40 marks and 250 words…with twice the weight of writing task 1, cracking task 2 is worth its weight in gold for IELTS candidates. When done right, task 2 can increase your score to the ideal band.
Writing task 2 is a formal essay exercise. It includes topics that require candidates to discuss their opinions, give causes to problems and offer up solutions, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a particular cause, etc.
A varied lexical resource in terms of your vocabulary and phrases will contribute significantly to elevating your writing cores. Through this article, we aim to provide you with the same lexical tools to help you achieve the ideal score. Among the various question types listed above, we shall be discussing the vocabulary for ‘Advantages and Disadvantages’ type essays.
Under this essay type, there are two kinds of questions –
Example topic 1: It is common practice for some students to take a gap year between high school and university in order to do charitable work abroad in under-developed countries.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this.
Or
Example topic 2: At present, the population of some countries includes a relatively large number of young adults, compared with the number of older people. Do the advantages of this situation outweigh the disadvantages?
For the first essay type, where you have been asked to discuss advantages as well as disadvantages, the following expressions can be used –
Advantages and Disadvantages Vocabulary:
To express advantages |
To express disadvantages |
| One advantage of ___is… | One disadvantage of ____is… |
| One major/chief/central/crucial/fundamental advantage of ______is… | One main/major/noteworthy/striking disadvantage of ____is… |
| An/A added/additional/extra/further advantage of _____is… | There are a few disadvantages of this idea… |
| This view holds the merit of … | This ____holds the demerit of… |
| An upside of this idea is… | A downside of ____is… |
| The benefit that this argument holds is that… | A shortcoming in this idea is …. |
| A positive aspect of ____ is… | A negative aspect ___is… |
| The most important/significant/noteworthy advantage of _____ is… | One major drawback of ___is… |
| _____has many advantages such as… | A flaw in this argument is that… |
For the second essay type, where you asked to weigh up the advantages and advantages, the following expressions will get you extra brownie points –
- Outweigh
- Prevail over
- Overshadow
- Far exceed
- Surpass
To be used in this manner – In my opinion/I believe/I hold the point of view that its (advantages/merits/benefits/upsides/positive aspects) outweigh/prevail over/overshadow/far exceed/surpass (the disadvantages/drawbacks/demerits/downsides/negative aspects).
Thus, when varied vocabulary resources are used for advantages and disadvantages type essays, you will gain an instant uplift in your score.
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