Here’s a cool task to help you work on coherence and cohesion – which is one of the four areas on which your IELTS Writing will be marked. Look at the sentences below and try to put them into the correct order. Simple, right?! Check your answer against my actual essay below.

Question

In general, people do not have such a close relationship with their neighbours as they did in the past.

Why is this so, and what can be done to improve contact between neighbours?

Activity

The following sentences have been mixed up. Put them into the right order. Pay attention to paragraphing and logical flow. Look for transition words and sequencers.

They should make an effort to get to know their neighbours even if they live in a large apartment building, and maintain the relationship by making friendly gestures each day.

However, despite this trend, it seems we are growing apart from our neighbours.

This essay will explore the reasons for this, and also suggest some ways to resolve the situation.

In those days, it was important to know your neighbours because they played an important role in your life, and you probably had fewer other people to communicate with.

In conclusion, urbanization is largely responsible for people no longer having close relationships with their neighbours.

People relied upon their neighbours and worked together with them to solve problems.

However, in a developed, urban society, people don’t need the support of their neighbours because communication and transportation has become so vastly improved.

These days, people can rely upon a social network that is more extensive and use services that are provided over a longer distance by governments and businesses.

In order to improve relationships between neighbours, people should make an effort to bring back old ways of communication and general friendliness.

Although we now live in urban environments, we should still treat our neighbours with respect and kindness.

In the past, people used to live in small, rural communities with poor transportation and communication links.

In addition, any difficulties that arise between neighbours should be dealt with civilly to avoid animosity.

As the population has grown, we are more surrounded by other people than ever before.

In order to solve this problem, we ought to make the effort to get to know our neighbours and avoid conflict with them.

Answer

Here’s the real essay:

As the population has grown, we are more surrounded by other people than ever before. However, despite this trend, it seems we are growing apart from our neighbours. This essay will explore the reasons for this, and also suggest some ways to resolve the situation.

In the past, people used to live in small, rural communities with poor transportation and communication links. In those days, it was important to know your neighbours because they played an important role in your life, and you probably had fewer other people to communicate with. People relied upon their neighbours and worked together with them to solve problems. However, in a developed, urban society, people don’t need the support of their neighbours because communication and transportation has become so vastly improved. These days, people can rely upon a social network that is more extensive and use services that are provided over a longer distance by governments and businesses.

In order to improve relationships between neighbours, people should make an effort to bring back old ways of communication and general friendliness. Although we now live in urban environments, we should still treat our neighbours with respect and kindness. They should make an effort to get to know their neighbours even if they live in a large apartment building, and maintain the relationship by making friendly gestures each day. In addition, any difficulties that arise between neighbours should be dealt with civilly to avoid animosity.

In conclusion, urbanization is largely responsible for people no longer having close relationships with their neighbours. In order to solve this problem, we ought to make the effort to get to know our neighbours and avoid conflict with them.

Notes

This was a two part question, and so the structure was pretty obvious. I always say that for the IELTS Writing Task 2 you ought to write four paragraphs. So I tackled the first part (why?) in one paragraph, and the second part (how to solve?) in the next paragraph. Simple!

In the conclusion, note how I have two sentences. One sentence points to the first body paragraph and the second points to the second body paragraph. Easy!