In my last post Best IELTS essay planning – Introductions , I looked at a simple formula I tell students to use for writing introductions.

Let’s re-cap the structure of an IELTS essay.  It is divided into three parts:

•    The introduction

•    The body text

•    The conclusion

When planning your essay, you need to be aware of what points you will put into each of these sections.

In this post, I’d like to look at the body text of your IELTS essay in greater detail.

The Body

Globalisation has meant that technology is developing very quickly all over the world.  Some people believe that these technological developments will result in a loss of traditional cultures as technology and tradition cannot co-exist. It is my belief that with sensitivity and careful planning, humankind can enjoy the benefits of technology without sacrificing our traditional cultures.

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Attitudes to smoking have changed very much over the last thirty years.  One result of this is that some companies do not permit smoking on their premises and that some governments have forbidden smoking in public places.  Many people are in favour of these smoking regulations but are also concerned that it means a loss of some of our freedom. In my view, these types of rules and laws related to smoking do not take away from our freedom at all.

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First of all, as can be seen in the two introductory paragraphs above, the final sentence of the introduction leads naturally into the first body paragraph.

The main body of your IELTS essay needs to have at least two paragraphs and these paragraphs will discuss BOTH views in the task. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and supporting evidence.

As discussed in my post The Importance of Paragraphs in IELTS Writing, the topic sentence of each body paragraph should state the main idea of the paragraph.  The following sentences need to be relevant to the main idea / topic of the paragraph.  Any new ideas that are introduced must be supported with further detail or examples.

The final sentence of each body paragraph usually completes the main idea of that paragraph.

As I discussed in my post Argument Essay Plan for IELTS Writing Task 2 , IELTS Writing Task 2 questions fall into two basic question types; argument essays and accounts.

If the question requires an argument essay, remember that you need to include a paragraph which states and refutes the opposing side of the argument, in order to write a balanced essay.

Some ideas for refuting the other side of the argument could be that the opposing argument does not contain all the facts or that it is simply a weaker argument than yours (you must say why!).

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As I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information in one post, I will discuss writing conclusions in my next post.

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Here’s to the best IELTS score possible!