Lesson 21 – forming a plan

I talked about planning in the lesson on Task 1 and I will mention it again here. I cannot stress how important it is to plan well before you begin to write. A good plan will help you write faster and make fewer errors.

Let’s begin with some tips and advice

 

1. Brainstorming an idea is NOT the same as planning.
2. Brainstorming gets the ideas out and you will have more ideas than you need.
3. Brainstorming is a technique which allows ALL ideas to flow – some of these WILL NOT be relevant to your question.
4. After your brainstorm go back to the question and reject any ideas that don’t fit directly with the question.
5. Now choose the ideas that you can express well in English – it doesn’t matter what they are.
6. Don’t get emotionally attached to your ideas they are not important, your ability to write about them in fantastic English is what is important.
7. You will only need 1 or 2 good ideas per paragraph
8. Now think about some examples for the ideas.
9. Choose the ideas that you have good examples for these. They will make your essay more interesting for the examiner to read.
10. Why did you choose these ideas? What are your reasons for thinking that they are relevant to the question? This will be your support for your ideas.
11. Can you see a plan emerging? – idea+support+ example
12. You’ll need to do this for each paragraph
13. How will you introduce your topic? Use the question to help you and don’t write more than 3 sentences for your introduction.
14. How will you end it – your conclusion should follow logically if you have written the essay well – again only 2/3 sentences.
15. So, with an average of 10 words per sentence you should now have 30 for your introduction and 100 for each paragraph = 260 – try to write between 250 and 280 words.
16. You can write more but there is more scope for mistakes and you may not have time. If you write less than you will lose marks (a word or two is OK but significantly shorter will be a problem)
17. Now you can begin to convert each point in your plan into a complete sentence.

 

 

Key skills to develop:

 

You need to practise organising your ideas into a concrete plan quickly so that you can do this in 3/4 minutes

 

• Look at different types of Task 2 titles and make a plan as above – you don’t have to write the essay this exercise alone will be helpful to you

 

• Try planning one paragraph at a time – start with paragraph 1 organise your plan and then make each point into a complete sentence

 

• Think carefully about your sentences how can you make them really great?

 

• If you are struggling with getting the sentence written, go back to your plan – is this the best idea is there a better one? – go back to your brainstorm maybe you need to choose another topic

 

• Clearly you don’t have time for all this in the exam – this is your preparation. The more you do this before the exam the easier it will be to do it IN the exam. This is why you shouldn’t try to sit the exam until you are properly prepared.

 

 

Things to do for planning – here are some more ideas:

 

Simon:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/07/ielts-advice-planning.html

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2012/05/ielts-writing-task-2-the-importance-of-planning.html

 

Don’t forget, if there is anything you don’t understand or can’t find send a message via Contact us

 

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Let’s have a go at some Task 2 planning

 

Try this IELTS Task 2 question – using the tips above, can you create a good plan?

 

http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=7766

 

Now try this exercise (it works backwards – you create the plan for an essay)

 

http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/default.aspx?atk=7768

 

Don’t forget, if there is anything you don’t understand or can’t find send a message via Contact us

Now you’re done!

Good luck and let’s make great progress with IELTS!