This IELTS Writing Task 2 post offers the insights of writing a band 8.5-9.0 answer to an agree-disagree topic. This agree-disagree topic asks the candidates to provide arguments to the decision of selecting elder or younger people as leaders of organizations and companies. In this post, you will find a plan and some strategies that can help you to write this answer effectively along with a mind-map or brainstorming idea. You will also find a great model answer which can help you build your own answers for other agree-disagree topics.

Let’s take a close look at the question first:

The leaders or directors of organizations are often elderly people. However, some say that young people can also take the lead in organizations or companies.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?

What kind of essay structure should you follow for this essay?

In most IELTS Writing Task 2 essays, a 4-paragraph structure can be followed. For this particular agree-disagree essay, we should also follow a 4-paragraph essay structure.

Paragraph 1: Introduction (Introduce the topic with some background information + a thesis; whether you agree or disagree with the topic) in 40/45 words

Paragraph 2: (Explain why elderly people are chosen to lead) in around 100 words

Paragraph 3: (Explain why young people should be chosen to lead) in around 100 words

Paragraph 4: (Conclude the essay by restating your opinion) in about 35/40 words

How to plan for your answer to a problem-solution topic: some tips; 

When you begin writing your task 2 essay, what strategies do you think you should follow? Do you have a plan that you arrange beforehand and apply it accordingly?

It is always a very good idea to plan before you write something; even it takes 5/7 minutes of your time. A good plan reduces your pressure of real-time thinking and writing together. It also improves your power of thinking and arranging ideas. So, utilize the opportunity of thinking beforehand and taking some necessary notes that can help you to present your thoughts in an organized way.

For this agree-disagree topic, we need to analyze the question and try to understand what the task requirements are.

As you can see from the question, we are asked to agree or disagree with the given issue. We should also remember to write a minimum of 250 words to illustrate our ideas, thoughts, suggestions etc.

So, here is a plan that I’ve made to establish my ideas, thoughts and suggestions. You can do the same by doing some brainstorming and taking some notes. You need not be accurate to do this, just put down your thoughts and do some regular practice.

Now, let’s have a look at the plan:

Points in favour of elderly people as leaders:

1. Possess more edges and experience, long term vision and assume big picture;
2. Can adjust quickly with a pressure situation,

Points in favour of young people as leaders:

1. Up-to-date knowledge and education, in-depth knowledge in subjects, adapt to modern problems, realise cultural differences,
2. Can apply latest technology accurately,

Based on these notes, here I’ve prepared an 8.5-9.0 band model answer for you. Let’s have a look:

Model answer:

Whether young people can become the leader of big companies and organizations instead of elder people is a matter of rising dispute nowadays. Nonetheless, I would vouch for those young and enthusiastic people as I consider them qualified to take vital positions in this modern and fast-paced world.

On the one side, there is no denial of the view that aged people possess more edges being mature. Primarily, their intellectual abilities make them unrivaled if compared to their younger counterparts. They have skills like long-term vision and assuming the big picture with their years of work experience and failures in their early working career and these are considered critical for the improvement of companies. Young people, however, do not possess such skills which leads them to make shortsighted judgments which might prove costly for the given organization. To add more, adjustment with bigger difficulties is another issue where young people may make errors whereas old people have a very low possibility to make erroneous choices as they can adjust quickly in those cases.   

On the flip side of the coin, a few logistic reasons compel me to believe that young managers and CEOs can lead a company to its peak of success. Initially, compared to their old counterparts, young leaders nowadays are more educated with advanced knowledge and modern outlooks in their own fields and this makes them far better alternatives. They can realize cultural differences easily and adapt to modern problems as they grow up with these issues and so they can empathize with other employees and potential clients more quickly. Furthermore, young leaders can apply technology in their work without facing many problems due to the fact that they are the millennials or Generation Y who have a sheer volume of knowledge about state-of-the-art technologies. This can improve the productivity and promotion of companies rapidly.

In summary, as the selection of leaders for a company is a critical issue, age should not come here as a criterion and, in my opinion; young people should be preferred by companies due to their modern attitudes, in-depth knowledge of company cultures and latest technologies. 

(350 words)

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