Steps in writing a discussion essay

There are some useful steps to make an effective discussion essay. The steps are also important in the real exam where you can manage your time effectively. The first step is to build a home consisting our main ideas or mind map in which the topic sentence are expanded into more details to support the author's arguments. As an example, this post will try to respond to the following question:

Can a country keep its traditional way of life and develop? Or does development necessarily mean a change in traditions?

The picture below shows how we can develop a home to respond to that question.

Now we can expand those ideas to write an essay. We will present the results on the next postings..

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General English: Describing a place

BALI, The Island of The Gods

When you say ‘Bali’, most westerners will think of paradise tourism. Bali is a famous beautiful island known as ‘The Island of The Gods’.

Bali is located between Java and Lombok. It has an area of 5620 square km. The island is dramatically mountainous. Gunung Agung, known as The Mother Mountain, is over 3000 m high. Bali has four lakes: Lake Batur, which is located in Kintamani, and Lake Buyan, Lake Tamblingan, and Lake Beratan, which are located in the Bedugul area. Other famous natural things of Bali are its beaches. Kuta Beach is the widest beach where you can surf, swim, and watch the sunset. At Sanur Beach you can canoe, parasail, or look at the sunrise while At Tulamben you can snorkel and dive. Another beach is Lovina Beach, which is located in Buleleng, where you can see dolphins in the morning.

Bali is densely populated with approximately 3.1 million people. Most of its citizens are concentrated in Denpasar, the capital of Bali. Bali has 9 regencies i.e. Denpasar, Jembrana, Tabanan, Klungkung, Karangasem, Bangli, Badung, Gianyar, and Buleleng. Ninety percent of its people are Hindus. Therefore, there are many sea temples e.g. Tanah Lot Temple and Luhur Ulu Watu Temple, and traditional ceremonies such as Ngaben, Nyepi, and Galungan. Each temple has its own birthday festival known as Odalan. Ngaben is a cremation ceremony. Nyepi is the New Year’s Day for Hindus when they celebrate by keeping silent. Thus, there should be no fire/ light, no travel/ walking, no entertainment, no work, and Hindus is suggested to fast.

The average temperature hovers around 30 degree Celcius all year. There are two seasons in Bali i.e. the wet season and the dry season. The wet season runs from October and lasts on March while the dry season runs from April and lasts on September.

There’s very little manufacturing industry in Bali, so industrial pollution is not a big problem. Amongst all the industries, tourism accounts for about one-third of Bali’s formal economy.

Bali has some traditional food such as lawar, spit-roasted pig, Betutu Chicken, and Siobak. Those foods are all spicy. There are also snake fruits and salted peanuts that you can find in supermarkets or traditional markets.

Regrettably, Bali has limited public transportation. Still, we can travel to many places by taxi, car, motorbike or minibus. So, if you were looking for a tropical island holiday, then Bali would be well worth a visit.

Prepared by Arima and Ady ADS6mE

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Describing a process: Making Chocolate

The writing example below is an example of writing task 1 in IELTS test. Unfortunately, we could not provide the picture of the process.

The first diagram illustrates the process of making chocolate. The process begins with cocoa grinding, in which cocoa seeds are grinded to produce cocoa liquor. It also results waste products. Then, cocoa liquor either is pressed become cocoa powder and sold to food industry or is pressed become cocoa butter. Next, industrial chocolate is made from cocoa liquor or cocoa butter. Finally, sugar and other ingredients are added to refine the industrial chocolate and produce chocolate bar.

The second diagram shows how is the proportion from the retail price of a chocolate bar divided up. The pie chart indicates that the farmer who provides the raw material receive only 4% of the retail price. The supermarket, on the other hand, receives 34%. A rather small 10% due to the chocolate company while 15% is taken by the government in the form of taxes. The cost of overheads and production, make up the largest proportion, 37% of the retail price of a chocolate bar.

Submitted by Ady (ADS6mE, 2006)

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Some Idioms

Below are some idioms to make your speaking more fluent, more natural as well as easier to understand what native speakers say.

• crack the books = start studying
• cut class = miss school
• feel at home = feel comfortable or relaxed
• keep an eye on = watch carefully
• homesick = sad at being away from home or things that are familiar
• get under someone's skin = annoy or bother someone
• stay-at-home mom = a mother who doesn't have a job outside the home
• fill up on = become full
• whip up = quickly prepare

Can you make a sentence for each idiom? Drop your ideas on the comment tool.

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Writing Task 2: Home schooling

An example of writing task 2 in IELTS test that tries to respond to a question as to which one is better home schooling or formal education at school.

There are many arguments for and against school as the best place for education. Some people believe that education at home is more effective in many ways. On the other hand, education practitioners think that school is the most suitable place to educate children. I certainly agree that formal education at school is better due to its advantages and some limitations of home schooling.
Firstly, it is hard to make a good control in home education in view of the fact that parents mostly spend their time at workplace. Children tend to waste their time to leisure activity that is not useful or inappropriate to the aims of their study if there is not an adequate control. In contrast, school can organize student’s need in study as well as their extra curricular or outdoor activities. Moreover, school always have a rule for students to keep them on the right track of the study.
Secondly, school provide a fixed curriculum to set up student’s objectives. Furthermore, the curriculum has been regularly examined to fit into student’s necessity, including how to relate theory to the real life. It follows that school give more balance between theory and practice than home education.
Another reason to consider would be that the study approach at school has changed. Parents are too likely to blame schools for the creativity limitations of their children. In fact, the learning methods that are adopted from modern education and recently used have applied to develop student’s creativity and independence.
Finally, education at school can assist students to reach a maximum achievement. School can give many advantages to students that can insure their future. It is indeed what parents need to educate their children.
(283 words)

Submitted by Riska C, ADS 2005

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Writing Task 2: Computer a Hindrance?

Below is an example of IELTS writing task 2. The question is about whether computer is a hindrance or a help.

It is frequently asserted that computer is more a hindrance than a help, while some people still contend that these modern tools are indispensable. It is my contention that in some ways computers are unhelpful. However, the advantages of computers, in my view, largely outweigh the drawbacks.

There are a number of presumptions that computers are a hindrance, yet some of them are true. It should be noted that the advance of technology not only develop the positive sides but also the negative ones. For many, computer viruses are created to make difficulties to users. As a result, the important data will be lost if the users cannot manage well. Another example is that there are lots of hackers that are eager to take advantages in this field. Consequently, if companies who have online systems, such as banks, etc, do not aware of this problem, a number of financial frauds will be occurred.

Along with these disadvantages, however, computers can provide effectiveness in many ways. People can enhance their productivity in daily work because computers can quicken their work instead of using manual methods. Moreover, many online systems, such as banks, to continue the example from the previous paragraph, are reliant on these tools. The Internet, in addition, indeed needs computers to be applied and developed. This necessarily follows that without computers the improvement in technology will level off.

To conclude, in spite of having many drawbacks, I certainly believe that computers have taken a profoundly important part, and hence these tools play a crucial role in human lives.

(258 words)
Submitted by Roni Wahyudi, Canberra

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