Each time I share my post about how to write a quick plan in your
#IELTS writing, people say to me: ‘But what about when it says…?”
The main issues seems to be with what people call ‘agree or disagree’ essays. I’ve also seen essays
labelled as ‘discussion’ and ‘argument’ essays’. These descriptions only exist outside of the test
. They can be helpful for teachers to plan their course and to make sure they cover different
types of language. But, the message often gets confused when people start to say things like
‘With a discussion essay you must only do xyz while in
an argument essay you must do a,b,c’.
In reality, there is only one type of essay question in IELTS –
a question that forces you to take a position and clearly outline your
argument and ideas. Apart from bad or confusing advice, the biggest
problem with using writing tasks you find online is that they force you
practise doing the wrong thing. Here is an example someone shared
with me today:‘Some businesses now say that no one can
smoke cigarettes in any of their offices. Some governments
have banned smoking in all public places. This is a good idea
but it also takes away some of our freedom.
Do you agree or disagree?‘
This is not a good example of an IELTS test question because it has
too many different components, so it would be impossible to answer
fully in 250 words and in 40 minutes. If you attempted to answer it in
250 words and 40 minutes you would not be able to fully address
all of the parts in a balanced way. Other questions I have seen do not
force you to take up a position, which you will ALWAYS need to do
in the test. So these types of questions force you NOT
to use the skills that you MUST use in the real test.
If you want to just practise writing, then these types of question are fine
– just don’t aim to answer them in the time limit or the word limit
But if you want to practise for the test,
then you need to use authentic writing test questions.
