雅思大作文考的是議論文，即考查考生是否能夠在相對較短的時間內蒐集論據，具體地論證自己的觀點。但受國內教育體制的影響，中國考生往往缺乏對這些社會話題的深刻思考和討論，造成思考模式的僵化與狹隘，因而論證非常空洞、缺乏說服力，寫的太官腔。
那麼，應該如何對大作文進行有力的論證呢？最常用的方式就是解釋和例證，幾乎在每一篇雅思大作文中，都可以看見這兩種論證方法的.身影。
下面關於work at home or study at home的一段例證：
IBM, one of the business giants, has saved nearly 70 million US dollars in its northeastern region by promoting telecommuting, which has been a driving force to other enterprises to convert their normal working staff into telecommuters. Companies in Japan are one of them and plan to launch the scheme in 2009, which, in turn, spiritually wins more supports from the existing employees, and attracts new hires. 這段話中的2個例子都較好地完成了若員工選擇在家上班，會對公司帶來積極的作用這一證明。
此外，提醒考生們需要注意的是，雅思大作文明確指出give reasons or examples from your own experience， 這裏的your own experience和your personal experience是完全不同的概念。前者是指通過個人的學習和總結而獲得的經驗，後者是指個人經歷或周圍某個個體的故事。如談到working hard produces better results， your own experience的例子一定是some 3-year-high school students usually stay up late to review lessons and prepare for next day classes， 而your personal experience的例子則應該是my roommate, Tony has always been working hard on studies and staying up late every night， 不難看出兩者的區別。故雅思大作文是不能使用個人案例的論據的，這一點與新託福的寫作也是不同的。
