Video summary
The core of a high-scoring IELTS Task 2 essay lies in the main body paragraphs, which serve as the primary vehicle for providing detail and fulfilling the promises made in the introduction. The speaker emphasizes that every main body paragraph must contain three essential elements: a clear topic sentence, a detailed explanation, and a supporting example. The topic sentence acts as a signpost, immediately telling the examiner what specific idea will be discussed, while the explanation delves into the reasoning behind that idea. Finally, the example provides concrete evidence or proof to validate the argument, ensuring that the paragraph is not just a list of disconnected ideas but a cohesive unit of thought.
A common mistake students make is falling into the "shopping list problem," where they attempt to cover too many topics superficially without developing any single point deeply. The speaker argues that it is far more effective to focus on one or two ideas and explore them thoroughly rather than listing numerous points at a shallow level. To achieve this depth, writers should adopt a mindset of clear communication, imagining they are explaining their ideas to someone with no prior knowledge of the topic, such as an elderly person or a child. Techniques like asking "So what?" after every sentence or visualizing a young audience can force the writer to clarify their logic and ensure that each explanation directly connects back to the topic sentence.
The quality of examples used in an essay is crucial for demonstrating clear communication and avoiding confusion. While students often feel pressured to use real-world facts, the speaker clarifies that IELTS essays do not require factual accuracy regarding specific data points; instead, examples must be plausible and logically connected to the argument. The video advises against using personal anecdotes with a sample size of one, such as a family member's unique experience, as these do not prove general points. Instead, writers should use well-known companies like Tesla or practical scenarios from everyday life that are believable to an examiner, ensuring that the example directly supports the specific claim made in the topic sentence without introducing unrelated information.
Ultimately, the goal of structuring a main body paragraph with these three pillars is to create an essay that is coherent and cohesive throughout. This means that the ideas presented in the introduction, developed in the main body, and summarized in the conclusion must form a continuous chain where nothing breaks or changes direction unexpectedly. By strictly adhering to this simple structure and focusing on explaining one idea clearly with relevant evidence, students can avoid confusing examiners who are looking for logical arguments rather than complex vocabulary or obscure facts. This disciplined approach ensures that the essay answers the question directly and communicates effectively, which is the fundamental requirement for achieving a high band score in the Task Response and Coherence and Cohesion criteria.
Read the full video transcript
So, the main body paragraphs is the
majority of your essay. So, it's very,
very important and it's where you give
all the detail. But, before we get into
that, it is always a good idea during
your preparation and on test day to
always go back at every stage to the
question. Really make sure that you
are following the question and your
essay is actually answering the
question. So, "Nowadays, more tasks at
home and work are being performed by
robots. Why do you think this is
happening? And is it a positive or
negative development?"
So, the structure, introduction, is
where you made a promise to the
examiner. So, think about it this way.
You promised the examiner that you were
going to talk about what you said about
question one and what you said about
question two
in the introduction. You made a promise
to them that you were going to talk
about that. The main body is now you
fulfilling that promise to them. So,
some students like that. Um I don't know
why, but it is a good little mental
model to keep in your head. So, we're
going to look at what we said in our
introduction and then we're going to put
it into our main body. Like everything
we do at IELTS Advantage, we have broken
a main body down into its essential
elements. So, there are three elements
to a main body paragraph. Every main
body paragraph has these three elements
in them. So, number one is your topic
sentence. This is where you're going to
tell the reader, the examiner, what it
is about. Then, your explanation.
This is where you give your reasoning or
your reasons. You're explaining
why you think your idea is actually
true.
And then, we give an example. Another
way to think of an example is evidence
or proof. You're proving with that
example that what you're saying is
actually true. Now, every time I explain
this to students, a lot of students will
put their hand up and say, "But can I do
it differently? Can I put something else
in, or can I change the arrangement or
the order?" You can do whatever you
want. This is based on, you know, more
than a decade of helping students every
single day. This structure, along with
everything that we teach here,
is not only what has been proven to
work, but what has been proven to be
easy for you to do. So, if you are
looking up multiple different sources
and different books and YouTube videos
and courses, and you have like three or
four different structures in your head
at the same time, that is likely going
to lead to confusion, and on test day,
your writing, your essay, will be a
reflection of your thinking. If your
thinking is confused, your writing will
be confused. If your writing is
confused, the examiner will be confused,
and you will get a lower score. So, I
know I say this a lot, just keep it
simple. Just switch off your brain a
little bit, stop worrying, and follow
what we say. Let's look at one of our
VIP students' main body paragraphs for
this question. I'll read it to you. You
have a think about it. What do you think
is the big mistake here?
So, there are many reasons why robots
are used today. Technology has improved
a lot. People are busy and need help.
Companies want to save money. Robots do
not get tired. Did you spot the problem?
So, we call this the shopping list
problem. So, it's not really a
paragraph. It's just a list of ideas.
So, there are four different ideas, and
the problem with it is that none of them
are developed. So, each sentence
introduces a new idea, but it doesn't
really go into detail. So, think about
the difference between width on a topic,
your knowledge is very wide, versus your
knowledge being very deep. If you have
wide knowledge on a topic,
you know a lot about it, but on a very
surface level, a very shallow level. So,
if I asked you something like why are
people using robots in the home, you
might be able to give me six, seven,
eight different ideas, but because your
knowledge is so wide and not deep,
you're unable to explain those ideas,
you're unable to give examples on those
ideas. Contrast that with deep knowledge
where someone might know one thing about
that, and they can go very, very deep on
that one thing, or maybe two things. So,
their knowledge is not very wide, but
their knowledge is very deep because
they're able to take that idea, and
they're able to explain it fully, and go
really, really deep on it. This shopping
list problem is often where a student
thinks,
"I know quite a lot about this topic,
but not very deep. What I'm going to do
is just throw as many different ideas at
the examiner, and hope that does the
job." That's the opposite of what you
should be doing. The examiner is looking
for clear communication. So, how do you
communicate to the examiner that you
are a good communicator? You explain
things, and you give examples. Now, you
don't need to be an expert on this, and
it's actually much, much easier to do it
this way because if I said to you, "Can
you give me eight ideas?"
It takes a long time, and it's quite
difficult. Whereas if I said to you,
"Can you give me the one idea you know
most about where you're able to explain
it fully, you're able to give an
example?" That is much, much easier for
the student, and it is much better to do
that because it makes it easier for the
examiner. One of the things that our VIP
students like is this three pillars
analogy. So, think of your main body
paragraphs, your topic sentence, your
explanation, your example as three
pillars holding up a structure. If you
take one of the pillars out, the whole
structure collapses. You need each of
them, and each of them needs to be
strong, each of them needs to be good.
So, the first pillar is our topic
sentence. So, topic sentence is the very
first sentence of your main body
paragraph. It should be just short and
simple and tell the examiner what the
main idea of that main body paragraph
is. Just put one idea in there. Make it
a short, simple sentence. You don't need
to go into detail, that comes later.
Just keep it really, really simple. And
all you have to do is just look at your
introduction and paraphrase your
introduction. We've included a free
workbook for this lesson. So, if you
want, go down, download that, and come
back to this lesson. I have set you
little tasks throughout the lesson. So,
you can print it off if you like, or you
know, have it on a separate device or in
a separate window. But if you want to
really learn from this lesson, try and
do the tasks within the workbook, and
I'll tell you when those tasks come up.
So, take a look at these two topic
sentences. Which one do you think is
better? So, it's based on this
introduction. I got two VIP students to
write topic sentences for this. So,
topic sentence A,
in the modern world, technology is
developing faster than ever before and
has had a huge impact on many areas of
our lives.
So, they are taking
this
and they are writing
a topic sentence.
Topic sentence B, from a different
student. People rely on machines because
of the latest developments in AI. So, if
you want, write in the comments, I think
this one or I think this one, and
explain why. It is good to not be a
passive student that just watches videos
and hopes that it magically goes into
your head. That is why we've created the
workbook, that is why we're asking you
to comment, so that you can actually
activate the knowledge. It's been found
in many, many academic studies that the
more you do while you are studying, the
more you retain and the more you're able
to actually use on test day. Okay, so
let's take one of these and show you
what they did. So, they took this from
the introduction
and they just paraphrased it
and put it into the topic sentence at
the start of their main body paragraph.
People rely on machines because of the
latest developments in AI. So, what is
the examiner thinking? The examiner is
thinking, does this mean the same thing?
Are these actually linked together? Yes,
they are.
Have they used different words? Have
they paraphrased enough? Yes. So, for
example, advancements in AI becomes the
latest developments in AI. And don't
worry about changing artificial
intelligence to AI. Some people think
that that's like not academic. If it is
very common and, you know, 99% of the
world that speaks English would be able
to understand what that means, then it's
fine to use that shortened version of
it. And is it short? Is it clear? It's
one sentence, one idea. It immediately
tells the examiner what the paragraph is
about. And think of topic sentence as
just a little flag or a little sign.
Many of you drive cars and I'm sure in
the places where you live, there are
stop signs, there are turn left, turn
right, you know, directions on where to
go along the road. This is exactly what
a topic sentence is. It is just, "Hey
examiner, stop, look, this is the main
topic that I'm going to talk about."
Just indicates and helps the examiner
understand what it is about. So, which
one was better? Topic sentence A or
topic sentence B? Hopefully, many of you
guessed that topic sentence A is a
problem and topic sentence B is good.
The main problem with topic sentence A
is that it's not really a topic
sentence. It is a background sentence.
The difference is a background sentence
just talks generally about the topic,
whereas a topic sentence says, "This is
what I'm going to talk about." And the
topic sentence is actually answering the
question, whereas a background statement
is just talking generally about the
topic. Also, this one is extremely
vague. It is not using the specific idea
that we used in the introduction. It
could talk about anything, and that
defeats the purpose of a topic sentence.
It's also just not paraphrased from the
introduction, so it doesn't link up with
the introduction. And it's full of just
memorized stuff like in the modern
world, stuff that students memorize all
the time, examiners see every day. These
are all just nonsense words. They don't
actually mean anything. Just straight to
the point, state what you mean. That's
exactly what topic sentence B does.
People rely on machines because of the
latest developments in AI. One idea
directly answers question one.
It is immediately understood by the
examiner. And it is paraphrased from the
introduction. Now, let's talk about the
marking criteria right now because many
of you might be thinking like, "Why is
he getting me to do that? Why is he
forcing me to do these things?" Well,
everything that we teach is based on the
official marking criteria. When the
examiners are marking your essay, they
have the official marking criteria
beside them. I know this because I sat
in rooms with other examiners for years
and years. All the training is done on
the marking criteria.
And all of the evaluation of the
examiners when senior examiners evaluate
them is based on the marking criteria.
In other words, nothing else matters.
So, everything that we teach you is
based on following the marking criteria
and forcing you to do what they say and
what they want. So, for task response,
task response is 25% of your your mark.
Task response is basically did you
answer the question? So, think about
what we've done so far. In the
introduction, we paraphrased the
question. That indicates that you
understood the question. Then, we
briefly answered both of the questions
in the introduction. Very, very clearly
answering the question. And then in the
topic sentence, we've taken that idea
and we've paraphrased it. We've stated
very, very simply this is my topic
sentence. This is the idea that actually
answers the question. So, everything
that we've been doing is just hammering
into the examiner I understand the
question and I've answered it. The next
25% is something called coherence and
cohesion. Coherence is
is your essay clear? Is it easy to
understand? And cohesion refers to are
the elements of the essay linked
together? Not lots of linking words,
that's not what cohesion means. It's are
the different parts of your essay are
they cohesive? We'll talk about that in
a in a little bit more detail because
it's really important you understand
that. So, it's important that we keep
our ideas coherent and cohesive. So, how
have we solved that problem? Well, our
two main ideas are simple and they are
relevant. And then we take those ideas,
we put them into our main body paragraph
and our conclusion. So, the whole essay
is coherent and easy to understand.
There's more to it than that, but on a
very basic level, the examiner will be
able to understand your ideas if they
are relevant, they're simple, they're
easy to understand. So, we have idea one
and we have idea two. So, we talked
about the different elements that are in
our essay. Think of this as one element
and this is another element. How do we
make it cohesive? How do we link that
together? Well, our main body paragraph
talks about idea number one.
Our next main body paragraph talks about
idea number two. Our conclusion
is summarizing
>> [snorts]
>> these ideas. The same ideas. So,
everything is easy to understand and it
is cohesive. And this is actually the
opposite to what most examiners see
every day. What most examiners see is
students write about some ideas in the
introduction and then the main body
paragraph those ideas are different and
then in the conclusion there's new ideas
again, they're completely different. It
would be like getting into a taxi and
telling them take me to the central
train station and they take you to the
airport. That is not cohesive because
you told them I'm going here and they
take you to a completely different
place. So, another way to think about
this is just to think about a chain, all
right? So, a chain is only as strong as
its weakest link. If one of the links is
broken, the whole chain breaks. That is
why we teach you to keep your essay
very, very cohesive where the main ideas
match
the introduction and the main body
paragraph and the conclusion. That's how
all good essays are. So, let's look at a
bad example here. So,
in the introduction the student has said
advancements in artificial intelligence
is the answer to the first question and
then in their main body paragraph they
talk about saving money on labor costs.
So, they make a promise here, but they
don't keep the promise here. The chain
breaks. So, your coherence and cohesion
score will drop immediately because it's
confusing, all right? And what are they
testing? Can you clearly communicate in
English? So, now we know how to write a
topic sentence. Now, we need to learn
how to write explanations. So, here's
the topic sentence that we're going to
be using. You might have a different
topic sentence. There's no one way to
write them, but what I did was I gave
this topic sentence with this question
to two different VIP students and I
asked them
to write different explanations. All
right, one student knew what they were
doing.
They'd gone through the course. The
other student had just joined the course
and they were just doing some practice.
Which one is better and why? Why do you
think it's better? Pause the video, have
a think about it and then we'll show you
which one is better. So, it's a good
idea to kind of zoom out now and think
about why do we explain things and think
about the difference between speaking to
someone and writing to someone. So, when
you're speaking to someone face-to-face
or in a Zoom call or something like
that, think about what the other person
can do if they don't understand what
you're saying. If the person I'm talking
to or talking to my wife and I say
something and she doesn't understand,
you know, "What do you mean?" Um or "Can
you explain that?" Or like she might
just say, "Huh? What?" You know, this is
how normal people speak. Think about the
difference then when you were writing a
letter. Maybe I'm in Ireland and my
uncle in New York. I had to leave all
the explanations on the page
and I had to communicate in a way where
they were not able to ask me follow-up
questions. This is why we explain a lot
more in writing, especially writing
essays, compared to when we are
speaking. This is something that a lot
of students struggle with, so I've
developed a few techniques um to help
students. You don't have to use all of
them. Some students like one or two of
them. Some Some like all of them. But,
the first one actually comes from when I
was a student in school. So, the teacher
would in class while we were writing
essays, he would be walking between us
and he would look over my shoulder and
he would jam his finger at the end of
the topic sentences and say, "So what?
So what?" in a very violent, aggressive
way. Now, you don't have to think of it
that way, but if you get to the end of
your your sentence, just ask yourself
that question. So what? What do you mean
by that? Why does it matter?
[clears throat] And keep asking yourself
that question, and it will normally
force you to think, "Okay, I have to
fully develop this. I have to really
explain
how this idea answers the question, what
it actually means, and why this
matters." So that's the so what method.
It was effective for me, hopefully, but
let's think of some other techniques as
well. Imagine explaining it to a really
old person. For me, that would be my
mother. My mother is 80 years old, so
she doesn't know a lot about technology.
She wouldn't know a lot about robots and
AI and things like that. If I was
writing this essay, I would picture my
mother
as the examiner, as the reader. That
would force me to explain it
in a very explanatory way, so that she
would understand it. Another way to
think about this is imagine a child. You
would speak to a 6-year-old, 7-year-old,
8-year-old very differently to how you
would speak to an expert on this topic.
Don't write to the expert, write to the
person who knows nothing about this. And
I think just the the the grandmother and
the little girl, the little boy, just
helps you put this into the real world
and and take it out of like a
theoretical way of me just saying
explain more. It forces you to write in
the exact way the examiners are looking
for, which is a very explanatory,
simple, easy-to-understand way. So let's
look at this method in action. So the
topic sentence is, "People rely on
machines because of the latest
developments in AI." I'm going to
imagine my
6-year-old.
He would say,
"What's AI? I don't know what AI is."
And he would say, "Developments? What do
you mean by that?"
And okay, once he understands that,
"Well, how does that lead to more robot
use?
AI is like software, and robots are
machines. How does that actually
connect? I don't understand that. So, I
gave this to one of our VIP students,
and I taught them this exactly, and this
is what they came up with. This is
because big data and global connectivity
means algorithms can now learn basic
tasks. As a result, software does not
need to be programmed. It learns from
millions of devices around the world.
So, what they are doing here is they're
explaining what AI is, how it has
developed, and how that is connected to
actual robots. They've tried to be a
little bit fancy. They could simplify it
a little bit, but overall, it's pretty
good because they are trying to explain
that. So, we showed you two
explanations, explanation A and
explanation B, and asked you which one
was better. Well, explanation A was the
better one because it answers that so
what directly, and it has one idea
that's fully developed, and it shows the
cause and effect. It shows, okay, this
is happening with AI, and this is how it
is connected to robots. You don't have
to do that in every single sentence, but
they've done it here because it was
logical to do that. And it just tells
the examiner this student knows how to
use explanations. This student knows how
to build an essay, build an argument.
So, why is there a problem with
explanation B? Well, they said, "Robots
today are capable of doing many
different tasks that humans used to do.
They can clean our homes, they can cook
food, they can assemble products in
factories. Many modern robots can also
recognize faces, respond to voice
commands, and work alongside humans in
workplaces. This is why they have become
such an important part of modern
society." Well, the topic sentence is
about AI. Have they talked about AI at
all? Have they explained their topic
sentence? The explanation is not a
general explanation of the general
topic. It is an explanation of this. So,
does it actually talk about this? No, it
doesn't. So, the examiner is reading
this and they don't understand why.
They're like, "So what? Well, so what
about it can do all these things? What's
that got to do with AI?" Again, this is
where students don't know much about the
topic on a on a deeper level, but they
know generally, okay, there's lots of
robots are doing lots of things. Let's
just throw in everything. That's just a
shopping list. It is not a coherent,
cohesive paragraph. So, this tells the
examiner that you know a lot about
robots, but you don't know how to write
an essay. And this is why it's not a
knowledge test. It is not a test of your
IQ or how much knowledge you have about
that topic. The best students that I've
ever worked with, they didn't know much
about any of these topics, but you could
give them any topic and they could write
a very, very good essay because they
were extremely good at writing essays
and clearly communicating. Don't forget
to go into your workbook and do task
eight if you want, which is to write
your explanation. But even looking at
that topic sentence and explanation,
many of you might be like, well, that's
not very clear to me. That is because it
is lacking the third pillar. The example
is often the thing that reveals the
clarity. It reveals, oh, this is I fully
understand this now. Okay, so let's look
at two different examples. You know the
drill. Which one is good? Which one is
bad? Pause the video, have a think about
it, and then we'll move on. And it is
for this one, that same topic sentence.
Okay, so examples have to have a few
things. Number one, it must prove your
point. All right, it must be linked to
the topic sentence. Someone should be
able to look at that example and think,
okay, this is proof, this is evidence
that
what we are talking about in the topic
sentence is actually true. So, think
about it as proof or evidence. So,
before I was a IELTS teacher, I was a
lawyer. I couldn't just go into court
with someone who, let's say they were
caught speeding. I couldn't just go in
and say, "He's not guilty because he's a
nice guy." That's just my opinion, all
right? That is not proof. That is not
evidence. If I was able to say, "Well,
on the 16th of December, 2025,
my client's vehicle was caught speeding
on the motorway in Dublin. He was in
Singapore at the time. Here are his
flight tickets. Here is proof. Here's a
stamp in his passport that he was in
Singapore at the time, thousands of
miles away." That is proof that he is
not guilty. Why? Because examples,
proof, evidence
aid clear communication. However, for
the purposes of an IELTS essay, it does
not need to be true. It is better if it
is true, but a lot of students get stuck
and they're like, "I have no idea and I
don't know any real examples here, but I
could make one up that sounds
plausible." The examiner is not going to
hook you up to a lie detector test at
the end and say like, "Are your examples
actually true?" That, you know, that
would be crazy. They're testing your
ability to write examples. They're
testing your ability to use examples,
not the truth of those examples, but
make sure that they're plausible. Don't
invent statistics. Like I've seen
students say things like, "Uh 97% of
people
um
die of smoking every year." Or something
like, "No, they don't." It is dangerous.
It It leads to a lot of deaths, but not
97% of people. So, avoid things like,
"Data shows" or uh "A Cambridge
University or an MIT study shows that
48%
You used to be able to use these, um but
examiners uh see them way too much these
days. Uh And IDP and the British Council
recently said, "Don't use them." So,
don't use that. So, there's a few
different ways to think of examples. The
first one is the most obvious, which is
obvious examples. So, right now, can you
think of any companies making robots?
I can.
The biggest one is Tesla, or there's
Boston Dynamics. Now, I'm not an expert
on robots. I've just seen that in the
news. Those are the two that I am aware
of. You might be aware of other ones.
So, those are just like obvious, it pops
into your head immediately. Which
companies are using AI and robots? Well,
Tesla would be the only one that I know
of, but that is a very, very obvious
example. And then, practical examples
from your own life. Is this actually
happening right now, or in your real
life? Well, I actually have one
that is a vacuum. And I have one that is
a lawnmower. I could use those. So, this
is just like experience from your
everyday life. Do you know that this is
happening?
But, be very careful with the next one,
which is personal examples. So, has this
actually happened to you? If it has, you
can use that, but you need to be careful
with them. So, the silliest example I
seen was
it was about smoking, smoking
cigarettes. A student said, "For
example, my grandfather smoked every
day, lived until he was nearly 100, and
therefore smoking is not bad for you."
That was a real a real example from a
real essay. Is it true? Did it actually
happen to them? Yes, I actually spoke to
this gentleman, because I was kind of
amazed. Does this mean that smoking is
not harmful? No. So, the sample size of
a personal example is one. Normally, a
sample size of one or your family or
something that happened to you is not
good enough to prove a general point. I
get emails about this every day where a
student would say something like, "I got
a band nine in reading and a band nine
in listening and a band eight in
speaking and I got 6.5 in writing.
Therefore, the IELTS test is a scam and
the IELTS test is deliberately lowering
my score to fail me." I'm like, "Okay,
what is that based on?" "Well, it
happened to my cousin as well." Okay, so
we have two people out of millions of
people and when we look at your essays,
objectively, they are terrible, all
right? They are not very good. So, just
because you think out of a sample size
of you and your cousin that that proves
the general point is not actually true.
I'm going to teach you a technique where
you can
convert a personal example into a good
example that you could use in your
actual essay. I'm going to show you how
I used this with a real student. So, I
said to them, "What are some obvious
examples?" The only one they could think
of was a vacuum. Then I said, "Okay, can
you think of any anything else?" They
said, "Some people use those little
robots to cut grass." I said, "Okay, do
you know a lot about those?" "No." She
didn't know much about those. I said,
"Is there anything from your own life
that is a machine that uses AI?" She
said, "I drive a Tesla." Great. So, you
have a machine, which is basically Tesla
cars are basically robots on wheels that
use AI to drive themselves. So, could
she say, for example, "I use a Tesla"?
No, we change it to this. For example,
Tesla records every journey their car
makes and feeds this data into a
supercomputer. You drive a Tesla, so
what? And then she explained to me,
"Well,
all the cameras around the car, there's
multiple cameras and what they're doing
is they are sending all that data back
to Elon Musk and he is putting it into
his supercomputer and it is mapping the
entire world and is learning from every
journey and that AI is just constantly
getting smarter and smarter and smarter
and that is how they are using AI in
that machine to learn how to drive by
themselves. All this information is I
mean trained to use humanoid robots
which are expected to help with
household chores in the near future. So
let's look at these two examples. Which
ones are good, which ones are not so
good. So example A was not good. For
example, my brother bought a vacuum
cleaner last year and he uses it every
day. He told me it saves him a lot of
time and makes his life much easier
because he does not have to clean the
floors himself anymore. It does not
prove the topic sentence. The topic
sentence is about AI. It is not about
general robots. The question is about
general robots but the topic sentence is
not. One person is not evidence. And
then they start talking about a
different point which is saving time
which is not cohesive and it just tells
the examiner this person doesn't know
how to use examples.
Whereas if we look at this student, they
talk about data. They talk about
learning. They talk about robots. This
is exactly what the topic sentence is
about. It is believable. It is a real
company. It is a real mechanism. It is
really happening in the world right now.
And there's no like invented stuff like
80% of people are using robots to clean
their homes these days or a recent study
find that 79% of people with gardens are
using robots to cut their grass or some
nonsense like that. It's just like what
is a real thing happening in the world
and they use that. I want to talk you
through what an examiner would think
when they're looking at these two main
body paragraphs. So if you start with
the Band 8 student, people rely on
machines because of latest developments
in AI. Clear topic sentence. I
understand what this paragraph is about.
How does AI make people more reliant on
machines, on robots? This is because big
data and global global connectivity
means algorithms can now learn basic
tasks. Okay, the AI can learn how to do
things. What does this mean? What is the
result of this? As a result, software
does not need to be programmed. It
learns from millions of devices around
the world. Okay. That makes sense, but I
need an example to help me understand
that. For example, Tesla records every
journey their car makes and feeds this
data into supercomputer.
Okay, how does that work? All this
information is now being used to train
humanoid robots, which are expected to
help with household chores in the near
future. Okay, I fully understand
that. I don't have to agree with it, but
I can't say that this student isn't
being reasonable and giving reasons,
giving evidence as to why this is
happening. Contrast this with the band
6.5 student. In today's modern world,
there is many reasons why robots are
becoming so popular in our daily life.
So, what the examiner's thinking, this
student has memorized a template and
they are just inserting the topic into
this template. First of all, the
technology has improved very much in
recent years
and this is the main reason. So, this is
not an explanation. This is a topic
sentence. So, they've done background
sentence, then topic sentence. This is
why my background sentences are
confusing because when someone is
reading an essay, they're expecting a
topic sentence. So, when they read this,
they're like, "So, what's it about the
generally about?" And then, "Okay, is
this an explanation? Is this an
example?" They've no idea what they're
what you're doing. Also, people nowadays
are very busy because of their work and
they don't have time for household
activities. So, they started talking
about this and then now they're talking
about So, there's multiple different
ideas. I'm I'm very confused. Moreover,
okay, now they're talking about
something else. There's no explanations
really. There's no examples.
I've got a headache. You don't want to
give your exam examiner a headache. But
you might look at this and think,
"Well, this person knows how to write
English." Well, yes, that is the
difference between 6.5 and band 8, band
9. Native English speakers, a lot of
native English speakers have to do the
IELTS test cuz some countries, like
Australia for example, uh force
everybody to do it. And a lot of native
English speakers will come to us and
email us and say, "This is ridiculous.
I've been speaking English my whole
life. I grew up in the UK and I'm
getting 6.5 on this silly test." Like,
yeah, cuz it's not an English test. You
know how to write English, but you don't
know how to communicate clearly. And
once we teach them this, they're able to
easily get a band 8 or a band 9 because
we don't teach, "Here's how to improve
your vocabulary or your grammar."
Although we do that for other students,
for those people, and for the vast
majority of students that we work with
on our VIP course, it is just showing
them how to use these tools, these
elements to communicate clearly. So,
this is the full
paragraph. So, we have our topic
sentence, we have our explanation, and
we have our example, and we put all of
these together to create one cohesive
main body paragraph. In your workbook,
write your example, and then you can
assemble your own main body paragraph in
task 10. So, let's look at our students'
main body paragraph for the other
question, which is, "Is this a positive
or negative development?" Automation
should be welcomed because it frees
people from the drudgery of everyday
duties. Okay, they're trying to be a
little bit fancy with drudgery, but they
they used it effectively. But, what is
the examiner thinking? Do I know what is
coming up? Do I know what this paragraph
is about? Well, free people from work.
What is the examiner thinking? So what?
How
does this actually free people from
work? Our day-to-day lives are dominated
by repetitive tasks that consume large
amounts of our time. So this is very
good because they're not assuming that
the person knows anything about people's
day-to-day lives. They are actually
explaining it. If these can be handled
by machines, people are free to spend
their time more productively or
enjoyably. So again, they haven't
assumed that this person reading this
understands that machines free people
from having to do work. Can you give me
an example of that? For example, there
is now a robot that both cuts grass and
vacuums carpets and manufacturers
estimate this saves the average person 3
weeks per year.
As an examiner, do I know whether this
exists? Am I going to Google it? No, but
does it sound plausible? Yes. Saves
person 3 weeks per year. There are 52
weeks in a year. Saves them, you know,
by what? 7 or 8% of their time. Sounds
plausible. Am I going to check it? No.
All good.
Does the example actually
talk about this?
Yes, it does. So when you do this in
your workbook, you can go through this
little checklist. I like to create these
checklists for students because at the
end of the day, I can help you a lot on
the VIP course and give you a lot of
feedback and whatnot, but you won't have
me on test day. So you need to get used
to kind of giving yourself feedback. And
one way you can do that is getting used
to these little checklists. So every
time you do this, asking yourself these
questions, that will make you a very
independent student who can give
themselves feedback. And that's the
goal. Even for VIP students who pay for
one-on-one feedback, we give them that,
but we also give them these so that they
become become independent because I'm
not going to be sitting with you on test
day. Okay? So we have done our two main
body paragraphs. Now we need to write
our conclusion.