For simple IELTS-style essays, a 3773 layout is probably the easiest. You can find a fuller explanation of what 3773 layout is here, but basically it’s like this:

3 sentences: Introduction
7 sentences: Body Paragraph 1 – you agree or you disagree
7 sentences: Body Paragraph 2 – you disagree or you agree
3 sentences: Conclusion

You don’t have to have exactly 3 or 7 sentences – you could have 4 or 8. But that’s the general idea.

So what’s in a body paragraph?

A body paragraph has about 7 sentences:

1. Topic (the main idea of the paragraph)
2. First idea
3. More information or example
4. Second idea
5. More information or example
6. Third idea
7. More information or example

If you like, you could add a concluding or summary sentence. You can see an example of a summary sentence in the first body paragraph of this essay.