Body paragraphs that develop ideas (IELTS Task 2 lesson)

PEEL: the four moves of a body paragraph

Move	Its job	Length	Useful language
P: Point (topic sentence)	States the ONE idea of the paragraph and shows how it answers the question.	1 sentence	One key reason why … is that … / The most convincing argument for … is … / A major drawback of … is …
E: Explain	Shows WHY or HOW the point is true, step by step, as a cause–effect chain.	2–3 sentences	This is because … / As a result, … / This means that … / In turn, …
E: Example	Proves the explanation with something concrete: a named place, group, policy or a realistic hypothetical case.	1–2 sentences	For instance, … / A clear example of this is … / This can be seen in … / Consider …
L: Link	Connects the point back to the question and to your position.	1 sentence	This shows that … / For this reason, … / It is therefore clear that …
Total	One central idea, fully proved	4–7 sentences, about 100–140 words	Vary sentence openings; not every sentence needs a linker

A band 8 body paragraph, move by move

Question: Some people believe that university education should be free for all students. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

[P] The strongest argument for free university education is that it allows talent, rather than family income, to decide who enters the professions. [E] When tuition fees are high, many able students from low-income families abandon their studies and take low-paid jobs to support their parents. Society then loses the skills these young people could have developed, while university places go increasingly to those who can simply afford them. [Ex] Bangladesh offers a clear illustration: the very low fees at public universities and government medical colleges have allowed many children of farmers and day labourers to become doctors and engineers, careers that a private institution charging several lakh taka for a degree would have put beyond their reach. [L] Removing fees altogether would widen this opportunity further, which is why I see free tuition as an investment in national talent rather than a burden on the state.

PointOne idea only (talent versus income), tied directly to the question about free university education. From the first sentence the reader knows what the paragraph will prove.
Explain: a chain, not a listHigh fees, then able poor students drop out, then society loses their skills, then places go to the wealthy. Each sentence answers ‘so what?’ about the one before it. This is what ‘extended’ means in the band descriptors.
Example: specific and plausibleIt names a country, types of institution, the kind of family and a realistic cost. No invented percentage is needed because the situation itself is the evidence.
LinkIt returns to the question and restates the writer’s position (‘an investment in national talent’), so the paragraph supports the thesis instead of drifting.
What earns the markThere are precise collocations (enter the professions, beyond their reach) and a range of complex sentences. But the Task Response score comes from the structure: one point, explained, proved and linked.

One paragraph, one central idea

The band 7 Coherence and Cohesion descriptor asks for a clear central topic within each paragraph. The Task Response descriptor rewards main ideas that are extended and supported. Put those together and you get the golden rule of body paragraphs:

One main idea per paragraph, developed until it is proved.

Many candidates think the examiner counts ideas, but nobody does. A paragraph with four reasons in four short sentences gives the examiner four claims and no proof. It also reads like a list, which holds back your Coherence and Cohesion score too.

The “So what?” test

After every sentence in a body paragraph, ask yourself: So what? Why does that matter? If your next sentence answers that question, you are developing the idea. If your next sentence jumps to a new reason (“Secondly…”, “Also…”), you are listing.

Listing: Public transport reduces traffic. Also, it is cheaper. Also, it is greener.
Developing: Public transport reduces traffic. (So what?) Buses and ambulances move faster when there are fewer cars. (So what?) Workers arrive on time and emergencies are reached sooner, which benefits the whole city.

Circular explanations

A second way to look developed without really being developed is to repeat the claim in different words: “Technology is useful because it helps people in their daily lives.” Since useful and helps mean almost the same thing, the sentence goes round in a circle. A real explanation names a mechanism: how or why does it help, and with what result?

So how many ideas?

For a 40-minute essay, the safest plan is two body paragraphs with one main idea each. Sometimes a paragraph also carries one closely related supporting point. Some strong writers use three body paragraphs, but only when they have time to develop all three. Three thin paragraphs score lower than two rich ones.

Listing vs developing: the same topic, two different bands

Band 5.5–6: a list of reasons

Question: Some people think governments should spend money on public transport rather than building new roads. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Public transport has many advantages. Firstly, it reduces traffic jams. Secondly, it is good for the environment because it reduces pollution. Thirdly, it is cheaper for ordinary people. In addition, it is safer than driving a car. For example, in many countries people use metro rail every day. Therefore, the government should spend more money on public transport.

About 60 words. Four ideas, none of them explained.

Band 8: one idea, fully developed

Same question.

The main reason governments should prioritise public transport is that new roads rarely solve congestion for long. Wider roads make driving faster at first, but this encourages more people to buy cars and to drive on journeys they once made by bus or on foot, so within a few years the new road is as crowded as the old one. A rail line, by contrast, moves far more people through the same narrow corridor. Dhaka’s Metro Rail illustrates this well: a single train can carry over two thousand passengers, and a journey from Uttara to Motijheel that can take two hours by road now takes around forty minutes. Investing in mass transit therefore tackles the cause of congestion instead of temporarily making room for more of it.

About 130 words. One idea, explained and proved.

Both paragraphs are on topic, and the left one even has more ideas. But the examiner reading it sees four unsupported claims, a vague example (‘in many countries’) and mechanical linking (Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, In addition). That is the band 6 profile: relevant ideas, insufficiently developed. The right paragraph takes ONE idea (congestion), explains why it happens in a chain (wider roads, more cars, the same jams), gives a specific example with realistic detail and links back to the question. That is the band 8 profile: ideas relevant, well extended and supported.

Build a cause–effect chain in five moves

1
State the claim
Write a topic sentence with one clear claim.

Allowing staff to work from home benefits employees as well as employers.
2
Ask “How?” or “Why?”
Give the first link: the direct, immediate effect.

It removes the daily commute, which in a city like Dhaka can easily take two or three hours.
3
Ask “So what?” once or twice
Push the chain one or two steps further, to a consequence people care about.

Those hours can be spent sleeping, exercising or with family, so employees are less exhausted and less stressed.
4
Reach the consequence that answers the question
Stop when you reach the point that matters for the essay question, and say it clearly.

Rested, less stressed staff take fewer sick days and concentrate better, so the employer gains a more productive workforce.
5
Read the chain back
Each sentence should grow out of the one before it. If you could delete a sentence without breaking the logic, it is probably a list item, not a link. Add your example after the chain, then the link sentence.

Language for building chains (use a mix, not the same one every time)

Function	Language	Example in an essay
Result	As a result, … / Consequently, … / …, which means that … / This, in turn, …	Fees rose sharply. As a result, many students from rural districts withdrew.
Reason	This is because … / …, since … / … due to …	Garment workers are vulnerable because their wages depend on export orders.
Condition	If …, … / Unless …, … / Without …, …	Without reliable electricity, small factories cannot meet their deadlines.
Chaining with ‘which’	…, which leads to … / …, which causes … / …, which then …	Traffic delays deliveries, which raises costs for shopkeepers.
Concession inside the chain	Although …, … / While it is true that …, …	Although wider roads ease traffic at first, they soon attract more cars.
Emphasising the outcome	The result is that … / The outcome is …	The result is that patients wait longer for emergency care.

Over-generalised vs carefully hedged claims

Over-generalised: easy to disprove

All teenagers are addicted to their phones.
Technology always makes people lonely.
Everyone in Dhaka suffers because of traffic.
Online learning is useless for students.

Hedged and precise: convincing

Many teenagers spend several hours a day on their phones.
Heavy use of social media can leave some people feeling more isolated.
Most commuters in Dhaka lose a significant part of their day in traffic.
Online learning tends to be less effective for subjects that need hands-on practice.

The band 7 Task Response descriptor warns of a possible ‘tendency to over-generalise’. Absolute words (all, always, never, everyone, useless) invite the reader to think of exceptions, and that weakens your argument. Hedging words (many, most, often, tend to, can, may, in many cases) make the claim accurate, so the reader accepts it and moves on to your explanation. Precise hedging also counts in your favour for Lexical Resource.

Check your understanding: PEEL and development

6 questions

1
Question: Some people think children should start learning a foreign language at primary school. Do you agree or disagree? Which is the most effective topic sentence for a body paragraph?
2
Put these sentences into a logical PEEL paragraph.
Drag the cards (or use the arrows) into the correct order.
- 1For instance, a pupil who has spent three months growing a few tomato plants is unlikely to leave half her salad uneaten.
- 2For this reason, gardening deserves a place in the primary school timetable.
- 3One important benefit of school gardens is that they teach children where food actually comes from.
- 4Many urban children have only ever seen vegetables in markets, so they have little sense of the time and effort that farming requires.
- 5When they plant, water and harvest their own crops, they begin to value food and are less likely to waste it.
3
“Online shopping is popular. It is convenient. It saves time. It is often cheaper. Also there are many choices. For example, many people buy things online.” Choose TWO main weaknesses of this paragraph.
Select 2.
4
Complete the chain with ONE word: “Heavy traffic delays buses, means that many workers arrive late.”
5
According to the public band descriptors, what typically separates Task Response band 6 from band 7 in body paragraphs?
6
You have 40 minutes. Which body-section plan is most likely to reach band 7 or above?

Answer every question to check.

What makes an example work?

An example is your proof. A vague example (“For example, many people use the internet”) proves nothing because it only repeats the claim. A good example has three qualities:

Specific: it names something, such as a place, a group of people, an industry, a policy or a situation.
Plausible: a reasonable reader would believe it. It does not need to be a famous fact.
Relevant: it proves this point, not the topic in general.

There are three sources of examples, and IELTS accepts all of them:

Type	Looks like	Best for
Real-world	Dhaka’s Metro Rail… / London’s congestion charge… / the spread of mobile banking such as bKash…	Topics you know something about
Observed or personal	At my own college in Rajshahi, students who…	Education, family, work, technology
Hypothetical	Consider a garment worker who… / If a family in a flood-prone district…	Any topic, especially when you know no real case

The examiner is assessing your English and your ability to support an argument, not your general knowledge. You do not need famous facts. You need examples concrete enough to make your explanation believable.

Where does the example go? After the explanation, not instead of it. An example cannot explain why; it can only show that the why is true in real life. A paragraph made almost entirely of a story, with no explanation, is just as weak as one with no example at all.

Vague vs specific examples

Vague (band 5–6)

For example, technology has helped many people in many ways.
For instance, pollution is a big problem in many cities.
For example, some students study abroad and it is good for them.

Specific (band 7–8)

For instance, mobile banking services such as bKash allow a garment worker in Gazipur to send part of her wages to her parents in a distant village within seconds, a transfer that once meant a long bus journey or an unreliable courier.
In Dhaka, for example, smoke from brick kilns on the edge of the city combines with vehicle exhaust in the dry winter months, and doctors regularly report more children with breathing problems.
A student from Sylhet who completes a master’s degree in Canada, for example, returns not only with a qualification but with training in research methods that her home university may not yet offer.

Each vague example simply restates the claim. Each specific version names a who, a where and a what-happened, so it actually proves something. None of the specific examples uses a statistic: concrete detail and plausibility do the work. Notice too that ‘for example’ can go in the middle of the sentence (‘A student from Sylhet…, for example, …’), which is a simple way to vary your style.

Hypothetical examples: three reliable patterns

1. “Consider…” / “Take, for example,…”

Consider a young nurse who has just qualified in Khulna. If she can earn three times her current salary abroad, it is hardly surprising that she chooses to leave, even though her own district is short of nurses.

2. The conditional: “If…, …”

If a farmer in a flood-prone district loses his rice crop two years in a row, he may have no choice but to sell his land and move to the city in search of work.

3. The typical case: “A typical…”

A typical office worker who sits at a desk for nine hours and then spends two more in traffic has very little energy left for exercise.

Why they workEach one is concrete (a person, a place, a situation) and obviously realistic, so the examiner can ‘see’ the argument happening.
Grammar bonusPatterns 1 and 2 naturally produce conditional and complex sentences, which supports your Grammatical Range and Accuracy score at the same time.
Keep it shortOne or two sentences is enough. A hypothetical story that takes up half the paragraph pushes out your explanation, and the explanation is what earns Task Response marks.
Fit the example to the claimEach example proves one precise claim: the brain drain of health workers, rural-to-urban migration, lack of exercise. Write the explanation first, then choose the example that proves it.

Balancing your two body paragraphs

The examiner reads your body section as one argument. If the two paragraphs differ a lot in length or depth, the essay looks lopsided. In a discussion essay, an under-developed second view can also mean one part of the question is not fully addressed.

Aim for:

Similar length: roughly 100–140 words each. A 50-word paragraph next to a 170-word one tells the examiner you ran out of ideas or time.
Similar structure: both paragraphs follow PEEL, with a topic sentence, an explanation chain, an example and a link.
Different ideas: the two topic sentences must make clearly different points. If you could swap them without anyone noticing, the paragraphs overlap.
A clear connection to the question: each paragraph either supports your position (opinion essay) or presents one view in full (discussion essay).

Quick test: give each paragraph a two-word heading. “Cost savings” and “Lower expenses” means the paragraphs overlap. “Cost savings” and “Practical training” means they are distinct.

Overlapping vs distinct body paragraph plans

Unbalanced and overlapping

Question: Some people believe online courses will soon replace traditional universities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Body 1 (about 150 words): Online courses are cheaper because students do not pay for accommodation or transport.

Body 2 (about 45 words): Online courses also save money, as there is no need to buy printed books.

Both paragraphs make the same point (cost), and the second is far too short to be developed.

Balanced and distinct

Same question.

Body 1 (about 115 words): Online courses will keep growing because they remove barriers of cost and distance. Example: a student on a char island in Kurigram can follow lectures without moving to Dhaka.

Body 2 (about 115 words): However, they cannot fully replace universities, because subjects such as medicine and engineering depend on laboratories, supervised practice and face-to-face mentoring. Example: a trainee doctor cannot learn to examine a patient through a screen.

Two different ideas, equal depth, and together they build a clear partial-agreement position.

The left plan stretches one idea across two paragraphs and leaves the second paragraph too short to reach band 7 development. The right plan gives each paragraph a distinct job and similar weight, and the two jobs together answer ‘to what extent’ precisely: online learning will grow (Body 1) but will not replace universities (Body 2).

বেশি idea নয়, গভীর idea

অনেকে ভাবেন body paragraph-এ যত বেশি point দেওয়া যাবে, তত বেশি নম্বর পাওয়া যাবে। আসলে ব্যাপারটা উল্টো। Examiner গুনে দেখেন না কয়টা idea লিখেছেন; দেখেন প্রতিটি idea কতটা ব্যাখ্যা (explain) আর প্রমাণ (example) করেছেন। প্রতিটি বাক্যের পর নিজেকে জিজ্ঞেস করুন “So what?”, আর পরের বাক্যে সেই প্রশ্নের উত্তর দিন। একটি idea ভালোভাবে develop করতে পারলে Task Response-এ band 7+ পাওয়া অনেক সহজ হয়ে যায়।

Writing Task 2 practice

110+ words · 15 min

Write ONE body paragraph (110–140 words) for the essay question below.

Many young people now spend several hours a day on social media. Some people think this does more harm than good. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Choose one side and one main idea. Use PEEL:

a clear topic sentence that answers the question,
an explanation chain of at least two steps,
one specific or hypothetical example,
a final sentence that links back to the question.

Do not write an introduction or a conclusion. Do not list extra reasons.

0 / 110 words0 paragraphs0 linking wordsDraft saved on this device

Self-check before submitting

☐ My topic sentence states ONE clear idea and connects it to the harm or benefit of social media
☐ I explain the idea in at least two linked steps (cause, then effect, then a further effect)
☐ I include one specific or hypothetical example (a person, place or situation), not ‘many people’
☐ My last sentence links back to the question and shows my position
☐ I do not list extra reasons with ‘Also…’, ‘Secondly…’ or ‘In addition…’
☐ I avoid absolute claims (all, always, everyone) and invented statistics
☐ The paragraph is between 110 and 140 words

Final quiz: body paragraphs

10 questions

1
Match each sentence to its PEEL function.
A major drawback of fast fashion is the pressure it places on garment workers.
Because retailers demand ever cheaper and faster production, factories push workers to accept long hours and low pay.
For instance, during peak export seasons some machine operators work twelve-hour shifts six days a week.
This human cost is a strong reason for consumers to buy fewer, better-made clothes.
2
Which example best supports this claim: “Mobile technology has made financial services available to people who never had a bank account”?
3
An IELTS examiner will lower your score if you use a hypothetical example instead of a real, verifiable fact.
4
Find and correct the mistake:
This is because of people prefer to use private cars.
5
Find and correct the mistake:
Wider roads attract more cars, it means that traffic soon returns.
6
Put this cause–effect chain into logical order.
Drag the cards (or use the arrows) into the correct order.
- 1The river water becomes contaminated with chemicals.
- 2Factories on the riverbank discharge untreated waste.
- 3Fish stocks decline sharply.
- 4Local fishing families lose their main source of income.
- 5Many of them are forced to migrate to cities in search of work.
7
“Studying abroad is beneficial. Students learn a lot. For example, many students go to the UK.” Choose TWO changes that would genuinely develop this paragraph.
Select 2.
8
Your first body paragraph is 135 words and your second is 48 words. What is the most likely problem?
9
Each body paragraph should be built around one clear central .
10
Which sentence is an over-generalisation?