Simon’s ielts writing task 2

 
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 
IELTS Writing Task 2: positive or negative development? 
Questions that ask "Is this a positive or negative development?" seem to be quite common in the 
IELTS test these days. For example, here's a recent question that several people told me about: 
In some countries, many more people are choosing to live alone nowadays than in the past. 
Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
Here's my advice: 

This type of question is asking for 
your
opinion, so don't write about the views of other people. 

Three different answers are possible: (1) You think it is a positive development. (2) You think it is a 
negative development. (3) You believe that there are some positives and some negatives. 

As usual, make your opinion clear in the introduction, support it with good ideas in the main body, and 
repeat / summarise it in the conclusion. 
Posted by 
Simon
 in 
IELTS Writing Task 2
 | 
Permalink
 | 
Comments (26)
 
 
Wednesday, November 25, 2015 
IELTS Writing Task 2: balanced introduction 
If we want to write a balanced answer for the question below, it's important to make our balanced 
view very clear in the introduction. 
Here's the question again:
In some countries, many more people are choosing to live alone nowadays than in the past. Do you 
think this is a positive or negative development? 
Here's my 'balanced opinion' introduction:
In recent years it has become far more normal for people to live alone, particularly in large cities in 
the developed world. In my opinion, this trend is having both positive and negative consequences in 
equal measure. 
Note:
Notice that I wrote two sentences as usual. The first sentence introduces the topic by paraphrasing 
the question statement, and the second sentence makes my opinion very clear.