July 11, 2011

Always Remember the Qualifier

Hi. We wanted to share a quick tip with you today.

In IELTS Academic Writing Task 2, candidates could be tasked to present and justify an opinion. Typically this could be in the form of a "To what extent do you agree or disagree." question.

What we notice is that most students have the tendency to merely write "I agree..." or "I disagree..." for this question type. In our humble opinion, this is insufficient, for the task requires that the student clearly express the extent of his/her opinion. In other words, there should be an explicit mention of how much the student agrees or disagrees with a given point of view.

So how do you qualify your view or stand? Make use of appropriate adverbs.


Let's say that this was asked on the IELTS exam:
"Alternative forms of transport should be encouraged and international laws introduced to control car ownership and use. To what extent do you agree or disagree."

Instead of merely saying "I agree..." or "I disagree...", include a qualifier - an adverb that describes your act of agreement with, or disagreement against, the provided view. Thus, you could mention "I am strongly in favor of..." or "I partially oppose...", among others. Of course, you have to also justify your stand and supply examples when you draft the remaining parts of your essay.

Keep in mind your qualifiers for this question type. This could help you earn points in the criteria of Task Response.

We hope that you liked our tip. Cheers!