Opinion essay – IELTS Writing Task 2

How to write an opinion essay? – IELTS Writing Task 2

IIELTS Writing task-2 has various categories of essays. One of them is an Opinion essay or Agree/Disagree essay. Many teachers have different ways of addressing the essays. I call these essays as “opinion essay”.

Now, to begin with – how should you go about such categories of essays, let’s see some examples from recent IELTS essays:

1. It is better for the young to get advice from older people than young people. Do you agree or disagree?

2. It is too expensive to look after and repair old buildings. This money should be spent on building modern buildings instead. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

3. Some people believe that the whole family (grandparents, uncles, aunts) bringing up children is better rather than only parents. What is your opinion?

So, do you notice that there is something common in all these essays? Yes, if you noticed it, it is the Question Phrase/ Typical Question Words/ Action Words.

Some of the Typical Question Words that are used in these IELTS opinion essays are:

1. What do you think?
2. What is your opinion?
3. Do you agree/disagree?
4. To what extent do you agree?
5. Why do you think this is the case?

Once you read the typical question words, you should be able to clearly comprehend, the kind of essay you are attempting and basis that, you would think of your main ideas of your argument and relevant examples to support them.

Click here for the video lessons and learn how to score more than 7 in IELTS essays.

The typical structure that you can always use when attempting such opinion essays can be:

Introduction – 50 to 60 words

– Paraphrase the essay topic or use a Hook statement to grab the reader’s interest
-Thesis Statement – Give 2 main assertions for why you agree or disagree with the essay topic

Body Paragraph 1 : 75 to 80 words

-Main Idea 1 / Topic Sentence 1 – Why do you agree/ disagree – state your first central idea here-Supporting evidence 1 – Explain the reason why you believe so
-Supporting evidence 2 – State a real-life example or instance to support your previous explanation
-Supporting evidence 3 – Give a result of your example or conclude the paragraph

Body Paragraph 2 : 75 to 80 words

-Main Idea 2/ Topic Sentence 2 – Why do you agree/ disagree – state your second central idea here-Supporting evidence 1 – Explain the reason why you believe so
-Supporting evidence 2 – State a real-life example or instance to support your previous explanation
-Supporting evidence 3 – Give a result of your example or conclude the paragraph

Conclusion – 50 to 60 words

-Summarise the main ideas you wrote above in your own words or paraphrase your Thesis Statement
-State a personal opinion or thought – Write here what do you feel about the topic

Now, if you’ve understood the structure of an opinion essay, it’s time that you start to practise writing opinion essays by your own-self. I have listed some theme based IELTS opinion essays for you.

Essay 1:
It is not necessary to travel to other places to learn about other cultures of other people. We can learn just as much from books, films, and the internet. Do you agree or disagree?Essay 2:
Some people argue that arts, such as paintings and music, are a waste of money and the government should spend this money on other public services. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Essay 3 :
People no longer use newspapers and television because The Internet plays the same role as them. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Essay 4:
People living in the 21st century generally have a better quality of lives than people born in earlier centuries. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Essay 5:
Some people believe that governments should not provide international aid when they have unemployment and homelessness in their country. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Essay 6:
The most important things in life are free of any cost. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Essay 7:
Advertising discourages us from being different individuals by making us all want to be and look the same as each other. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Essay 8:
Some governments spend a lot of public money training up individuals to be successful in international sporting events. Some people believe that this money should be spent on things that will benefit the general public instead. To what extent do you agree or disagree?