Recent IELTS Essay Question: International Aid

This essay question was reported on March 21st. Below is the essay question and ideas to help you write about both sides.

Some people think that famous people’s support towards international aids organisations draws attention to problems, while others think that celebrities make the problems less important. Discuss both sides and give your opinion.

Ideas for and against the involvement of famous people’s involvement in aid work:

Support for famous people’s involvement

  • Famous people draw media attention wherever they go which helps to highlight the aid organisation and the problem.
  • Charities or causes can be made more popular by celebrity involvement.
    • Take Princess Diana as an illustration, she championed the problem of land mines and brought enormous international attention to an otherwise forgotten problem.
  • Celebrities are able to bridge the gap between a tragedy that has occurred in a distant place and bring it into people’s sitting rooms, making the problem seem more real and less remote.
  • Famous people’s words often have more reach and more global identity. They are able to influence people in different countries and cultures all over the world.
  • People are more likely to give donations when they are called to action by their favourite actor or football star. Fans follow the work of their favourite stars and like to get involved in whatever they are doing.
  • Famous voices calling people to action have more power and influence than someone the public have never heard of. In other words, a familiar voice is often more trustworthy and more compelling.

Against famous people’s involvement

  • More media attention may be given to the famous person’s involvement than the actual aid organisation and can draw attention away from the problem itself.
  • Celebrity involvement can make the message shallow coming from a famous star who does not directly work with the charity.
  • Using famous people to draw attention to particular global problems helps to promote world inequality which should be avoided.
  • If the famous person’s image is damaged in the media for any particular reason, it could have repercussions on the charity and the problem. This means the charity becomes dependent on the famous person maintaining popularity which cannot always be guaranteed.
  • Some people may be put off the aid organisations if they do not like that particular famous person.
  • People may lose interest in a charity if the famous person stops their involvement.

Please note that these ideas must be adapted so that they connect directly with the issues in the essay question. You should not copy these ideas word for word. Instead you should take these ideas, write them in your own words and apply them to the specific essay question.

All Essay Ideas for Writing Task 2

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Comments

  1. Senia Flor says

    Hi Liz,
    I just want help on this situation Essay. Honestly, I dont know how to start the second question. Do I need to add another paragraph for it or is it enough to include it in my conclusion part?

    (Other people can help though)

    As most people spend a major part of their adult life at work, job satisfaction is an important element of individual well being.
    What are the factors that contirbute to job satisfaction? — (this I have an idea)
    How realistic is the expectation of job satisfaction for all workers? — (this, I dont have any idea. Should I just include this in the conclusion part?)

    Thanks for your help.
    This will really help me in my struggle with the writing tasks.

    Hope to here from you.

  2. Hey Liz! I think a word “Identify” is a verb but you used it as a noun in several essay idea plans, instead of identity. If I am wrong, could you please explain it?

  3. Catalina says

    I just finished the ielts in a Sydney venue
    Task 1
    Bar graph of recycling percentage between 1992 and 2002 for three different things (glass, paper, cans and I can’t remember the other one hahaha)
    Task 2
    Some educators think that every student of hight school should be sent in a international exchange programs.
    Give your opinion, do you think that the advantages outweigh the drawbacks?

    Thanks Liz for your help, I think that I did ok in writing, however reading was a bit difficult or maybe I found it more difficult because I focused to much on writing, well I will see
    🙂 🙂

  4. Hi Ms. Liz!

    You’re an incredible teacher!
    I passed the writing subtest finally
    despite that I only had 1 day reading
    the topic ideas for task 2.
    It really worked! Thanks a lot!!!!
    Continue sharing the blessing!

  5. Kshama Singhania says

    Hi Liz,
    Can you please see my essay below and tell me what band score can I expect for this?
    Essay topic: Parents and teachers make many rules for children to encourage good behaviour and protect them from danger. However children would benefit from fewer rules and greater freedom. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the above statement? Give Reasons.

    We often see families and teachers make numerous rules for kids to discipline them and safeguard them against dangers. In my opinion if children were granted more freedom and we made to follow lesser rules they may benefit from it more.

    In my opinion, we should set examples in place of restrictions to encourage kids to behave better and be safe. Children tend to do things they are asked not to do. Hence, when we impose rules on them, they either out of their natural instinct to disagree or out of curiosity want to do just the opposite. Especially teenagers while growing up like to be rebellious and think it is fun to break rules.

    I also think that when we set too many guidelines we do not allow the child to make decisions and understand the rationale behind them. In the process we also distance them from ourselves. I feel children should be make aware of results of bad behaviour. By doing this we encourage kids to make more responsible decisions which are well thought through.

    Children also do, not what they are told but, what they are shown. Instead of telling them how and what needs to be done or not done, if parents and teachers illustrate ideal behaviour in various situations, kids will emulate them. If a child is not given greater freedom, they would always have some amount of insecurity and may also feel suffocated and untrusted. Such kids may also not develop confidence to deal with situations independently.

    Overall, I feel that parents and teachers should provide children more encouragement to children to make their own decisions – small and big. They should practice instead of preaching so that kids look up to them and learn. I feel kids would prosper more in an environment where they have lesser rules and more freedom.

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