IELTS advantage/disadvantage essays ask you to write about the benefits and drawbacks of a topic as well as (sometimes) asking for your opinion. This guide covers everything you need to know to complete an Academic IELTS advantage/ disadvantage essay. Let’s start preparing with Benchmark IELTS!
Table of Contents
1. Advantage/ Disadvantage Essay Overview
This section of the guide will show you how to identify an IELTS advantage/disadvantage question.
Remember, there are five main types of writing task 2 questions:
- Advantage/disadvantage
- Discussion
- Double question
- Problem/solution
- Opinion
It is very important to understand what type of question you are given in the exam so you can respond in an appropriate way: different question types will require different responses.
1.1 Understanding the question
Advantage/disadvantage essay questions can be presented in several different ways.
Here are some examples of the way an advantage/disadvantage question may be worded:
- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages and give your opinion.
- Describe the advantages and disadvantages of _____ and give your opinion.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of _____?
You may also see questions using synonyms for advantage and disadvantage, for example:
- What are the benefits and drawbacks of…?
Be careful, the question itself might not always use words or phrases relating to advantage/disadvantage and they could be hidden in the statement, as seen here:
- Some people believe that using a bicycle as your main form of transport has a lot of advantages, whereas others believe that it has many disadvantages. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Here is another example of a question where you are asked to give your opinion:
- Do the advantages of … outweigh the disadvantages
After you have identified the essay type, you need to understand what you are being asked to do. To do well in the Task achievement marking component, you need to ‘address all parts of the task’.
This type of essay question will always be split into two parts:
- The IELTS statement
- The question
You must always write about both the advantages and disadvantages of the given topic. As we can see in example questions 1-6, sometimes you are asked to give your opinion on the question, and sometimes you are not. Let’s compare the following questions:
- These days, more and more people spend time living abroad, either to learn a language, to study, or to work. What are some advantages and disadvantages of living in a foreign country?
You are not being asked to give your opinion
However, if you are given a question that does not ask for your opinion, you can still give your opinion at the end of your essay in your conclusion. This is referred to as an evidence-led approach.
- Some people find living in the country enjoyable and relaxing, whereas others would not like to live in the country and would instead prefer to live in a bigger city. Do the advantages of living in the country outweigh the disadvantages?
You must give your opinion on this question and you should state your opinion in the introduction and then rephrase your opinion in the conclusion. This is called a thesis-led approach.
1.2 Example advantage/disadvantage questions
Here are some example advantage/disadvantage essay questions:
In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have more of an opportunity to study abroad.
Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Today children spend a lot of their free time watching TV.
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of this practice?
Also, read the following IELTS Essay Writing Guides
The threat of nuclear weapons maintains world peace. Nuclear power provides cheap and clean energy.
The benefits of nuclear technology far outweigh the disadvantages.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have the opportunity to study abroad.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?
More and more people prefer to read news online rather than on paper.
Do you think the advantages of this trend outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience.
2. Essay Structures for Advantage/Disadvantage Essays
There is more than one way to structure your advantage/disadvantage essay. You could take a thesis-led (opinion in the introduction) or an evidence-led (opinion in your conclusion).
You could also choose to focus on one or more than one advantage/disadvantage in each of your main body paragraphs.
The next two sections will give you two possible ways that you could structure your essay using four clearly organized paragraphs.
2.1 Essay Structure 1
Thesis-led approach
Introduction |
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Main body paragraph 1 |
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Main body paragraph 2 |
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Conclusion |
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2.2 Essay Structure 2
Evidence-led approach
Introduction |
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Main body paragraph 1 |
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Main body paragraph 2 |
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Conclusion |
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3. Planning your Advantage/Disadvantage Essay
Before you start writing your essay, you should give yourself 5 minutes to analyze the question and organize your ideas. Follow the tips below to create a well-planned essay!
3.1 Identify keywords and phrases
It sounds simple, but it is very important that you read the question carefully and understand what you are being asked to write about. To analyze the question, first, identify any keywords and phrases.
You should first identify the topic of the essay. If you do not write about the correct topic, you will score poorly in Task achievement. The general topic can always be found in the IELTS statement.
Let’s take a look at one of the previous examples:
The threat of nuclear weapons maintains world peace. Nuclear power provides cheap and clean energy.
The benefits of nuclear technology far outweigh the disadvantages.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
The topic words are underlined and show the general topic of this essay question in nuclear weapons/power/technology.
After you have identified the general topic, you need to locate other keywords that give you more detail about the topic. In this question, the words world peace and cheap and clean energy in bold give you more information about the general topic. Therefore, your essay should only relate to these aspects of nuclear weapons/power/technology.
Now take a look at the question for our model answer at the end of this guide. Can you identify the general topic?
In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have the opportunity to study abroad.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?
3.2 Organise your ideas
This is an important step that is often skipped by test-takers. By quickly writing down your key ideas, you will avoid repeating or missing any points and improve your score in both Task achievement and Coherence and cohesion.
You could use bullet points, columns, or another preferred method of writing down ideas. Here is an example for our sample essay:
Advantages |
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Examples |
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Disadvantages |
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Examples |
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Take a look at our Master Guide for a more in-depth look at idea generation and organizing your ideas.
3.3 Identify vocabulary
Taking a moment to write down more uncommon vocabulary related to the essay topic will not only make you feel more relaxed in the exam but will also help you to improve your score in Lexical resources.
This doesn’t have to be a long list, just a few ideas that come into your mind. Here are some examples of the topic of studying abroad:
- Homesick
- Culture shock
- Language barrier
- Broaden one’s horizons
4. Writing your Advantages/Disadvantages Essay
4.1 Introduction
Your introduction should be the shortest paragraph in your essay (about 40-60 words is perfect).
You need to rephrase the IELTS statement in your own words. This is known as paraphrasing (a key skill to develop for the IELTS exam).
Take a look at our example:
IELTS Statement | Paraphrased Statement |
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In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have the opportunity to study abroad. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development? | In recent years, it has become much more common for students to complete their degrees overseas instead of in their home country. Many people believe that there are significant benefits to doing this, while others argue that there are also drawbacks connected to studying abroad. |
You can also briefly state what your essay will be about in one clear sentence. For instance:
This essay will discuss both points of view and then I will give my opinion.
If you are taking a thesis-led approach, you can use one of the following sentence starters to briefly give your opinion:
- I believe that…
- It is my belief that…
- In my opinion,…
A note on the use of the first person ‘I’: Unlike writing task 1, it is appropriate to use the first person in your writing task 2 essay. In fact, it is unavoidable when giving your opinion. But, you should not overuse ‘I’ in your essay and we recommend you limit your use to your introduction and conclusion.
4.2 Main body paragraphs
Topic sentences
Usually, the first sentence of your main body paragraph will be a topic sentence. The purpose of your topic sentence is to introduce the main idea of your paragraph.
You should include one topic sentence for each advantage/disadvantage. This means that, if your main body paragraphs focus on two advantages/disadvantages, then you should have two topic sentences per paragraph.
Here’s an example:
One advantage of studying abroad is that students can improve their language skills.
Here are some other sentence starters you can use for your essays (you can replace the underlined words with vocabulary linked to your topic):
- One advantage of studying abroad is that ….
- Another benefit of studying abroad is that…
- One downside of studying abroad is that…
- Another downside of studying abroad is that…
Supporting sentences
You should then expand on your topic sentence with a supporting sentence/sentences. Your sentence(s) could either describe a result of the advantage/disadvantage, go into more detail, or explain the reason(s) why these benefits/drawbacks occur.
Our example supporting sentence describes a result of the advantage given in the topic sentence.
Topic sentence– One advantage of studying abroad is that students can improve their language skills.
Supporting sentence– This means that when the students return to their home countries, they will have more employment opportunities.
Here are some sentences starters you can use to begin your supporting sentences:
- This is because…
- The result/consequence/reason is that…
- This means that…
- As a result/consequence,…
- In other words,…
Giving examples
For all writing task 2 essay types, you must support your response with examples. Do not personalize your examples and link them to your life instead, Keep your examples more general. Also, do not refer to made-up statistics.
Here are some instances of suitable and non-suitable examples:
Suitable
For example, many young people who study in an English-speaking country for a few years develop strong communication skills and have the confidence to work in an international company when they return home.
Not suitable
My cousin spent three years in an English-speaking country and they got an excellent job with an international country when they came back to Spain. ( this example is too personal as it refers to the writer’s family) ❌
According to statistics, international students are 30% more likely to get a job in an international company when they study overseas. (this example contains a made-up statistic)
4.3 Conclusion
You must include a conclusion to achieve a good score in Task achievement. Your conclusion does not have to be very long, but it needs to be clear and do two main things:
- Paraphrase yourself: summarise the key points in your body paragraphs
- Give your opinion: It depends if you have taken an evidence-led or thesis-led approach, you will either be re-stating the opinion given in your introduction or giving your opinion for the first time.
Make your conclusion easy to identify for the examiner by starting with linking phrases such as:
- To sum up,…
- To summarise,…
- In conclusion,…
When you are paraphrasing the main points of your essay, you need to state that you have examined both sides of the argument (as that is what the question has asked you to do). To do this, consider using a phrase like:
In conclusion, having looked at this topic in detail, it is clear that there are both advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad.
You would need to replace the underlined section with your essay topic.
To give your opinion, you need to use a range of cohesive devices to introduce each example such as:
- In my opinion,…
- I believe that…
- From my perspective,…
- In my view,…
You then need to clearly state which side of the argument you agree with (advantage or disadvantage). Remember, your actual opinion does not matter, it is how you present your opinion using English that is important.
Here are some example sentences to do this effectively:
- In my opinion, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
- From my perspective, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.
5. Example Advantage/Disadvantage Essay and Exercise
Now you’ve taken a look at how to write an advantage/disadvantage essay, let’s look at a model answer.
We have removed some of the words so you can put your knowledge to the test.
Select the correct missing words and complete the model answer.
Good luck!
5.1 Complete the sample advantage/disadvantage essay
In the past, when students did a university degree, they tended to study in their own country. Nowadays, they have the opportunity to study abroad.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this development?
5.2 Advantage/Disadvantage Sample Essay
In recent years, it has become much more common for students to complete their degree overseas instead of their house country. Many persons believe that there are significant benefits of doing this, while others argue that there are also drawbacks connected to studying abroad. This essay will discuss both points of mind and then I will give my opinion.
One advantage of study abroad is that students can improve their employee skills. This means that when the students return to their home countries, they will have more employment opportunities. An example, many young people who study in an English-speaking country for a few years develop strong communication skills and have the confidence to work in an international company when they return home. On the other hand benefit of studying abroad is that you can develop a better understanding of other cultures, Example , learning about a country’s customs, traditions and cuisines. The consequence of this is that people become more open-minded.
In the other hand, there are some disadvantages of studying abroad. One backdraw is that students may miss their friends and family and feel homesad. They may also find it difficult to connect with other students and make friends due to a language barrier . Another disadvantage is that students can experience a real culture shock when moving to another country. This is because the culture and language may be different which could lead to frustration for the student and dissatisfaction with their study experience.
To overall, it is clear that there are both advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad. In my thought, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Although it is true that the experience may be challenging at first, on balance , if you study abroad you will have an enriching experience that will broaden your horizons and increase your future prospects.
This was very useful to improve my writing skill