Mini Lesson: How To Write An IELTS Essay Topic sentence

Lesson objective: how to write a good IELTS essay topic sentence


Some people say that the internet is not important in order to live a full life.

What do you think?

Certain groups of people are of the opinion that the internet is essential if one wishes to live a truly fulfilled life. Personally, I believe this statement is completely untrue and the remainder of this issue shall outline the reasons for my position.

Whilst the internet has become a prominent part of many people’s lives, there are still many people and indeed nations who do still lead fulfilling lives without the internet. Many parts of Africa remain unconnected to the World Wide Web, yet those people still belong to a community within which there are births, marriages, deaths, cultural celebrations, and other day to day traditions that continue to thrive. The people of the Masai Mara tribe in Kenya are a perfect example of this, they value human relationships and links with the environment highly and clearly live full lives without even the click of a mouse button.

Furthermore, throughout history pre internet people have lived highly fulfilled lives. Explorers discovered new lands and made new lives in strange places. Scientists made rapid progress in their understanding of the world around them and engineers built constructions directly from the pictures in their imagination. These are all examples of people living fulfilled lives without the internet and the same opportunities still exist today.

Overall, as fulfilling lives can still be lead without access to the internet I believe it is therefore not a prerequisite for leading a fulfilled life. People around the world should regularly take extended time away from the internet in order to experience real life opportunities once again.

260 words

Teaching Point: Your main body paragraphs, which are the two paragraphs in the middle of your essay, should begin with a topic sentence. This topic sentence should say what the main point of your paragraph is and does not have to be too long or complex. The reader should be able to guess what the rest of the paragraph is going to be about just from reading your topic sentence.

You need to make sure that your topic sentences are directly answering the question though because if you get this part wrong your entire paragraph can end up not answering the question properly and you will lose marks for task achievement.

Now, go back to the IELTS Writing Task 2 Essay main page here for more lessons.