One question type, start to finish
The whole Task 2 path, filtered to this one question type: how to read the prompt, what each of the four paragraphs has to do, the connectors it leans on, and a finished essay at the end. Every step links to its full unit if you want to drill it.
The prompt
Everything below answers this. The highlighted words are the instruction — the part that decides the shape of the whole essay, and the part most people skim.
International tourism has expanded rapidly. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this trend?
How you recognise it
Instruction signal: What are the advantages and disadvantages? / Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
What it must answer: Cover both sides. If the prompt asks whether one side outweighs the other, make and support that judgement.
Most common misread
Using “outweigh” language when the prompt asks only for both sides, or failing to decide when it explicitly asks for an evaluation.
Official format: IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 asks for an essay of at least 250 words in response to a question. The five question families are WeLearn teaching categories, not official IELTS names.
WeLearn strategy: This page collects the steps of the full course filtered to one question type, so that a student who only needs this one can follow the whole path in order.
Review focus: Writing a complete advantages & disadvantages answer, from reading the prompt to the finished essay.
Explained answer: Compare your finished essay with the model at the end: same prompt, same four paragraphs, and each paragraph doing the job named above it.
Step 1
Six questions you put to the prompt, in this order. They are the same six for every Task 2 prompt you will ever see — that is what makes them worth learning. Answer each one before you open it.
1Topic — What situation is this prompt about?
Cover the highlighted instruction with your hand and read only what is left. That is the topic — and it is the part that matters least, which is why most people spend the most time on it.
international tourism
2Instruction — What am I being told to produce?
The highlighted words, and nothing else. Not the topic, not how many views appear before it. Every decision below follows from this one sentence.
What are the advantages and disadvantages? / Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
3Scope — How much room does that instruction leave me?
The exact wording. “To what extent” allows a degree — largely, partly. “Do you agree” does not. “Outweigh” forces a verdict; “advantages and disadvantages” forbids one. One word decides.
Cover both sides without inventing an outweigh requirement.
4Your answer — What do I actually think, in one sentence?
Nowhere in the prompt. This is the first row you supply, and if you skip it now you will discover halfway through Body 2 that you never decided.
Required for an outweigh question. For a plain advantages-and-disadvantages prompt, an evaluation is useful but should not replace coverage of both sides.
5Body 1 — What is the strongest reason for that answer?
Also yours. The test is whether it supports the answer above — not whether it is true about the topic. A true statement that does not support your answer belongs in someone else's essay.
income and exchange.
6Body 2 — What is the second reason, and is it genuinely different?
Yours as well. If you can rewrite Body 2 using Body 1's sentences, you have one reason written twice, and the examiner will read it as one.
environmental and cultural pressure.
Rows 1 to 3 are in the prompt: two readers should get the same answer. Rows 4 to 6 are not — they are yours, and two good essays on this prompt can disagree completely.
Step 2
What this paragraph has to do, and how you get there from the prompt above.
Cover both sides without inventing an outweigh requirement.
Body 1: income and exchange. Body 2: environmental and cultural pressure.
The blocks below, in this order.
The places most worth visiting are often the least able to absorb the people who visit them.
The rapid growth of cross-border tourism has transformed many destinations and local economies.
This development can generate employment and cultural exchange, but it may also place severe pressure on ecosystems, infrastructure and community life.
It previews both sides without forcing a verdict.
The categories are broad enough to organise two coherent body paragraphs.
Watch for: Using “outweigh” language when the prompt asks only for both sides, or failing to decide when it explicitly asks for an evaluation.
Step 3
What this paragraph has to do, and how you get there from the prompt above.
Body 1 carries the first reason you committed to when you read the prompt: income and exchange.
Develop employment and local demand as connected advantages.
The blocks below, in this order.
International tourism can create a broad source of income for destinations with limited industries.
Visitors purchase accommodation, food, transport and local experiences rather than supporting only one business.
This spending circulates through suppliers and can sustain work that draws on regional knowledge and products.
A guided nature route, for example, may support guides, drivers, family-run restaurants and maintenance staff at the same time.
Tourism's main advantage is therefore its capacity to spread demand across a local economy.
Watch for: Claiming tourism automatically enriches every resident without considering where spending goes.
Step 4
What this paragraph has to do, and how you get there from the prompt above.
Body 2 carries the second reason you committed to when you read the prompt: environmental and cultural pressure.
Develop the principal disadvantage of tourism after Body 1 has covered its benefits.
The blocks below, in this order.
Rapid tourism growth can place severe pressure on housing, infrastructure and local environments.
Short-term accommodation may reduce the supply of homes, while seasonal crowds increase waste and transport demand.
The income generated by visitors is less valuable when residents bear these costs without effective regulation.
In a small coastal town, for example, rising holiday rentals may push local workers farther from their jobs.
Tourism policy must therefore control these impacts if the economic advantages are to remain sustainable.
Watch for: Repeating economic benefits instead of giving the opposing side a developed paragraph.
Step 5
What this paragraph has to do, and how you get there from the prompt above.
The conclusion has to end on the answer you committed to when you read the prompt: Required for an outweigh question. For a plain advantages-and-disadvantages prompt, an evaluation is useful but should not replace coverage of both sides.
Acknowledge the meaningful counterweight and preserve the exact overall judgement.
The blocks below, in this order.
Overall, tourism can generate valuable income while placing serious pressure on housing, infrastructure and the environment.
Its advantages outweigh the disadvantages only where regulation ensures that residents do not bear disproportionate costs.
Watch for: Using “the advantages outweigh” when the essay never established that judgement.
Step 6
Every family is useful somewhere. These are the ones this question type needs most.
Contrast
the next idea pushes against the one before it
Open this familyComparison
the next case behaves like the one before it
Open this familyConcession
you accept the other side has a point, and you are about to answer it
Open this familyNow you decide
Neither of these is about English. They are about answering the question you were actually asked.
In many countries, more people are choosing to work remotely rather than travelling to an office every day. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Choose the structure the word “outweigh” forces
One word in the instruction changes what the essay owes. Which shape pays it?
Choose one.
Pick the ideas that let you deliver a verdict
Three of these help you decide. Two of them stop you.
Choose every decision you would keep.
The finished essay
260 words on the prompt below. Each paragraph is labelled with the job it does — the same jobs you just read, in the same order.
International tourism has expanded rapidly. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this trend?
The places most worth visiting are often the least able to absorb the people who visit them. The rapid growth of cross-border tourism has transformed many destinations and local economies. This development can generate employment and cultural exchange, but it may also place severe pressure on ecosystems, infrastructure and community life. The benefits are largely economic and cultural, while the costs fall on housing, infrastructure and the local environment of the places visited.
Reframe the prompt, state the position, and preview what each body paragraph will argue.International tourism can create a broad source of income for destinations with limited industries. Visitors purchase accommodation, food, transport and local experiences rather than supporting only one business. This spending circulates through suppliers and can sustain work that draws on regional knowledge and products. A guided nature route, for example, may support guides, drivers, family-run restaurants and maintenance staff at the same time. Tourism's main advantage is therefore its capacity to spread demand across a local economy.
Develop employment and local demand as connected advantages.Rapid tourism growth can place severe pressure on housing, infrastructure and local environments. Short-term accommodation may reduce the supply of homes, while seasonal crowds increase waste and transport demand. The income generated by visitors is less valuable when residents bear these costs without effective regulation. In a small coastal town, for example, rising holiday rentals may push local workers farther from their jobs. Tourism policy must therefore control these impacts if the economic advantages are to remain sustainable.
Develop the principal disadvantage of tourism after Body 1 has covered its benefits.Overall, tourism can generate valuable income while placing serious pressure on housing, infrastructure and the environment. Its advantages outweigh the disadvantages only where regulation ensures that residents do not bear disproportionate costs.
Acknowledge the meaningful counterweight and preserve the exact overall judgement.Preguntas frecuentes
IELTS no lo presenta como una ruta oficial separada; oficialmente Task 2 pide escribir un ensayo en respuesta a una pregunta. WeLearn separa advantages-disadvantages como ruta de práctica porque estos prompts requieren comparar beneficios y problemas, y a veces decidir si uno pesa más que el otro.
Si la pregunta solo pide ventajas y desventajas, debes desarrollar ambos lados. Si pregunta whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, también debes tomar una posición clara sobre cuál lado pesa más.
Una estructura segura es: introducción con respuesta directa, cuerpo 1 con ventajas, cuerpo 2 con desventajas o evaluación de peso, y conclusión que responda exactamente la instrucción.
Advantages and disadvantages prompt bank
Official format: IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 requires a response of at least 250 words to the given prompt. WeLearn strategy: this route trains the difference between a prompt that asks for both sides and a prompt that asks which side is heavier. One word — outweigh — decides whether a verdict is compulsory.
Advantages and disadvantages
In some countries, companies are experimenting with a four-day working week. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Evaluate both sides and decide which has greater weight.
The advantages outweigh the disadvantages when companies redesign workloads rather than forcing five days of tasks into four.
Listing advantages and disadvantages without answering outweigh.
Advantages and disadvantages
Many popular tourist destinations are limiting the number of visitors each day. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
Explain both advantages and disadvantages without forcing an outweigh answer unless the prompt asks for one.
Visitor limits can protect fragile places, although they may reduce income for communities that depend on tourism.
Answering as if the prompt asks whether advantages outweigh disadvantages. This one asks for both sides only.