To what extent do you agree or disagree ielts essay structure

How to answer “To what extent do you agree or disagree?” task 2 questions

Analyze the question – make sure you totally understand what you are supposed to answer.

Spend a couple of minutes reading and underlining the key words.

Some people believe that professional workers such as doctors and teachers should be paid more than sports and entertainment personalities. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion and relevant examples. (Source: unknown)

Determine your position

You can 100% agree, 100% disagree or partially agree

Position: they should be paid more but this is not feasible in the real world

Brainstorm for ideas – aim for at least two ideas for each paragraph

Doctors are vital and deserve a lot of money

Teachers educate our children and also deserve to make a lot

There are valid reasons why entertainers and athletes make a lot of money

Not all singers/ athletes in these professions make large amounts of money

Brainstorm ideas to support your initial ideas

Support can be an example, further explanation, a definition, or any statement explaining why or how your main idea is true.

Support: Doctors save lives and carry enormous responsibility for their patients’ wellbeing

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Planning your essay writing

Introduction

Start by rephrasing the prompt. Make sure you include all the sides of the topic that the prompt addresses.

State your position. If you partially agree you can use a “while” statement: While it is true that doctors and teachers perform priceless services, on the whole I believe that it is impossible for them to be paid what top entertainers are paid.

Your introduction should be 3 or 4 sentences. Do not waste time getting into details in the introduction – save these for your body paragraphs.

There are numerous jobs where it could be argued that people are not paid nearly enough for what they do, as in the case of doctors and teachers. Some, in fact, say they should be paid more than sports or entertainment stars. While I understand the logic behind this, the world works differently and such a shift is impossible.

Essay structure

Start with a topic sentence that introduces the central idea of the paragraph.

Doubtless doctors and teachers deserve to earn a great deal of money for the services they provide.

Introduce your first main idea.

Doctors save lives on a daily basis and take on a great responsibility in caring for their patients and their health.

This is a skill that requires great intellect, arduous studying, and should be compensated accordingly.

Add a second main idea for teachers and include support for this as well.

The important role teachers play can also not be overlooked. Not only do they transmit knowledge to the future generation, but they also are directly involved in the shaping of characters, inspiring new ideas and act as surrogate parents in many instances.

Create a summary statement that is essentially a rephrasing of your topic sentence. Begin this with therefore, thus, or consequently.

Therefore, these roles, the seriousness of which cannot be overstated, establish teachers and doctors as key figures in our society, and they should be reimbursed accordingly.

Task Response

Essays that score well on task response answer the question directly and develop the topic fully. A Band 9 answer leaves no further questions for the reader.

Make sure you don’t over-generalize. Without the words in bold below, the sentence is an overgeneralization.

While there are clearly professions that perform greater services to society than singers and footballers, these typically/ often/ usually/ frequently do not earn a great deal of money for their employers.

Example: Doubtless doctors and teachers deserve to earn a great deal of money for the services they provide. Doctors save lives on a daily basis and take on a great responsibility in caring for their patients and their health. Furthermore, they have undertaken years of arduous study to pursue their profession and commit to lifelong learning in order to stay up to date on therapies and developments in the field. The important role teachers play can also not be overlooked. Not only do they transmit knowledge to the future generation but they also are directly involved in the shaping of characters, inspiring new ideas and act as surrogate parents in many instances. These roles, the seriousness of which cannot be overstated, establish teachers and doctors as key figures in our society, and they should be reimbursed accordingly.

Cohesion

Do not use too many front-position linkers. These are words like Firstly, Furthermore, Moreover, For example. Try to create cohesion with pronouns, synonyms or ellipsis

Example: These roles, the seriousness of which cannot be overstated, establish teachers and doctors as key figures in our society, and they should be reimbursed accordingly.

If you partially agree, make sure the transition between the two body paragraphs is appropriate. Use:

Although the above arguments are valid, on the whole it is also true that…

Having said this, (followed by contrasting statement introducing new paragraph)

Example: Having said this, it must also be said that the above viewpoints regarding salaries are utopian.

If you arguing one side of the argument only, you can use linkers like Furthermore, Additionally (provided you use these sparingly).

Lexical Resource

Use language that is natural but avoid using elementary English like “big, small, good, bad, or nice.”

While topic vocabulary is appreciated, points are scored for the surrounding language you use, like less common collocations.

Years of arduous study

Commit to lifelong learning

Pursue their profession

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Make sure your basic grammar is accurate: tenses, subject-verb agreement, articles, prepositions

Practice using higher level grammar: Not only do they transmit knowledge to the future generation but they also are directly involved in the shaping of characters, inspiring new ideas and act as surrogate parents in many instances.

Conclusion

Keep it brief – 2 sentences should be enough

Start by restating your position. Leave your reader with a general, thought-provoking statement

While ideologically it seems fair that doctors, teachers and other professions that save and shape lives should make more money than those who sing or kick around a ball, the reality of the situation is more complex. Perhaps we should all simply strive to do the best work we can and not concern ourselves with the incomes of others.

Audio tutorial

You can download or listen to the audio version here:

To What Extent Do you Agree or Disagree Writing Topics

These are tricky essays and very important.

SOLVED ESSAY

The government’s investment in arts, music and theatre is a waste of money. Governments should invest these funds in public services instead.

To what extent do you agree with this statement?

It is often argued that the government should finance public services instead of spending its budget on arts, music and theatre. Although I agree that government’s investments in public services play a very important role, I think that proper funding of arts sector is also crucial for the society.

On the one hand, the government should definitely allocate a large part of its budget on public services. This economic sector determines the overall quality of life, ensuring that some basic services, like schools, hospitals and roads, are available to all citizens irrespective of their income or social status. Public services satisfy the primary needs of the society and thus need a proper funding, while artists and musicians are not curing diseases or building houses, so their role is secondary. For example, any country can live without music concerts, but absence of medicine will create significant problems. That is why the government should adequately finance public services in the first place.

On the other hand, arts, music and theatre are not a waste of money, since they are an integral part of the society’s cultural and intellectual development and amusement. Firstly, art and music draw people’s attention to diverse phenomena and represent the inward significance of things. Quite often a single drawing, piece or song can exhort myriads of people to reconsider their attitude towards some situation. Moreover, visiting museums, watching movies and listening to music are common ways of relaxation and entertainment. Thus, art sector is also important for the society and should not be neglected.

To conclude, I agree that the government should allocate a large part of its budget on urgent needs of the society like public services. But, art forms should also be financed since they play an important role in people’s development and entertainment.

It is often argued that the government should finance public services instead of spending its budget on arts, music and theatre. Although I agree that government’s investments in public services play a very important role, I think that proper funding of arts sector is also crucial for the society.

On the one hand, the government should definitely allocate a large part of its budget on public services. This economic sector determines the overall quality of life, ensuring that some basic services, like schools, hospitals and roads, are available to all citizens irrespective of their income or social status. Public services satisfy the primary needs of the society and thus need a proper funding, while artists and musicians are not curing diseases or building houses, so their role is secondary. For example, any country can live without music concerts, but absence of medicine will create significant problems.

On the other hand, arts, music and theatre are not a waste of money, since they are an integral part of the society’s cultural and intellectual development and amusement. Firstly, art and music draw people’s attention to diverse phenomena and represent the inward significance of things. Quite often a single drawing, piece or song can exhort myriads of people to reconsider their attitude towards some situation. Moreover, visiting museums, watching movies and listening to music are common ways of relaxation and entertainment.

To conclude, I agree that the government should allocate a large part of its budget on urgent needs of the society like public services. But, art forms should also be financed since they play an important role in people’s development and entertainment.

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2: Agree or Disagree Essay – Structure and template

One of the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS of an IELTS essay. “To what extent do you agree or disagree? You can FULLY agree, agree BY HALF, or disagree.

One of the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS of an IELTS essay. “To what extent do you agree or disagree? You can FULLY agree, agree BY HALF, or disagree.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?
OR
Do you agree or disagree?

For instance:
After leaving school or university, young people should choose a job or career that they love, rather than one that pays the best salary.
To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Below is an excellent Agreement / Disagree Essay structure.

There are 5 options – choose the one which suits your ideas:

1) IF YOU AGREE (STRONG POSITION)

1§ Introduction: Paraphrase the Task + My Opinion: I agree that … (2 SENTENCES!)

2§ The first reason why I agree + Explanation + Example

3§ The second reason why I agree+ Explanation + Example OR result

2) IF YOU AGREE (BALANCED POSITION)

1§ Introduction: Paraphrase the Task + My Opinion: I agree that … (2 SENTENCES!)

2§ The first reason why I agree + Explanation + Example

3§ The second reason why I agree + Explanation + Example OR result

4§ On the other hand, + why people disagree? + Explanation + Example

5§ Conclusion: sum up the reasons + My Opinion: I agree … (PARAPHRASE THE INTRO) (2 SENTENCES!)

3) IF YOU DISAGREE (STRONG POSITION)

1§ Introduction: Paraphrase the Task + My Opinion: I disagree that … (2 SENTENCES!!)

2§ The first reason why I disagree + Explanation + Example

3§ The second reason why I disagree + Explanation + Example OR result

5§ Conclusion: sum up the reasons + My Opinion: I disagree (PARAPHRASE THE INTRO) (2 SENTENCES!)

4) IF YOU DISAGREE (BALANCED POSITION)

1§ Introduction: Paraphrase the Task + My Opinion: I disagree that …(2 SENTENCES!!)

2§ The first reason why I disagree + Explanation + Example

3§ The second reason why I disagree + Explanation + Example OR result

4§ On the other hand, + why people agree? + Explanation + Example

5§ Conclusion: sum up the reasons + My Opinion: I disagree (PARAPHRASE THE INTRO) (2 SENTENCES!)

5) IF YOU AGREE AND DISAGREE AT THE SAME TIME

2§: What I agree with +The reason(s) why I agree + Explanation + Example

3§ What I disagree with +The reason(s) why I disagree + Explanation + Example OR result

Your point in the first and last paragraph should be as clear as a daylight.

Choose a structure to suit your ideas and topic + what is easier to write personally for you.

This is a band 9 guide to writing agree/disagree essays in IELTS Writing. Agree or disagree essay questions are very common for IELTS Writing task 2. This type of questions asks you to say whether you agree or disagree with a given statement and justify your opinion.

In this lesson you will see IELTS writing task 2 sample question + model answer and learn

IELTS agree/disagree question sample

Let’s look at an example of IELTS writing task 2:

Big salary is much more important than job satisfaction.

Do you agree or disagree?

Provide relevant examples if necessary.

This is a classic example of agree or disagree question that you may get on IELTS Writing task 2.

You can watch our video tutorial on how to tackle agree/disagree questions in IELTS Writing:

Choose your opinion & generate ideas

Agree or disagree question asks you to clearly determine whether you agree or disagree with the statement. Unlike questions that ask you to what extent do you agree or disagree, this question asks you to have a super-clear opinion. After you’ve decided your opinion, generate 2-3 supporting points for it.

For the task above you have two possible options:

 Now let’s generate supporting points for each of the opinions:

For our essay, we’ll choose the second opinion.

Band 9 answer structure

After you’ve decided whether you agree or disagree and generated your supporting points, it’s time to start writing your essay.

There are a lot of ways to structure your essay, but we’ll use a structure that has been approved by many IELTS examiners to be high-scoring and coherent.

Band-9 essay structure:

Let’s take a look at each of these sections in detail.

Introduction

Write your introduction in two sentences:

It is often argued that it is more advantageous to choose a job with high wage, even if it doesn’t appeal to you at all.

I completely disagree with this opinion and think that job satisfaction is much more important than salary.

This sentence should contain the main idea of the whole 1st paragraph. В Use words firstly or first of all to introduce the first reason. In our case we’ll use the reason that job satisfaction gives you a sense of fulfillment:

First of all, I believe that job satisfaction gives people a sense of fulfillment that no money can guarantee.

To explain the reason effectively, you can imagine that your examiner has no knowledge of this subject at all and you have to explain every detail:

Even if someone is earning a high salary, but feels tensed and compromises with his conscience, this person won’t enjoy his life. While pursuing one’s interests will always bring pleasure and feeling of satisfaction.

It’s always good to give examples in your body paragraphs, even if you’re not asked to do it. In our case, the task asks you to provide relevant examples:

For example, a lot of famous researchers made their career choices not because of appealing wages, but because they were passionate about science.

That’s why it’s more important to choose the kind of work that makes you happy than to look only at a high salary.

This statement should contain the main idea of the whole 2nd paragraph. Use words secondly or moreover to introduce the second reason:

Secondly, doing what you like keeps you motivated and therefore leads to a career growth.

In other words, there is a strong relation between job satisfaction and productivity. People who love their jobs can easily excel in their fields of work and achieve better results than those, who put salary on the first place.

For instance, Henry Miller decided to leave his everyday job despite a good wage and ventured to become a writer. And after enduring years of ups and downs he became one of the most famous and well-paid authors of the twentieth century.

Thus, advantages of jobs that keep you satisfied outweigh the drawback of a low salary in a long-term perspective.

Conclusion

You can write the conclusion in one sentence that summarizes your opinion + 2 reasons for it:

To conclude, I strongly believe that job satisfaction is more beneficial than high salary because it makes people happy and motivated.

DO NOT write new ideas in the conclusion!

IELTS agree/disagree model answer

This is a full band-9 answer for IELTS agree or disagree question above:

It is often argued that it is more advantageous to choose a job with high wage, even if it doesn’t appeal to you at all. I completely disagree with this opinion and think that job satisfaction is much more important than salary.

First of all, I believe that job satisfaction gives people a sense of fulfillment that no money can guarantee. Even if someone is earning a high salary, but feels tensed and compromises with his conscience, this person won’t enjoy his life. While pursuing one’s interests will always bring pleasure and feeling of satisfaction. For example, a lot of famous researchers made their career choices not because of appealing wages, but because they were passionate about science. That’s why it’s more important to choose the kind of work that makes you happy than to look only at a high salary.

Secondly, doing what you like keeps you motivated and therefore leads to a career growth. In other words, there is a strong relation between job satisfaction and productivity. People who love their jobs can easily excel in their fields of work and achieve better results than those, who put salary on the first place. For instance, Henry Miller decided to leave his everyday job despite a good wage and ventured to become a writer. And after enduring years of ups and downs he became one of the most famous and well-paid authors of the twentieth century. Thus, advantages of jobs that keep you satisfied outweigh the drawback of a low salary in a long-term perspective.

To conclude, I strongly believe that job satisfaction is more beneficial than high salary because it makes people happy and motivated.

IELTS Agree or Disagree Writing Lesson with a Sample Answer

Agree or Disagree Essays: IELTS Writing Task 2 Lesson

This lesson will teach you how to write ‘agree or disagree’ or ‘opinion’ IELTS task 2 essays that could score a Band 7, 8 or 9.

Agree or disagree question types are one of the most common on the IELTS writing paper, so it’s important that you learn how to write them properly.

In this post we will look at:

We will use a question from an IELTS past paper to help us understand the task.

Structure

Many students fail to do well in this type of question because they do not have a clear opinion and they do not use an appropriate structure.

The best structure you can use for this type of essay is:

Paragraph 1- Introduction

Sentence 1- Paraphrase Question

Sentence 2- Thesis Statement

Sentence 3- Outline Statement

Paragraph 2- Supporting Paragraph 1

Sentence 1- Topic Sentence

Sentence 2/3- Explain Topic Sentence

Sentence 3/4- Example

Paragraph 3- Supporting Paragraph 2

Sentence 1- Topic Sentence

Sentence 2/3- Explain Topic Sentence

Sentence 3/4- Example

Paragraph 4- Conclusion

Sentence 1- Summary and reiteration of your opinion.

That’s it! Four paragraphs.

Note: You don’t have to use this structure and other structures can get you a high score. However, this structure has been approved by IELTS examiners as one that will allow you to write a clear and cohesive essay. This structure will allow you to focus on generating your ideas and then writing an effective essay.

Deciding Opinion

In this essay, IELTS examiners want you to give a clear opinion, so it’s really important for you to make a decision when you read the question. You will also need to do this in order to write an effective thesis statement.

Let’s look at an example:

In some countries, an increasing number of people are suffering from health problems as a result of eating too much fast food. It is, therefore, necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.

Do you agree or disagree?

With this type of essay we have two choices:

Some teachers advise you to partly agree and disagree. However, I would NOT recommend this because it often leads to an essay with NO clear focus and a CONFUSING structure.

Therefore, for this agree or disagree essay you can say either:

I think I will have more ideas for A, so I’m choosing that one. Always choose the one that YOU feel comfortable writing about – even if you don’t personally feel that way. You don’t get extra marks for writing about how you feel, you just want to give the examiner what they need to score your essay a Band 7+.

Idea Generation

Now we have to think of ideas for why governments should tax fast food.

We don’t need to use all of these, just two for our supporting paragraphs. I’m going to pick the first and the fourth ones because I know a little about these two and feel confident I can expand on them with explanations and examples. Remember the examiner wants you to fully support your arguments, not just list a lot of ideas.

Now we have two supporting ideas we can move on to our introduction.

Introduction

As previously stated, we will use the following structure:

Paragraph 1- Introduction

Sentence 1- Paraphrase Question

Sentence 2- Thesis Statement

Sentence 3- Outline Statement

For a more detailed explanation please see our post on writing an effective introduction.

In order to paraphrase the question we simply restate it with a different meaning using synonyms. I will also reorder the question. Here is the question again:

In some countries, an increasing number of people are suffering from health problems as a result of eating too much fast food. It is, therefore, necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.

Paraphrased: It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because the number of health risks associated with consuming this kind of food is on the rise.

This is our first sentence.

We now need to write our thesis statement. This is our opinion in one sentence. This essay will agree with the above statement and will, therefore, look like this:

This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast-food companies.

This is our second sentence.

We now need to write our third and final sentence, which is the outline sentence. This sentence outlines what you will write about in the main body paragraphs.

Firstly, alcohol and tobacco companies already pay higher taxes and secondly, higher taxes could raise prices and lower consumption.

So our full introduction will look like this:

It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because the number of health risks associated with consuming this kind of food is on the rise. This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast-food companies. Firstly, alcohol and tobacco companies already pay higher taxes and secondly, higher taxes could raise prices and lower consumption.

We now need to write our supporting paragraphs for our agree or disagree essay:

Supporting Paragraph 1

This paragraph should include:

A topic sentence tells the examiner what the rest of the paragraph is about. In other words, it is a summary of your first idea. It should look something like this:

Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to be successful at curbing the harm caused by these substances.

We now need to expand on this point a little. A good way of doing this is to assume that the examiner has no knowledge of this subject and you have to explain clearly what you mean. Here is what this could look like:

This revenue has been used to treat health problems associated with these products and has proven useful in advertising campaigns warning people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast food could be used in the same way.

We should now think of an example to support our point. Think about any recent news stories, studies or adverts. If you can’t think of one, make one up. The examiner won’t check if it is real or not.

The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart disease, while at the same time, pumped into health campaigns in schools to warn children about the dangers of smoking.

That’s it. Four sentences. The full paragraph should look like this:

Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to be successful at curbing the harm caused by these substances. This revenue has been used to treat health problems associated with these products and has proven useful in advertising campaigns warning people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast food could be used in the same way. The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart disease.

Supporting Paragraph 2

We now repeat the same formula with our second supporting point- higher taxes will increase prices and reduce consumption.

Our topic sentence:

Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption.

Explaining this further:

Fast food companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices and this would lead to people not being able to afford junk food because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful to the general public’s health.

We now support our point with an example:

For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive for most people and that is why only a small percentage of the population buy it regularly.

The full paragraph would look like this:

Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices and this would lead to people not being able to afford junk food because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful to the general public’s health. For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive for most people and that is why only a small percentage of the population buy it regularly.

Conclusion

As stated before a good conclusion for agree or disagree essays should include:

Sentence 1- Summary of main points

Sentence 2- Your opinion

Don’t write any new ideas in this paragraph.

A good conclusion should just restate your thesis statement and your main supporting points.

In conclusion, junk food should be taxed at a higher rate because of the good precedent set by alcohol and tobacco and the fact that the increased cost should reduce the amount of fast-food people buy.

Agree or Disagree IELTS Sample Essay

It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because the number of health risks associated with consuming this kind of food is on the rise. This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast-food companies. Firstly, alcohol and tobacco companies already pay higher taxes and secondly, higher taxes could raise prices and lower consumption.

Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to be successful at curbing the harm caused by these substances. This revenue has been used to treat health problems associated with these products and has proven useful in advertising campaigns warning people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast food could be used in the same way. The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart disease.

Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices and this would lead to people not being able to afford junk food because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful to the general public’s health. For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive for most people and that is why only a small percentage of the population buy it regularly.

In conclusion, junk food should be taxed at a higher rate because of the good precedent set by alcohol and tobacco and the fact that the increased cost should reduce the amount of fast-food people buy.

I hope you found this ‘agree or disagree’ essay IELTS lesson useful.