Saturday 14 November 2009

Lesson 1 (Writing Skills)


Teacher’s Guide

Skills for IELTS essay writing


  1. To teach students the skill to understand the focus of the question perfectly

Let them read the question thoroughly and underline the main points.  Give them a few questions and ask them to rephrase them to check whether they understand the question. 



·        Modern life styles mean that parents today have less time for their children.  Many children suffer because they do not get as much attention from their parents as children did in the past.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?


The first skill is to do is to understand every aspect of the question perfectly. If you don’t understand the focus of the question, you will never be able to write the correct answer.

The question is whether children are affected negatively because of the lack of attention and care from parents due to their busy life schedule when compared to the children of the past.

Sometimes there is a danger that students understand only part of the question and write about one particular idea.  For example, students would write about the ‘busy life style of parents’ or about ‘lack of attention from parents’. Students should understand the question comprehensively and understand the focus of the question.  Teacher can ask one of the students to rephrase the question and speak about it. 

 










Exercise I Write which of the answers focuses on the question.




1.    People nowadays work hard to buy more things.  This has generally made our lives more comfortable, but many traditional values and customs have been lost and this is a pity.
       To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

a.    Write a paragraph about hardworking nature of people and how it has benefited them and one or two paragraphs about the why traditional values are lost.
b.    The focus of the essay should be whether traditional values have been lost as a result of the hardworking nature of people, in spite of the fact that it has helped them to have better standard of living and more comforts.
c.     Write whether traditional values have been lost because of the hard working nature of people and the advantages of traditional values.

2.    In most countries, multinational companies and their products are becoming more and more important.  This trend is seriously damaging our quality of life.
       To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

a.    Write about the advantages or disadvantages of multinational companies.
b.    Write whether multinational companies and their products affect the quality of life of people.
c.     Write about the influence of multinational products in the life of people.


3.    In many countries, television shows many foreign made programmes.  The domination of imported entertainment is harmful to the cultures of these countries.
        To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

a.    Write about the advantages of television and foreign made programmes. Also, write about foreign channels.
b.    Write, whether imported television programmes affect the culture of the local people.
c.     Write about the advantages or disadvantages of imported entertainment.

4.    Governments make many rules to protect people from danger, for example, by making people wear seat belts in cars or not allowing smoking in public buildings.  However, many people believe that there are too many rules nowadays.


        To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

a.    Write whether seat belts and public smoking are advantageous to the people.
b.    Write about the advantages or disadvantages of many rules.
c.     Write if there should be no rules or not
d.    Write if the rules are too many and whether we should reduce them.

5.    The first car appeared on British roads in 1888. By the year 2000 there may be as many as 29 million vehicles on British roads.  Alternative forms of transport should be encouraged and international laws introduced to control car ownership and use.
        What are your views?

a.    Write about the development of cars since 1888 and the advantages or disadvantages of cars.  Write also about the importance of alternative forms of transport and international laws in the use of cars.
b.    Write about the growing number of cars on roads and whether alternative forms of transport should be encouraged and international laws introduced in order to reduce the number of cars on roads.
c.     Write about traffic jams and how to avoid them, also write about the role international laws and alternative forms of transport.

6.    The threat of nuclear weapons maintains world peace. Nuclear power provides cheap and clean energy.  The benefits of nuclear technology  far outweigh the disadvantages.
    
     Do you agree or disagree?

a.    The essay should be whether we should make nuclear weapons, which can maintain world peace.  Write also, about whether nuclear energy provides cheap and clean energy.
b.    The advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy.
c.     We need to find out whether the advantages of nuclear energy are more than the disadvantages and if it is beneficial for mankind.

7.    Euthanasia, or mercy killing, has been in the news more and more recently.  Many people are strongly against such a practice, but there is a growing demand to have it legalised.  How far do you agree with euthanasia being made legal?

a.    The question here is whether euthanasia is a morally acceptable practice.
b.    The focus here is the advantages or disadvantages of euthanasia.
c.     The question is why, or why not government should succumb to the growing demand for euthanasia being  legalised.

Check the answers and study them
b,  2.  b,  3.  b,  4.  d,  5.  c,  6.  c,  7.  c

1 comment:

kiranmakkar1 said...

Sir,
I look forward to your IELTS essays. I am a gynaec. from Punjab, training students for IELTS as a hobby. Your site is supposed to be updated twice every week, but the updates are very few. Please write a few more essays and post them. I have a suggestion. You should post the essays attempted by your students in the IELTS exam - especially of those students who get more than 7 bands in writing. It would be great.
Thanks
kiran