IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample Essay Examples For Band 7+
The sample task 2 essays on this page are to help you be aware of ideas, grammatical options, vocabulary, and to show you the importance of planning. Each essay has a question analysis and an example essay plan.
Each question and sample essay is presented like this:
So let’s start with the first question 🚀.
Entertainent and Politics - (Double Question Essay)
🤔Which question is asking for your opinion, and which question is just asking you just to comment on the situation as an observer?
🤔What kind of paragraphing and format would be appropriate?
🔍We encourage you to practise analysing the question carefully before clicking on ‘Question analysis’ below.
🔍 The first question is just asking you to give general reasons and to remain objective like an observer. In other words, do not give your opinion or you will lose marks for task response. The second question is asking you for your opinion because you have to make a choice. Is it a positive development or negative?
💡’Double Essay Questions’ can be equally split. One main body paragraph answering the first question, and one main body paragraph answering the second question.
Full Sample Essay
At present, a large number of entertainers within the entertainment industry often make more money than politicians. The key reason for this is that entertainers are free to earn as much as they like whereas politicians work for governments that usually pay fixed salaries. I personally believe this can only be a positive development.
ℹ️ Introduction analysis
💡There are no salary limitations on entertainers whether they are well-known movie stars or local entertainers. Everyone within this industry has the potential to make as much money as they like. ➡️ Fuelling this industry is a high demand for entertainment around the world which results in large sums of available money within this industry. ➡️Hollywood, which is known for its big blockbuster films and budgets, is a prime example of a place where actors are frequently paid substantial salaries within a short period of time.➡️ Conversely, politicians within most democratic countries have fixed salaries that are often published to the general public, and these are usually much lower than most high-profile entertainers.
ℹ️ Paragraph analysis
💡I believe this trend is a positive one because politicians are essentially government workers who are meant to serve the public and improve the society in which they serve. ➡️Their aim and motivation should be focused exclusively on public service and duty, and not on accumulating personal wealth.➡️ Entertainers often, although not always, are talented individuals who work in fields such as music and drama, and they should be able to make use of the demand for their talent and have the freedom to make as much money as they would like.
ℹ️ Paragraph analysis
In conclusion, society always needs to remember that politicians are here to serve and not to make large amounts of money whereas entertainers should have the freedom to become as successful and as wealthy as they would like.
The words in blue are connectors/linking words.
👆Words you can click on, or touch if you are on a mobile, contain information relating to grammar, vocabulary, and cautious language.
⬇️ Below you can see how this essay was planned.⬇️
🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
What are the reasons for many entertainers making more money than politicians?
Idea: Entertainers can make as much as they like (they have no limitations) whereas politicians (in most democratic societies) have fixed salaries.
Idea: There has been a steady rise in demand for entertainment ➡️ Entertainers make more money as the demand rises.
Is it a positive or negative development? (Opinion)
Idea: It is positive because politicians are civil servants. They should be here to serve us, the public.
Idea: Entertainers, on the other hand, are not required or obliged to serve ➡️ They can earn a limitless amount of money.
✅It is a positive development
💡Idea development:
Once you have an idea you feel is relevant and can be developed, then try to develope your ideas using the techniques below.
🗒️Idea developer
Paragraph 1 (Reasons)
💡IDEA : No salary limitations on entertainers ➡️well-known or local.
➡️EXPLAIN: This industry has a very high demand ➡️lots of money available.
➡️EXAMPLE: Hollywood ➡️ The prime place where actors can make substantial sums of money.
➡️ POINT BACK TO THE TASK: Politicians have limited/fixed salaries ➡️ This is the main reason they do not make as much as high-profile entertainers.
Paragraph 2 (Why it is a positive development?)
💡IDEA : It is a positive development because politicians are here to serve us/public service. (Entertainers are free to make limitless amounts of money).
➡️EXPLAIN: Politicians main motivation should be on service not making money.
➡️POINT BACK TO THE TASK: Entertainers (examples = music/drama) should be able and free to make a lot of money. (Explains why this is a positive development)
✅All ideas are clearly explained.
⚠️Please do not try to memorise the sentences in these sample essays. ⚠️
Drug addiction and the prison system - (Opinion Essay Question)
🤔Can you separate the facts in the question from the opinion that you have to agree or disagree with?
🤔What kind of paragraphing and format would be appropriate?
🔍 ‘Opinion Essays’ present an opinion in the question, and you have to give your opinion. It is essential that you can separate the different parts of the question. It is common to see students make the mistake of agreeing or disagreeing with whether ‘drug addiction has become a major problem in the world’.
💡Our recommended essay format for this type of question would be to state your opinion in the introduction and present a ‘fully agree’ or ‘fully disagree’ essay. Write two main body paragraphs that explain your reasons for fully agreeing or disagreeing.
🔍When you first practise planning your task 2 essays we recommend you take as long as you need. As you get better at this technique your time will come down to 40 minutes.
Full Sample Essay
Full Sample Essay
Drug addiction is a serious global issue that can be found in most countries. The proposed idea of sentencing drug users to prison automatically in the hope of reducing addiction is something I strongly disagree with because it would be highly ineffective at lowering addiction rates.
ℹ️ Introduction analysis
💡Firstly, what is important to understand is that not all drugs are classified the same, and therefore sending individual users to prison for soft drug usage could soon flood the prison system.➡️ A hard drug like heroin is not comparable to a softer drug such as cannabis or ketamine. Soft drug usage is extremely widespread in a number of countries such as the Netherlands and Canada, so implementing such a strict law has the potential to overwhelm prisons, which are already stretched to full capacity.➡️ For that reason, a separation needs to be made between hard drugs and soft drugs as sentencing soft drug users is extremely likely to cause unnecessary chaos.
ℹ️ Paragraph analysis💡Even though automatic punishment for users of hard drugs is common in some countries, it is still highly ineffective because prisons are often the place where heavy drug use is frequently found.➡️ The idea that prison time would cure users of their addiction has been proven to be unsuccessful because so many users reoffend with drug related crimes after being released.➡️ Furthermore, it is not uncommon for prisoners to make strong connections with people within the drug world while inside prison. These individuals might have had the chance to break their addiction if they were never sentenced in the first place.
ℹ️ Paragraph analysisTo conclude, overcoming drug addiction is not easy, and we often forget users become addicted because of trauma and other hardships that could happen to anyone. Therefore, the automatic sentencing of any drug user is clearly not the answer to lowering drug addiction.
ℹ️ Conclusion analysis🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
Idea = Soft and hard drugs are not the same ➡️ needs to be understood
Idea = Sending users of soft drugs (which are so common) automatically to prison could flood the prison system. ➡️ ineffective solution
Idea = Prisons are frequently filled with drug users ➡️ not the best place to help addicts. (Drug dealers are different to users).
Idea = The reoffending rate is high (prison not a good solution to rehabilitate drug addicts)
Idea = Easy to make connections with people in the drug world while in prison.
✅Strongly disagree with the idea in the question.
🗒️Essay Plan
Paragraph 1 (Idea for disagreeing)
💡IDEA : Not all drugs are the same ➡️this action would overwhelm prisons.
➡️ EXPLAIN: Hard drugs/Soft drugs (Examples)
➡️ EXPLAIN/EXAMPLE: Soft drugs are so common (The Netherlands/Canada)➡️ Do not need to punish so severely ➡️ Prisons are already overstretched/full.
➡️ POINT BACK TO THE TASK: Therefore, I disagree because this idea because it would cause chaos.
Paragraph 2 (Extra idea/s for disagreeing)
💡IDEA : Even though hard drug users are punished severely in some countries, this is still an ineffective approach.
➡️ EXPLAIN: Because hard drugs are so common in prisons ➡️ This is not the place to help them heal.
➡️ EXPLAIN: Prisoners can easily make connections with other drug users.
➡️ POINT BACK TO THE TASK: Drug users have a much better chance of breaking their addiction with other approaches, not prison.
✅Ideas flow clearly – Everything is connected.
Vegetarian diets - (Discussion Sample Essay)
🤔What needs to be discussed?
🤔What kind of essay format would be appropriate?
🔍 You need to think about why some people have this view. Ask yourself:
Why do some people believe a vegetarian diet is better for their own health and the world?
It is important to notice keywords in the question:
▪️ ‘their own health’ / ‘benefits the world as a whole’
Remember to make sure you look at both these areas in your answer, otherwise you will not be fully answering the question.
💡There are different techniques to writing ‘discussion essays’/ We recommend this format:
Full Sample Answer
A number of individuals have decided to adopt a vegetarian diet and not consume meat or fish at all. This choice is often made to improve physical and mental health as well as taking small personal steps to help the planet. I agree with this view, and believe vegetarianism is beneficial in terms of health and has the potential to make the world a better place.
💡Some people argue that their physical well-being is improved by avoiding meat and fish. A common argument given is that large-scale commercial farming often uses steroids and other chemicals to produce larger poultry, and farmed fish.➡️ This process, which is highly unnatural, is seen as something to be avoided by plenty of vegetarians. 💡Likewise, a number of people also avoid meat and fish to feel better mentally as many believe that it is morally wrong to kill animals and use them as a source of food.➡️ This is a very widely held belief in India where mostof the Hindu population do not consume meat or fish for this exact reason.
💡In addition, those who follow a vegetarian diet often believe global problems such as greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered by reducing the number of cows that release methane gas into the atmosphere. ➡️ They argue that methane levels contribute more to global warming than most people are aware of, and if consumers had a vegetarian diet, it could significantly reduce the need to breed more cows and subsequently reduce methane.
In conclusion, it is understandable why some people decide to have a vegetarian diet as it does seem to promote personal health. Personally, I believe that if we avoid unnecessary chemicals found in meat and fish by becoming vegetarian, we can choose a healthier lifestyle in addition to playing a small part in helping the wider world.
🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
Using this kind of flow diagram is good for developing your ideas:
✅Confident that these ideas relate very well to the task+✅ Agree with this view.
🗒️Essay Plan
Paragraph 1 (Why do some people think vegetarianism is better for their health?)
💡IDEA : Physical health ➡️ Commercial farming often uses steroids and chemicals.
➡️EXPLAIN: Very unnatural ➡️ people want to completely avoid.
💡IDEA: Mental health ➡️Some think it is morally wrong to kill animals for human consumption.
➡️EXAMPLE: India ➡️ most Hindus are vegetarian.
Paragraph 2 (Why do some people think it is better for the world?)
💡IDEA : Greenhouse gas emissions can be lowered ➡️cows produce methane gas which causes greenhouse gas.
➡️EXPLAIN: If people were vegetarians, there would be less cows➡️less methane gas➡️a better world.
✅A good plan. Ideas are explained well.
Online meeting - (Advantages/Disadvantages Essay)
🤔What kind of paragraphing and format would be appropriate?
Full Sample Essay
At present, and especially after the Covid pandemic, online business meetings are gaining popularity all over the world. While there are benefits such as convenience and saving money, there are also drawbacks such as the lack of opportunity to build deeper social relationships and technical difficulties.
💡One strong advantage of having business meetings online is the convenience they bring to companies that host the meetings.➡️ The simplicity of remaining in your own office combined with the high quality of video calls makes communication effective and much easier than meeting face-to-face in many circumstances.💡 Another advantage is the money saving opportunity online meetings offer.➡️ Before the internet, people’s only choices were to either speak on the telephone, which is limited to one-to-one conversations, or to meet face-to-face. Meeting face-to-face can be costly on a local level, and extremely costly on an international level.
💡Although online business meetings have advantages, there are disadvantages such as the lack of being able to build deeper relationships between colleagues.➡️ Good business relationships usually depend on trust and familiarity. If meetings are exclusively held online, then it is unlikely that relationships will deepen between those doing business. This is in contrast to traditional meetings in which there are usually business lunches or other social opportunities for business partners to become more familiar and friendly with each other.💡 Other drawbacks of online meetings are the technical issues that often occur. ➡️Even though most companies usually have sufficiently strong internet connections for video calls, this quality is never guaranteed because not everyone in the meeting may have reliable connections, or problems with software may also cause delays.
In summary, the trend towards having online business meetings is clearly growing as the quality and reliability of these meetings has improved significantly in recent years. However, traditional meetings also have specific qualities that would be hard to reproduce in the virtual world.
🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
It is good to make a list with ‘advantage/disadvantage’ questions.
✅Balanced ideas on both sides
Cause/Solution Sample Essay (5)
🤔What kind of paragraphing would be appropriate?
💡One main body paragraph should present the causes and the other main body paragraph shoud present the solutions.
Full Sample Essay
In a number of nations, the average health and fitness of people seems to be declining and levels of obesity are rising. Possible causes could stem from a lack of awareness of good dietary knowledge and not knowing the importance of exercise and fitness from a young age.
💡Many youngsters often seem to lack basic skills and knowledge when preparing and cooking healthy and tasty meals.➡️ This lack of knowledge can lead many to think that healthy food is uninteresting or boring which may result in an over-reliance on unhealthier fast food. 💡Similarly, schools, which often lack large budgets, do not seem to be promoting fitness and exercise enough to children.➡️ Thus, many children remain unaware of physical activities and sports that may interest them and could help them to maintain their health and fitness levels.➡️ Due to this lack of early education, children may go into adulthood uninformed, which seems a primary cause for obesity and health related problems.
There are some realistic solutions to educating people in both areas.💡 Firstly, if adolescents were given sufficient practical training and knowledge about what a balanced diet should contain, this could have a positive effect on them for the rest of their lives.➡️ This could involve more fun and appealing cooking classes for youngsters which could show them how to make healthy and delicious dishes from around the world. 💡In terms of fitness, there could be better facilities and opportunities for students if more government spending went towards schools.➡️ Showing young people a wide variety of fun, exciting, and healthy pursuits could affect them greatly and help to inspire students to become more active, and ensure a healthier and less overweight population in the future.
💡Note
In conclusion, tackling the health of a country’s citizens is not an easy task. However, education at a young age seems to be a solution that has the potential to help people remain healthy throughout their lives.
🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
✅Both parts of the question are answered (people are more overweight/decreased fitness/health) + The solutions relate to the causes
🗒️Essay Plan
Paragraph 1 (What are the causes of an increase in weight and a decrease in health and fitness?)
💡IDEA : Lack of awareness/skills for cooking at a young age.
➡️EXPLAIN: This lack often makes youngsters think healthy food is boring➡️ reliance on fast food.
💡IDEA: Schools do not promote fitness and health enough. Why?
➡️EXPLAIN: Not enough funding from the government. ➡️Children are often unaware of the wide range of physical activities available.
➡️POINT BACK TO THE TASK: Children can grow up unaware and uninformed➡️One main cause of obesity/lack of fitness.
Paragraph 2 (What are some solutions to this?)
💡IDEA : Practical training (cooking/preparation) should be given to children ➡️This will help them throughout their lives➡️Keep things fun.
➡️EXAMPLE: Learn how to make healthly dishes from around the world.
💡IDEA : More government spending to help promote fitness in schools.
➡️EXAMPLE: This would show young people options and may inspire them to become more active in the future.
✅The solutions given directly answer the causes.
Advantage/Disadvantage Opinion Type (6)
International tourism has become a huge industry the world. Do the advantages of international tourism outweigh the disadvantages?
Full Sample Essay
While global tourism is, for most countries, a major source of economic income, and offers travellers an insight into different cultures, there are drawbacks such as bad tourist behaviour and over-tourism. Personally, I believe the benefits of international tourism strongly outweigh any drawbacks.
💡The pleasure and relaxation tourists get from visiting other cultures than their own is enriching and essential for most.➡️ This industry helps many people, who spend a large part of their lives working, to forget about their work, and gain new insightful experiences in a wide range of destinations.💡 In addition, for some countries, international tourism is a primary source of income for the local population and for the economy of the host country itself.➡️ Local vendors, restaurants, and hotels in countries like Malta and the Maldives are heavily reliant on the money tourists spend.➡️ This money is then taxed and the government of the country also makes a considerable amount in tax revenue.
💡Even though international tourism has such strong benefits, there are downsides to consider such as over-tourism, which is a problem in popular destinations.➡️ Venice is a good example of a place where local residents are often annoyed by vast numbers of tourists that seem to completely take over the city. Noisy, and sometimes rude or disrespectful behaviour can also contribute to a negative feeling towards tourists.💡🔄 Despite this, the economic advantage these tourists bring to a city like Venice greatly outweighs any negative aspects because so much of the city’s income depends on the money tourism brings.
To sum up, although international tourism does have notable downsides, the reality is many countries would lose a sizeable portion of their income if these visiting tourists no longer came. For this reason, I believe the advantages of global tourism clearly outweigh any of its disadvantages.
Full Sample Essay
🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
After brainstorming, you can choose the side that has more/stronger arguments:
✅The essay plan shows that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages
Opinion Example Essay (7)
Many people think that businesses should provide employees with exercise time in the working day.
What is your opinion on this?
This question requires you to think and plan carefully.
💡With opinion essays (agree/disagree), we recommend agreeing or disagreeing fully. Please read our guide on opinion essays here, which explains why and gives further information.
Full Sample Essay
There are a number of individuals who believe companies should introduce periods of exercise during a working day. I believe this could be a beneficial idea for certain kinds of job as it has the potential to reduce stress, increase productivity, and decrease costs relating to employee healthcare.
💡A large number of workers around the world work long hours in offices, and this often results in workers being unable to find any opportunity to exercise outside of the workplace. Therefore, providing some type of exercise room could be highly beneficial in order to reduce the pressure and high levels of stress that are commonly found within these working environments. ➡️Introducing short periods of exercise, which could be as short as fifteen minutes, would not be difficult to implement for most companies. ➡️Furthermore, exercise equipment such as running machines and exercise bikes are fairly inexpensive and do not require a large amount of space to set up.
💡Having healthy workers for any company is positive and productivity is likely to be increased with those who are in good mental and physical shape. ➡️Moreover, this approach could also save the company a great deal of money in the long term if their employees have private company healthcare. Healthcare insurance can be very costly for a company when less healthy staff make a lot of insurance claims. ➡️ However, if staff are healthier due to the additional exercise they take at work, this would mean less healthcare insurance payments from the company.
To conclude, I believe larger businesses that have the financial resources and space should provide time for employees to exercise during the day, but this always has to be optional and never forced upon employees.
🗒️Idea pad of possible ideas
✅Practice asking questions to yourself – How would this work? How would people benefit? Is this a realistic idea?
🗒️Essay Plan
Paragraph 1 (Reasons for agreeing)
💡IDEA : Many workers work long hours/no opportunity to exercise➡️Exercise rooms are a good idea.
➡️EXPLAIN: They can help to reduce stress + Easy to set up.
➡️EXAMPLE: Exercises bikes/Running machines (cheap)
Paragraph 2 (More reasons to agree)
💡IDEA: Workers who are healthy can increase productivity+lower company costs.
➡️EXPLAIN: Healthy workers are happier+ private company healthcare is expensive for many companies ➡️Healthier workers could lower this cost (less healthcare insurance claims).
✅Good reasons are presented to agree with the idea presented in the question.
