IELTS Writing Task 2: A – Z for writing an essay – Putting theory into practice

To write an essay of IELTS Writing Task 2, two most important tasks in preparation one should make is the analysis of the question and the outline for the essay. Let’s find out about these two stages in the following example

1 Analyse the question of IELTS Writing Task 2: underline key words, to identify

• How many questions

• How many aspects of the issue & what they are exactly.

Question: Most people are not interested in how their food has been produced. They only care about how much it costs. How true is this statement? What influences people when they buy food?

• How many questions: 2 questions: agree/disagree with the statement + what influences people…
• How many aspects: maybe we need to write about food price, food processing, food quality, food safety, advertisements –> need to select only 2-3 main aspects to write about like price and quality (for 2 body paragraphs)

2 Identify your view points: this essay is both argument (1^st question), and account essay (2^nd question).

What your opinions to answer the question

• Argument essays:       agree/disagree/it depends

• Account essays:          more advantages than disadvantages or vise versa/ pros and cons/ causes of problems and solutions/ causes and effects/ similarities and differences

–> Argument part:           agree that price is what people care for but not agree completely because people also care for other factors.

–> Account part:              influencing factors: food quality/ safety/ advertisements….

3 Make an outline for IELTS Writing Task 2:

• Brainstorm ideas if necessary

• how many body paragraphs? What main key words and what small supporting key words?

–> Brainstorm ideas for body paragraph 1: agree price is important factor but other factors also influence people shopping for food.

• Food is daily necessity (consumer goods) –> sensitive to price changes –> people check price carefully before buying, compare prices of substitute products.

• Examples: discounted products sold out quickly + cheap produces: more popular than organic expensive produces –> great concern for prices.

–> Brainstorm ideas for body paragraph 2:

a. People choose fresh food, beautiful color, good texture

b. seasonal food

c. Famous brands for food safety

d. Check expiration date,

e. Ingredients, sugar free, healthy

f. Origins

g. Package: safe, air-tight, plastic for glass containers

We can simply write about the ideas above for the 2^nd body paragraph and still score high in the test. However, if you want to endevour more classification of ideas for readers’ ease of following, you can consider grouping of ideas as follows: Put the ideas above into groups:

• Food safety: items c, f, g

• Food quality: items a, b, c, e, f, g (be careful of repetition when we write about both food safety and food quality)

We have lots of ideas –> it would be more organized if we arrange them under 2 big key words food safety and food quality for the 2^nd body paragraph –> the body will be like: many factors influence people –> for food safety (write sentences for items c, f, g) –> as for food quality (write about items a, b, e)

Now with these ideas, let’s see how to write introduction, body and conclusion for this essay in the next page

4 Write parts of the essay of IELTS Writing Task 2.

Introduction: 2 ways to write:

• The easy approach: paraphrase the question –> your opinions and promise of what to write in the essay.

• The challenging but interesting approach: write about a relevant social phenomenon –> your opinions and promise of what to write in the essay.

Following is the demonstration of these 2 approaches:

The easy approach:

The question: Most people are not interested in how their food has been produced. They only care about how much it costs.

• Paraphrase: It is said that many food shoppers ignore how the food is processed but only look at its price. Then add the 2^nd sentence to answer the question:

• The 2^nd sentence: However, I believe this is not true in this modern life when people also care about other criteria before they decide to buy food.

The more challenging approach:

• The relevant phenomenon: The food industry has come to its heyday in recent years with mass production of a variety of food displayed in markets and on supermarkets’ shelves. Then add the 2^nd sentence as below.

• The 2^nd sentence: In the abundance of choice for food shopping, price can be an issue in purchasing decision; however, I believe there are many other factors affecting what people buy.

It is up to the writing capability of each person that the candidates should stick to the faster and easier way of writing an introduction or a more challenging but attention-grasping approach.  

Now go to the next page to find out how to write the body paragraph of the essay in 2 approachs: 1 having 2 body paragraphs, the other comprising 3 body paragraphs.

Body:

It is up to the writer to separate the body into 2 or 3 paragraphs. In this part, we will look at both approaches: 2 long body paragraphs AND 3 short body paragraphs.

The first approach:

2 long body paragraphs (using the outline in the previous section)

1^st body paragraph:

• Topic sentence: Price is undoubtedly a sensitive factor influencing people’s choice of food. –> this sentence has key words: sensitive factor, influence people’s choice –> we need to explain how sensitive price is + how price influences people’s shopping decisions –> Again be selective in the key words you put here because they reflect your promise of what you will explain in the paragraph. DON’T put any extra fancy words here unless you can explain for them within the paragraph.

• Supporting sentences:  we need to look back at the outline we made

Food is daily necessity (consumer goods) –> sensitive to price changes –> people check price carefully before buying, compare prices of substitute products.

Examples: discounted products sold out quickly + cheap produces: more popular than organic expensive produces –> great concern for prices.

–> Because people may buy food very frequently as a daily necessity, a slight variation in the price can easily be spotted. Also, spending on food in many countries, especially developing ones, constitutes a huge portion of their expenses. Consequently, shoppers tend to compare prices of substitute goods before purchasing them. For instance, discounted products in supermarkets are often sold out very quickly. Also, cheap vegetables are almost always a more popular choice for consumers than expensive organic counterparts. These are the telling examples of how influential prices are to people’s food purchase. (104 words)

2^nd body paragraph:

• Topic sentence: However, certain factors also emerge as main concerns of food shoppers in recent years.

• Supporting sentences: based on the outline above

Food safety: items c, f, g: famous brands, origins, package

Food quality: items a, b, e: fresh (colour, texture), seasonal food, healthy ingredients. –> 6 small key words for the body paragraph: if we keep all 6 key words, it will be this long as the following version:

As regards food safety, shoppers usually look for famous brands for better assurance of additive-free products and clean processing. Also, products originated from countries and regions with a high standard of food quality like Japan or the European Union will win the trust of customers more easily than Asian brands. Besides, those products with firm packaging which is air-tight or plastic-free will be appealing to shoppers. As for food quality, the freshness of the produce revealed through its eye-catching natural colours and texture is a plus for that food. Seasonal food is also an item of priority in the shopping list of many housewives when it is always the most nutritious in its season. Moreover, healthy ingredients increasingly draw attentions of food shoppers who are more aware of how they can keep their beloved healthy with good choices of materials for the cooking. (158 words including the topic sentence)

The advice is that we should keep 4 ideas for 4 supporting sentences as below (to develop into a 5-sentence paragraph)

As regards food safety, shoppers usually look for famous brands for better assurance of additive-free products and clean processing. Also, products originated from countries and regions with a high standard of food quality like Japan or the European Union will win the trust of customers more easily than Asian brands. As for food quality, the freshness of the produce revealed through its eye-catching natural colours and texture is a plus for that food. Moreover, healthy ingredients increasingly draw attentions of food shoppers who are more aware of how they can keep their beloved healthy with good choices of materials for the cooking. (116 words including the topic sentence)

We have just removed the 2 key words: seasonal food, and packaging and the paragraph looks fitter now with 116 words.

The 2^nd approach to write the body:

3 short body paragraphs

The 1^st body paragraph:

• Topic sentence: Price is undoubtedly a sensitive factor influencing people’s choice of food.

• Supporting sentences: Because people may buy food very frequently as a daily necessity, a slight variation in the price can easily be spotted. Consequently, shoppers tend to compare prices of substitute goods before purchasing them. For instance, when Gala apples are on sale and attract supermarket goers, apples of other origins may suffer a stagnant consumption. (65 words)

2^nd body paragraph:

• Topic sentence: However, food safety has been the top priority of shoppers in recent years.

• Supporting sentences: Cases of food poisoning and scandals of carcinogen contamination of huge food companies has struck the awareness of food shoppers in buying safe food. Therefore, their food purchase may turn to a life-saving decision for themselves and their families. Take milk as an example, after scandals about melamine contamination, people do not dare to buy milk on the pavement regardless of its low price due to fear of unwanted harmful additives. (84 words)

3^rd body paragraph:

• Topic sentence: Also, food quality is always what people check before filling their shopping baskets.

• Supporting sentences: Indeed, when living standard increases people have better conditions to enjoy higher quality of their lives including food choices. This need for healthy and delicious food prompts housewives to opt for more local and fresh food rather than for convenience food although the former is usually more expensive. That is also the reason why food shoppers now check food labels very carefully for ingredients, expiration dates, and origins. (83 words)

Conclusion

Restatement of the thesis statement:I believe there are many other factors affecting what people buy.

–> In conclusion, there are obviously many drives behind the shoppers’ decisions to buy food besides the major concern about prices.

It is enough if you stop your writing here. However, if you want to make the summary sounds more thoughtful, you can add the following comment: However, the food choice now appears to be in favor of health protecting more than financial saving.