELTS candidates with the required language ability, generating inappropriate ideas and lack of structure in Task 2 are the main causes.

In this lesson, my unique idea generation strategy and essay structures for IELTS Writing Task 2 will ensure you know how to get a high score in your next IELTS test.

In this lesson, you’ll discover;

• How to Generate Ideas
• 3 Simple IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for any Task 2 question

Generating Ideas to Improve your Task Achievement Score

Before looking at the IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures, you’ll need to know what ideas to include first.

After analysing the question, you’ll know how many ideas you need, and now it’s time to generate those ideas.

IELTS Writing Task 2 planning is more important than any other part of the writing process.

Yes, even more important than writing the actual essay!

If you do this right, you’re almost guaranteed a high score for Task Achievement.

Yet, most IELTS candidates decide to do this in their heads instead of writing an essay plan.

In this part of the lesson, you will learn;

• The importance of planning
• Common mistakes with idea generation
• My idea generation strategy

The importance of planning

If I can convince you to do IELTS Writing Task 2 planning from now on, you will thank me very much on test day.

Firstly, let’s consider how much is required from you. You need to;

• generate the main ideas
• decide if each main idea is relevant
• decide if each main idea is specific
• generate explanations and/or examples for each main idea
• decide if each explanation and example is in the context of the question

If you try to do this in your head, you’ll have to generate all your main ideas, explanations and examples, as well as analyse each one to make sure that they’re suitable, all while trying to remember everything and write your essay at the same time.

Cognitively, that’s a massive task.

Compare that to IELTS Writing Task 2 planning, where you write down your ideas, check them one at a time and don’t have to remember anything.

Also, consider that Cambridge English and British Council have made IELTS teacher resources that include the importance of planning.

In short, IELTS Writing Task 2 Planning results in appropriate ideas, and you have more brainpower to focus on vocabulary and grammar while writing your essay.

Common mistakes with idea generation that reduce Task Achievement scores

Before I show you what to do, we need to look at some common techniques that don’t work.

1. Using ideas you don’t fully understand

If you include an idea that doesn’t make sense to you, it won’t make sense to anyone else.

IELTS doesn’t need you to have special ideas; you just need ideas that make sense.

2. Contradicting yourself

If the question asks you to compare renting a home with buying a home, you can’t say that renting is more expensive in one part of your essay and then say that buying a home is more expensive in another part of your essay.

3. Generating ideas from your imagination

You shouldn’t imagine what life is like in the country you’re moving to or create situations you know nothing about.

You should use your own life experience, knowledge of the world and day to day life in your own country.

4. Feeling obliged to tell the truth

There’s no obligation for your opinions or ideas to be true. They just need to make sense.

So if I got this question in the IELTS test;

Homework should be banned from primary schools.
Do you agree or disagree?

I would write in my essay that I agree because I can think of two main ideas that would be easy to develop;

• the children would have more free time
• the children would focus more during lessons

In reality, however, I actually disagree, but because I can only think of one main idea to support my opinion, I’m going to pretend that I agree.

5. Trying to think of better ideas

Your ideas don’t need to be good, interesting or unique.

As long as each main idea is relevant and specific, they’re appropriate for your essay.

6. Generating ideas that the examiner will agree with

Whether the examiner agrees with your ideas or not is inconsequential.

As long as your ideas directly respond to the question, that’s all that matters.

7. Looking at main ideas in sample answers

Looking at someone else’s ideas will not help you to get better at generating your own.

You need to start practising this before you will improve.

Don’t worry about making mistakes or taking a long time. These things are inevitable when you first start.

Idea generation strategy for perfect Task Achievement

This initially seems like a long process, but once you familiarise yourself with the steps, it only takes 2–3 minutes.

These are the steps;

• Step 1 — Write down potential main ideas
• Step 2 — Consider your vocabulary
• Step 3 — Check if the main ideas are relevant
• Step 4 — Check if the main ideas are specific
• Step 5 — Decide which main ideas you’ll use
• Step 6 — Decide on explanations and examples

We will use this Task 2 question to demonstrate the process;

In some countries, owning a home rather than renting one is very important for people.
Why might this be the case?
Do you think this is a positive or negative situation?

Step 1 — Write down potential main ideas

Just write down any ideas that you think are appropriate.

The next steps are designed to ensure that these ideas are definitely suitable for your essay.

However, don’t waste any time by including ideas that you already know are inappropriate.

Fill out this IELTS Writing Task 2 Planning Template with any ideas that will complete the above sentences;

• Main Idea 1 –
• Main Idea 2 –

Here are all the ideas that I could think of;

• Main Idea 1 — social norms, save money, to live near work, security, more comfortable, the home is yours, economic conditions, it’s beneficial for the buyer, there are many reasons for this
• Main Idea 2 — negative because can’t easily move, too expensive, people buy houses that are too expensive OR positive because more freedom

Normally, you will only have three or four main ideas in the IELTS Writing Task 2 Planning Template, but I have included more to help explain the next steps.

Step 2 — Consider your vocabulary

You might have some great ideas but remember that you have to write in English, not your first language.

If any of these ideas require vocabulary that you don’t know, remove them straight away.

Step 3 — Check if the main ideas are relevant

This can be difficult if you just look at the idea.

Instead, take the topic from the question and combine it with one of your ideas to make a full sentence.

If the sentence makes sense, your idea is relevant.

Here are all the sentences we need to consider for my first main idea;

1. People prefer to buy instead of rent because of social norms.
2. People prefer to buy instead of rent because they want to save money.
3. People prefer to buy instead of rent because they want to live near their work.
4. People prefer to buy instead of rent because it’s more secure.
5. People prefer to buy instead of rent because it’s more comfortable.
6. People prefer to buy instead of rent because the home is yours.
7. People prefer to buy instead of rent because of economic conditions.
8. People prefer to buy instead of rent because it’s beneficial for the buyer.
9. People prefer to buy instead of rent because there are many reasons for this.

By the way, there’s no need to write these sentences down.

This step can be done in your head.

While analyzing the 9 sentences above, I found four sentences that don’t make sense which means that those ideas cannot be used in my essay.

Here are the four irrelevant ones;

• Sentence 3 — ‘to live near work’ — By saying this, I’m implying that only people who buy homes can live near their work and those who rent homes have to live far away from where they work. This doesn’t make sense.
• Sentence 4 — ‘security’ — This implies that burglars usually steal from rented accommodation than homes that are lived in by the owner. This doesn’t make sense.
• Sentence 6 — ‘the home is yours’ — This is an explanation of the word ‘purchase’. It’s not a reason for people wanting to own a home.
• Sentence 7 — ‘economic conditions’ — I need to say why people want to own a home, not how they can afford a home. This is not relevant. People might not have enough money to buy a house, but that doesn’t stop them from wanting to buy one.

Now let’s go through the same process with the sentences for my second main idea;

1. People wanting to buy instead of rent is negative because they can’t easily move.
2. People wanting to buy instead of rent is negative because it’s too expensive.
3. People wanting to buy instead of rent is negative because people buy houses that are too expensive for them.
4. People wanting to buy instead of rent is positive because there’s more freedom.

From this list, the following ideas are irrelevant;

• Sentence 2 might be irrelevant — ‘negative because too expensive’ — This one could be relevant, but for my first main idea, I already said, “People prefer to buy instead of rent because they want to save money.” That means that I’ve said buying a house is cheaper first, and now I’m saying that buying a house is more expensive. I can use either of these ideas, but I can’t use both of them.
• Sentence 3 is irrelevant — ‘negative because people buy houses that are too expensive’ — This is about people buying homes they can afford. This is not connected to the concept of buying a home being better than renting a home. Therefore, this is irrelevant.

Step 4 — Check if the main ideas are specific

Now you need to discover if any of your ideas are too vague.

To find any main ideas that are vague, you need to consider how you will explain them.

If you have a vague idea and I ask you to explain it, you’ll give me a list of specific ideas instead of an explanation.

Let’s try to explain my remaining ideas for the first question;

1. How/Why do social norms result in people wanting to buy their homes?
   The people feel pressure to fit in with the other members of society.
2. How/Why does wanting to save money result in people wanting to buy their homes?
   The money they’ve been using for rent will be invested in their own property instead.
3. How/Why does being more comfortable result in people wanting to buy their homes?
   They can decorate the house in whatever way they like. They don’t need to worry about the landlord visiting.
4. How/Why does being beneficial for the buyer result in people wanting to buy their homes?
   They will be investing money in their own home instead of giving the money to a landlord. They won’t need to move whenever the landlord wants the house back. They can provide more stability for their children.
5. How/Why does there being many reasons result in people wanting to buy their homes?
   Social norms, saving money, freedom to decorate, no surprise visits by the landlord, investing money, knowing that you won’t need to move out, and providing stability for children are reasons people want to buy instead of renting their homes.

As you can see, when I tried to explain main ideas 3, 4 and 5, I actually listed specific ideas instead of explaining.

That means that those ideas aren’t suitable for my essay.

The good news here is that all these unsuitable ideas have resulted in new specific ideas that can be used.

Now we need to follow the same process with my remaining main ideas for the second question;

1. How/why does not being able to easily move mean that buying a house is negative?
   If for some reason you need to move urgently, you need to sell your house first.
2. How/why does more freedom mean that buying a house is positive?
   You don’t need to ask the landlord for permission to have parties. You can decorate the house as you please. You don’t need to share your house with other housemates.

This time, you can see that my explanation for number 2 resulted in a list of specific ideas.

Therefore, that idea can’t be used in my answer, but, again, the new ideas I’ve generated can.

Step 5 — Decide which main ideas you’ll use

Now I have a list of main ideas that are all relevant and specific, so next, I need to choose the ones that I’ll use in my essay.

It doesn’t matter which ones I choose as they’re all appropriate, so I can choose the easiest ones to write about.

Here are the ideas I have left after removing the irrelevant and vague ones;

• Main Idea 1 — social norms, save money, can decorate, no unexpected visits by the landlord, it’s an investment, don’t need to move when the landlord needs the house back, more stability for children,
• Main Idea 2 — negative because can’t easily move OR positive because no permission required for parties, can decorate the house, no housemates

I’m going to select ‘it’s an investment’ and ‘can’t easily move’, which means that my IELTS Writing Task 2 Planning Template now looks like this;

• Main Idea 1 — it’s an investment
• Main Idea 2 — negative because can’t easily move

Step 6 — Decide on explanations and examples

At this point, the fact that you have main ideas that are relevant and specific means that you will get a band 6 for Task Achievement.

To improve your score further, you need to make sure that your explanations and examples are relevant to the context of the question.

Explanations

Where candidates usually go wrong with explanations is they ignore the context of the question.

Let’s take a look at an explanation that’s outside the context of the question;

People prefer to own their home instead of renting one because it’s an investment. Over time, house prices increase and can be sold on the market at a higher price than they were originally bought for.

The above explanation isn’t suitable as I’ve just explained how a profit can be made from buying and selling houses.

What I need to do is explain why buying a house is a better investment than renting one like this;

People prefer to own their home instead of renting one because it’s an investment. Instead of paying money to a landlord and never seeing it again, homeowners have an asset in return for the money they spent.

Ensuring that your explanations are within the context of the question is the most important thing to consider during this step.

For each one, you must refer to the question and ask yourself if it’s actually about the topic or not.

With this in mind, I will add the following explanations to my IELTS Writing Task 2 Planning Template;

• Main Idea 1 — it’s an investment — have assets instead of nothing
• Main Idea 2 — negative because can’t easily move — selling a house takes time

Examples

In the same way, examples also need to be within the context of the question.

However, they also need to sound as though they’ve come from the real world.

A good example sounds like something that has really happened or is really happening.

Compare these two examples;

• For example, if someone rents their accommodation for 20 years, they will have spent the same amount of money as it costs to buy a house.
• For example, in Canada, the money it costs to rent accommodation for 20 years is the same as an average house.

It’s the exact same idea, but the first one sounds like something I just made up, and the second one sounds like it’s based on reality.

The second one is what you should aim for.

So finally, I will add examples to my IELTS Writing Task 2 Planning Template;

• Main Idea 1 — it’s an investment — have assets instead of nothing — the cost of renting over time
• Main Idea 2 — negative because can’t easily move — selling a house takes time — homeowners trying to find work during the Irish recession

And that is a complete essay plan.

As I said previously, this will take some time to get used to, but after four or five attempts, you’ll get faster and more importantly, you’ll have all the ideas you need for a high Task Achievement score.

Of course, after you’ve generated your ideas, you now need to know what to do with them, and that’s when the Task 2 essay structures become important.

Here is a video lesson that reviews what you’ve just learned about generating ideas.

IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures to Improve your Coherence and Cohesion Score

If you can structure your Task 2 essay in the way that IELTS expects, this is the key to a high score in Coherence & Cohesion.

Task 2 questions usually follow the same format, but Cambridge uses questions that are a little bit different on rare occasions.

That’s why my IELTS Writing Task 2 structures can be applied to any Task 2 question, even if you get something new in your test.

The 3 structures are;

• IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for 2 Main Ideas
• IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for 3 Main Ideas
• IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for 4 Main Ideas

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Important Note

When writing your essay, you will always write the first sentence first, the second sentence second, the third sentence third, etc.

However, in this part of the lesson, we will not start with the first sentence because we want to focus on the position of each idea.

IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for 2 Main Ideas

The sample answer below is written in Latin, not English because I want you to visualise where all your ideas belong.

The parts in red represent the three places where your first main idea belongs, and the parts in blue represent your second main idea.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 2 main ideas

Now, let’s fill in the main ideas for the following Task 2 question;

The majority of people find it difficult to speak in public or give a presentation in front of an audience.
Do you think public speaking is an important skill? Should students be taught public speaking at school?

Here are the ideas I generated for this question;

• Main idea 1 — no, because it’s rarely needed
• Main idea 2 — no, because it’s embarrassing

So I will add my first main idea to the parts in red and my second main idea to the parts in blue. You can see this in the text below.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 2 main ideas

In the main body paragraphs, I need to develop my main ideas with explanations and/or examples. This development belongs in the parts of the essay shown in green below.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 2 main ideas

Here is how I intend to develop my ideas;

• Main idea 1 — no, because it’s rarely needed — education and jobs — e.g. job posts
• Main idea 2 — no, because it’s embarrassing — already struggling — videos on social media

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 2 main ideas

So as you can see, the only piece of the structure that’s missing is the first sentence in orange below.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 2 main ideas

In this sentence, we just want to repeat this part of the question;
The majority of people find it difficult to speak in public or give a presentation in front of an audience.

If possible, use your own words, but it’s okay to use some of the words from the question if you can’t think of any synonyms.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 2 main ideas

And this is a perfect essay structure for any IELTS Task 2 questions that require 2 main ideas.

Next, we will look at questions that require 3 main ideas.

IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for 3 Main Ideas

This time, in the text below, you’ll see the location of the first main idea in red, the second main idea in blue and the third main idea in pink.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 3 main ideas

Here is a Task 2 question that requires 3 main ideas;

There are many who feel that public transportation is the best way to commute. Others believe that private transportation such as cars is better.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Here are the main ideas I’ve generated for my answer;

• Main idea 1 — public transportation is better for the environment
• Main idea 2 — private transportation saves time
• Main idea 3 — I like public transportation because it’s cheaper

And you’ll see these inserted in the relevant places below;

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 3 main ideas

Next, we need to develop each of our main ideas. As we have three main ideas, we need less development for each one.

Here is the development that I will add to each main idea;

• Main idea 1 — public transportation is better for the environment — buses carry more people than cars
• Main idea 2 — private transportation saves time — no walking or waiting
• Main idea 3 — I like public transportation because it’s cheaper — the expenses of having a car

You can see that I’ve added each piece of development to the relevant body paragraphs in green below, and I’ve also included the paraphrase in orange.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 3 main ideas

So now you know exactly what a Task 2 essay structure for 3 main ideas looks like.

Finally, we will look at how to structure an essay when 4 main ideas are required.

IELTS Writing Task 2 Structures for 4 Main Ideas

You might think that it’s most logical to include four main body paragraphs, but these would be too short, and therefore, two main body paragraphs is a better option.

Again, I have indicated where to place each main idea in the text below. This time the first is in red, the second in blue, the third in pink and the fourth in purple.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 4 main ideas

Here is a question that requires four main ideas;

Each country has its own traffic laws, such as speed limits, to ensure the safety of its citizens. However, many of these laws are broken every day.
What do you think are the causes of this problem and what measures could be taken to solve them?

And here are the main ideas that I’m going to include in my answer;

• Main idea 1 — save time
• Main idea 2 — complacency
• Main idea 3 — stricter punishments
• Main idea 4 — road safety advertisements

Below you’ll see that I’ve included these in the relevant places.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 4 main ideas

Now that there are four main ideas, we really can’t include much development for each one.

Here is the development that I will include for each main idea;

• Main idea 1 — save time — have a deadline for arrival
• Main idea 2 — complacency — forgot that driving is dangerous
• Main idea 3 — stricter punishments — an extra incentive
• Main idea 4 — road safety advertisements — it worked in Ireland

Below you’ll see the final version of this essay, where I’ve included the development in green and the paraphrase in orange.

Essay structure for IELTS Writing Task 2 with 4 main ideas

And now you know exactly how to answer any IELTS Writing Task 2 question. Well done!

With the above structures, you’re already on your way to a high score for Coherence and Cohesion.

What now?

For Free Live Feedback Lesson on IELTS Writing Task 2, you can sign up here.

Also, you’ll need to start practising the idea generation strategy so that you can easily remember and follow it.

You’ll also need to know the IELTS Writing Task 2 structures off by heart before your test. However, just using these from now on will be enough as you’ll remember them from using them regularly.

Here are some sample questions from reliable sources that you can use for this.

• Sample 1
• Sample 2
• Sample 3
• Sample 4

I also have a video lesson about the essay structures that you might be interested in here.

Once you’re more comfortable with my idea generation strategy, how to plan IELTS Writing Task 2 essays and the essay structures, you can start writing full answers.

I hope you learned a lot from this lesson, and best of luck if your IELTS test is soon!