IELTS Practice Tests Writer Marries

Robbie Nicholson, our main IELTS practice tests writer, and Katarzyna (Kasia) Baliga, were married last weekend on 10th August at Sw. Marcina Church in Krakow. Following the marriage, the wedding party walked down Grodzka to Wawel castle and took a boat with champagne up and down the Vistula for a half hour before arriving at their reception at Manggha Japanese Museum, where they celebrated until late.

Kasia met Robbie in London in July 2008. Robbie, a cricket fanatic, was at Lord's cricket ground watching England versus South Africa and met Kasia whilst ordering a coffee. From there, the couple met regularly until Kasia took the plunge of going to Germany to be with Robbie. While in Germany, Kasia became a qualified teacher and worked with Robbie at Dresden International School.

Four years after their meeting, Robbie proposed in San Sebastian, Spain, one morning on a swimming platform. After an awkward moment while Robbie extricated the ring from his swimming shorts, the penny dropped and accepted the proposal after some shock and surprise!

Back now in Germany, Kasia is back at the school, while Robbie is working on ieltshelpnow.com's promotion and of course IELTS practice tests writing. He has already completed a further five IELTS listening tests and is now working on a further ten. Fifteen further IELTS practice tests listening module are planned to be released at Easter 2014.

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FREE IELTS WRITING TASKS

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:
Modern technology now allows rapid and uncontrolled access to and exchange of information.
Far from being benefical, this is a danger to our societies.

What are your views?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer

In last few years, the morden technology has been developed very fast. People getting used to use the rapid and uncontrolled technology instead of (some people believe that) manpower. On the other hand, it brings problems to our societies. I will consider these different points of views in favour to support the modern technology. It has been argued that too much morden technology cause people losing their job. Nowadays, many factories are useing automatic technology instead manpower, in order to increase their business. However, It brings a huge problem of unemployment, furthermore, it would increasing on the crimes rate. Similiy, morden technology speeds up our life. people feel stressful about their jobs, families, and societies. It is no doubt that morden technology deveoloped our life more convenient than before. For example, we could keeping in touch with our friends which live far away from us pass through the internet. Moreover, companies could contact with their customer by the internet. It’s much cheaper than calling the long-distance phone. Besides, the technology development could help medicine inventing.

Task Achievement
The writer does not address the proposition contained in the task rubric. Instead of discussing issues to do with the accessibility of electronic information, he/she deals with the general pros and cons of technology.
At 175 words, the response is considerably under length.

Coherence and Cohesion
The response is clearly structured: it contains three paragraphs, each of which has a distinct function. To that extent, the response is coherent. However, in certain ways the presentation of the argument is cou ter to expectations, and so causes a degree of miscommunication. The first paragraph is an introduction, which outlines opposing views about technology, and states the writer’s opinion. The second and third paragraphs then illustrate the two views in more detail. The absence of any concluding paragraph, where writers summarise arguments and explain opinions, means it is unclear why one particular view is supported in preference to the other. Though if the link between the second and third paragraphs had been made more overt, perhaps by introducing the third with On the other hand, any doubts might have been reduced. Elsewhere organising expressions are used to very good effect.

Lexical Resource
The writer demonstrates a reasonably wide range of vocabulary, including less frequent items such as crime(s) rate, manpower and speeds up. These are usually used correctly, although uncontrolled is used inappropriately, and has possibly been misunderstood. Apart from the use of morden, repeated several times, and Similiy, spelling is accurate. 

Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses a wide range of structures, including complex ones. Although errors occur throughout, comprehension is rarely if ever impeded, and the reader has the overall impression of fluency. Punctuation is largely accurate, and sentence divisions are appropriate.

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FREE IELTS Academic Writing and FREE General Training Writing Differences.

Today, we will follow the previous article which discussed the differences between the academic and general training modules. It was outlined in the previous article how the listening and speaking sections of the tests were the same in the academic and general training modules. Students taking the IELTS test cold then buy either module of our IELTS practice tests to train for these areas of the IELTS test.

Naturally though, it would be silly to buy IELTS practice tests that were not the module that you were taking. This article will therefore examine the IELTS writing tests, so that the differences between the academic and general training modules are clear.

The IELTS academic module writing consists of two tasks. The first task should take around 20 minutes to complete. Students will get some kind of pictorial or graphical information an they will have to write a report for a university teacher on the information. Task 1 should be no fewer than 150 words. Task 2 is an essay of not fewer than 250 words. The essay questions will be of a general though mildly academic nature.

The IELTS general training module also consists of two tasks. The first task requires the student to write a letter in response to a certain given situation. Again, the first task should take around 20 minutes to complete and it should be no fewer than 150 words. Like the academic module, Task 2 is an essay of not fewer than 250 words. The essay questions will be of a general nature.

Find help on all elements of the IELTS writing tests HERE.

Our IELTS practice tests provide realistic IELTS style questions for both tasks for the academic and general training modules. We also provide model example essays for all our questions, so that students can see one excellent way of answering the questions.

In our next article, we will look at the academic and general training reading tests and our IELTS practice tests on these.

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FREE IELTS LESSON - THE GENERAL WRITING TEST - TASK 2

Task 2 in the General Training Writing Test is more important than task 1. You have to write more, it's a more difficult task and it is worth more to your final band for writing as more weight is given to Task 2 than to Task 1. Practice on IELTS practice tests is important for both tasks.
The IELTS General Training Writing Test

The IELTS General Training Writing Test lasts for 1 hour and includes 2 tasks. Task 1 is a letter and you must write at least 150 words. You should spend about 20 minutes out of the hour for Task 1. Task 2 is an essay and you must write at least 250 words. You should spend about 40 minutes for Task 2.
The Task for the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing

The IELTS General Training Writing Task 2 asks you to write a short essay of a minimum of 250 words. The essay is usually a discussion of a subject of general interest. You may have to present and justify your opinion about something, give the solution to a problem or compare differing ideas or viewpoints. It is important that you consider finding IELTS practice tests, so that you can practice this part of the IELTS in order to achieve your true potential.
Marking for the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing

Your task will be marked in four areas. You will get a mark from 1 to 9 on Task response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Your final band for Task 2 will be effectively an average of the four marks awarded in these areas. Task 2 writing is more important than Task 1 and to calculate the final writing mark, more weight is assigned to the Task 2 mark than to Task 1's mark. To get a good overall mark though, both tasks have to be well answered so don't hold back on Task 1 or give yourself too little time to answer it properly.

Task Response
This mark grades you on the content of your essay. It marks whether you have fully addressed all parts of task. The examiner wants you in your essay to have a fully developed answer to the question given with relevent and extended ideas and support. The support is the facts that you use to back up your ideas. Support is very important in Task 2. You need to bring in facts from your own experience in order to support your ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion

These two are interrelated which is why they are done together. Cohesion is how your writing fits together. Does your writing with its ideas and content flow logically? Coherence is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying. An example of bad coherence and cohesion would be as follows:

1 We went to the beach because it was raining.

Probably the writer of this sentence does not mean "because" as people don't usually go to the beach when it is raining. The writer should have written:

2 We went to the beach although it was raining.

Sentence 1 has made a cohesion and coherence error (as well as a vocabulary one). "Because" does not join the ideas of the sentence together correctly and, as a result, the reader does not understand what the writer wants to say. This is an exaggerated example but it shows what I mean. Good cohesion and coherence is not noticeable as it allows the writing to be read easily. Good cohesion and coherence also includes good and appropriate paragraph usage.

Lexical Resource

This area looks at the your choice of words. The marker will look at whether the right words are used and whether they are used at the right time in the right place and in the right way. To get a good mark here, the word choice should not only be accurate but wide ranging, natural and sophisticated.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Here the examiner will mark your appropriate, flexible and accurate use of grammatical structures. Many people are worried about their grammar but, as you can see, grammar is only one section of four used to grade your writing. IELTS is much more interested in communication rather than grammatical accuracy. It is, of course, still part of the marking scheme and important as such.
Paragraphing for the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the clarity of your writing. I have said this for Task 1 but for Task 2 it's is even more important. In Task 2 you will be writing more and it is therefore more important to divide your writing up into divisions to make it easier to read.

Very often people use no paragraphing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable.

For Task 2, have a paragraph break after your introduction, and then for every differing section of your separate ideas with the supporting evidence. Then have a final paragraph for your conclusion. You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs plus the introduction and conclusion.

Look at this section on paragraphing. It is divided into 5 separate paragraphs dividing the 5 different areas that I want to present to you, the reader. The 5 areas are:
Paragraph 1 Why paragraphing is important for Task 2.
Paragraph 2 How to divide your paragraphing.
Paragraph 3 Where your paragraph divisions should occur.
Paragraph 4 The division of paragraphs in this section.
Paragraph 5 Explaining the comparison with this section and the one below to show how paragraphing can work.

Below I will repeat paragraphs 1 - 4 of this section on paragraphing but I am going to remove all the paragraphs and line breaks and make it a "sea of writing" as I said can happen above. I hope you feel that this section is easier to understand than the one below!! (By the way, I haven't used line breaks through this entire tutorial as there would be too many and it would be too confusing).
Paragraphing (bad example section)

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the clarity of your writing. I have said this for Task 1 but for Task 2 it's is even more important. In Task 2 you will be writing more and it is therefore more important to divide your writing up into divisions to make it easier to read. Very often people use no paragraphing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable. For Task 2, have a paragraph break after your introduction, and then for every differing section of your separate ideas with the evidence. Then have a final paragraph for your conclusion. You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs plus the introduction and conclusion. Look at this section on paragraphing. It is divided into 4 separate paragraphs dividing the 4 different areas that I want to present to you the reader. The 4 areas are: Paragraph 1: Why paragraphing is important for task 2: Paragraph 2: How to divide your paragraphing. Paragraph 3: Where your paragraph divisions should occur. Paragraph 4: An example to show you how paragraphing works.

I hope you feel that the first section was easier to understand than this second one!!
Ideas to Think About for the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing
1 Timing

The exam paper recommends that you spend about 40 minutes on this question and this is about right. Remember that Task 2 gives more to your final writing band and so you should make sure that you have enough time after Task 1 to properly answer Task 2. Some students do Task 2 first in order to make sure that Task 2 is answered well before they get onto Task 1. There is no problem with this but make sure you write the 150 words to give a good answer for Task 1 as well.

So, whatever you decide to do about your approach to Task 1 and Task 2 in the writing paper, make sure that you spend approximately 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2. This should give you the right amount of time to provide good answers to both tasks.

Practice from IELTS practice tests on writing both tasks in under an hour is an important part of your preparation for the IELTS exam.
2 Answering the question.

Although this sounds very straightforward, people don't often properly answer the question set and therefore don't get the band that they should even if the writing is very good.

First of all read the question very carefully in order to see exactly what it asks you. Very often there will be more than 1 part to the question; sometimes even 3 or 4 parts. When you produce your answer you must answer all the different parts of the question. How much you produce on each part depends on how important you think it is.

You have to write a formal academic English essay of the type that would be required for teachers or tertiary education courses. Formulate and develop an argument and show a personal response. Give your opinions and back them up with evidence and examples. Your answer should persuade, be consistent and develop logically towards a conclusion, which answers all parts of the question.

Another important basic is to write at least 250 words. Writing less does not answer the question, which tells you to write at least 250 words. If you write less than 250 words, the examiner marking your paper will give you a maximum of 5 for Arguments, Ideas and Evidence or even less. It is no problem to write more than the 250 words; there is no upward word limit on the essay. Time is your only constraint. Time is your only constraint. Writing more than the minimum under the time limit requires practice on proper questions from IELTS practice tests.

The question wants you to produce an essay. Therefore don't give a list of numbered notes (your paragraphs should not be numbered). Give the examiner a proper essay with an introduction, a main body with your ideas and evidence and a conclusion, all divided of course with the paragraphing techniques discussed above.
3 Planning

Many students that I have taught have regarded writing an essay plan as a waste of time. The only answer I can give is that it depends on the individual. If you are a good essay writer who can automatically organize your ideas and structure in your head so well that you can produce a good structured essay without planning, then I say that's it's fine not to write an essay plan.

Also if you're really short of time and you need to get writing on page, then you don't want to waste time on planning. However, if none of these conditions apply, then 1 or 2 minutes thinking about your ideas and how you are going to present them will not be wasted. I'm not saying that you should spend 10 minutes on this. Just take a scrap of paper and jot down some ideas that you are going to use in your essay.

Then you can divide the ideas into 3 or 4 paragraphs in a logical order. This shouldn't take you long and the structure that this will give your essay will be well worth the time that you spend doing it.

The above skills do not come easily and it is important that you practice planning with proper IELTS writing questions from IELTS practice tests.
Writing The Essay
1 The Introduction

First of all, don't repeat any part of the question in your introduction. This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count. You can use individual words but be careful of using "chunks" of the question text.

Your introduction should first say what you understand by the question. Then give the main issue or issues that you intend to bring into your answer. Don't go into any detail; you can save that for the later paragraphs.

Finally, the question often asks you to take up a position over an issue. There is no right answer for putting your views at the start and then explaining this through the essay, or developing your opinion though your essay and stating your final stance at the end. I personally like the opinion at the start of the essay. Quickly and clearly answer the question, making your attitude plain. Don't give any reasons. Again, that's what the body of your essay is for. You don't have to do it this way though. You can wait until your conclusion to give your position as regards the question.
2 The Body of Your Essay

You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs in your answer. This is not exact. You can write more or fewer paragraphs, as your answer requires. Remember you've only got about 40 minutes to cover all the question areas so don't be too ambitious and try to write too much.

In the body of your essay you should do several things. You need to examine all parts of the question. Remember there is often more than 1 question contained in the essay question text. You need to look at all that is asked and look at both sides of every issue. IELTS essay questions usually ask you something which has two or more points of view, and you need to consider both sides of every argument no matter what your opinion is.

Look below at the example. The question asks whether or not you believe whether societies should use capital punishment. There are, of course, two points of view:

(1) capital punishment should be used and

(2) capital punishment shouldn't be used.

Let's say for example that you don't believe that capital punishment should be used by societies. No matter what point of view you have, you should look at both sides, though naturally your writing will favour the position that you have taken. Give the reasons why you don't believe in capital punishment but then look at the opposing view and say why you don't accept it. In this way you will show the reader your powers of analysis when looking at such an issue.

Don't forget that when you have finished looking at this issue there is a second part of the question to be analysed too.

As we said earlier, your ideas need to be supported by examples and it is in the body of your essay that they should appear. For every idea that you present try and give an example from your own experience that shows that your idea is right.

An example from your own experience means something that you know from your life, from your country's news or history or anything that you have read anywhere. You can actually invent examples if you need as long as they seem realistic and believable. The examiner is probably not going to research anything you write about.

The example below should illustrate what we have been discussing here.
3 The Conclusion

This doesn't need to be a long paragraph. You need to sum up your points providing a final perspective on your topic. All the conclusion needs is three or four strong sentences, which do not need to follow any set formula. Simply review the main points (being careful not to restate them exactly or repeat all your examples) and briefly describe your feelings about the topic; this provides an answer to all parts of the question. An anecdote can also end your essay in a useful way.
An Example of the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing

It's very difficult to visualize and understand all the things that I have said above. You need to practice with good quality questions from IELTS practice tests. Here I will try and provide you with an example question and then go through the stages of thought to show you how to approach an IELTS General Training Writing Task 2 essay.

Here is a possible question that would be typical for a Task 2 essay question.

"Do you believe that societies ought to enforce capital punishment or Are there alternative forms of punishment that would be better used?"

First of all you need to consider the question. What does it ask? Straight away, you can see that it asks 2 things.

It wants to know if you believe that society should use capital punishment (cp) and it also wants to know if you can offer any alternatives to capital punishment. Your answer should give a balanced view of both parts of this question. What is important to realize is that there is no correct answer here. You can present any point of view as long as you can support it.

So, in your planning stage you should have a roadmap for the introduction, each paragraph and the conclusion. Here is my brief plan for the essay.
Intro
What cp is. Where it's used. (not my country). Differing opinions.
I don't believe in cp.
There are alternative punishments.
Body
Inhumane - we shouldn't sink to the level of criminals.
We can get convictions wrong; prisoners can be released if there's an error. Mentally ill. Examples.
Alternative punishments: life means life; hospitals for criminally insane. Costs more but society has a duty to care.
Many countries favour it and they say it works. Prisons too full. Killers deserve nothing less. Some crimes deserve it. Not my morals though.
Conclusion

I don't agree. We can do other things. Avoid mistakes and make modern society a humane one.

The above is a basic plan of how I want to write my essay. It's not rigid. I can change my ideas and format as I write if I feel I can do better.

I can also add things that I've forgotten as the essay goes on. It's normal of course for you to have new, good ideas as you write and the skill is to get them into your essay without upsetting the balance of the essay. How do you do this? It's practice again. You won't get good at writing essays and adapting your writing well without practice with relevant questions from quality IELTS practice tests.

So, below is an example essay using the plan above as a basis.
Example Essay for the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing

Capital punishment is the killing of a criminal for a crime that he has committed. Previously most countries employed this method of punishment but nowadays it is much less widely used. I personally do not believe that societies today should use capital punishment and I also believe that there are alternative punishments that can be used.

My main argument against capital punishment is that I believe we do not have the right to kill another human being regardless of the crime. I don't believe in the old religious maxim of "an eye for an eye." Modern societies shouldn't turn to such barbaric punishments.

Another argument against capital punishment is that people can be wrongly convicted and executed. If a man is in prison, he can be released if later proved not guilty. If he is dead, there is nothing that can be done. In the UK, a group of supposed terrorists were convicted of murder in Birmingham in the 1970s. They were proved innocent about 15 years later and released. If they had been executed, innocent people would have died.

There are alternative punishments available. For bad crimes prison life sentences can be given with criminals imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Also a lot of horrific crimes are committed by people who are mentally sick. These people are not responsible for their actions and can be kept safely and permanently in secure hospitals. Yes, this costs a lot more but I believe it is the duty of society to do this.

There are arguments for capital punishment. Many people feel its threat stops serious crime and that criminals deserve nothing less. It's cheaper and keeps the prisons manageable. I can understand this point of view but I cannot agree with it.

So, in conclusion, I don't believe in capital punishment, as there are less barbaric alternatives available. We can avoid horrific mistakes and make modern society a humane one.
Final Comment for the IELTS General Training Task 2 Writing

I hope that this essay shows how to approach the Task 2 question and illustrates the ideas that I have written above.
Finally I will leave you with the message that I always do. To really improve your skills at writing essays, you need to practice. Get some essay titles from good quality IELTS practice tests, sit down when you get the chance, give yourself 40 minutes and write some essays. Try and do it as I have directed with a couple of minutes for planning, as this will train you to make a better-constructed essay in the long run.

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FREE IELTS LESSON - THE GENERAL TRAINING WRITING TEST - TASK 1

The IELTS General Training Writing Test Task 1 is, I feel, the part of GT test that people can prepare most for. Because the scope of the task is fairly limited, you can practise extremely similar tasks, which will greatly prepare you for the exam.

Practice is the magic word though. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam and it could mean all the difference between pass and fail. There is limited practice available and it's quite expensive. That's why we would recommend you download our IELTS practice tests. You will get more practice for less money. Go to the Home Page to find more information about our IELTS practice tests. The IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing Test

The IELTS General Training Writing Test lasts for 1 hour and includes 2 tasks. Task 1 is a letter and you must write at least 150 words. You should spend about 20 minutes out of the hour for task 1. Task 2 is an essay and you must write at least 250 words. You should spend about 40 minutes for Task 2. The Task for the IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing

The IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 asks you to write a letter of a minimum of 150 words in response to some situation or problem. The task will probably ask you to complain about something, to request information, ask for help, to make arrangements and/or explain a situation. All these are fairly similar tasks.
Marking for the IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing

The IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing will be marked in four areas. You will get a mark from 1 to 9 on Task Achievement, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Your final band for task 1 will be effectively an average of the four marks awarded in these areas. Task 1 writing is less important than task 2 and to calculate the final writing mark, more weight is assigned to the task 2 mark than to task 1's mark. To get a good overall mark for The IELTS General Training Writing though, both tasks have to be well answered so don't hold back on task 1 or give yourself too little time to answer it properly. The marking system below can also be used for marking IELTS practice tests and it is used to grade the example writing in our IELTS practice tests.

Task Achievement This where you can really make a difference through careful preparation. This mark grades you on basically "have you answered the question". It marks whether you have covered all requirements of the task suffiently and whether you presented, highlighted and illustrate the key points appropriately.

Coherence and Cohesion These two are interrelated which is why they are done together. Cohesion is how your writing fits together. Does your writing with its ideas and content flow logically? Coherence is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying. An example of bad coherence and cohesion would be as follows:

1 We went to the beach because it was raining.

Probably the writer of this sentence does not mean "because" as people don't usually go to the beach when it is raining. The writer should have written:

2 We went to the beach although it was raining.

Sentence 1 has made a cohesion and coherence error (as well as a vocabulary one). "Because" does not join the ideas of the sentence together correctly and, as a result, the reader does not understand what the writer wants to say. This is an exaggerated example but it shows what I mean. Good cohesion and coherence is not noticeable as it allows the writing to be read easily. Good cohesion and coherence also includes good and appropriate paragraph usage.

Lexical Resource This area looks at the your choice of words. The marker will look at whether the right words are used and whether they are used at the right time in the right place and in the right way. To get a good mark here, the word choice should not only be accurate but wide ranging, natural and sophisticated.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy Here the examiner will mark your appropriate, flexible and accurate use of grammatical structures. Many people are worried about their grammar but, as you can see, grammar is only one section of four used to grade your writing. IELTS is much more interested in communication rather than grammatical accuracy. It is, of course, still part of the marking scheme and important as such.
Paragraphing for the IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the intelligibility of your writing and, of course, good use of paragraphing is part of the marking under the section Coherence and Cohesion. Very often people use no paragraphing in The IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable. Paragraphing is an important skill and something you can practise when doing IELTS practice tests.

For a longer section on paragraphing and how useful it can be, see GT Writing Task 2 Tutorial.

Areas to Prepare

As I said earlier, Task 1 is the best for preparation. Below are some areas for you to consider:
1 Answering the question.

As I said above, task achievement (answering the question) is one quarter of your total mark and it is an area in which everyone should do well. This is often, however, not the case.
What you must do is to write a letter, which would fully answer the needs of the problem in a real life situation. Even if you have covered all that the question itself asks, have you included everything in the letter needed to realistically perform its function. For example, a question I have seen somewhere gives the candidate the following task:

You have some library books that you are unable to return as a member of your family in another city has fallen sick and you have had to go and look after them.

Write a letter to the library explaining the situation. Apologize for the inconvenience called and say what you are going to do.

You should write at least 150 words.

This seems a fairly typical IELTS General Training Task 1 writing question. Answering the question in a way that will get you a good Task Fulfilment grade needs a number of things for you to do.
1) Write at least 150 words.

Writing less does not answer the question, which tells you to write at least 150 words. If you write less than 150 words, the examiner marking your paper will give you a maximum of 5 for Task Achievement or even less. Making sure that you write enough is one of the vital things you can do when using IELTS practice tests.
2) Fully do all the things that the question asks you.

In this case it asks you to do 3 main things:
explain the situation
apologize for the inconvenience
say what you are going to do

The important part is to fully do these things. Don't take 1 line to explain about your relative - people who do this often don't make the 150 word limit. Enlarge on what the question tells you. Use your imagination. It must be something fairly serious to make you leave town and you must be the only one possible to look after the relative so go into these things. Be realistic as well.

You're writing to a library and you won't make it too personal. Apologizing won't take up much space but you can still devote a couple of sentences to it. Saying what you are going to do should be a full explanation as well.
3) Make your letter realistic so it would function in a real life situation.

This involves adding other things to the letter, which it may not ask you for, but without which your letter would not perform its function. For this question, it would mean introducing yourself by name, giving your library card membership number, telling the library the titles of the books that you have borrowed, the names of their authors, their library reference numbers, when you borrowed them and when they were due back.

Finally, in this question, the situation might involve you getting a fine for the late books so you could ask politely for that to be cancelled due to the circumstances. Without this information, the letter wouldn't help the library much in real life and, even though the question doesn't ask you specifically to include it, the examiner reading your work will be looking for such things. These are things that are needed to get a 9 for task fulfilment and, theoretically, anyone, whatever their level of English, should be able to get a good mark here.
2 The Opening Greeting of the Letter

Your letter will probably need to be a reasonably informal letter to a friend or a semi-formal letter. The opening of your letter should reflect which one you are writing.
A friendly letter will open with Dear followed by a name which should then be followed by a comma, eg:

Dear John,

A semi-formal letter will also open with Dear and then be followed by a name, (if you decide that in the situation you would know the name) or by Sir (if it's a man), Madam (if it's a woman) or Sir/Madam if you don't know, eg:
Dear Mr. Phillips,
Dear Mrs. Phillips,
Dear Sir,
Dear Madam,
Dear Sir/Madam,

The question also might specify how you are to begin so follow what it says.
3 The Opening Paragraph of the Letter

In a semi-formal letter, I feel it is important to state the reason for the letter straight away. You could use the following to help you:

I am writing to ask/ tell//inform you that...
I am writing to ask/inquire...
I am writing with regard to...
I am writing with reference to...
I am writing in connection with...
I am writing in response to...
In reply to your letter, I am writing to... (if the question indicates that you
have had a letter)

If the letter is a less formal one to a friend then you should open the letter in a friendlier way. EG:

Dear John,
Hi there! It's been so long since I've heard from you. I hope you are doing well and I hope all you family are doing fine. I'm pretty good in spite of working hard. Anyway, the reason I'm writing is...
4 The Substance of the Letter

I've already gone into detail about answering the question fully and using your imagination to produce a realistic letter fulfilling all functions so I won't repeat that. Through great experience with IELTS, I can say that questions tend to ask you to do certain things. Here I will give you some ideas about some language to use in the substance of the letter which will help you to answer the task well.

Asking for Help
I would like you to...
I would be grateful if you could...
I need to ask your advice about...
I'd like to ask for information about...
What I'm looking for is...
Complaining
I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction/annoyance/ about...
I'm writing to express my anger at...
I am not happy about...
... is not what I expected/was expecting.
I want to know what you are going to do about this situation.

NB When complaining, don't get too angry. I've had students who really became too heated in their complaints. In a polite semi-formal letter, this should not happen. Also, do not over-exaggerate. If it's a reasonably small and understandable problem, do say that you're not satisfied but show that you understand and stay calm in your expressions.

Thanking
I'm very grateful for...
I'd like to thank you very much for...
I very much appreciated...
Apologizing
I'm very sorry that/about...
Please forgive me for...
I'd like to apologize about...
Please accept my apologies

Of course it is hard to remember all these things. By using IELTS practice tests, you can use these words and phrases under controlled conditions and later you will be able to use them better in the pressure situation of the real test.
5 Ending your Letter

First of all, in English we often end letters before the sign off with certain phrases. These can be included in most letters and will make your letter seem realistic and polished. For a formal letter, you could use:

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanking you in advance for your help, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

For a more informal letter you could use:

If you need to know anything else, just get in touch with me as soon as you can. Thanks a lot for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.

Be careful though! IELTS examiners quite rightly look for writing that has been memorised and just repeated so, if you use expressions like the ones above, make sure that they fit in with the rest of your letter.
Finally you'll need to sign off your letter. For a formal letter use:

Yours faithfully, OR
Yours sincerely,

Remember the commas (it makes a good impression on the examiner if you use good punctuation) and spell "sincerely" correctly (a lot of people don't!).
For an informal letter, love is not always appropriate though English speakers use it a lot. Better would be to use:

Regards,
Yours,
Best wishes,
Other Hints for the IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing

DON'T copy any part of the question in your answer. This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count. You can use individual words but be careful of using "chunks" of the question text.

Don't repeat yourself or the same ideas. This gives a bad impression and the examiner realises that it isn't adding to the content of your letter.

If you are weak at English grammar, try to use short sentences. This allows you to control the grammar and the meaning of your writing much more easily and contributes to a better coherence and cohesion mark. It's much easier to make things clear in a foreign language if you keep your sentences short!

Think about the tenses of your verbs. If you're writing about something that happened in the past, your verbs will need to be in the past tenses. If you're arranging something in the future, you will need to use the future tenses. If it's a habitual action, you'll need the present simple tense and so on. If you have time, a quick check of your verbs at the end of the exam can help you find errors.

As I just said, if you have finished the exam with time to spare, DON'T just sit there!! Check what you have done. If you have time after the check, check again. And so on....

Don't be irrelevant. Although you can use your imagination to expand on your answer, if any part of your letter is totally unrelated to the question and put in to just put up the word count, then the examiner will not take it into account and deduct it from the word count.

If you want to improve, there's no secret. Practice. Practice. Practice. You won't get better sitting and doing nothing. Even good English users need practice for the IELTS exam. It could make all the difference between your getting the band that you need, and getting half a band less than you need and having to do the exam again.

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FREE IELTS LESSON - THE ACADEMIC WRITING TEST - TASK 2

Task 2 in the IELTS Academic Writing Test is more important than task 1. You have to write more, it's a more difficult task and it is worth more to your final band for writing as more weight is given to Task 2 than to Task 1. Practice on IELTS practice tests is important for both tasks.
The IELTS Academic Writing Test

The IELTS Academic Writing Test lasts for 1 hour and includes 2 tasks. Task 1 is a letter and you must write at least 150 words. You should spend about 20 minutes out of the hour for Task 1. Task 2 is an essay and you must write at least 250 words. You should spend about 40 minutes for Task 2.
The Task for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

The IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 asks you to write a short essay of a minimum of 250 words. The essay is usually a discussion of a subject of general interest. You may have to present and justify your opinion about something, give the solution to a problem or compare differing ideas or viewpoints. It is important that you consider finding IELTS practice tests, so that you can practice this part of the IELTS in order to achieve your true potential.
Marking for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

Your task will be marked in four areas. You will get a mark from 1 to 9 on Task response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Your final band for Task 2 will be effectively an average of the four marks awarded in these areas. Task 2 writing is more important than Task 1 and to calculate the final writing mark, more weight is assigned to the Task 2 mark than to Task 1's mark. To get a good overall mark though, both tasks have to be well answered so don't hold back on Task 1 or give yourself too little time to answer it properly.

Task Response
This mark grades you on the content of your essay. It marks whether you have fully addressed all parts of task. The examiner wants you in your essay to have a fully developed answer to the question given with relevent and extended ideas and support. The support is the facts that you use to back up your ideas. Support is very important in Task 2. You need to bring in facts from your own experience in order to support your ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion

These two are interrelated which is why they are done together. Cohesion is how your writing fits together. Does your writing with its ideas and content flow logically? Coherence is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying. An example of bad coherence and cohesion would be as follows:

1 We went to the beach because it was raining.

Probably the writer of this sentence does not mean "because" as people don't usually go to the beach when it is raining. The writer should have written:

2 We went to the beach although it was raining.

Sentence 1 has made a cohesion and coherence error (as well as a vocabulary one). "Because" does not join the ideas of the sentence together correctly and, as a result, the reader does not understand what the writer wants to say. This is an exaggerated example but it shows what I mean. Good cohesion and coherence is not noticeable as it allows the writing to be read easily. Good cohesion and coherence also includes good and appropriate paragraph usage.

Lexical Resource

This area looks at the your choice of words. The marker will look at whether the right words are used and whether they are used at the right time in the right place and in the right way. To get a good mark here, the word choice should not only be accurate but wide ranging, natural and sophisticated.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Here the examiner will mark your appropriate, flexible and accurate use of grammatical structures. Many people are worried about their grammar but, as you can see, grammar is only one section of four used to grade your writing. IELTS is much more interested in communication rather than grammatical accuracy. It is, of course, still part of the marking scheme and important as such.
Paragraphing for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the clarity of your writing and it directly affects your mark in the section on Coherence and Cohesion. I have said this for Task 1 but for Task 2 it's is even more important. In Task 2 you will be writing more and it is therefore more important to divide your writing up into divisions to make it easier to read.

Very often people use no paragraphing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable.

For Task 2, have a paragraph break after your introduction, and then for every differing section of your separate ideas with the supporting evidence. Then have a final paragraph for your conclusion. You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs plus the introduction and conclusion.

Look at this section on paragraphing. It is divided into 5 separate paragraphs dividing the 5 different areas that I want to present to you, the reader. The 5 areas are:
Paragraph 1 Why paragraphing is important for Task 2.
Paragraph 2 How to divide your paragraphing.
Paragraph 3 Where your paragraph divisions should occur.
Paragraph 4 The division of paragraphs in this section.
Paragraph 5 Explaining the comparison with this section and the one below to show how paragraphing can work.

Below I will repeat paragraphs 1 - 4 of this section on paragraphing but I am going to remove all the paragraphs and line breaks and make it a "sea of writing" as I said can happen above. I hope you feel that this section is easier to understand than the one below!! (By the way, I haven't used line breaks through this entire tutorial as there would be too many and it would be too confusing).
Paragraphing (bad example section)

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the clarity of your writing. I have said this for Task 1 but for Task 2 it's is even more important. In Task 2 you will be writing more and it is therefore more important to divide your writing up into divisions to make it easier to read. Very often people use no paragraphing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable. For Task 2, have a paragraph break after your introduction, and then for every differing section of your separate ideas with the evidence. Then have a final paragraph for your conclusion. You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs plus the introduction and conclusion. Look at this section on paragraphing. It is divided into 4 separate paragraphs dividing the 4 different areas that I want to present to you the reader. The 4 areas are: Paragraph 1: Why paragraphing is important for task 2: Paragraph 2: How to divide your paragraphing. Paragraph 3: Where your paragraph divisions should occur. Paragraph 4: An example to show you how paragraphing works.

I hope you feel that the first section was easier to understand than this second one!!
Ideas to Think About for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing
1 Timing

The exam paper recommends that you spend about 40 minutes on this question and this is about right. Remember that Task 2 gives more to your final writing band and so you should make sure that you have enough time after Task 1 to properly answer Task 2. Some students do Task 2 first in order to make sure that Task 2 is answered well before they get onto Task 1. There is no problem with this but make sure you write the 150 words to give a good answer for Task 1 as well.

So, whatever you decide to do about your approach to Task 1 and Task 2 in the writing paper, make sure that you spend approximately 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2. This should give you the right amount of time to provide good answers to both tasks.

Practice from IELTS practice tests on writing both tasks in under an hour is an important part of your preparation for the IELTS exam.
2 Answering the question.

Although this sounds very straightforward, people don't often properly answer the question set and therefore don't get the band that they should even if the writing is very good.

First of all read the question very carefully in order to see exactly what it asks you. Very often there will be more than 1 part to the question; sometimes even 3 or 4 parts. When you produce your answer you must answer all the different parts of the question. How much you produce on each part depends on how important you think it is.

You have to write a formal academic English essay of the type that would be required for teachers or tertiary education courses. Formulate and develop an argument and show a personal response. Give your opinions and back them up with evidence and examples. Your answer should persuade, be consistent and develop logically towards a conclusion, which answers all parts of the question.

Another important basic is to write at least 250 words. Writing less does not answer the question, which tells you to write at least 250 words. If you write less than 250 words, the examiner marking your paper will give you a maximum of 5 for Arguments, Ideas and Evidence or even less. It is no problem to write more than the 250 words; there is no upward word limit on the essay. Time is your only constraint. Writing more than the minimum under the time limit requires practice on proper questions from IELTS practice tests.

The question wants you to produce an essay. Therefore don't give a list of numbered notes (your paragraphs should not be numbered). Give the examiner a proper essay with an introduction, a main body with your ideas and evidence and a conclusion, all divided of course with the paragraphing techniques discussed above.
3 Planning

Many students that I have taught have regarded writing an essay plan as a waste of time. The only answer I can give is that it depends on the individual. If you are a good essay writer who can automatically organize your ideas and structure in your head so well that you can produce a good structured essay without planning, then I say that's it's fine not to write an essay plan.

Also if you're really short of time and you need to get writing on page, then you don't want to waste time on planning. However, if none of these conditions apply, then 1 or 2 minutes thinking about your ideas and how you are going to present them will not be wasted. I'm not saying that you should spend 10 minutes on this. Just take a scrap of paper and jot down some ideas that you are going to use in your essay.

Then you can divide the ideas into 3 or 4 paragraphs in a logical order. This shouldn't take you long and the structure that this will give your essay will be well worth the time that you spend doing it.

The above skills do not come easily and it is important that you practice planning with proper IELTS writing questions from IELTS practice tests.
Writing The Essay in the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing
1 The Introduction

First of all, don't repeat any part of the question in your introduction. This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count. You can use individual words but be careful of using "chunks" of the question text.

Your introduction should first say what you understand by the question. Then give the main issue or issues that you intend to bring into your answer. Don't go into any detail; you can save that for the later paragraphs.

Finally, the question often asks you to take up a position over an issue. There is no right answer for putting your views at the start and then explaining this through the essay, or developing your opinion though your essay and stating your final stance at the end. I personally like the opinion at the start of the essay. Quickly and clearly answer the question, making your attitude plain. Don't give any reasons. Again, that's what the body of your essay is for. You don't have to do it this way though. You can wait until your conclusion to give your position as regards the question.
2 The Body of Your Essay

You should aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs in your answer. This is not exact. You can write more or fewer paragraphs, as your answer requires. Remember you've only got about 40 minutes to cover all the question areas so don't be too ambitious and try to write too much.

In the body of your essay you should do several things. You need to examine all parts of the question. Remember there is often more than 1 question contained in the essay question text. You need to look at all that is asked and look at both sides of every issue. IELTS essay questions usually ask you something which has two or more points of view, and you need to consider both sides of every argument no matter what your opinion is.

Look below at the example. The question asks whether or not you believe whether societies should use capital punishment. There are, of course, two points of view:

(1) capital punishment should be used and

(2) capital punishment shouldn't be used.

Let's say for example that you don't believe that capital punishment should be used by societies. No matter what point of view you have, you should look at both sides, though naturally your writing will favour the position that you have taken. Give the reasons why you don't believe in capital punishment but then look at the opposing view and say why you don't accept it. In this way you will show the reader your powers of analysis when looking at such an issue.

Don't forget that when you have finished looking at this issue there is a second part of the question to be analysed too.

As we said earlier, your ideas need to be supported by examples and it is in the body of your essay that they should appear. For every idea that you present try and give an example from your own experience that shows that your idea is right.

An example from your own experience means something that you know from your life, from your country's news or history or anything that you have read anywhere. You can actually invent examples if you need as long as they seem realistic and believable. The examiner is probably not going to research anything you write about.

The example below should illustrate what we have been discussing here.
3 The Conclusion

This doesn't need to be a long paragraph. You need to sum up your points providing a final perspective on your topic. All the conclusion needs is three or four strong sentences, which do not need to follow any set formula. Simply review the main points (being careful not to restate them exactly or repeat all your examples) and briefly describe your feelings about the topic; this provides an answer to all parts of the question. An anecdote can also end your essay in a useful way.
An Example of the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

It's very difficult to visualize and understand all the things that I have said above. You need to practice with good quality questions from IELTS practice tests. Here I will try and provide you with an example question and then go through the stages of thought to show you how to approach an IELTS Task 2 essay.

Here is a possible question that would be typical for a Task 2 essay question.

"Do you believe that societies ought to enforce capital punishment or Are there alternative forms of punishment that would be better used?"

First of all you need to consider the question. What does it ask? Straight away, you can see that it asks 2 things.

It wants to know if you believe that society should use capital punishment (cp) and it also wants to know if you can offer any alternatives to capital punishment. Your answer should give a balanced view of both parts of this question. What is important to realize is that there is no correct answer here. You can present any point of view as long as you can support it.

So, in your planning stage you should have a roadmap for the introduction, each paragraph and the conclusion. Here is my brief plan for the essay.
Intro
What cp is. Where it's used. (not my country). Differing opinions.
I don't believe in cp.
There are alternative punishments.
Body
Inhumane - we shouldn't sink to the level of criminals.
We can get convictions wrong; prisoners can be released if there's an error. Mentally ill. Examples.
Alternative punishments: life means life; hospitals for criminally insane. Costs more but society has a duty to care.
Many countries favour it and they say it works. Prisons too full. Killers deserve nothing less. Some crimes deserve it. Not my morals though.
Conclusion

I don't agree. We can do other things. Avoid mistakes and make modern society a humane one.

The above is a basic plan of how I want to write my essay. It's not rigid. I can change my ideas and format as I write if I feel I can do better.

I can also add things that I've forgotten as the essay goes on. It's normal of course for you to have new, good ideas as you write and the skill is to get them into your essay without upsetting the balance of the essay. How do you do this? It's practice again. You won't get good at writing essays and adapting your writing well without practice with relevant questions from quality IELTS practice tests.

So, below is an example essay using the plan above as a basis.
Example Essay for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

Capital punishment is the killing of a criminal for a crime that he has committed. Previously most countries employed this method of punishment but nowadays it is much less widely used. I personally do not believe that societies today should use capital punishment and I also believe that there are alternative punishments that can be used.

My main argument against capital punishment is that I believe we do not have the right to kill another human being regardless of the crime. I don't believe in the old religious maxim of "an eye for an eye." Modern societies shouldn't turn to such barbaric punishments.

Another argument against capital punishment is that people can be wrongly convicted and executed. If a man is in prison, he can be released if later proved not guilty. If he is dead, there is nothing that can be done. In the UK, a group of supposed terrorists were convicted of murder in Birmingham in the 1970s. They were proved innocent about 15 years later and released. If they had been executed, innocent people would have died.

There are alternative punishments available. For bad crimes prison life sentences can be given with criminals imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Also a lot of horrific crimes are committed by people who are mentally sick. These people are not responsible for their actions and can be kept safely and permanently in secure hospitals. Yes, this costs a lot more but I believe it is the duty of society to do this.

There are arguments for capital punishment. Many people feel its threat stops serious crime and that criminals deserve nothing less. It's cheaper and keeps the prisons manageable. I can understand this point of view but I cannot agree with it.

So, in conclusion, I don't believe in capital punishment, as there are less barbaric alternatives available. We can avoid horrific mistakes and make modern society a humane one.
Final Comment for the IELTS Academic Task 2 Writing

I hope that this essay shows how to approach the Task 2 question and illustrates the ideas that I have written above.
Finally I will leave you with the message that I always do. To really improve your skills at writing essays, you need to practice. Get some essay titles from good quality IELTS practice tests, sit down when you get the chance, give yourself 40 minutes and write some essays. Try and do it as I have directed with a couple of minutes for planning, as this will train you to make a better-constructed essay in the long run.

You can get essay titles probably from surfing the internet or you can use the IELTS practice tests at ieltshelpnow.com which are available to download on this site at a fraction of the cost of books in the shops. In addition to example questions in our IELTS practice tests, we provide you with example essays on all our questions, for both Tasks 1 and 2. Good luck with the IELTS Academic Writing Test! Below are links to the other free IELTS Academic tutorials. We strongly recommend that you practice for the tests with good IELTS practice tests. Of course, we would like you to use ours as we believe ours are excellent and the cheapest on the market, but any good IELTS practice tests will do.

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FREE IELTS LESSON - THE ACADEMIC WRITING TEST - TASK 1

The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing is not an easy part of the exam. Describing a graph well in 20 minutes is not something most people can do straight away whether they are English speakers or not. The fact that it is in a foreign language for you as well doesn't help. Practice is the magic word though. Even good English users need practice with IELTS practice tests and it could mean all the difference between pass and fail. There is limited practice available and it's quite expensive. That's why we would recommend you download our IELTS practice tests. You will get more practice for less money. Go to the Home Page to find more information about our IELTS practice tests.
The Task

Basically the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing is an information transfer task related to the factual content of an input text(s), graph(s), table(s) or diagram(s). It can be combinations of these inputs. Usually you will have to describe the information given in 1, 2 or 3 three inputs but sometimes you have will have to describe a process shown in a diagram.
Marking for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing will be marked in four areas. You will get a mark from 1 to 9 on Task Achievement, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Your final band for task 1 will be effectively an average of the four marks awarded in these areas. Task 1 writing is less important than task 2 and to calculate the final writing mark, more weight is assigned to the task 2 mark than to task 1's mark. To get a good overall mark for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing though, both tasks have to be well answered so don't hold back on task 1 or give yourself too little time to answer it properly.

Task Achievement This where you can really make a difference through careful preparation. This mark grades you on basically "have you answered the question". It marks whether you have covered all requirements of the task suffiently and whether you presented, highlighted and illustrate the key points appropriately.

Coherence and Cohesion These two are interrelated which is why they are done together. Cohesion is how your writing fits together. Does your writing with its ideas and content flow logically? Coherence is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying. An example of bad coherence and cohesion would be as follows:

1 We went to the beach because it was raining.

Probably the writer of this sentence does not mean "because" as people don't usually go to the beach when it is raining. The writer should have written:

2 We went to the beach although it was raining.

Sentence 1 has made a cohesion and coherence error (as well as a vocabulary one). "Because" does not join the ideas of the sentence together correctly and, as a result, the reader does not understand what the writer wants to say. This is an exaggerated example but it shows what I mean. Good cohesion and coherence is not noticeable as it allows the writing to be read easily. Good cohesion and coherence also includes good and appropriate paragraph usage.

Lexical Resource This area looks at the your choice of words. The marker will look at whether the right words are used and whether they are used at the right time in the right place and in the right way. To get a good mark here, the word choice should not only be accurate but wide ranging, natural and sophisticated.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy Here the examiner will mark your appropriate, flexible and accurate use of grammatical structures. Many people are worried about their grammar but, as you can see, grammar is only one section of four used to grade your writing. IELTS is much more interested in communication rather than grammatical accuracy. It is, of course, still part of the marking scheme and important as such.
Paragraphing for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

This is a very easy thing to do but it can have an enormous effect on the intelligibility of your writing and, of course, good use of paragraphing is part of the marking under the section Coherence and Cohesion. Very often people use no paragraphing in The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing and the examiner is faced with a "sea" of writing with no breaks from start to finish. For me, the best writings are those where there are paragraphs separated by an empty line and also indented. In this way your ideas are separated clearly. It shows and gives organization to your writing and makes it more readable. For the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing, you should have a paragraph for your small introduction, a paragraph for each graph that you are describing and a paragraph for your ending. If there's only one graph to be described, then you should split your writing into 2 or maybe 3 paragraphs for the one graph. Make sure you practise on relevant questions from IELTS practice tests, so that you experienced at dealing with this issue.

For a longer section on paragraphing and how useful it can be, see Academic Writing Task 2 Tutorial.
Scales for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

What I mean by the scale is whether the graphs are marked in hundreds, thousands, millions, pounds, dollars (US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, etc.), kilograms, tons, metres, kilometres, percent and so on. It's important for you to make clear what your numbers mean for an accurate report of the graph. Don't just say that something costs 1000 for instance. Say it costs 1000 US dollars. You can either specify the scales at the start in your introduction so the reader knows it for the whole report or you can use the scale each time you quote a detail in the report.
Writing the Task for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

The Introduction

You don't need much here. You only have 150 words to fully answer the question and this is not much. So, you need 1 or 2 sentences describing the following:
The type(s) of graph you are describing
The titles of the graph(s)
The date of the graph(s)
The scale (see the paragraph above)

You might not have all this information but you should report what you do have. So, for example, your beginning could look like this:

In this report I am going to describe 2 graphs. The first one is a bar chart showing the relationship between age and crime and the second is a pie chart showing the types of reported crime in the UK in 2002.

(This example gives an introduction to the Academic Writing Task 1 in Test 3 from ieltshelpnow.com.)
Describing Graphs for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

What you need to do here is factually describe the graphs. You don't need to analyse the data, For example you don't need to give reasons for why figures are high or low. Sometimes, when there is more than 1 graph, there is a relationship between the two and you can bring in some comparison but more than this is not necessary. In the same way, no specialised knowledge of your own is needed or wanted nor your opinions.

Remember the function of many graphs is to describe a trend so be sure that you describe the trends. A trend is how values change generally over time and it is important to describe the changes along with some of the individual values. We will look at trends a bit later under line graphs.

One important issue with The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing is how much detail to include in your report. This depends really on how much detail there is in the question. If there is only 1 graph and it doesn't have much numerical data in it, then you will be expected to include all or nearly all of the numerical detail. If, however, you have 2 graphs, both of which are very complicated with lots of values, you will not be expected to include everything as you only have 150 words to do the job. What you will have to do is to include a selection of what you feel is the most important and significant detail that needs to be included to accurately describe the graph. With practice from good IELTS practice tests, you will improve at including all the necessary detail with the right amount of words.

You must always have some numerical detail though.

Now let's look individually at the types of graph that you are likely to meet in the exam and how to describe them.
Bar Charts for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

Hopefully you will have described the title of the bar chart in your introduction so you can go straight into the description. Basically, with a bar chart, you need to describe the bars and their values. When describing a bar chart you first have to decide in what order to describe the bars, highest value to lowest value or lowest value to highest value. It may be a mixture of this. If there are very many bars, you can sometimes group together for description 1 or 2 or 3 bars which have similar or the same values. If there are very many and you can't group them, then just describe the ones that are the most significant.
Pie Charts for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

Pie charts are relatively straightforward as they only usually have a few sections though this is not always the case. You need to describe the segments and their values. If there are very many then just describe the ones that are the most significant. The values are often expressed in percentages but not always so be careful what scale you are using.
Tables for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

These can sometimes be tricky as they provide a lot of information and it is often awkward and difficult to describe every piece of information. You have to decide and describe the values and sections that are the most significant.
Line Graphs for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

The function of a line graph is to describe a TREND pictorially. You therefore should try and describe the trend in it. If there are many lines in the graph(s), then just generally describe the trend. If there is only one or two, then use more detail. So, describe the movement of the line(s) of the graph giving numerical detail at the important points of the line.

To describe the movement, there is some language which will always be useful. Below is a list of language you can use. Check with your dictionary words that you don't understand and practice using the words/phrases so you use them in the right way. As you will see, there are a number of words which are similar in meaning. This means that you will be able to use a variety of vocabulary which gives a good impression to the examiner who will read and mark your writing. The words below are particularly useful for line graphs but they can also be used where appropriate to describe the other types of graph.
Expressing the Movement of a LineVerbs Nouns

Rise (to) a rise
Increase (to) an increase
Go up to
Grow (to) growth
Climb (to) a climb
Boom a boom
Peak (at) (reach) a peak (at)

Fall (to) a fall (of)
Decline (to) a decline (of)
Decrease (to) a decrease (of)
Dip (to) a dip (of)
Drop (to) a drop (of)
Go down (to)
Reduce (to) a reduction (of)
A slump

Level out a leveling out
No change no change
Remain stable (at)
Remain steady (at)
Stay (at)
Stay constant (at)
Maintain the same level

Adjectives Adverbs

Dramatic dramatically
Sharp sharply
Huge hugely
Enormous enormously
Steep steeply
Substantial substantially
Considerable considerably
Significant significantly
Marked markedly
Moderate moderately
Slight slightly
Small
Minimal minimally

Describing the Speed of a Change

Adjectives Adverbs

Rapid rapidly
Quick quickly
Swift swiftly
Sudden suddenly
Steady steadily
Gradual gradually
Slow slowly

The Ending for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

You do not need a long and analytical conclusion for The IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing, but I do feel that you need to write something to end the report for reasons of structure. All you need to do is to write:

This ends my report.

This is all you need to end your Task 1; I think it's important to do this as it rounds off the report for the reader.
Describing a Process for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing

We have looked at the various types of graph that you might be asked to describe but you also might have to describe a diagram representing a process. First of all, the introduction and the ending should be more or less the same.

Then, work out the various stages of the process. Take each one separately (it's only probably going to have a limited number of stages) and describe them fully. Fully is the important word as reaching the word limit has proved harder in this task. If you have this problem, don't be afraid to use your imagination to add to detail about the process. Other Hints for the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing DON'T copy any part of the question in your answer. This is not your own work and therefore will be disregarded by the examiner and deducted from the word count. You can use individual words but be careful of using long "chunks" of the question text. Don't repeat yourself or the same ideas. This gives a bad impression and the examiner realises that it isn't adding to the content of your report. If you are weak at English grammar, try to use short sentences. This allows you to control the grammar and the meaning of your writing much more easily and contributes to a better cohesion and coherence mark. It's much easier to make things clear in a foreign language if you keep your sentences short! Think about the tenses of your verbs. If you're writing about something that happened in the past, your verbs will need to be in the past tenses. If you're describing the future, you will need to use the future tenses. If it's a habitual action, you'll need the present simple tense and so on. If you have time, a quick check of your verbs at the end of the exam can help you find errors. For describing graphs you will probably need past tenses whereas, for describing a process, you will probably need the present simple. Think about the verbs while practising and then it will become easier when you do the exam. As I just said, if you have finished the exam with time to spare, DON'T just sit there!! Check what you have done. If you have time after the check, check again. And so on....
Don't be irrelevant. Although you can use your imagination to expand on your answer, if any part of your report is totally unrelated to the question and put in to just put up the word count, then the examiner will not take it into account and deduct it from the word count. If you want to improve, there's no secret. Practice. Practice. Practice. You won't get better sitting and doing nothing. Even good English users need practice with IELTS practice tests. It could make all the difference between your getting the band that you need, and getting half a band less than you need and having to do the exam again.

Finally, there are no correct answers or methods. Here I've given you some ideas to guide you and hopefully to help you but the questions can be answered well in different ways. Good luck with the IELTS Academic Task 1 Writing. I hope that this free tutorial has helped you! Below are links to the other free IELTS academic tutorials. We strongly recommend that you practice for the tests with good IELTS practice tests. Of course, we would like you to use ours as we believe ours are excellent and the cheapest on the market, but any good IELTS practice tests will do.

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IELTS Writing

There are two writing tasks and you can use an hour to write both. The first is an analysis of a chart, a graph, a table or something similar. The second is a composition about an argument of general interest. It is suggested that you spend 20 minutes on the first task and 40 on the second. I always used more than 20 minutes for the first and about 30 for the second, but you have to decide on your own strategy on the basis of your abilities. Use your time in an intelligent way: remember you have to compose two different tasks and you can't devote too much time to the first (or the second). You can decide to start with the analysis or with the composition. It's up to you. However, remember to read both titles before you start writing. In this way your subconscious will start thinking about the second task while you are writing the first.

Now let me give you some suggestions about the tasks. First of all you have to write at least 150 words. This doesn't mean you have to count the words. The best thing to do is the following: when you write as practice before taking the real test, count the words. In other words, you have to know how long a text you write is. Don't write less than 150 words. However, a composition of 200 words will be perfect; a composition of 300 will be too long and boring for the examiner. In this task you have to present the data shown in a graph (or somewhere else) in a formal way. Try to understand the main points and write about them. In addition, try to explain the reasons of the trend shown: for example if the graph shows that in the last decades the use of cars has increased and the use of bycicles has decreased, you should say something about the possible reasons of this phenomenon. A possible organisation of the work could be the following: devote a paragraph to the introduction (say what you are going to write about); write a second paragraph describing the graph; use a third paragraph to explain the trends. Of course, this is just an example. The point is: you have to organize your work before writing. When you start writing you already have to know what you are going to write.

The suggestions about the number of the words and the organization are valid for the second task as well. The difference is that you have to write at least 250 words for this task. Use the first minutes to think about what you are going to write. Remember: ORGANISATION. You can decide your own way to write the composition; the following is an example: an introduction to write something general about the argument; a first paragraph to write the arguments of those who support a position; a second paragraph to write the opposite arguments. A conclusion with your own ideas about the problem. Try to avoid mistakes in grammar and make a composition in order: the paragraphs have to be clear. Leave a line between them.

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Skills for the Writing Module

TASK ONE

In Task 1 of the Writing Module, you are given about 20 minutes to write a minimum of 150 words.You are asked to look at a diagram, table, graph or short piece of text and describe the information in your own words. There are three important steps you should follow: preparation, writing and editing. These steps will help you to write a coherent and well organised essay in the time given.

Preparation (about 2 minutes)

You need to spend 2-3 minutes working out exactly what you are going to do. You should pay attention to the following points:

• Study the question carefully. Most Task 1 writing involves writing a report which describes some information given. You may wish to note the instructions with a high-lighting pen.
• Think carefully about the topic. Outline some pertinent points.
• Ensure that your ideas are arranged logically.

　

Writing (about 15 minutes)

When writing a Task 1 report, include:

• introductory sentence
• body paragraphs (1-3)
• concluding sentence (optional)

Introductory sentence

The introductory sentence explains what you are describing, for example:

‘The table compares the population growth and interstate migration in each Australian state for 12 months to the end of 1994.'

‘The graph shows the growth of computers in Australia between 1975 and 1995.'

‘The pie chart represents the proportion of gases contained in natural gas.'

　

Body paragraphs

When discussing the date presented in the task, identify significant trends and give examples that relate directly to the given information to support your statements. If you are explaining a process or an object and how it works, you need to group your information so that it follows a definite logical order.

Remember that the use of verbs expressed in the present passive voice is often appropriate when giving a description of a process or procedure, for example:

‘Coffee beans are pulped to remove their casing. They are then soaked in water, rinsed thoroughly and dried. After the beans are sorted, they are roasted in a kiln and blended. Next, they are packed and dispatched to shops and supermarkets.'

　

Concluding sentence (optional)

A simple concluding statement could include any of the following, where relevant:

• significant comments
• a potential solution
• an overall summary of the ideas
• future implications.

　

Editing (about 2 minutes)

Make sure that you have followed the instructions carefully. Be sure that you have written what you intended and that no important ideas are missing.

In the last few minutes, check for obvious errors, such as spelling or grammatical errors.

　

TASK TWO

All too often students begin planning or even writing their answers in the IELTS Writing Module before they understand what is actually expected of them. Following the steps below will help you to plan a well-structured and coherent essay or report that addresses the given task.

　

Preparation

You may wish to spend about 5-7 minutes working out exactly what you are going to do. There are five steps to consider.

• Study the question carefully. Most task statements or questions have a key instructional word or words telling you what to do. Note these words with a highlighting pen.

There are also key topic words which point to the most important parts of the question. Underline those words too. Ask yourself how the key words relate to the given instruction.

• Think carefully about the topic. How do you feel about it?
• Establish a point of view and list some points for development. The answer normally takes the form of a short essay. The word ‘essay' comes from an old French word essai which meant ‘to attempt or try out', or ‘to test'. In an IELTS Writing Module Task 2 answer, your purpose is to develop your point of view in a convincing way.
• Decide which points will be written as topic sentences. Think about how they will develop into paragraphs.
• Ensure that your points are arranged in a logical order.

　

Writing

When you are writing a Task 2 answer, a structure based on the following elements could be used (summarised in the flow chart opposite).

　

Introductory paragraph

The introduction of a Task 2 answer should begin with a general statement or idea of your own that takes into account the key topic words or their synonyms. The last sentence of the introduction should include a thesis statement which shows the point of  view or direction that will be taken in the answer.

　

Body paragraphs

Body paragraphs each consist of several sentences that are arranged in a logical way to develop a main idea. You can expect to write about 2-4 body paragraphs for a Task 2 answer. Each of these contains an appropriate connective word to ensure a smooth transition between paragraphs. This connective is then put in a topic sentence which is the main point of the paragraph clearly stated in a sentence. Every sentence in the paragraph must be directly related to it. Try to develop every paragraph adequately. This may be done through the use of examples, explanations, detail, logical inference, cause and effect or making comparisons or contrasts. There are many different ways to organise your ideas for body paragraphs. Be confident of the ideas you choose.

　

The conclusion

A good conclusion serves several purposes:

• It indicates the end of your essay.
• It gives your final thoughts and assessments on the essay subject.
• It weighs up the points in your essay and should strengthen your thesis statement.
• Do not simply repeat your opening paragraph. This appears too mechanical and superficial.

　 

INTRODUCTION General statement Thesis statement

　

 

BODY PARAGRAPH 1 Topic sentence including connective word First supporting sentence Second supporting sentence Third supporting sentence

　

 

BODY PARAGRAPH 2

　

 

BODY PARAGRAPH 3

　

 

FURTHER BODY PARAGRAPHS

　

 

CONCLUSION Final assessment with concluding connective

　

Editing (about 3-5 minutes)

In the last few minutes, you should check for obvious errors, such as spelling or grammatical errors. Be sure you have written what you intended and that there are no important ideas missing.

Study the checklist for editing. It lists points to think about when checking your essay. Become familiar with the list so that you will know what to check for in the actual IELTS Writing Module. 

Checklist for editing 1. — I have used accurate grammatical structures, for example, consistent verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, accurate word formation (especially of nouns, verb and adjectives) and appropriate use of ‘a' and ‘the' as well as prepositions. 2. — I have used a range of sentence structures. 3. — I have used appropriate vocabulary. 4. — I have used accurate spelling. 5. — I have stated the main idea for each paragraph in a topic sentence and all the points are related to this topic. 6. — I have used connective words effectively to link ideas so that the thoughts move logically and clearly from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. 7. — I have developed each paragraph adequately. 8. — I have supplied enough detailed information and sufficient examples or facts. 9. — I have developed a definite point of view. 10.— Every paragraph that I have written has definitely helped to address the task.

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