How to Structure an IELTS Writing Task 2 Essay

Writing Task 2 asks for a 250-word essay in 40 minutes, and it is worth twice as much as Task 1 in your Writing band score. It is the single highest-leverage part of the Writing section, and it is where most candidates lose their marks to structure rather than to language.

The structure below works for every Task 2 question type. It is not the only structure that works, but it removes structural decisions from the exam, leaving your 40 minutes for thinking and writing.

The four-paragraph structure

Paragraph 1 — Introduction (40-50 words). Two sentences. Paraphrase the question, then state your position directly. Do not open with a general statement about the modern world; it earns nothing and consumes time.

Paragraph 2 — First body paragraph (90-110 words). One idea. Topic sentence stating it, two or three sentences developing it, and a concrete example.

Paragraph 3 — Second body paragraph (90-110 words). A second, distinct idea, developed the same way.

Paragraph 4 — Conclusion (30-40 words). Restate your position in different words. Introduce nothing new.

That is roughly 270 words — comfortably above the minimum, and short enough to finish and check.

How the structure changes per question type

Task 2 questions come in five recognisable forms. The paragraph count stays at four; what changes is what the body paragraphs contain.

Question type	Body paragraph 1	Body paragraph 2
Opinion (agree/disagree)	First reason for your position	Second reason for your position
Discussion (discuss both views)	View one, fairly represented	View two, plus your own position
Advantages / disadvantages	The main advantage	The main disadvantage
Problem / solution	The problem and its cause	The solution and why it works
Two-part question	Answer to part one	Answer to part two

The most common structural failure is answering a discussion question as though it were an opinion question — presenting only your own view when the prompt asked you to discuss both. That is a Task Response failure, and it caps the essay at band 6 no matter how well written it is.

Why Task Response is what holds most candidates back

Writing is marked on four criteria, each worth 25%:

• Task Response — did you answer the question that was asked, fully, with a clear position?
• Coherence and Cohesion — is it organised, and do the parts connect?
• Lexical Resource — range and precision of vocabulary
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy — sentence variety and correctness

Candidates tend to work on the last two, because vocabulary and grammar feel like the things you study. But Task Response is where the structural marks are, and it is scored on things that have nothing to do with your English level:

• Answering only part of a two-part question
• Stating a position in the introduction and drifting to the opposite one by the conclusion
• Writing about the topic rather than about the question
• Under-developing an idea — asserting it without explaining or exemplifying it

Each of these is fixable in an afternoon. None of them is fixable by learning more vocabulary.

Timing that survives contact with the exam

A workable 40-minute split:

• 5 minutes — plan. Decide your position and your two ideas. Write them as four words in the margin. Candidates who skip this write themselves into a corner around paragraph three.
• 30 minutes — write. Roughly 7 minutes per body paragraph.
• 5 minutes — check. Look for your own known errors: articles, subject-verb agreement, plurals, tense consistency.

Write Task 2 before Task 1. Both tasks are in the same 60-minute section with no separate timing, and if you run out of time it should be on the task worth less.

Linking words: fewer than you think

Overusing linking phrases is a well-known way to lower a Coherence and Cohesion score. "Moreover", "furthermore" and "in addition" opening consecutive sentences reads as mechanical, and the criterion explicitly penalises mechanical use.

Aim for one linking device per paragraph, and let the ideas connect through logic and referencing — "this shift", "such policies", "the same pattern" — rather than through signposting.

Practising Task 2 usefully

The difficulty with Task 2 practice is that writing an essay teaches you nothing unless someone tells you which of the four criteria let you down. Ten unmarked essays with the same Task Response flaw simply rehearse the flaw.

Praktis marks Writing practice against all four criteria individually, so you can see whether it is your Task Response, your cohesion, your vocabulary or your grammar that is setting your ceiling — and practise the one that matters. See the plans.