This page contains a model essay and a long list of useful tips to help you develop your IELTS writing task 2 skills.

Essay Question

Some people think that watching TV causes weight problems in children. Do you agree with this view? What solutions can you suggest to tackle children’s weight problems?

Model Essay

It is thought by some people that weight problems in children are caused by watching TV. While I agree that excessive hours in front of the TV can contribute to this problem, diet also plays a role. Furthermore, weight problems can only be dealt with by tackling the issues behind them.

Firstly, I think that although watching TV in itself does not actually cause children to gain weight, spending too much time each day sitting in front of the TV without doing exercise can result in weight problems. In other words, inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle are directly linked to problems with obesity. Secondly, however, weight problems are also compounded by poor diet consisting of a lack of healthy meals and too much processed foods containing high levels of fats and sugars. This comes from both children and parents making poor dietary choices which lack fresh wholefoods. Both lack of exercise and poor diet directly contribute to weight problems in children.

There are two obvious solutions to dealing with childhood obesity. One answer is to reduce the amount of inactivity in a child’s life by cutting out hours spent either watching TV or on electronic devices, and use that time to participate in physical activities. By doing this, children will burn off excess calories which will drastically reduce their weight. Altering a child’s diet is another measure that can be taken to tackle this issue. Parents should be more proactive in producing healthier meals and reducing the amount of junk food available in the house. It might also be sensible to encourage children to take part in the cooking process which ought to ensure they grow up being able to produce their own balanced meals.

In conclusion, by introducing children to sports and other physical activities as well as providing them with a better diet, these measures can counteract the causes of childhood obesity.

Useful Tips

I have written these tips to help you with your essay. 

The tips have two aims:

• To help you understand my model essay above.
• To help you understand some of the problems with your own essay. I have read the essays you posted and I have put advice which will relate to many of you below.

Tips for IELTS Essays

1. There are two tasks in this essay question.
   1. You must give your opinion as to whether watching TV causes weight problems. 
   2. You must present solutions to the problem of childhood obesity.
   3. Both of these tasks carry equal weight.
2. Your introduction should not be long. Your conclusion should not be long. The high scores for writing task 2 are in the body paragraphs. See my essay above to assess the length and balance of the essay.
3. Because you have two tasks, you will use one body paragraph for your opinion and one body paragraph for the solutions. This is logical organisation and logical paragraphing.
4. Your opinion about TV causing weight problems should be given in the introduction and explained in body paragraph 1.
   1. A complete agreement with the statement would mean you agree that watching TV causes weight problems for children.
   2. A partial agreement would be that it does to some extent but there are other possible reasons or reason.
   3. It is always wise to address the fact that watching TV is not a problem in itself – it is the amount of time doing so that is the problem. This is an important aspect of the essay question that needs to be addressed if you are aiming for a high score. High band scores will require you to intelligently assess the issue or issues in the question.
   4. Your opinion which is about causes is body paragraph 1. You do not have a separate body paragraph with your opinion.
5. Expressing your Opinion
   1. The words “This essay will …” or “This essay agrees …” does NOT express your own personal opinion. If you have done that, you will have failed to follow the instructions which require a direct personal opinion from you. This will lower your score.
   2. To express your own personal opinion, you MUST use “I” or “My”.
6. If you have two causes and two solutions of childhood weight problems, you should make sure both causes and both solutions are easy to identify in the body paragraph. This means using linking words or signposts. Check my essay above and see how I do this. If you didn’t do this, you should consider more about your use of linking. This will be assessed by the IELTS examiner.
7. The solutions to the problem given will appear in the second body paragraph. 
8. You cannot have more than 3 body paragraphs in an IELTS essay. Each body paragraph should be of equal length (roughly). This is because each main point must be equally developed for a high score.
9.  Vocabulary
   1. You need to avoid inappropriate and informal language, such as the word “kids” which is informal. That word can be used in IELTS speaking, not in IELTS writing.
   2.  The words “children” and “child” will be repeated. It is 100% fine to repeat some words in the English language. Paraphrasing is not about changing all words, all the time. It is about choosing which words to change and which words NOT to change.
   3. Don’t use expression such as “I want to say that..”. This is too informal for an IELTS essay.
10. Choose the information you present in your essay carefully.
    1. If you want to write about meal times. Do not give a list of times (for example breakfast 7-9am). Instead, write that meal times should be at a scheduled time each day to provide routine. Think about what your point really is.
    2. Don’t write a list of junk food. If you use the word junk food, you do not need to give examples of it. The examiner knows the meaning of junk food. Examples are used to illustrate a point to make it clearer. The words “junk food” do not need explaining.
    3. Don’t give examples of video games or online gaming. The examiner does not need that information to understand your point.
    4. You do not have to start your examples with “A recent survey..”. The examiner does not care where your ideas or information come from.
11.  Conclusion
    1. If you miss the conclusion, you will automatically get a reduced score for Task Response which is 25% of your marks.
    2. Always start your conclusion with a useful linking device. It helps the examiner locate your vital conclusion.
12. Make sure you essay is below 300 words and between 260 and 290 words. My model above is 302 which is slightly over, but as I am a native speaker and highly experienced with IELTS I will not penalise myself for this 🙂

I hope you found this exercise useful. I hope the tips will help you develop your writing skills for IELTS.

Thank you for posting your essays. Some of the sentences and paragraphs you have written may be used in the new Grammar E-book I am compiling. Without your name or details mentioned of course.

All the best

Liz

Below are answers for yesterday’s reading passage: Death of the High Street Lesson

If you haven’t done the lesson, please complete it before looking at the answers. Click here: Reading Lesson Death of the High Street.

Answers

1. A = 3
2. B = 5
3. C = 1
4. D = 2
5. E = 4
6. triggered = spurred
7. combine = couple that
8. expendable = disposable
9. soar = shoot up
10. discouraging = deterring
11. imminent = looming
12. boost = injection

I hope you found this lesson useful 🙂

All the best

Liz

Hi guys,

I have posted some model background statements on the original page. I also added a list of tips to help you learn the correct way to write for IELTS.

Click here: Background Statement Model Answers.

Sorry for posting this late.

All the best

Liz

Hi guys,

I’ve posted a model answer for the Diagram about Sand Dune Formation on the original page. Click here: Sand Dune Diagram Model Answer & Tips

All the best

Liz

Hi,

There are a lot of people taking their test tomorrow, December 1st. I want to wish you all lots of luck in your test !!  Also good luck to anyone sitting their test today !!  🙂

See my “On the Day Tips” which cover basic tips and also tips for listening, reading, writing and speaking. Click here: IELTS On the Day Tips

Good luck! 🙂 I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you all 🙂

Liz

The answers are now available for this lesson.

Please go to the original page, to see the transcript, answers and useful vocab which have been posted under the diagram. Click here: IELTS Listening Diagram Exercise

I hope you found this lesson useful 🙂

All the best

Liz

 

Below you will find questions, transcript and answers for the listening exercise of Future Libraries.

I included the audio on this page so that you can listen and read the transcript at the same time. This is a great way to check your answers and also improve your pronunciation.

Questions 1-5: No more than two words and/or a number.

1. Libraries provide creative spaces and learning ………..
2. Libraries can help to improve technological ……….. in society.
3. ………… to any given book becomes possible using Library Bookmark.
4. Patrons would be able to receive books at home using …………….
5. Fingerlink allows the user to combine …………….. with a printed book.

Source: Information was taken from ebookfriendly.com. Their article contained more ideas for this topic so take a look.

Transcript

Today, libraries are not only about lending books. They are creative spaces, not only for individuals, but also teams. They are economic incubators and learning hubs. Most of all, the libraries are the entry points to the digital world. They are the way to embrace technology and avoid digital exclusion. Therefore, to improve technological literacy of local communities, libraries should be equipped with relevant technologies.

Here are some suggestions for future improvements of technology in libraries:

1. Library Bookmark: First of all, the device would be a perfect companion when navigating through the library, by giving turn-by-turn directions to the book the patron wants. The device could also keep track of all borrowed books, as well as remind the user of the return dates.
2. Delivery Drones: To get the book from a library, you can either go and find it, or you can let it find you. The future belongs to the unmanned flying machines, and just like Amazon drones can deliver the goods to customers, libraries could deliver the books to patrons.
3. FingerLink: It is a project currently developed by Fujitsu that will let you use digital tools to work with a printed book. It’s a stand you can put on a library desk. It includes two elements: a camera to read the information from the real world, and the projector to display digital information in the real world.

Answers

Spelling must be correct to have the answer marked correct. Using all capital letters is recommended for listening and reading answers.

1. HUBS
2. LITERACY
3. NAVIGATING
4. (DELIVERY) DRONES
   1. Brackets are used in the answer key of test books to show possible answers. In this case, it is possible to have the answer “drones” or “delivery drones”. You cannot use brackets in your test – you must choose only one answer.
   2. It is not possible to have “flying machines”. The paraphrase of drones is actually “unmanned flying machines” but it contains 3 words which goes over the word count limit.
5. DIGITAL TOOLS

All the best

Liz

For more IELTS preparation lessons, click on the RED BAR at the top of the website and access hundreds of free lessons, tips, model answers etc.

Below are the answers with a pronunciation audio to the lesson about zoos that tested your ability to spot spelling mistakes.

If you have not completed this lesson yet, please do so before looking at the questions. Click here to complete the lesson: Spelling Practice Lesson

There are 14 spelling mistakes in the paragraphs. Check your answers below and listen to the recordings at the same time to improve your pronunciation. The words spelled incorrectly have been highlighted.

Paragraph 1

 

There are a number of reasons why it is wrong to put wild animals in zoos. Firstly, wild animals are not domisticated (domesticated) and should be free to rome (roam) around their natural habitate (habitat). Putting them in confinned (confined) spaces in zoos means that they will never be able to return to the wild again. Secondly, animals have natural instinkts (instincts) which they develop from living in the wild and pass down to their own off spring (offspring). These instincts will gradually fade and never return if they are kept in capivity (captivity).

Paragraph 2

On the other hand, keeping animals in zoos does serve some useful porposes (purposes). Zoos can serve a way to protect indangered (endangered) species. Many species are facing dwinling (dwindling) numbers due to the distruction (destruction) of their habitat or from disease so by keeping them in zoos, they are protected from extinction. Another reason why zoos can be useful is that they can serve as a way to educate the public. Most people will never come into contract (contact) with such a range of species in their lives. So, by having zoos, people are able to experiance (experience) seeing them and also learn about them. Hopefully this will help with the pretection (protection) of animals in the future as people will learn to appreciate animals.