How to Plan & Write ielts double Question Essays

3 Common Mistakes
These three errors are common in IELTS double question essays.

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  Not answering both questions fully.
  

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  Not outlining both answers in the introduction.
  

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  Mistaking it for one of the other essay types.
  

Many students make the mistake of only answering one of the questions, or focusing more on one question than the other which leads to an unbalanced essay. Both these errors will seriously affect your score for task achievement.

You must outline everything you are going to write about in the introduction. This is your blueprint for the whole essay. I’ll show you how to do this and get your essay off to a great start.
It’s easy to mistake IELTS double question essays for one of the other four types of Task 2 essays, especially opinion or discussion essays. Each should be answered in a slightly different way.
Analysing the question properly is essential to avoiding this error. I’ll also show you how to do this and give you a simple 4 part structure for planning your essay.



Essay Structure
Let’s look at this essay structure straight away. You can use it to write any IELTS double question essay. It’s easy to learn and will enable you to quickly plan and write a high-level essay.


1) Introduction 

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  Paraphrase the question 
  
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  Outline sentence – state your answer to both questions
  

2) Main body paragraph 1 – Answer question 1

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  Topic sentence – state your answer
  
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  Explanation – develop the idea
  
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  Example – give an example
  

3) Main body paragraph 2 – Answer question 2

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  Topic sentence – state your answer
  
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  Explanation – develop the idea
  
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  Example – give an example