IELTS Writing Task 2: How Many Paragraphs, and How to Decide From the Question

Four paragraphs or five is the wrong question, and it is the one almost every candidate asks. No IELTS rule sets a number. What the marking checks is whether each paragraph has one clear central idea and whether the essay moves forward in a logical order, so the question type decides the count, not a template you memorised.

This post gives you the default shape, the two cases that need a fifth paragraph, and a test you can run on your own essay in 30 seconds.

What the criteria actually check

Paragraphing is marked under Coherence and Cohesion, one of the four criteria for Task 2. The other three are Task Response, which asks whether you answered the question with a clear position; Lexical Resource, which is vocabulary; and Grammatical Range and Accuracy.

The public band descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion describe paragraphing roughly like this as you move up the bands.

At band 5, the response may not be written in paragraphs at all, or the paragraphing is inadequate. At band 6, paragraphing is used but not always logically. At band 7, each paragraph presents a clear central topic. At band 8, paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately.

Read those four lines again and notice what is missing. No count. The jump from 6 to 7 is not an extra paragraph, it is each paragraph having one topic instead of two or none.

So the question to ask about your essay is never "do I have four". It is "can I say in one short sentence what each paragraph is about".

The default: four paragraphs

For most Task 2 questions, four is the right shape.

1. Introduction. Two sentences. Paraphrase the question, then state your position. Nothing else.
2. Body paragraph 1. First idea, explained, then supported.
3. Body paragraph 2. Second idea, explained, then supported.
4. Conclusion. Two sentences. Restate the position and answer the question directly.

This works for opinion questions ("to what extent do you agree"), for advantage and disadvantage questions, and for discussion questions where one body paragraph takes each view.

There is a practical reason four is the default. Task 2 asks for at least 250 words. Across four paragraphs, that is roughly 40 words of introduction, two bodies of about 85 words each, and a 40 word conclusion. Eighty five words is enough to state an idea, explain why it is true, and give one example. That is what "extended and supported" means in the descriptors.

Split the same 250 words across five paragraphs and each body gets about 60. Sixty words is enough to state an idea and not enough to develop it, which costs you under Task Response even though your paragraphing looks tidy.

When a fifth paragraph is right

Two cases. In both, the extra paragraph exists because the question asked for a third thing, not because five looks more sophisticated.

Case one: a two part question. Some prompts contain two separate questions.

Many young people today leave their home town to work in large cities. What are the reasons for this trend? What problems can it cause?

That is two tasks: reasons, then problems. If you have two reasons worth writing and one significant problem, your essay is introduction, reasons paragraph, second reasons paragraph, problems paragraph, conclusion. Five paragraphs, because the question has two halves and one half needed more room.

Case two: discussion plus your own view. When a prompt asks you to discuss both views and give your own opinion, you have three things to deliver.

Some people think children should start school as early as possible. Others believe they should start later. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

You can do this in four paragraphs by putting your opinion inside the conclusion, and that is acceptable. It is safer in five: one paragraph for each view, then a short paragraph that says which view you find more convincing and why. Your opinion then has its own space instead of appearing for the first time in the last two lines.

If you take the five paragraph route here, write about 290 words rather than 255. Each body still needs development.

The two shapes side by side

Same question, both plans. The question is the school starting age prompt above.

Both are complete answers. The five paragraph version is better if you can write 290 words comfortably in 40 minutes. The four paragraph version is better if you cannot, because an unfinished fifth paragraph is worse than a complete fourth one.

Four shapes that cost marks

• One block of 250 words. No paragraphs at all. This is the clearest way to land in band 5 territory on Coherence and Cohesion, whatever your grammar looks like.
• A new paragraph every two sentences. Six or seven short blocks read as a list of thoughts rather than a developed argument. Paragraphing that is not logical is explicitly a band 6 feature.
• A body paragraph with two ideas in it. This is the most common one at band 6.5. The paragraph starts with the cost of university tuition and ends on graduate employment rates. Both are good ideas. Neither is developed, and neither is the central topic.
• A conclusion that adds a new idea. The conclusion answers the question. A new argument there has no space to be supported, and it makes the essay look like it changed its mind at the end.

The 30 second test

Cover your essay and write one short sentence for each paragraph, saying what that paragraph is about. If you can do it, your paragraphing is doing its job. If any sentence needs the word "and" to be accurate, that paragraph holds two topics and should be split or trimmed.

Then check the opposite failure: if two of your sentences say nearly the same thing, those paragraphs should be one.

What to do today

Take an essay you have already written. Run the one sentence test on it, count the words in each body paragraph, and fix only the paragraph that is doing two jobs. That single edit usually does more for Coherence and Cohesion than rewriting the whole essay.

When you want a second read on the result, you can paste the essay into Bandly for an estimated band on all four criteria and feedback on the specific sentences that weaken each paragraph.