IELTS General Training Writing Topics for Task 1 and Task 2

Search for IELTS writing topics and almost everything you find is written for the Academic paper. You get bar charts you will never see and essay questions about government policy written in a register the General Training paper does not ask for. The topic list is real, but it is the wrong list.

General Training and Academic share Task 2 and share all four marking criteria. They do not share Task 1, and the Task 2 prompts are pitched differently. This page splits the topics by task, says where the two papers diverge, and gives you a plan you can write from today.

What the two papers actually share

Both papers are 60 minutes. Both have a Task 1 of at least 150 words and a Task 2 of at least 250 words. Task 2 is worth twice as much as Task 1 in the final writing band, so it gets 40 of your 60 minutes in both papers.

Both are marked on the same four criteria:

• Task Achievement in Task 1, Task Response in Task 2: did you cover everything the question asked, with developed ideas?
• Coherence and Cohesion: is the answer organised into clear paragraphs with linking that fits the meaning?
• Lexical Resource: is the vocabulary accurate and appropriate for the task, not merely varied?
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: is there a range of sentence structures, and how often do errors appear?

Here is where they split:

That last row matters more than the others. A General Training answer is not marked more gently. The prompts are closer to daily life, so the ideas come faster, but the language bar is identical.

Task 1: the letter topics, grouped by register

Every GT Task 1 is a letter with three bullet points you must cover. The topic is less important than the register, because register is the first thing Task Achievement looks at. Group your practice this way.

Formal, to somebody you have never met. A manager, a council officer, a company, a landlord you address by title.

• Complaining about a faulty product or a poor service
• Applying for a job or asking about a course
• Requesting information from an organisation
• Asking your employer for unpaid leave
• Writing to a newspaper or a local authority about a problem in your area

Semi-formal, to somebody you know in a working relationship. A colleague, a neighbour, a tutor, a landlord you know by name.

• Apologising to a neighbour and offering to fix something
• Asking a colleague to cover your shift
• Explaining to a tutor why you missed a deadline
• Suggesting a change to how something is organised at work

Informal, to a friend or a family member.

• Inviting a friend to visit and describing what you will do
• Thanking somebody for a gift or for their help
• Giving news about a move, a new job or a course
• Asking a friend for advice about a decision

Write across all three registers, not across all fifteen topics. Candidates who only practise complaint letters produce a stiff, formal thank-you note to a close friend, and Task Achievement notices.

Task 2: the themes that keep coming back

GT Task 2 questions cluster into a small number of themes. You do not need a hundred topics. You need an opinion, two reasons and one example ready for each of these.

1. Work: hours, retirement age, working from home, changing careers, job satisfaction against salary
2. Education: school subjects, exams, learning at any age, discipline, university against vocational training
3. Family and children: parenting, screen time, grandparents, whether both parents should work
4. Health and lifestyle: diet, exercise, stress, whether health care should be free
5. Community and local life: public transport, housing, libraries, sport facilities, crime
6. Technology in daily life: phones, online shopping, social media, driverless cars
7. Environment: recycling, plastic, local pollution, whether individuals or governments should act
8. Money: saving, advertising, whether people buy too much
9. Culture and travel: tourism, traditions, learning languages, living abroad

Spend one practice session building an idea bank. For each theme write one sentence of opinion, two reasons, and one concrete example from your own life. That bank is what lets you plan in five minutes in the exam instead of eleven.

The same question, written for each paper

This is the clearest way to see the difference. One idea, two prompts.

Academic. Some people believe that governments should invest in public transport rather than in new roads. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

General Training. In many towns it is becoming harder to travel without a car. What problems does this cause, and what could be done to solve them?

The Academic version asks you to weigh a policy choice and defend a position. The General Training version asks you to describe a problem you have probably lived and propose something practical. Both want a clear position, developed paragraphs and accurate language. Only the distance from your own life changes.

That difference shows up in the language. In the Academic answer you would write investment in rail infrastructure tends to produce longer-term benefits. In the GT answer you can write in my town the last bus leaves at seven, so anyone working a late shift has to drive. The second sentence is not weaker. It is specific, it is grammatically controlled, and specificity is what Task Response rewards.

A five-minute plan for the GT question above

Use this shape for any problem and solution prompt.

• Paragraph 1, introduction, two sentences. Paraphrase the situation, then state that you will cover two problems and two solutions.
• Paragraph 2, problems. Cost of running a car for low-income households, plus isolation for people who cannot drive. One example each.
• Paragraph 3, solutions. Later and more frequent bus services funded by the council, plus safe cycle routes between housing and the town centre. Say who acts and what changes.
• Paragraph 4, conclusion, two sentences. Restate the two problems in new words and name the solution you think matters most.

Notice that the plan names the actor in every solution. The council should extend evening services is a developed idea. Something should be done about transport is not, and Task Response treats it as undeveloped however well written the sentence is.

What to do this week

Pick one letter from each register and write all three under time, 20 minutes each. Then pick two themes from the list of nine and build the idea bank for both. That is under two hours and it covers more of the paper than reading another topic list will.

If you want a second opinion on where your answer sits before a teacher sees it, paste it into Bandly and you will get a criterion-by-criterion estimate, with the spans of text behind each one, in about a minute.