IELTS Writing Task 2: Five Essay Structures and Templates

Why structure is the cheapest band you will ever buy

Task Response and Coherence and Cohesion together account for half your Task 2 mark. Both are heavily structural. Examiners are not asking whether your essay is original or interesting; they are asking whether you have answered the question fully, organised your ideas logically, and signalled that organisation to the reader.

This is the cheapest band you can buy. You do not need better English, more reading, or more vocabulary. You need a template per essay type, drilled until you can produce it under pressure in forty minutes. Once that is in place, your Task Response and Coherence scores rise by half to one full band, almost regardless of the topic.

This article gives you the five essay types you will see on Task 2, a template for each, and a sample skeleton built to illustrate the template. The skeletons are not full essays; they are the bones you would flesh out on test day. British English throughout.

Identifying the essay type in under thirty seconds

Before you write anything, you must classify the prompt. There are five types and only five. Misidentifying the type is the single most common cause of a Task Response score below 6.

• Opinion (Agree/Disagree): "To what extent do you agree or disagree?"
• Discussion (Discuss both views): "Discuss both these views and give your own opinion."
• Problem and Solution: "What problems does this cause and what solutions can you suggest?"
• Two-Part Question: a question prompt that asks two distinct things, e.g. "Why is this happening, and is it a positive or negative development?"
• Advantages and Disadvantages: "Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?" or simply "Discuss the advantages and disadvantages."

Read the prompt twice. Underline the question words. Decide the type. Spend no more than thirty seconds on this. If you misclassify, your essay structure will not match what the examiner expects, and Task Response will cap at 6.

Type 1: Opinion (Agree/Disagree)

The Agree/Disagree essay tests whether you can take a clear position and defend it. Sitting on the fence is a common error. Examiners reward a clear stance.

Template:

• Introduction: paraphrase the prompt, state your position clearly (fully agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or fully disagree).
• Body 1: first reason supporting your position, with development and example.
• Body 2: second reason supporting your position, with development and example.
• Conclusion: restate your position, summarise the two reasons.

Sample skeleton for the prompt "Some people believe that university students should pay the full cost of their own education. To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

Position: I mostly disagree. Subsidised higher education benefits society as a whole.

Body 1: Higher education produces public goods. Graduates pay more tax over their lifetimes, drive innovation, and staff essential professions like medicine. Treating tuition purely as a private cost ignores these spillovers. Example: a public health system that requires trained doctors cannot recruit them if medical school is unaffordable.

Body 2: Full-cost tuition would entrench class inequality. Students from low-income families would be priced out, regardless of academic ability. Example: countries with high tuition fees show significantly lower rates of university attendance among the bottom income quartile.

Conclusion: I disagree with full-cost tuition because the benefits of higher education extend beyond the individual, and because the policy would harm social mobility.

Notice that the position is clear. Do not write "I agree to some extent but also disagree" without then specifying which side dominates.

Type 2: Discussion (Discuss both views)

This is the essay type most candidates over-complicate. The structure is genuinely simple, but you must do three things: present view A fairly, present view B fairly, and state your own opinion clearly. Many candidates miss the third part and lose a band on Task Response.

Template:

• Introduction: paraphrase the prompt, indicate that two views exist, state your own opinion at the end.
• Body 1: discuss view A with reasons and an example. You can briefly note its weakness at the end.
• Body 2: discuss view B with reasons and an example. Make clear which view you find more persuasive.
• Conclusion: restate your opinion and briefly summarise why.

Sample skeleton for the prompt "Some people believe that children should learn a foreign language from primary school. Others argue that this should wait until secondary school. Discuss both views and give your own opinion."

Opinion: Foreign languages should be introduced in primary school.

Body 1: The case for primary school language learning. Younger children acquire phonology and grammar more easily, with research showing critical periods for native-like accents before puberty. Example: Scandinavian education systems start English in primary school and produce some of the highest rates of bilingual proficiency in Europe.

Body 2: The case for waiting until secondary school. Critics argue that primary curricula are already crowded with literacy and numeracy, and that early language teaching is often shallow. There is some merit to this; poorly delivered primary language teaching can be worse than none. However, the answer is to teach it well, not to delay it.

Conclusion: Both views have merit, but the cognitive advantages of early acquisition outweigh the curriculum pressures. Foreign languages should begin in primary school, with adequate teacher training.

Type 3: Problem and Solution

This essay type is structurally rigid. You identify problems caused by something, then propose solutions. The most common error is listing five problems and one solution, or vice versa. Aim for two of each, paired logically.

Template:

• Introduction: paraphrase the prompt, briefly preview that you will discuss problems and solutions.
• Body 1: two problems, with development and one example each.
• Body 2: two solutions, ideally addressing the problems you raised.
• Conclusion: summarise the problem-solution mapping and end with a forward-looking statement.

Sample skeleton for the prompt "More and more people in cities suffer from poor air quality. What problems does this cause, and what solutions can you suggest?"

Problems:

• Health costs: respiratory disease, asthma, increased mortality. Example: studies link long-term exposure to fine particulate matter with elevated cardiovascular risk.
• Economic costs: lost productivity, healthcare burden, reduced attractiveness of cities to skilled workers.

Solutions:

• Low-emission zones in city centres, with vehicle access fees that fund public transport.
• Industrial regulation: stricter limits on factory and power plant emissions, enforced with regular monitoring.

Conclusion: The health and economic costs of urban air pollution are substantial but tractable. Targeted regulation and infrastructure investment can reduce both.

Type 4: Two-Part Question

This type asks two distinct questions in one prompt. Each must be answered in its own body paragraph. Conflating them is the standard error.

Template:

• Introduction: paraphrase the prompt, briefly indicate you will address both questions.
• Body 1: answer question one, with reasoning and example.
• Body 2: answer question two, with reasoning and example.
• Conclusion: summarise both answers.

Sample skeleton for the prompt "Many young people today choose to live alone rather than with family or housemates. Why is this happening, and is it a positive or negative development?"

Why is this happening: Rising incomes among young professionals, urbanisation, delayed marriage, and changing cultural attitudes toward independence. Example: in many high-income countries, the share of single-person households has roughly doubled since 1980.

Is it positive or negative: On balance, mildly negative. While living alone offers autonomy and personal space, it correlates with higher rates of loneliness and worsens housing affordability through increased demand. Younger people in particular benefit from shared living during their twenties.

Type 5: Advantages and Disadvantages

There are two sub-types. The first asks you simply to discuss advantages and disadvantages. The second asks whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, which requires a clear comparative judgement.

Template (outweigh version):

• Introduction: paraphrase the prompt, state whether advantages outweigh disadvantages.
• Body 1: main disadvantage(s), with reasoning and example.
• Body 2: main advantage(s), with reasoning and example. Make this paragraph stronger if you are arguing advantages outweigh.
• Conclusion: restate your judgement with a brief justification.

Sample skeleton for the prompt "Some governments provide free healthcare to all citizens. Do the advantages of this policy outweigh the disadvantages?"

Position: Advantages outweigh disadvantages.

Disadvantages: High public expenditure, longer waiting times in some specialties, occasional inefficiency. Example: free systems can struggle with elective surgery backlogs.

Advantages: Universal access to essential care, reduced individual financial risk from illness, better population-level health outcomes, no medical bankruptcies. Example: countries with universal coverage typically show higher life expectancy at lower per-capita health spending than the United States.

Conclusion: The disadvantages are real but manageable through efficient administration. The advantages, particularly equity of access, decisively outweigh them.

Five rules that apply to every essay type

Regardless of type, follow these rules:

• Paraphrase the prompt in your introduction, do not copy it. Copied wording is excluded from word count.
• Aim for 270 to 300 words. Below 250 you lose marks for length; above 320 you waste time and increase error risk.
• Use one clear topic sentence per paragraph. Examiners read topic sentences first.
• Use cohesive devices sparingly. "Furthermore" three times in one essay looks formulaic. Vary, but do not over-rely.
• Always include a conclusion. An essay without a conclusion caps Task Response at 6.

A pre-flight checklist for the last two minutes

In the final two minutes, do not edit content. Edit mechanics. Run this list:

1. Did I clearly state my position or opinion?
2. Did I write at least 250 words?
3. Does each body paragraph have one clear main idea?
4. Did I include at least one specific example per body paragraph?
5. Did I write a conclusion that restates my position?
6. Are there any sentence-level errors I can spot in a fast read-through?

Two minutes is not enough to rewrite anything. It is enough to catch a missing conclusion or a paragraph with no example.

Key takeaways

• There are exactly five Task 2 essay types. Classify the prompt before you start.
• Every type has a fixed template. Drill the template until you can produce it under time pressure.
• Take a clear position on Opinion, Discussion, and outweigh-style essays. Fence-sitting caps Task Response at 6.
• Each body paragraph needs one main idea and one specific example.
• Aim for 270 to 300 words. A conclusion is non-negotiable.
• Spend the last two minutes on a mechanical checklist, not on rewriting.

Where to practise this on AcademIELTS

• Task 2 prompt library by essay type: /tests/writing/task-2
• Opinion essay drills: /question-types/writing/opinion-essay
• Discussion essay drills: /question-types/writing/discussion-essay
• Problem and solution drills: /question-types/writing/problem-solution
• Full writing mocks with both Task 1 and Task 2: /tests/writing

If your Task 1 is also a weak point, read the data grouping guide next; the structural problem there is essentially the same as in Task 2.