What is your opinion? / Do you agree or disagree? / To what extent do you agree or disagree? The other essay type that students mistake for discussion essays is advantages and disadvantages essays. With these, the statement will contain just one view and the question will typically be written as shown in this sample question.
School children are using computers in school more than ever. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this and give your own opinion. The consequence of incorrectly identifying the question type is that you will use the wrong structure for your essay. This is a major reason why people make the mistakes we’ll now look at.
These three errors are common in IELTS discussion essays.
Not stating your opinion.
Not giving arguments for both views.
Not developing both sides of the argument equally.
The most common mistake that students make is not giving their opinion. The question will clearly state that you must choose one side of the argument to agree with. If you fail to do this, you will get a low score for task achievement.
It doesn’t matter which side of the argument you take or even, that you actually agree with it.
However, you must give equal attention to both sides. A common error is to provide a stronger argument for the view you favour. This leads to an unbalanced essay and a low score for task achievement.
Now let’s look at a simple structure you can use to write IELTS discussion essays. It’s not the only possible structure but it’s the one I recommend because it’s easy to learn and will enable you to quickly plan and write a high-level essay.
1) Introduction
