IELTS Writing Task 2: Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

October 9, 2021

IELTS Writing Task 2: Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

This type of question is also another form of an opinion essay. In this kind of essay, you are given a statement and then asked to discuss whether it is a positive or negative development. Like most other opinion essays, you can also have a balanced position.

Basically, you have two options here:

Option 1: You claim that it’s a positive development. You discuss the merits of the statement.

Option 2: You claim that it’s a negative development. You discuss the demerits of the statement.

Note: To add more depth to your writing, you can discuss the side you don’t agree with and then use a counterargument to refute it.

Here’s the question we’re going to work on:

In some countries, many people are choosing to live alone.

Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

Step 1: Spend 2 minutes reading and understanding the question. Once you have fully understood what the question asks of you, you can move on to the next step. Remember that every word counts!

Step 2: Spend 8 minutes to come up with a plan, from introduction to conclusion. If you don’t do this step properly, it will be nearly impossible to get to band 7 or above.

Note 1: To learn how you can do steps 1 and 2 properly, take a look at this article.

Note 2: It might be difficult for you to understand every part of my plan without reading my essay. My planning shows my thinking process with signs and shortened statements. I’ve put it here so that you see how I plan. Once you do your planning like this, it will make sense to you.

Here’s my plan:

Introduction: Paraphrase the question + Thesis statement

Living alone…lately…trend in some societies

I…unwelcome consequences

Body paragraph 1:

Main idea: One-person household= all chores for one person→take a lot of time= no free time for other productive activities.

Example: student living alone… shop, cook, dishes, laundry… less time for studying and friends→no balance→demotivated

Body paragraph 2:

Main idea: Leads to health problems…humans…

Support 1: social creatures→should live with others… alone=no one to talk to + no feeling of loved→ loneliness +depression.

Support 2: living alone= shorter lifespan→reason: depression→weak immune system→deadly diseases like cancer and Alzi…

Conclusion: brings nothing but misery+onset of other issues

Here’s my full essay:

Choosing to live alone is lately becoming a trend in some societies. I believe that this type of lifestyle brings about unwelcome consequences to the people who opt for it.

Having a one-person household means that only one person is responsible for all the chores, which take up a lot of time to do and leave the person with little or no free time to spend on more productive activities such as studying or socializing. Take, for example, a student who lives alone in an apartment. Activities such as shopping, cooking, doing the dishes, or the laundry are a few of the time-consuming tasks that would keep him too busy to spend time on his studies or with his friends. Therefore, I believed that such people would find it difficult to balance their lives and soon become exhausted and demotivated.

Another major issue caused by living alone is that it leads to serious health-related problems. Simply put, Inasmuch as humans are social creatures, it is vital for them to live in groups in order to have a healthy life. Being alone takes away the opportunity for them to have an intimate conversation with another person in order to feel loved and eventually leads them toward loneliness and depression. Moreover, people who live alone are likely to have a shorter lifespan than the ones living with other family members. This is due to the fact that depression is known to be one of the major factors of the weakened immune system, which makes people prone to a variety of deadly diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Hence people should live with other family members to avoid poor health.

In conclusion, I whole-heartedly believe that living alone brings nothing but misery to people and that it is the onset of many other problems in life.

(300 words)

Step 4: Take 5 minutes reviewing your essay and correcting your mistakes.

Here’s the summary of all the steps: