In this post: The economy, business and advertising, the all-purpose arguments that work across topics, and practice exercises.
Task 2 Topic Vocabulary (2) · 3 parts
- 1. Culture, media and crime
- 2. Cities, housing and society
- 3. Economy, all-purpose arguments, practice (you are here)
✦ In this post
6. The economy, business and advertising: adverts, taxes, imported food, saving
In this category I wrote about adverts always stressing that a product is “new” (positive or negative), whether fast food should be taxed, the advantages and disadvantages of imported food, whether sugary products should be made more expensive (Task 7), whether advertising is persuasive or ignored (Trial essay 3), whether saving money matters, and whether supermarkets selling food from all over the world is a good thing (Task 39, overall 7.5).
First, get this right: advertising vs advertisement
| Word | Meaning | Countable? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| advertising | the advertising industry, or advertising as an activity | Uncountable; takes a singular verb | Advertising is a key tool for building brand awareness. |
| advertisement(s) | individual adverts | Countable | Advertisements are a useful tool for marketing. |
In Trial essay 3 I wrote “Advertisements is beneficial”, where the subject and verb don’t agree, and “people do not believe those information on advertisement”: information is uncountable, the preposition should be in, and advertisement needs an s. That essay got only 6 for both GRA and LR, overall 6.5.
Core vocabulary
| Word / phrase | Meaning | Common collocations | My sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| a highly competitive market | a market with many rivals | — | Companies essentially resort to this policy because of the highly-competitive market |
| hold its market share | keep its portion of total sales | — | this makes it difficult for a certain company or distributor to hold its market share |
| catch customers’ attention | make customers notice | — | they help producers to catch customers’ attention for various brands |
| exaggerate | make something seem bigger or better than it is | exaggerate the actual characteristics | this trend will also make business owners exaggerate the actual characteristics of their products |
| mandatory advertisements / fake advertising | adverts you can’t avoid / misleading adverts | — | people always overlook those mandatory advertisements |
| brand awareness | how well people know a brand | build brand awareness | (example sentence from my notes) Advertising is a key tool for building brand awareness. |
| impose a higher tax on | tax something more heavily | — | If the governments impose special taxes on foods that are unhealthy… |
| the financially disadvantaged | people on low incomes | — | It is difficult for the financially disadvantaged to buy those daily necessities. (example sentence from my notes) |
| imported food / domestic goods | food from abroad / locally made products | threaten local industries | exotic products always pose a threat to domestic food, hindering the development of the local economy (Task 39, corrected) |
| broaden one’s horizons | widen one’s experience | — | all of which undoubtedly broadened my horizons |
| medical bills | the cost of medical treatment | make some people go bankrupt | Medical bills, which are always costly and make some people go bankrupt, are good examples of this matter |
| financial institutions / loans | banks and similar organisations / borrowed money | offer loans to businesses | financial institutions like banks or post offices are able to offer loans to businesses |
| a certain amount of money / costs thousands of dollars | a sum of money / is very expensive | Don’t say thousands of money | they have a certain amount of money to cover the bills |
(In Taiwan, post offices also offer savings accounts, which is why they appear in my sentence alongside banks.)
Arguments you can use
| Position | Arguments | Examples you can use |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising works | ① Repeated exposure leaves an impression (algorithmic targeting) ② It introduces products to busy consumers | Facebook shows discounts based on your past purchases. |
| Advertising is ignored | ① Mandatory adverts are simply skipped ② So many adverts are misleading that people no longer trust them | YouTube adverts can be skipped. |
| Stressing “new” in adverts is negative | ① Chasing new features at the expense of basic quality ② Easily exaggerated or misleading | Short product cycles squeeze the time for quality control. |
| Benefits of imported food | ① More choice ② Learning about other countries’ cultures and eating habits | Learning about a country’s history and agriculture by tasting its cuisine. |
| Drawbacks of imported food | ① Transport causes pollution and a large carbon footprint ② Threatens domestic industries | Cheaper imported rice hits the local market. |
| Saving money matters | ① Handling sudden difficulties (medical bills) ② Reduces government welfare spending; banks can lend the money to businesses | Being able to support yourself after retirement. |
A topic sentence you can adapt, plus an example
Topic sentence: Another factor supporting my opinion is that exotic products always pose a threat to domestic food, hindering the development of the local economy.
The paragraph I actually wrote (Task 39, corrected): Since the demand for each product in a nation is limited, if an increasing number of foreign foods are imported, the competitiveness that the local market needs to face will witness an upward trend simultaneously.
Task 39 scored 8 / 8 / 7 / 7, overall 7.5. Its strength is that the introduction states clearly that this is a negative development, each body paragraph has one argument, and every paragraph follows the full four steps: argument → explanation → example → conclusion. The mistakes in my original were all small: pollution with an s, pose written as post, demand of instead of demand for, and foreign food needing an s with the verb changed to are imported. Content at band 8, language stuck at 7: that was my typical profile at the time.
7. All-purpose arguments that work across topics
When you lay out the arguments from both parts side by side, you will see that many of them are all-purpose. Before my exam I made a final table, with an English phrase for each all-purpose argument. When I saw a question, my first thought was “which of these can I use?”:
| All-purpose argument | English phrase | Questions it works for |
|---|---|---|
| Financial burden | pose a financial burden on households / the financially disadvantaged | Museum charges, new taxes, buying a home, gap year, ageing population |
| Unfairness | lead to unfairness / it is unfair to… | Subject funding, team sports, pricier sugary food, the emphasis on home ownership |
| Mental health | enhance / threaten people’s mental well-being | Arts funding, shorter working hours, taking risks, cooperation |
| Belonging and community | a sense of belonging / a sense of community | Distant neighbours, cooperation, historic buildings, mobile games |
| Productivity and competitiveness | increase productivity / the competitiveness of society | Shorter working hours, competition, a young population, university education |
| Jobs and unemployment | create job opportunities / a high unemployment rate | Arts funding, driverless cars, traditional energy, multiculturalism |
| Education works better than punishment | education is a more effective long-term solution | Crime, sugary food and fast food, the environment, traffic |
| Pollution | release greenhouse gases / a larger carbon footprint | Imported food, air travel, cars, population growth |
How to memorise: three sentences per topic
- One background sentence: for cities and housing, for example, As the global population continues to grow, the scarcity of housing has become increasingly pronounced.
- One positive argument sentence + one negative argument sentence: pick the ones from the tables above (and in Part 1 and Part 2) that you can explain best.
- One local or personal example: for instance, the expectation in Taiwan of buying a home before marriage, national museums with free admission, or the skip button on YouTube adverts.
Five topics × three sentences makes fifteen sentences. In the week before the exam, read them aloud once a day and write them out from memory once. I found that only the sentences I could write from memory were the ones I actually used in the exam; sentences I merely understood vanished as soon as I got nervous.
8. Practice exercises (with answers)
Exercise A: choose the correct word
- (Advertising / Advertisements) is a key tool for building brand awareness.
- Young offenders should be sent to (prison / a prison / prisons) only as a last resort.
- The government should build more houses in (rural / suburban) areas to narrow the gap between cities and the countryside.
- An ageing population will place a heavy burden (on / to) the healthcare system.
- Many young people cannot afford to buy (a property / a poverty) in big cities.
Show answers
- Advertising: uncountable, so the verb is is.
- prison: no article when it refers to imprisonment as an institution.
- rural: the meaning is the countryside; suburban means the edge of a city.
- on: place a burden on.
- a property: property (real estate) vs poverty (being poor).
Exercise B: write a sentence using an all-purpose argument
Question: Governments should put a heavy tax on sugary drinks. Using the “unfairness / financial burden” argument, write a topic sentence that disagrees.
Show answers
Model answer: The main reason why I disagree with this policy is that it would place an unfair financial burden on low-income households, which spend a larger proportion of their income on food and drink.
Exercise C: correct the mistakes
- People do not believe those information on advertisement.
- It is hard for economical disabilities to make end meets.
- If those young people are prisoned, fewer teenagers will commit crimes.
Show answers
- People do not believe the information in advertisements.
- It is hard for low-income households to make ends meet.
- If those young people are imprisoned / sent to prison, fewer teenagers will commit crimes.
That brings the two parts of my topic vocabulary notes to a close. Once you have read through the tables, the best practice is to pick a topic, write an essay in 40 minutes, and then compare it with the vocabulary tables in both posts to see which words you used and which ideas you missed.
Further reading
- IELTS preparation notes: overview (in Chinese)
- Tutor review, Ali: streamlining my essay structure from 400 to 300 words (in Chinese)
- How to check your IELTS sub-scores (in Chinese)
- My successful IDP re-mark (in Chinese)
This is the last part of “Task 2 Topic Vocabulary (2)”. To start again, go back to Part 1.
IELTS Notes in English · Writing Language (post 4 of 4)
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✦ Target Your Future
Some days you practise for hours and the score still does not move. I hope these notes remind you that the setbacks are part of the road: every recording you replayed, every essay you rewrote and every sentence you finally dared to say is progress you have already made.
I wrote this down so the next person can take fewer detours. You do not have to follow my method exactly. Find a rhythm that works for you, rest when you need to, and come back for the next small step.
I hope what you take away is more than a number on a score report: a little more confidence in yourself, and the courage to step a bit closer to the world.
— Ting
← Back to IELTS notes in English
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