Structuring an ‘Discuss + Opinion’ IELTS Essay: From Diagnosis to Solution

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From Superficial Templates to Structural Authority

This essay is all about explaining the agree, then disagree with the prompt and then which side you think is stronger, and crucially, why.

The clearer and deeper and more critical your explanation of each side, the higher your marks.

In addition to all of the things you do in agree/disagree essays, you need to

Be objective (both sides could be right, so don’t say one is ‘wrong’ entirely.

Assess in a balanced way (what are the strong points of each side, with a comment on a possible negative(

You need to do all this in a very small space. (You need to say things in the shortest way possible)

Assess the two sides on balance and give your opinion.

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Bonus sentence:

At the end of your third body, or start, write,
“It is not only________but _________that causes ______and therefore, it can be argued that__________(your opinion).

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Examiners, and university lecturers, are looking for

Original thinking

A clear thesis

Strong background in the introduction

Coherence (can they understand you?)

Organisation of ideas (do the ideas in your paragraph flow logically)

Progression of ideas

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Structure:

The structure, in plain terms, overall, is

Introduction: background and thesis (your point-of-view)

Body paragraph 1: the reasons to agree

Body paragraph 2: the reasons to disagree

Body paragraph 3: Your evaluation of both and your opinion.

Conclusion: summarise all the ideas. 

Notes:

*this structure is not fixed. You can adjust it depending on your needs, but the general purpose of ‘explaining your reason for your thesis’ does not change.

*note on templates (the famous teachers give you these because they are easy to teach and appear to be a solution). This is where you are given exact phrases to use and you ‘fill in the blanks’. Examiners see thousands of essays per year and can recognise templates. You will lose marks if you do this. (You will also find university extremely hard if you do this)

The 3-Body Essay is Recommended:

You use body 3 for your evaluation of the two sides. This is where your critical depth comes in.

Paragraph Structure

Background sentence

Topic sentence (what reason for your point-of-view are you giving?)

Explain your reasons for agree/disagree 2-3 sentences

Example (if space permits) (I would leave this out. The paragraph is too short)

Result/summary

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These pages will teach you how to write strong agree/disagree essays.

Education

Where the ‘big IELTS teachers’ fail you.

Teachers like ‘IELTS Liz’ are famous, but their advice is often weak.

In the Discuss + Opinion essay, she recommends putting one sentence at the end of each body for your opinion.

The stronger method is using body 3 to give a deeper and more balanced assessment of both sides.

Critical thinking is crucial for university, so if you can do it for IELTS, you’ll get a high band AND start preparing for university.

An example is “While we have seen that X provides ______, it is also true that this situation has a serious down side. Namely, when ________, Y can happen.”

This is assessing the situation; however, if you just write “I believe that ,,,,,,” without any reason why or judgement on the detail of the situation, it’s very basic and everyone can do it.

Compare

“I believe that tertiary education offers and advantage mainly for those aiming at a professional or academic career.”

”While tertiary education can benefit a career, it is certainly not limited to one field, and it is common for skills learned in one field to be effective in another.”

The second is more ‘nuanced’ or ‘detailed’.
The second also explains WHY the author has this opinion.

The second gets you higher marks because the band descriptors ask you to “present, extend and fully develop” ideas.

Engineered for 2026 Academic Standards