Build an IELTS Writing Task 2 Outline That Fits the Question You Were Asked

IELTS Writing is graded on four criteria, and structure sits inside two of them directly. Task Response (called Task Achievement on Task 1) asks whether you answered the specific question that was set, not a related question you'd rather answer. Coherence and Cohesion asks whether your paragraphs are organized so an examiner can follow your argument without re-reading it. The other two criteria, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy, judge your language (IELTS, IELTS scoring in detail, checked September 2026).

That split matters because Task Response has a hard ceiling built into it: if you answer a "discuss both views" prompt as if it were an "agree or disagree" prompt, or you drop the second half of a two-part question, the examiner cannot award a high Task Response band no matter how accurate your grammar is. A grammatically flawless essay that answers the wrong question type is still a capped essay. This is the reason a template of good sentences does not fix a 6.0: the fix has to happen at the level of what each paragraph is for, before a single sentence gets written.

Nearly every Task 2 prompt is a variation on one of five underlying structures. Recognizing which one you're looking at, from the wording alone, is the first decision the essay depends on.

Paste the prompt exactly as it was given to you. The tool guesses the question type from the wording and shows its guess underneath the box; if it's wrong, or it says "not sure," use the dropdown to set the type yourself. Add your position and one short idea per body paragraph, then generate. The result on the right is a paragraph-by-paragraph plan of sentence functions, the shape of the essay, not the essay. It will not write a topic sentence, an explanation, or an example for you: it only names the job each sentence needs to do and inserts your own keyword as a label.

An opinion essay and a discussion essay are not the same essay with a different opening line. Their body paragraphs carry different jobs, which is why a candidate who writes a strong opinion essay in answer to a discussion prompt still loses Task Response marks even though every sentence is fluent.

IELTS states the Writing Task 2 response must be "at least 250 words," written in "about 40 minutes," against a General Training Task 1 or Academic Task 1 minimum of 150 words in about 20 minutes (IELTS, Academic Writing test format and General Training Writing test format, checked September 2026). This is not a soft suggestion. IELTS is direct about what happens under it: an answer that is too short may not give the examiner "enough evidence of the language features needed in order to award higher bands" (IELTS, Academic Writing test format, checked September 2026).

In practice, 190 words is not long enough to develop two ideas with an explanation and an example each, so Task Response is capped by thinness even before an examiner counts anything. On the other end, 400 words is not penalized on paper, but every extra minute on Task 2 is a minute you don't have for Task 1, and length past the point of full development does not raise your Lexical Resource or Grammatical Range score, it just adds more surface area for errors. The realistic target most Task 2 essays land on is 260 to 300 words: enough for four developed paragraphs, short enough to leave time to check.

The 40/20 split is not just about the extra 100 words. IELTS states it plainly on the General Training format page: "Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to the Writing score" (IELTS, General Training Writing test format, checked September 2026). Spending less than half your 60 minutes on the task that decides two-thirds of your Writing band is a timing decision that is actually a scoring decision. If you're running behind, protect Task 2's time first.

IELTS Writing is scored against four criteria, weighted equally within each task (IELTS, IELTS scoring in detail, checked September 2026). In plain terms:

• Task Response (Task Achievement on Task 1): did you answer the specific question asked, with a clear position and enough developed ideas.
• Coherence and Cohesion: can an examiner follow your argument from paragraph to paragraph without re-reading, and do your linking words connect ideas rather than just decorate sentences.
• Lexical Resource: range and precision of vocabulary, and whether word choice is natural rather than forced.
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: variety of sentence structures and how often errors interrupt meaning.

This page describes what each criterion is looking for in plain language; it does not reproduce IELTS's band-by-band descriptor tables. Read the official wording directly at IELTS's own scoring in detail page.

These five show up across question types, and every one of them is a structure problem, not a language problem, which is why fixing grammar first doesn't fix them.

1. No clear position. Hedging between two views without ever landing on one, especially on an opinion prompt, leaves the examiner unable to credit a stance that isn't there.
2. Position that changes between the introduction and the conclusion. Agreeing in paragraph one and disagreeing by the conclusion reads as an essay that didn't plan its own argument.
3. Body paragraphs carrying two competing ideas. One idea per body paragraph, developed fully, scores higher than two ideas that both get half the attention.
4. Examples longer than the argument they support. An example is there to illustrate the point in one or two sentences, not to replace the explanation of why the point is true.
5. A conclusion that introduces something new. A new reason, a new example, or a new qualification in the last paragraph reads as an essay that ran out of planning time, and it earns no credit for content, since the conclusion is scored for restating, not adding.

You will not have this tool open during the real test, so the plan is to internalize the shape, not the software. Spend the first five minutes of your 40 on Task 2 building exactly this outline on scratch paper (or, in a computer-delivered test, in the notepad space provided): question type, position, and one keyword per body paragraph. Five minutes feels expensive when the clock is running, but an essay built on a five-minute plan is faster to write than one where you're deciding what each paragraph is for while you're already writing it, and it is far less likely to drift off-topic by the conclusion.

1. Read the prompt twice. Identify the question type from its wording, using the patterns in the table above.
2. Write your position (or, for a two-part question, your two direct answers) in three or four words.
3. Write one keyword per body paragraph. Do not write full sentences at this stage.
4. Check the plan against the prompt's exact wording: does every part of the question get an answer.
5. Write the essay from the plan, keeping each paragraph within its word budget.

No, this generator is for Task 2 only. Academic Task 1 asks you to describe visual information, a graph, table, chart, or diagram, in your own words, in at least 150 words within about 20 minutes. General Training Task 1 asks for a letter instead, in a personal, semi-formal, or formal register depending on who you're writing to, also at least 150 words within about 20 minutes (IELTS, Academic Writing test format and General Training Writing test format, checked September 2026). Both Task 1 formats need their own outline logic, since a data description and a letter don't share Task 2's paragraph functions, so they're deliberately out of scope here.

Once you can identify the question type, the sentence-level habits around it matter more: a solid thesis statement gives your Body 1 topic sentence something to hang from, and a scan for common grammar mistakes before you submit catches the errors that cost Grammatical Range marks even in a well-structured essay. If you're timing your practice essays, a word counter tells you fast whether you're inside the 255-315 target or drifting toward 400. For essays outside the IELTS format, CampusBreeze's general essay outline generator covers argumentative and expository structures this page doesn't. Inside this module, pair this outline with the IELTS band score calculator to see how a stronger Task 2 moves your overall Writing band, and check IELTS Academic vs. General Training if you're not yet sure which test version you need.