WRITING PART 2: ARTICLE
ARTICLE STRUCTURE
1.- Title: It must be an eye- catching title which attracts the reader.
2.-Beginning: Engage the reader and make them want to read more, you can
begin with a
question or a general opinion.
3.-Middle: State your main points and relate them to personal experiences and
opinions answering the questions given in the task.
4.- Ending: Summarize your main points but make an overall point to make the
reader think they have learned something from reading the article.
EXAMPLE
Step 1: Analyze your task quickly
Task analysis is very simple. All you have to do is two things:
Firstly, find the questions you have to answer in your task.
1.- What kind of films do you enjoy?
2.- Do you prefer watching them at the cinema or at home?
Secondly, find the topic of the article (which in this example is Films & Cinema) So,
now you need to brainstorm all the vocabulary that you can think of related to films.
For example: animated, romantic films, a big fan, drama, adventure movies,
popcorn, screen, Netflix
If you prepare some words in advance, it will be much easier for you to write an
article!
Step 2: Add a Title
Every excellent article starts with a good title, don’t worry though, it doesn’t have to
be super special or super interesting. It is okay if your title is simple and just gives a
general idea of what the article is about.
Here you can see three examples of a title
Home cinema or the big screen?
How to best watch the films you love?
Home or cinema — How do you watch your favourite films?
As you can see two titles started with how … – how–to articles are just very
popular so it is good idea to use that form for your title.
Step 3: Introduction
The role of the introduction is mainly to catch the reader’s attention, it can be done
in the simplest way by asking a question. Why this way is good? Because at the
same time, you will show the examiners that you can use the present perfect tense.
Here you can see example introduction:
Have you ever screamed (present perfect) during a horror film? Or have you
watched (present perfect) a comedy and laughed until you cry?
Step 4: Body (answering the questions)
Here you answer the main questions that we identified in Step 1.
1.- What kind of films do you enjoy?
2.- Do you prefer watching them at the cinema or at home?
Remember these paragraphs should be the longest in your text and they should
contain most of the information.
Also, we use the vocabulary that we prepared earlier in Step 1.
animated, romantic films, a big fan, drama, adventure movies, popcorn, screen,
Netflix
Step 5: Final sentence
Finish your article with a nice final sentence. It doesn’t have to be anything special
you can simply summarize your article or you can also try to be a little bit funny or
end in a more surprising way.
Remember: the more interesting your article is the higher your marks might get!
Home cinema or the big screen?
Have you ever cried at the cinema? Or have you watched a comedy and laughed
until you cry?
I know many people who love animated or romantic films, but for me, there is
nothing better than an amazing drama or adventure movie like ‘Indiana Jones’
because I’m a big fan of stories with fascinating plot.
In my opinion, watching a film at home isn’t the same as going to the cinema to
enjoy a great movie on a huge screen with popcorn and cola. If it wasn’t so
expensive, I would go every week.
Everybody loves films, I think you can enjoy them anywhere, even if not at the
cinema, it’s still Netflix!
USEFUL PHRASES AND EXPRESSIONS
Engaging the reader:
Have you ever thought about…?
How would you feel if …?
What would you think of…?
Are you one of those people who …?
If the answer is …, you should….
What do you reckon to …?
What would live be like if…
Just think for a moment…
Just imagine…
Developing your points:
Another advantage of …
On top of all that…
What is more, …
Above all,,,
The reason I think this is…
The reason I feel this way is…
On top of that, …
Let’s start with …
Giving your own opinion:
In my opinion, …
In my eyes, …
To my mind, …
As far as I am concerned, …
Speaking personally, …
From my point of view, …
As for me / As to me, …
My view / opinion / belief / impression / conviction is that …
I hold the view that …
I would say that …
It seems to me that …
I am of the opinion that …
My impression is that …
I am under the impression that …
It is my impression that …
I have the feeling that …
My own feeling on the subject is that …
I have no doubt that …
I am sure / I am certain that …
I think / consider / find / feel / believe / suppose / presume / assume / reckon that …
I hold the opinion that …
I dare say that …
I guess that …
I bet that ….
I gather that …
It goes without saying that ….
Justifying opinions:
because…
the reason is…
the reason I believe that is…
the facts suggest…
the evidence shows…
taking into account what I have seen
Making recommendations and suggestions:
It would be a good idea to…
Wouldn’t it be better to…?
Why don’t we…?
What about… ?
How about… ?
Shouldn’t we… ?
Let’s consider…
Why not… ?
