I have had many IELTS teachers asking such questions to me in the past. The latter approach you mentioned is less direct. While this is a good approach for many academic essays and may draw the attention of the reader, it is unnecessary for IELTS. An IELTS introduction should serve two purposes, as you said, to introduce the essay question and present your position. Anything more is unnecessary. This is a short academic essay with a strict time limit. The main bulk of the points awarded in IELTS writing task 2 come from the body paragraphs so extending the introduction further is a waste of time and words.
My question is if we write two paragraphs of only negative impacts caused by social networking sites ,will that be ok and relevant ? Or discussing the positive side is required too ?
Thanks
Opinion Essays are about presenting a clear position and explaining it. You can see my clear opinion: “in my opinion, while I believe that such sites are mainly beneficial to the individual, I agree that they have had a damaging effect on local communities.”. I divide the individual and society – one is positive and the other is negative. It is a clear opinion.
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It is asking you to choose and explain your view. If it asks about family and individuals, one could be positive and the other negative. But if it asks about one thing, then you can’t have both. This isn’t a discussion essay.
Hi Liz,
I wanna say thank you for providing such helpful material and tips for us. I took my IELTS Test yesterday and got this model of task 2 in writing.
The question was (I can’t remember the exact words):
‘More and more people are travelling to another countries. What is the cause, is it a positive or negative development?’
The test was held in Indonesia, just wanna share hope it helps 🙂
In this paper I will talk about different budget bills, the Congressional Committees they must go through, the president’s part in shaping/passing the bill, what the final bill will look like, the positives and negatives of the bill, and why I think it will or will not become a part of the budget....
Hi Liz. In your essay example above, you state your opinion (positive/negative) and give the reason for the opinion in the introduction. What if the question ask for the cause of some issue and also the trend? What should i state in the introduction? Both or just one? And how do i arrange the content in the paragraphs? For example: what is the cause for this issue? Is it a positive or negative development?
Dear Liz,
whenever we get a question of “positive or negative development”
are we supposed to follow POSITIVE , NEGATIVE OR A BALANCED APPROACH?
Do we have the liberty to write “I firmly believe it is a positive exercise in introduction” and state the negatives in the first main body paragraph and write positives in the second main body paragraph followed by a positive opinion in conclusion?
The instructions do not ask you to present the positive AND negative developments. The instructions ask if you think it is positive or negative – you need to choose and present your opinion. Be very careful that you understand the difference between essays which require you to discuss both sides and essays which require you to choose.
Hi Liz,
If am writing a positive /nigantive essay like this one above, do I write about only negatives if I think that the negatives are more or do I write about both of pros and cons and then say my opinion?…
Do I say my potion in separate paragraph, or I say it in the paragraph that I agree with?….. Plz answer me I really need this?…..
Hello! I want to ask a question for positive and negative essay…
Do i need to answer both positive and negative sides o the issue or one side is enough? thanks in advance
I practiced this essay and faced some conflicts. So I partially agree and wanted to present a balanced view, however in writing I had a lot of points, for both positives and negatives in mind and considering word limit, I was not able to elaborate properly.