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Writing Guide
This Writing Guide aims to help IELTS candidates develop their writing skills in order to
be able to do well in the writing section of the exam. It is divided into 9 sections that deal
with various aspects of the writing process, such as creating topic sentences, writing a
well-organised paragraph, supporting the main point of a paragraph, writing a paragraph
analysing reasons or a process, writing a paragraph comparing and contrasting ideas and
writing a classification paragraph. Finally, the last section is about writing an essay, which
is a task that has to be completed in the IELTS exam.

Step 1

The Parts of a Paragraph Look at the three main parts in this paragraph
written by a student. The topic sentence is in bold
Most of the writing that we do in school or at work consists
of paragraphs. A paragraph is a small piece of writing that print and the concluding sentence is underlined.
focuses on one idea, which is explained and developed in the The rest of the paragraph consists of the supporting
paragraph. The first line of each paragraph can sometimes be sentences.
indented (which does not happen very often these days) and A parent can help in their children's education by
signals the beginning of a new paragraph. The length of the encouraging them. After spending a day in the classroom,
paragraph depends upon the complexity of the topic. children usually want to play with their friends rather than
have to do homework. A parent has the responsibility to
A paragraph generally has three parts: inspire their children to do their homework first. There are
A a topic sentence B support C a conclusion many ways to get children to do their work, but the most
effective is to either help them by monitoring them and
The topic sentence outlines the topic (what the paragraph being available to answer any difficult questions, or just by
is about) and the writer's attitude or idea about the topic. making sure that they are on the right track by rewarding
them with positive words. Children want to feel that they
The supporting part of the paragraph explains, describes,
or develops the main idea given in the topic sentence. have achieved something and by praising them you moti-
vate them to study. Therefore, a parent needs to be atten-
The conclusion of the paragraph usually summarises or tive to their children's education so that they are encour-
comments on the main idea. aged to feel they are achieving something.

A: The Topic sentence

The topic sentence is the sentence that expresses the main
idea. It is the most general and most important sentence of the
paragraph. It relates the following:
The topic: what the paragraph is about
The topic sentence is often the first sentence of the paragraph.
Putting the topic sentence at the beginning, helps the writer
focus on the controlling idea, and the reader to understand the
important information in the paragraph.

In the paragraph above, the topic sentence is the following:
A parent can help in their children's education by
encouraging them. The topic of the sentence is:
how a parent can help with their children's education
The controlling idea: the writer's attitude or idea about the The controlling idea is: by encouraging them
topic The reader might ask the following questions and expect
the paragraph to answer them:
The controlling idea is a word or phrase that focuses on or
* How can parents encourage their children?
controls the information in the rest of the paragraph. * What specific things should a parent do to encourage their children?
The reader can ask questions about the controlling idea
and expect to have them answered in the paragraph. * How can this encouragement lead to success?
The topic sentence expresses the writer's attitude, opinion, or idea
about the topic. Therefore, the writer makes a judgement in this
sentence.

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