Planning in IELTS Writing Task 2: the overlooked power move

One of the most overlooked yet powerful steps in IELTS Writing Task 2 is planning. Many students jump straight into writing without thinking their ideas through and then end up with disorganized, repetitive essays. Spending just five minutes planning at the start of Task 2 can save time later on during the writing up stage, reduce stress, and make your writing more logical and effective.

So, how do you plan well?

First, you have to understand the question type. That means figuring out, for example, whether you’re being asked to give an opinion, discuss both views, or provide solutions to a problem. To do this, it helps to underline the keywords in the question so as to be clear about what the question is really asking. Next, brainstorm and write down any main ideas that come to mind.

Once you’ve brainstormed, select about three of the most relevant points. If the question is “Some people think children should not use smartphones. Do you agree?”, you could select two points in agreement (e.g., one about phones reducing children’s attention span and another about phones negatively affecting children’s quality of sleep), and then select one point in disagreement (e.g., how phones can help with learning).

Then, think of examples to support each point. These can be real examples that you take from the news, your general knowledge, or personal experience. The examples can also be invented - as long as they’re realistic examples, they can work well in your essay! By now, you should have started getting a sense of what vocabulary you can use. Identifying a good range of language (vocabulary and grammar) is a must and will lift the quality of your work.

Also, decide on your position early. In other words, make sure you’re clear what your opinion is - planning should make your thinking visible to you. This then means you can make your opinion clear in the introduction and stick to it as the essay progresses. Changing your view halfway through the essay leads to confusion and so a loss of marks. By completely agreeing or disagreeing, or having two points in agreement and one point in disagreement (see example in the third paragraph above), you show that you have a weightier argument for one side more than the other so your position is made clearer.

The very final stage involves double checking that what you’ve planned does answer the question. Once you’ve checked you’re on the right track, create an essay plan, where the points and supporting details are organised in a coherent manner so that you can write well-developed paragraphs that impress the examiner. And then double check one last time that you really have answered the question.

Planning doesn't have to be complicated - but skipping it can lower your score. By planning before you go on to write, your Task 2 essays will become clearer, more focused, and easier to write under timed-test conditions.