IELTS brainstorming

Audio: 5 min. 13 sec.

It can be hard to come up with good ideas for your IELTS task 2 body paragraphs, especially under exam conditions when you only have 2 or 3 minutes to do it.

In this blog we are going to explore two of the best ways that you can come up with great ideas for your task 2 – the I.D.E.A.S. method, and the brainstorm notebook.

When used together, these two idea-generating techniques can be extremely powerful.

I.D.E.A.S. is an acronym that stands for Industry leaders, Doctors, Environmentalists, Artists, and Social workers.

Imagine that you have been given a task 2 on the topic of global warming, but you do not know anything about this topic, and have never even thought about it until today.

What a disaster! How on earth are you going to come up with ideas on a topic you know nothing about?

One good way to overcome this difficulty is to put yourself in the shoes of other people.

Take a look at this task 2 question:

Some people say that the best way to improve public health is by increasing the number of sports facilities. Others, however, say this would have little effect on public health and that other measures are required.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Have you ever thought about this topic?

Probably not, right?

But if we put ourselves in the shoes of some other people, we could probably come up with some ideas pretty easily.

Let’s give it a try!

Industry leaders (or businesspeople) care about economic growth, developing skills, and trade.

They would probably say that an increase in sports facilities would be a good idea because there would be more healthy workers in the economy. (POSITIVE VIEW)

Doctors care about our health and emotional well-being.

They might say it is a good idea, but other measures would also be necessary, such as a better awareness of healthy diets and regular health check-ups at the local clinic. (POSITIVE VIEW)

Environmentalists care about protecting nature and natural resources.

They might say that instead of a sports facility, people would be better off physically and mentally if they exercised in nature. (NEGATIVE VIEW)

Artists care about beauty and the freedom to make choices and express ideas.

They might say that sports facilities would be good for some people, but there also needs to be greater choice for people who enjoy other types of physical activity. (NEGATIVE VIEW)

Social workers care about people who are disadvantaged, such as children, the elderly, the poor, and the disabled.

They would probably say that sports facilities would be a good start, but the government should take a more active role in improving public health by funding walking and bicycle paths that are free to use for everyone. (NEGATIVE VIEW)

After thinking about the question from the point of view of other people, it is time to put these ideas together into a brainstorm that can be used to make a plan.

If we look at the ideas above, we can see that there are two positive views and three negative or slightly negative views.

We now need to organize these ideas and add them to our brainstorm notebook.

A brainstorm notebook is a very powerful tool because it brings our ideas together into a central place.

We can review the notebook just before an exam and go into the exam with about 20 pre-planned essays in our head.

This should mean that, no matter what task 2 question we get, it will be very easy to make a quick plan and start writing.

Each page of your brainstorm should contain three parts.

At the top, write the question directly as it is in the exam.

A great place to find task 2 questions is in the Cambridge IELTS with answers booklet series.

Next, in the middle of the page, you should write your I.D.E.A.S. brainstorm.

And finally, at the bottom of the page, you should write you essay plan which includes your opinion, and a topic sentence + 2 ideas for each body paragraph.

If you use the I.D.E.A.S. + brainstorm notebook approach, you will definitely be able to save yourself a lot of stress and make the task 2 much easier for yourself.