How to Write a “Discuss Both Views and Give Opinion” Essay

Discuss both views and give opinion essay type is the most popular IELTS essay type. At the same time, it is the most confusing essay type as well. Often the students are in doubt whether the opinion should be provided in the introduction or a dedicated paragraph should be written on your opinion or it just should be written at the end of the second body paragraph. Let’s see what the official sources have discussed about it.

As you can see, the suggested style is to provide your opinion at the beginning of the essay i.e. in the introduction part. ‘Come back to own opinion’ implies that you have to extend your opinion with underlying reasons and justifications. It is better if you write a dedicated third body paragraph so it is clear and logically sequenced. Again, you might be thinking that why a separate paragraph? It would make 5 paragraphs of the essay. The following guideline is the answer.

As you can see that, the official website of the IELTS suggests having a separate section to discuss your own opinion. So it is absolutely fine to have 5 paragraphs in your essay including the introduction and the conclusion.

Now we are clear about the biggest confusion of the discuss both views and give your opinion essay type. The second problem most students face while discussing the views is the perspective. Many students are not clear about whether they have to write about their opinion or people’s opinion. Often the question provides statements like “some people think”, hence you have to step in shoes of people and write possible reasons why might they think so or do so. It could contradict with your opinion but that is totally fine. You will be given chance to state your opinion as well.

Another mistake I have seen students making is that they merge their opinion with one of people’s opinion. They use words like, ‘others including me’. There may be no issues in terms of grammar but as per writing best practices, this is not a recommended style to merge two opinions. If you do so, you also lose the opportunity to show the grammatical range and lexical resources because you are going to write fewer sentences in absence of a dedicated paragraph for your opinion.

Now you are aware of all possible pitfalls of this essay type. Let’s quickly summarise how to write your essay:

Step 1: Paraphrase the given statement. Do not use Two or more consecutive words from the prompt. Effective paraphrasing skill is the opportunity to have first impression on the examiner.

Step 2: Write your opinion in short. There is no need to elaborate it with reasons here.

Step 3: Write the first body paragraph. Write from people’s perspective.

Step 4: Write the second body paragraph. Again, write from people’s perspective.

Step 5: Write your opinion and also describe a bit why you think so. Your opinion could be either the first view or second view or a completely new view.

Step 6: Write the concluding remarks along with any futuristic statement if possible. Not all topics have possibility to have futuristic statement. So, you would need to analyse it based on the particular topic.