Essay Writing Tips

1. Đoạn văn thân bài 1:

1.1. Câu chủ đề (Topic Sentence):

Nên mở đầu câu topic sentence bằng một Linking word. Một số ví dụ:

– First/ Firstly/ First of all,…

– In the first place,..

– First and Foremost,…

– To begin/start with,…

Sau đó, bạn bắt đầu viết phần chính của câu chủ đề đầu tiên. Một số mẫu câu:

– What is of utmost importance is…

– What should be the priority is…

– What holds the most importance is…

Sau các mẫu câu đó là một cụm danh từ (Noun Phrase)

Ví dụ: “Happiness is considered very important in life. What are the best ways to be happy?”

Đoạn thân bài đầu tiên sẽ mở đầu bằng: “To begin with, what holds the most importance is a positive attitude to life”

Tuy nhiên, bạn cần linh hoạt trong việc thay đổi cấu trúc câu, vì trên hết, đây cũng chỉ là những gợi ý.

1.2. Các câu văn sau

Được viết dựa trên ý kiến chủ quan của cá nhân. Tuy nhiên, để đạt được hiệu quả, bạn cần lưu ý cách sử dụng các Linking words. Linking Words nên đặt đầu mỗi Supporting Ideas, không nên đặt đầu các ý mở rộng.

Linking word 1: Đúng hơn là các phương tiện liên kết, có thể là Linking word hoặc Linking Phrase đều được:

– It is apparent/ obvious/ widely accepted/ widely known/ well noted,…

– It cannot be denied/ It is undeniable that/…

– Clearly/ Obviously,…

Linking word 2

– Moreover/ Furthermore/ Nevertheless/…

– More imporantly, more interestingly,…

Với cấu trúc đó, bạn có thể tham khảo đoạn văn sau:

” To begin with, what holds the most importance is a positive attitude to life. Obviously, this approach can help people reduce stress and negative feelings. People can be much happier simply by thinking about the good things in their life: family, good health and pets. More importantly, they can focus on improving things they are less happy about such as getting a better job or moving to a new place. With the right attitude, the most difficult problems might be solved. Thus, a right attitude to life is what makes us happy in our life.“

2. Đoạn văn thân bài 2 và 3:

Về cơ bản tuân thủ nguyên tắc viết đoạn văn thân bài 1, chỉ khác ở phương tiện liên kết ở đầu đoạn và cách viết topic senctence:

2.1. Linking words:

Đoạn 2: Các linking words: Second of all/ Second/ Secondly/ In the second place/…

Đoạn 3: Các linking words: Lastly/ Finally/ Last but not least/…

2.2. Topic sentence:

– … is of equal importance/ is equally important/…

– … is of paramount importance …

– … is also what should be taken into consideration.

– … is another contributing factor to …

– … is also noteworthy…

– The second noteworthy reason/advantage/… is …

Đây chỉ là những gợi ý, bạn nên tìm thêm các cấu trúc khác để mở rộng linh hoạt hơn vốn cấu trúc của mình.

Đoạn văn thứ hai bạn có thể tham khảo:

“Enjoying the little things in life can be another important factor for happiness. Obviously, this can make people feel comfortable. Some people think that life is about achieving great things like having a successful job or a big house, but life is also about small pleasures like having a good dinner or a nice walk in the countryside. In this way, people gain the comfort for a happy life. More meaningfully, enjoying the little things helps people become more patient and willing to put more effort in everything they do. They would consider small steps as the vital practice for great success. Therefore, enjoying the little things is also an important contributing factor to happiness.”

Structure of a Good Introduction

If you use this structure you will not only score higher marks but you will also save time in the exam. If you practice enough, introductions will become easy and you will do them in just a few minutes. This will leave you lots of time to focus on the main body paragraphs where you can pick up lots of mark.

An IELTS writing task 2 opinion essay should have three sentences and these three sentences should be:

1. Paraphrase question

2. Thesis statement

3. Outline statement

That’s it. Simple! Let’s look at each sentence in more detail.

1. Paraphrase Question

Paraphrasing means stating the question again, but with different words so that it has the same meaning. We do this by using synonyms and flipping the order of the sentences around.

Question: There is a good deal of evidence that increasing car use is contributing to global warming and having other undesirable effects on people’s health and well-being.

Paraphrase: Rising global temperatures and human health and fitness issues are often viewed as being caused by the expanding use of automobiles.

The synonyms I’ve used are:

Increasing- expanding

Car use- use of automobiles

Global warming- rising global temperatures

People’s health and well-being- human health and fitness

As you can see, I then switched the order of the sentence around.

I have therefore demonstrated to the examiner that I can paraphrase and have a wide range of vocabulary. These are two of the things that the examiner is specifically looking for and you will gain marks for including them.

You should practice this with past paper questions.

2. Thesis Statement

This is the most important sentence in your essay. This is your main idea and I often describe it to students as how you feel about the whole issue in one sentence. It tells the examiner that you have understood the question and will lead to a clear and coherent essay.

Let’s look at the thesis sentence from the previous example:

Thesis statement: This essay agrees that increasing use of motor vehicles is contributing to rising global temperatures and certain health issues.

It is always just one sentence long so you will have to practice summing up your opinion in one sentence. It should also address the micro-keywords and not the topic in general.

You should start your thesis statement with:

This essay agrees that….. or this essay disagrees that….. (Opinion essays)

The main cause(s) of this issue is….. (Causes and solutions)

The principal advantage(s) is (xxxxx) and the main disadvantage is (xxxxxx). (Advantage and disadvantages).

For a discussion (of two points of view) essay you should state both points of view clearly.

Let’s look at another example:

Some aspects of celebrity culture have a bad influence on young people.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

To keep things simple, we have two options-

1. Agree that some aspects of celebrity culture have a bad influence on young people.

2. Disagree that some aspects of celebrity culture have a bad influence on young people.

My essay will argue that celebrity culture does have a bad influence and my thesis statement will there be:

This essay agrees that the some famous people’s lifestyles have a detrimental effect on the youth of today.

I have stated my opinion in one sentence and used synonyms to make sure I don’t just repeat the question.

Thesis statements are very important but only in question that ask you for your opinion. Some IELTS questions do not ask you for your opinion and in these cases you can leave it out.

3. Outline Statement

Now that you have paraphrased the question and told the examiner what you think in your thesis sentence, you are now going to tell the examiner what you will discuss in the main body paragraphs. In other words, you will outline what the examiner will read in the rest of the essay. This should be one sentence only.

Example:

Question: There is a good deal of evidence that increasing car use is contributing to global warming and having other undesirable effects on people’s health and well-being.

Outline statement: Firstly, this essay will discuss the production of greenhouse gases by vehicles and secondly, it will discuss other toxic chemicals released by internal combustion engines.

So what I have done is just look at my main body paragraphs and wrote about what they contain. You should have only one main idea per paragraph. In this essay, I have only two main body paragraphs, so I only need to say two things in the outline statement.

Main body paragraph 1- production of greenhouse gases by cars.

Main body paragraph 2- toxic chemical produced by car engines.

Again, your main body paragraphs should have only one main idea so it should be easy to spot these and then write a sentence about them.