As you know, in the IELTS writing test, the academic writing paper has 2 sections. In the second part you have to write an essay about a given topic. This is often a for, against or both style. The topics are quite general but it does help if you know more about them. One tip is to watch the news and read papers and our SGI blog posts so you can keep up-to-date with general trends in the world related to IELTS topics such as education, environment and work.
IELTS writing part 2 question:
In recent years, the number of organizations permitting their staff to work from home has increased significantly. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development? The topic is working from home or homeworking or telecommuting. Without knowledge of this topic you would only have the idea stated in the question. You would then have to think and invent some advantages and disadvantages which would take a great deal of time. However, if you had read about it or watched a programme on it then you would know related vocabulary and have several ideas to choose from. Fans of our blog will remember a post a few months ago on teleworking. If you missed the post then read it here: It contains both for and against arguments. Now, using what you learned you can easily plan an essay to answer the question.
SAMPLE IELTS ESSAY PLAN
Introduction: Teleworking is on the rise in numerous countries. As an alternative to the traditional office-based method it brings benefits related to cost-saving. Nevertheless, isolated homeworking is certainly not for everyone. For: Cost saving: Companies can make huge cost savings and thus increase their profits. BT saved £11m because staff worked from home. They reduced spending on office space, equipment and electricity. Against: Isolation – Working in a home-office reduces your contact with people and colleagues. Thus, workers can suffer from loneliness and become demotivated or even depressed. Conclusion: On paper, remote works can potentially increase a company’s profitability but to balance the risk of isolation part-time telecommuting may be the best option or the development of more telework centres where distance workers can benefit from being in a social environment. As you can see, almost all these ideas and a lot of the vocabulary were based on the blog post. Make sure you check out all our other daily blog posts (and our archive of hundreds of entertaining posts) to see which others may help you to improve your IELTS band score.
