IELTS: Writing introductions for task 2 / Reading news articles

Structuring introductions in IELTS task 2 questions / argument essays

You are going to

1. Read a BBC news article

2. Look at the introduction.

3. Use the introduction model for writing task 2 essays

4. Look at more news articles for IELTS vocabulary practice

Discuss

• How do you usually write your introductions?
• Do you plan your essays?
• Do you think of ideas and how to organize them?
• How do you organize your ideas?
• How should we organize our introductions?

Structure is very important in IELTS writing task 2. 

An IELTS essay should be written in a way that shows you can develop your ideas in a logical way. This is also true of the introduction.


Here ia a very good example from the BBC website.called "Is the internet going to be the death of television?" by Fiona Graham.

Read the introduction. 

• How is it organized? 
• How many sentences are there? 
• What does each sentences do?
• Does the writer introduce the topic and ideas? In what order?
• Does she tell you what she is going to discuss (state her aims)?

In August 2010, the end of the age of television as we know it was widely predicted. The US pay TV market had suffered its first ever drop in subscribers. In the end the economy was roundly found to blame, with cable packages being sacrificed as families were forced to tighten their belts. But some commentators pointed to this as the inevitable result of the growth of on demand and over the top offerings available on the internet. So is technology killing what we think of as traditional television - and taking pay TV operators with it?


Look again at how the introduction is written. There are 3 parts.

1 - Introduce the topic = In August 2010, the end of the age of television as we know it was widely predicted.

2 - State the question / problem for discussion = The US pay TV market had suffered its first ever drop in subscribers. In the end the economy was roundly found to blame, with cable packages being sacrificed as families were forced to tighten their belts. But some commentators pointed to this as the inevitable result of the growth of on demand and over the top offerings available on the internet.

3 - State your aims / rewrite the question = So is technology killing what we think of as traditional television - and taking pay TV operators with it?

This can also be used as a good model for IELTS task 2 introductions. 
So, a typical task 2 introduction could be

1 - Introduce the topic

2 - State the question / problem for discussion

3 - State your aims / rewrite the question

This technique is quite often used in  academic writing and journalism.

Here are some more examples which follow this introduction style.

Can celebrities expect privacy?
By Genevieve Hassan http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14151678

Is smoking in cars dangerous?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14142992

Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12613617




Reading
Click the link to read the rest of   "Is the internet going to be the death of television?"  and take note of the ideas.
What is the writer's conclusion? Is the internet defnitely going to kill TV?

Writing

1) Paractise writing introductions. Go here http://www.goodluckielts.com/IELTS-essay-topics.html
Choose some essay titles and only write the introductions. Use the introduction plan above as a guide.

2) Think about the ideas in the article above and write an answer in an IELTS style to this question.
 "Is the internet going to be the death of television?"( 250 words)




More reading news for IELTS practice here
http://www.scoop.it/t/reading-news-for-ielts
Read these articles and familiarize yourself with the ideas and vocabulary needed for IELTS academic task 1 and 2 writing tasks.
Read as much as you can. The news is especially good for vocabulary needed to get a good IELTS score.