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IELTS Writing: Agree or Disagree Lesson with Sample Answer
Agree or disagree essays: ielts writing task 2 lesson.
This lesson will teach you how to write ‘agree or disagree’ or ‘opinion’ IELTS task 2 essays that could score a Band 7, 8 or 9.
Agree or disagree question types are among the most common on the IELTS writing paper, so you must learn how to write them properly.
In this post, we will look at:
Deciding Opinion
Idea generation.
- Writing an Effective Introduction
- Writing Supporting Paragraphs
- Writing a Conclusion
We will use a question from an IELTS past paper to help us understand the task.
Many students fail to do well in this type of question because they do not have a clear opinion and they do not use an appropriate structure .
The best structure you can use for this type of essay is:
Paragraph 1- Introduction
Sentence 1- Paraphrase Question
Sentence 2- Thesis Statement
Sentence 3- Outline Statement
Paragraph 2- Supporting Paragraph 1
Sentence 1- Topic Sentence
Sentence 2/3- Explain Topic Sentence
Sentence 3/4- Example
Paragraph 3- Supporting Paragraph 2
Paragraph 4- Conclusion
Sentence 1- Summary and reiteration of your opinion.
That’s it! Four paragraphs.
Note : You don’t have to use this structure; other structures can get you a high score. However, this structure has been approved by IELTS examiners to allow you to write a clear and cohesive essay. This structure will allow you to focus on generating your ideas and then writing an effective essay.
In this essay, IELTS examiners want you to give a clear opinion, so you must decide when you read the question. You will also need to do this to write an effective thesis statement.
Let’s look at an example:
In some countries, many people suffer from health problems due to eating too much fast food. It is, therefore, necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.
Do you agree or disagree?
With this type of essay, we have two choices:
- We agree with the statement or;
- We disagree with the statement
Some teachers advise you to partly agree and disagree. However, I would NOT recommend this because it often leads to an essay with NO clear focus and a CONFUSING structure.
Therefore, for this agree or disagree essay, you can say either:
- This essay agrees that governments should tax fast food or;
- This essay disagrees that governments should tax fast food
I think I will have more ideas for A, so I’m choosing that one. Always choose the one you feel comfortable writing about – even if you don’t feel that way. You don’t get extra marks for writing about how you feel; you want to give the examiner what they need to score your essay a Band 7+.
Now we have to think of ideas for why governments should tax fast food.
Here are some:
- Cigarettes and alcohol are taxed in the same way
- The money raised could be used to treat people with health problems
- Fast food companies should be punished for selling unhealthy food to people
- Making the food more expensive would stop people from eating it
- The money raised could be used to educate people about healthy eating
We don’t need to use all of these, just two for our supporting paragraphs. I will pick the first and the fourth ones because I know a little about these two and feel confident I can expand on them with explanations and examples. Remember, the examiner wants you to fully support your arguments, not just list many ideas.
Now we have two supporting ideas; we can move on to our introduction.
Introduction
As previously stated, we will use the following structure:
For a more detailed explanation, please see our post on writing an effective introduction.
To paraphrase the question, we restate it with a different meaning using synonyms. I will also reorder the question. Here is the question again:
In some countries, an increasing number of people are suffering from health problems due to eating too much fast food. It is, therefore, necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.
Paraphrased: It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because the health risks associated with consuming this kind of food are rising.
This is our first sentence.
We now need to write our thesis statement. This is our opinion in one sentence. This essay will agree with the above statement and will, therefore, look like this:
This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast-food companies.
This is our second sentence.
We now need to write our third and final sentence, which is the outline sentence . This sentence outlines what you will write about in the main body paragraphs.
Firstly, alcohol and tobacco companies already pay higher taxes; secondly, higher taxes could raise prices and lower consumption.
So our full introduction will look like this:
It is argued that governments should levy a tariff on junk food because the number of health risks associated with consuming this kind of food is on the rise. This essay agrees that a higher rate of tax should be paid by fast-food companies. Firstly, alcohol and tobacco companies already pay higher taxes; secondly, higher taxes could raise prices and lower consumption.
We now need to write our supporting paragraphs for our agree or disagree essay:
Supporting Paragraph 1
This paragraph should include:
- Topic Sentence
- Explanation
A topic sentence tells the examiner about the rest of the paragraph. In other words, it is a summary of your first idea. It should look something like this:
Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to curb the harm caused by these substances.
We now need to expand on this point a little. A good way of doing this is to assume that the examiner does not know this subject, and you must explain clearly what you mean. Here is what this could look like:
This revenue has been used to treat health problems associated with these products and has proven useful in advertising campaigns warning people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast food could be used in the same way.
We should now think of an example to support our point. Think about any recent news stories, studies or adverts. If you can’t think of one, make one up. The examiner won’t check if it is real or not.
The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart disease while at the same time, pumped into health campaigns in schools to warn children about the dangers of smoking.
That’s it. Four sentences. The full paragraph should look like this:
Higher excise on liqueur and cigarettes has proven to curb the harm caused by these substances. This revenue has been used to treat health problems associated with these products and has proven useful in advertising campaigns warning people about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco abuse. Tax from fast food could be used in the same way. The United Kingdom is a prime example, where money from smokers is used to treat lung cancer and heart disease.
Supporting Paragraph 2
We now repeat the same formula with our second supporting point- higher taxes will increase prices and reduce consumption.
Our topic sentence:
Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption.
Explaining this further:
Fast food companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices, leading to people not being able to afford junk food because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item, and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful to the general public’s health.
We now support our point with an example:
For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive for most people, and that is why only a small percentage of the population buys it regularly.
The full paragraph would look like this:
Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food companies would pass on these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices, leading to people not being able to afford junk food because it is too expensive. Junk food would soon become a luxury item, and it would only be consumed occasionally, which would be less harmful to the general public’s health. For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively expensive for most people, and that is why only a small percentage of the population buys it regularly.
Four sentences.
Conclusion
As stated before, a good conclusion for agree or disagree essays should include:
Sentence 1- Summary of main points
Sentence 2- Your opinion
Don’t write any new ideas in this paragraph.
A good conclusion should restate your thesis statement and your main supporting points.
In conclusion, junk food should be taxed at a higher rate because of the good precedent set by alcohol and tobacco and the fact that the increased cost should reduce the number of fast-food people buy.
Agree or Disagree IELTS Sample Essay
In conclusion, junk food should be taxed at a higher rate because of the good precedent set by alcohol and tobacco and the fact that the increased cost should reduce the amount of fast-food people buy.
I hope you found this ‘agree or disagree’ essay IELTS lesson useful.
About Christopher Pell
My name is Christopher Pell and I'm the Managing Director of IELTS Advantage.
I started IELTS Advantage as a simple blog to help 16 students in my class. Several years later, I am very humbled that my VIP Course has been able to help thousands of people around the world to score a Band 7+ in their IELTS tests.
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IELTS Agree or Disagree Essay
- Opinion Essays
- Discussion Essays
- Problem Solution Essays
- Advantages & Disadvantages Essays
- Double Question Essays
Example of IETS Opinion essay
- You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
- Write at least 250 words.
- Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.
Structure of IELTS Opinion Essay
- Paragraph 1: Introduction
- Paraphrase the Essay Topic
- Thesis Statement
- Paragraph 2: Supporting Paragraph #1
- Topic Sentence
- Support (Example or Experience)
- Explanation
- Paragraph 3: Supporting Paragraph #2
- Paragraph 4: Conclusion
- Restate Thesis/Summarize your ideas
To what extent..
Example vocabulary and phrases: stating your opinion.
- In my opinion I believe that education should be free because it helps move society forward.
- As far as paying for education is concerned, I believe that you should have to pay because it creates competition which helps to develop stronger institutions.
- My impression is that education should require a cost whether it be through tax payer money or private institutions.
- Most institutions require tuition to attend. However. I believe that education should be free because it helps move society forward.
Example Vocabulary and Phrases: Arguing Your Point
- This proves that free education can provide many opportunities for those who cannot afford it.
- According to this, it can be argued that financial aid is a way to support students who cannot afford to pay for education.
Example Vocabulary and Phrases: Adding Adverb
Beginning of the sentence, middle of the sentence.
- Clearly, this is an example of numerous afford a proper education.
- This is definitely true because there are many students who are unable to attend school because they cannot afford it.
- Deciding whether education should be free is absolutely a major challenge to consider.
- The right to receive an education is substantially more important than earning money.
Example Vocabulary and Phrases: Verbs
- I disagree that education should cost students.
- I believe that education should be free.
- I have no doubt that society will benefit with free education.
- I think that education should be free.
- It cannot be denied that education costs money because teachers, faculty, and staff all need to be paid.
- As I see it, education has costs, so someone needs to pay for it.
Before You Start
- Think about how you will plan to write your essay.
- Brainstorm and generate ideas.
Outline structure for IELTS Essay
- ________________________________
Outline structure for IELTS Opinion Essay
- Paragraph I: Introduction
- Paraphrase the Essay Topic - I believe that everyone should have access to free education without limitations.
- Thesis Statement - Education is a valuable resource and it advances society.
- Education is tool that helps us succeed
- Germany - Free education
- Same philosophy - society advances
- Paying for education helps drive competition between institutions, but I believe this restricts social mobility.
- Student cannot afford education
- If every person of society is allowed to move forward, then all of society will benefit.
- In conclusion education is essential to any society
- By restricting access to it because of tuition limits societal advancements, it is important that we eliminate sort of barriers to education, Including costs.
Example Essay
- Thesis Statement - Education is a valuable resource and it advances society. If there are certain barriers to receiving education like costs, many students would lose the opportunity to pursue an education because of this.
- Education is a tool and it advances society and with free universal access to education, there are no limits to what a country and what a society can obtain.
- A perfect example of this Is Germany, where universities are now tuition-free.
- If all countries developed the same philosophy towards education as German. I have no doubt that society will benefit.
- Some may argue that paying for education helps drive competition between institutions and helps to develop stronger schools. However. 1 completely disagree because I believe this restricts social mobility.
- In other words, if a student who would like to pursue a degree In higher education, but cannot afford the high tuition rates then he or she will be unable to further their education.
- On the other hand, If every person of society is allowed to move forward, then all of society will benefit.
- In conclusion education is essential to any society.
Example Essay in color
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