This is an IELTS Energy Podcast Episode 1560, How to Brainstorm for this Tricky Task 2 Topic.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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When you get a tough question, how can you set it up as an argument essay that scores high?
Why must you choose argument versus opinion?
And how do you brainstorm?
Find out all of this and more today.
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Hey there, Aubrey.
What's going on?
I am great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good.
What are we talking about today on the show?
I have a question for you.
This is interesting.
This is related to the task two topic we will brainstorm for you guys today.
Lindsay, do you think that people are less original today than when we were young?
Kind of yes.
I kind of do, because I think maybe there's a bit more of like what do you call like a hive mind, because people see other people on social media and the trends spread faster, right.
For sure.
Echo chambers.
Yeah, I kind of think so.
People following the trends.
Yeah.
This is interesting.
We're going to dive into this today.
A student reported a difficult IELTS Task 2 question from December 2025.
Today we're going to share a sample brainstorm for this complex essay question.
And then stay to the end.
We are going to share the fully written out body paragraphs for this essay.
That would score band nine.
Nice.
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It's called IELTS Energy TV is what it's called.
Yes, absolutely.
Then you can see us.
You can see Lindsay's fun new background.
Yeah, and it's a real background.
I'm in a new place recording today, so mixing it up a little bit.
I would say it almost looks like a fake Zoom background.
It's so nice, but it's a real place.
It's a real place.
It's funny.
It goes to show how impressive the fake Zoom backgrounds are.
They're pretty impressive.
I'm sure they'll get better and better, too.
By next year, we will not be able to tell if they're fake or real.
It's true.
But we don't do fake anything on All Ears English.
No, we don't.
If you see a background from us, that's why mine has nothing right now.
This is really what's behind me.
Exactly.
Exactly.
All right, let's dive into it.
So this does sound like a complex question.
If I were asked something like this, you know, this kind of question.
Wow.
You want to read it for us?
Yeah.
Here's it's a task to again, some people today argue that media has become increasingly unoriginal.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Yes.
And I think what makes this trickiest is if it said social media, then I think students would be like oh, I have something to say about that.
But often when we just hear the media, we think like news stations, I guess, movies, I guess.
It could be lots of different things.
Right.
So this is interesting.
The first thing to know is you can talk about social media if a question asks about media.
You don't have to answer about every form of media.
That would be impossible.
You are deciding whether you agree or disagree.
And for this question, you could focus on social media, which definitely would be the easiest thing to do when it comes to discussing whether it's original or not.
I think focus on what you know, because that's where you're going to get examples, ideas.
You're going to feel more confident in what you're writing, better vocabulary, Aubrey, right?
Yeah, you certainly could write about whether films are original or TV shows or the news.
But if you feel like you're more familiar with social media, write about that.
Absolutely.
Okay.
What else do we need to know here?
All right.
So brainstorming, we're kind of focusing on the brainstorming for this here.
This is, you know, five minutes.
You take about five minutes for task two.
And the initial stage is really the most crucial.
You need those ideas.
You need specific details before you ever start writing.
It's going to save you a lot of time.
Yeah.
You need personal examples, experience.
You need societal observations.
Right, Aubrey?
Absolutely.
Yes, it can be personal examples, societal observations as well.
And this you're creating the structure for your body paragraphs as you come up with these ideas.
Right.
And then, once you have, like your opinion, your solid idea, then it's easier to come up with specific details.
Right.
And you don't want to waste, you know, precious time thinking of the perfect idea, of the perfect example because, as we said, give yourself that five minutes.
You don't want to go over that because you need time to write the essay.
It's a certain kind of discipline right in writing a test to essay.
That again, as we've been saying lately the first time, writing a test to essay is not test day right.
You practice it many, many times with hopefully a course, a system, a strategy.
And it's a discipline of grabbing the first good idea that comes to mind and running with that because you know it's good enough.
Exactly.
Right.
A lot of students will submit an essay for feedback and it will be very impressive.
And then I'll ask how long it took.
And they're like, four hours.
Oh, no, that's never going to work.
We got to get that down to 40 minutes.
Yeah.
So, yes, write down the first good idea that comes to mind.
If you immediately think of a better one that you can come up with better details or examples.
OK, write that down.
But you don't want to do the full brainstorm.
And then, oh, I thought of a better one.
Stick with what you've got.
Right.
As long as you can support it.
It's a good idea.
Okay, good.
So let's do an example then, a sample task to brainstorm.
If we were going to try to answer this question, what would come to mind, Aubrey?
Yeah, so this is interesting because I have a feeling that you would have answered this question differently than I did, Lindsay.
I kind of sketched out a brainstorm here, so we'll go through mine.
But just off the top of your head, which side of this would you agree with?
Yeah, I think it's true.
I'm trying to read the question again.
Yeah, I agree.
Yes, things have become on media increasingly unoriginal in media.
I don't disagree, right?
I definitely feel like I could, and sometimes this will happen where your opinion could go either way.
So just choose one, clearly state your opinion, don't go back and forth.
That's part of the score is that your opinion stays consistent throughout the essay.
Sometimes I'll see students write an essay And they state one opinion in the beginning.
But then as they come up with details, they sort of change their mind.
And it's different by the conclusion.
That's fine in real life.
In fact, that's an interesting conversation.
It doesn't work for essays because the score requires your opinion to stay consistent throughout.
That's a discipline.
Right there.
Yep.
Okay.
What else?
First body paragraph.
Let's go through this.
So for this task to brainstorm, the first thing is your main idea, right?
And the opinion is pretty clear here.
Whether it's either people are unoriginal on whatever you choose for us, we're going to focus on social media, or right.
People are original.
So we're starting with that.
You know, people are unoriginal on social media and, And we're going to start thinking of our ideas.
The first thing that came to mind for me was TikTok trends, where millions of people will use the same sound and do the same dance to the same choreography.
Also cover songs I was thinking of.
So many bands either don't write any original music or just don't perform their own music and just do covers.
Interesting.
I don't quite get the whole TikTok trend thing where people repeat trends that other people are doing.
But I guess it is sort of like the cover song, as you said.
Kind of similar, right?
It's something everyone else already knows and is familiar with.
And it's interesting though, because people will try to sort of do their own take on it, be a little bit innovative, but definitely following trends.
But this is interesting as you're doing this brainstorm, you want to glance back to the topic as you're writing down your ideas, because it's very easy to get off track and all of a sudden you're sort of not directly answering the question.
So don't forget, as you're doing this brainstorm, check back.
Okay, make sure my idea ideas are still on task here.
So, first thing, now that we just have sort of our main idea, our opinion, first body paragraph, is a reason to agree.
So for me, we have just this, you know, either people are unoriginal or original.
I'm going to decide in the intro, which my opinion would be.
And I had chosen the opposite of you, actually, Lindsay.
And so I was going to say yes, people follow trends, but there's still more original content, right?
Interesting.
So in the first body paragraph, the way we like to structure these argument essays, where you give both sides, is to first share the side you don't agree with, right.
With a reason, some details that someone might agree there and then share the side that you do agree with right.
Got it.
So how would you start that first body paragraph then?
What would it look like?
I'm just jotting down ideas.
This is still the brainstorm, right?
I'm thinking trends on social media platforms, right?
Different versions of the same video.
And then I would want to come up with an example.
And I immediately thought of Taylor Swift released her latest album.
My feet, TikTok was just flooded with videos of people dancing to Opalite.
And I looked this up.
TikTok reported there were 3 million videos of people dancing to the same choreography, to this one song.
3 million!
Oh, that's amazing.
And so, so interesting.
So you're going to take this in the direction of it is original because it's new creations.
So this is that first body paragraph where I'm supporting the other side of the argument, the argument that you would have agreed with right.
That like yes, there's a lot of unoriginal content because an argument essay you support both sides, but then you say what you agree with.
Right.
Okay.
So I would use this to support that side.
And this is actually an accurate statistic.
I looked it up, three million.
But if you don't know the number and you want to share your thinking of something that you know that was repeated a lot on TikTok, you could make up a number here.
As long as it's believable, you can create a statistic.
And also make it sound believable.
Like, you know, use this structure.
No one's going to, you know.
Sue you or anything by saying, you know, Facebook or Instagram reported that this happened.
X number of it's fine.
It's fine.
Exactly right.
Take a guess.
I wouldn't have known.
I actually would not have guessed three million.
I maybe would have said one million or a hundred thousand even.
And that would be fine, too.
If you put that, even if the examiner knows there were more, it doesn't matter at all.
That'll never lower your score.
Yeah, love it.
Okay, then we transition into paragraph two, right, which is the opposite side of the perspective.
Yeah, this is the one I where I would express my opinion, right?
Yeah.
So what I would share is that everyone still seeks to be original, that there are far more videos of new content because people want to be trendsetters.
Yeah yeah interesting, love it.
So then i looked up another statistic here to find out how many videos are posted every day on tick tock 34 million, and the majority of it is original content.
Right, life hack?
I know 34 billion.
That's kind of crazy.
Life hacks, creative new cooking shortcuts, original songs even, and so Now that I'm like looking at the statistics okay, actually there is a lot of.
I agree with you, Lindsay.
When I first started thinking about this, it seems like everything's a trend, everything's repeated, but there's so much original content that it's actually easy to support this opinion as well.
Love it.
But I love that.
It's so important.
What we're saying here is each paragraph says something different, right?
We have both sides of the argument.
And I think this might be something students forget to do.
Is that possible, Aubrey, sometimes?
Oh, absolutely.
Well, it depends on the question, right?
Yeah.
So this question, it's interesting.
You have options because you're given this.
Some people today argue that media has become increasingly unoriginal.
And the actual question is, to what extent do you agree or disagree?
So you could write an opinion essay with your opinion in both paragraphs, supported with separate ideas and details.
Okay.
Or you can do what we're doing here, where we write an argument essay and we defend the side we don't agree with.
And then we share our own opinion and defend the side we do agree with.
That often is easier, because it's easier to come up with an idea that supports both sides and details.
Sometimes it's harder to come up with multiple reasons for one side.
That's true.
That's true.
So we really have some freedom then to choose how we want to answer our question, right?
But it depends on the topic, right?
Sometimes, if the topic says support both sides or give reasons for each of these arguments and support your opinion, something like that.
Sometimes your task to topic will require you to do this to write an argument essay where you're supporting both sides of an issue.
Okay.
Good to know all this.
This is great.
Okay, Aubrey, we're back from break.
And now, should we give an example of what this essay would look like once it's built out?
Yes, exactly.
You heard sort of the brainstorm, throwing out some little details.
So we want to give you these full body paragraphs.
We would write an introduction. and then we'd have that first body paragraph first.
Do you want to read that for us, Lindsay?
Okay, here's how I would open the essay.
So, one reason many people believe, or the first body paragraph.
Exactly, right?
We assume you've already got your introduction.
You've restated the topic, you shared your opinion and this is that first body paragraph that we brainstormed.
Okay, one reason many people believe the media is becoming unoriginal is the influence of trends on social media platforms, where the same content is endlessly replicated.
In particular, apps encourage users to create different versions of the same video using identical sounds, which limits originality.
As a shining example.
When Taylor Swift released her latest album, TikTok was flooded with videos of people dancing to her song Opalite.
Rather than producing unique ideas, around 3 million videos were created using the same choreography and this single sound.
All right.
Band nine paragraph.
Wow.
Interesting introductory sentences.
We have linking phrases as a shining example.
In particular.
You know, rather than producing unique ideas comma, these are band nine linking phrases and then really high scoring vocabulary as well.
Right,
Yeah, so we're arguing that side, the one side of yes, it's becoming more unoriginal, rather.
But now we're gonna flip to the other side, in your second body paragraph.
Aubrey, what does that look like?
All right, I'll read it for us.
Nevertheless, I believe that the media is still overwhelmingly original, as most creators actively strive to produce fresh content.
In fact, the vast majority of videos introduce new ideas because users are eager to become trendsetters.
TikTok alone sees around 34 million videos posted every day, and most of these showcase innovative ideas such as life hacks, creative cooking shortcuts and even newly composed songs.
Moreover, even when creators participate in a trend, they typically add their own perspective, humor or cultural twist, effectively transforming a shared format into something distinctive.
Are you convinced, Lindsay?
I don't know.
I have to think about it a little more.
I don't know if I'm convinced.
I can see both sides for sure. and not necessarily have a second reason for one side, I think.
It's really interesting.
It does depend on the topic.
Sometimes you will hit a topic where you feel like I cannot support the other side.
For example, what if your topic was about children using technology.
Like, do you feel like they should be limited in the time they use or not?
It would be really hard for me to defend the side that says, no, they should have no limits.
Yeah, that's a good point.
So it depends on the question.
But a question like this, if you can come up with a reason for both sides, I agree.
It's easier to come up with those ideas, the details examples, new vocabulary, because it's different the other side of the coin.
Yeah, that's a good point.
And just a side point, a little bonus thing to point out today is I like how we have a nice transition phrase from paragraph one to paragraph two.
Nevertheless,
That's a really nice phrase too, because I'm not starting cold.
It would be weird if I just started by saying, I believe that the media is still over.
It has to connect, right?
Into what we just said.
In fact, in our IELTS course, we provide you these templates that, And one of them is the sentence you use to begin that paragraph.
And this is how we recommend, right?
Something like, nevertheless, I believe that because you should be restating your opinion here.
It was in the introduction.
You should restate it here.
And this is sort of the most the best organization is to share that other side and then have a strong linking phrase here.
Like, nevertheless, I believe.
And then you're going to share your reason for the other side.
Yeah, guys, you get a clean list of those transition phrases and exactly how to do this in a very elegant band seven or higher way inside our course, which is over at allersenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S.
Aubrey, is there a final takeaway for today?
Yeah, brainstorm, practice brainstorming, right?
If you can't do it in five minutes, brainstorm like five task two essays for everyone you write.
You have to be able to get that down so that you can come up with ideas and examples for any topic in five minutes.
And then the writing part is pretty easy.
You have to have those ideas.
Like we said, it's a discipline.
Preparation for IELTS is truly, it's like preparing for the Ironman, as we said before, right?
Preparing for a marathon.
You need a study plan.
You need to know exactly what you're doing each day.
And again, get the resources you need, guys.
All right, Aubrey, thanks for being on the show.
Good stuff today.
Thanks, Lindsay.
See you guys next time.
Talk soon.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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