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Suppose you have finished writing Task 1 and Task 2 on the day of the IELTS exam in less than 60 minutes. Even so, have you completed the IELTS Writing? The answer is ‘no’ unless you have checked your writing for mistakes. This step is crucial in completing IELTS Writing tasks. It is also one of the most effective ways to improve your band score. Why? Within a few minutes, you can correct your mistakes or change sentences you have written. You are able to fix these mistakes if you know what to look for. Here is the checklist for efficiently editing your writing.

Grammar

If you know that ‘list’ is the subject, then you will choose ‘is’ for the verb.

When performance on a regular basis, such workouts allow people to strong their immune system and increase metabolism, thus becoming healthier.

‘Performance’ is a noun. However, in the sentence above it was used as a verb instead of ‘perform’. ‘Strong’ is a noun, but the candidate has used it instead of a verb ‘strengthen’.

Vocabulary

The British and American spellings of many English words are also different. For instance:

Coherence

Candidates often skip this important aspect of their writing and simply do not check it. However, it accounts for a large part of your score.

Punctuation

If you know that you often make some kind of mistakes, check your writing for them too. Be sure you check for one type of mistake at a time, because you might get confused if you check all of them at once.

Spend from 3 to 5 minutes at the end of the IELTS Writing section. That is because while writing, we tend not to see our mistakes.

In our course, we have included every single type of IELTS Academic Writing task. Each is followed by a certain strategy — you learn what to do step by step (analyse the task, plan your response, write, and check). You also develop your other skills necessary for the IELTS exam. At the end of the course, do a full mock test in Writing and Speaking and get feedback from one of our IELTS experts.

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One of the main criteria for assessing your writing at the IELTS Academic exams is Coherence and Cohesion, which is 25% of your marks. Besides logically organising information and ideas, using paragraphing, you have to ‘use cohesion in such a way that it attracts no attention’. This requirement is taken from the document that IELTS examiners use to score your essay. Cohesion refers to the use of linguistic devices to join sentences together.

Using linking words is a grammatically correct and stylistically effective way to connect ideas and sentences. They are essential for IELTS Writing Task 2, and if you use them, chances are you will get a higher score. However, the examiner will check your range, accuracy and your flexibility of linking words in an essay. Let us look at how the linking words are used and how they add coherence to a sentence.

Why use linking words

Linking words and phrases are the tools that make your text naturally or logically connected. Thus, the reader can easily follow your ideas and understand them. Linking words play a very important role in the text:

What linking words to use

Contrast

Use these words and phrases when you need to introduce opposite ideas in your essay. They can also introduce exceptions to the rules:

Result

These linking words usually link reasons with results. Use them for the solution essay or any essay where you will have to explain consequences or results of something:

Explanation / details

When you are giving more details or want to explain your idea further in your essay, use the following phrases:

Reason

If you have to write a cause/solution essay in your IELTS Writing task 2, you will need these linking words and phrases to explain reasons and causes for something:

Addition

In essays, you have to give a main point, and then support it. If you use these linking words and expressions, the reader (examiner) will know that you are going to present some extra information:

Condition

Use the following expressions to join a condition and its consequence together. They are alternatives for ‘if’ used in more formal contexts, including academic writing:

Example

When writing your essay, it is good to provide examples to support main ideas. Make sure you use these expressions to introduce examples:

Now, have a look at the linking words and expressions in the following essay sample, and think about their functions:

As you can see, we have highlighted all the linking words and expressions in the essay above. In the introduction, the writer presents two opposite ideas. In the next two paragraphs, these ideas are developed, explained in detail, and supported by examples. The author of the essay also writes about advantages and disadvantages of an increasing lifespan, and its consequences that depend on different conditions; this means that he or she models different situations. Finally, we can see that in conclusion, the writer explains the reason why this issue is controversial, and why such a trend is impossible to stop or prevent.

In your essay, show a range of linking words and expressions, and try not to repeat them throughout your essay. If you wrote ‘for example’, next time write ‘for instance’. Use the variety of linking words, but be careful, and only use them when they should be used. It’s a bad idea to stuff your essay with linking words or phrases because the use of these devices must look natural.

Using linking words or expressions is not the only way to make your writing cohesive. In our course, you will learn about other means that make different elements of the text hold together well. You will also keep all your strategies and useful tips in the Knowledge Bank so that you could return to them every time you need. With our new online IELTS Grade course, you will be fully-equipped to score high in IELTS Academic.

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When it comes to IELTS Writing, we want to avoid making typical mistakes. However, shall we care only about spelling, punctuation or grammar? Or are there any other things considered to be mistakes in IELTS essays?

The truth is, it is possible to prevent stumbling when you are still preparing for the exam. Knowing what one should not do is as important as knowing what to do. That is why we have selected 6 most common issues arising when candidates do Task 2 in the IELTS Writing. We will discuss them further and give you some tips on how to deal with them and receive the best band score for your essay.

1. Not reading the task carefully.

Usually, the task contains the keywords that tell us what to write about and what things to do in the task. Let’s underline the keywords in the following task. For example:

Nowadays many people in cities live alone. What are the reasons for it? Is it a positive or a negative trend?

Not reading the task carefully might lead to not understanding and not addressing the task further in your essay, i.e. you will not be able to achieve more than band 3. According to IELTS TASK 2 Writing band descriptors, the candidate ‘whose answer is completely unrelated to the task’ or ‘does not adequately address any part of the task’ cannot get a high score. If you aim at 7+, you must ‘address all parts of the task’.

This also means that you have to write only what you are asked to write about in the task, and you should not go off topic. As you can see from the example above, you have to write about ‘people living in cities alone’, but not about ‘big and small cities’ or ‘people living alone’ or ‘living in cities’ etc.

2. Not giving any examples.

It is not enough only to make your point in the essay, but you also have to explain it. For example, if you write why something happens, explain why it is important and/or give an example of it. Examples help you support and develop your ideas.

Again, IELTS TASK 2 Writing band descriptors clarify that in order to achieve the score higher than 7 a candidate has not only to ‘present a clear position throughout the response’ but also ‘extend and support main ideas’ that are ‘relevant, fully extended and well-supported’.

You can give examples from your own experience. However, write them as if they are about the society or a group of people, not you personally.

There are two main reasons for modern city dwellers to stay alone. Firstly, (REASON 1) they tend to devote most of their lifetime to career development and self-improvement. As a result, (EXPLANATION) they become too obsessed with the goals they want to achieve, and there is little time left for private life.

People suffering from a cold, for instance, may be tempted by the promise of a quick recovery in an online advertisement. However, they are not aware of potential side effects of such a drug that may follow.

3. Not stating opinions clearly.

It is important to state your opinion in the introduction and restate it in the conclusion of your essay. According to the descriptors, you have to ‘present a clear position throughout the response’, i.e. the reader (the examiner) has to understand what you think and be able to follow your ideas throughout the whole essay. You can also provide short summaries at the end of body paragraphs if it really makes sense.

INTRODUCTION: Today, many city residents tend to live on their own for a number of obvious reasons, which will be elaborated on in this essay. Personally, I believe that this trend has both upsides and downsides.

CONCLUSION: To conclude, while I am of the opinion that there are both advantages and disadvantages to living alone in a large city, this trend, for the reasons given above, is likely to develop further.

4. Not organizing your ideas in paragraphs and not linking them properly.

In IELTS essays, you have to not only present your ideas but also arrange the information and ideas. This also means that the essay should be divided into paragraphs, and each paragraph ‘presents a clear central topic’. Moreover, they have to be logically linked so that the reader (the examiner) could follow them.

While planning your essay, keep looking back at the task to give only relevant ideas, decide on the number of paragraphs. It is also good to brainstorm ideas and details/examples to answer questions, and take notes. Choose only those ideas that you are sure you can develop and explain in your essay. It should consist of:

There are many ways to link your ideas logically and make your essay more coherent. For example:

Daily workouts in a gym are widely considered to be the most effective method of keeping fit. Personally, I partially support this view, as despite having a beneficial effect on human body, such exercise may not suit everyone. In addition, there is a variety of other ways to achieve similar results.

On the one hand, gym classes can bring impressive results in terms of physical development. When performed on a regular basis, such workouts allow people to strengthen their immune system and increase metabolism, thus becoming healthier. Additionally, gym classes help people shape their body, lose excessive weight and, as a result, become more attractive.

This view – refers to ‘Daily workouts … considered to be the most effective method of keeping fit’.

As you may see, linkers can introduce opinions, add information, show contrast, change topics etc. We use them in almost every sentence. Therefore, it is important to manage them well. In our course, you will learn lots of cohesive devices and practice using them in your essays, keep them in a Knowledge Bank to have at hand.

5. Not using a variety of language.

If you want to write a good essay, you should avoid repetition and ‘use a wide range of vocabulary’ and ‘use a wide range of structures’ as the descriptors say. This means that it is necessary to pay attention to the vocabulary and grammar you use.

While planning your essay, think of the synonyms that can be used properly and in the correct context for it. However, in some topics we cannot use a different synonym in each sentence. In this case, you have to ‘dilute’ them with other expressions or words. For example:

‘On the one hand, gym classes can bring impressive results in terms of physical development. When performed on a regular basis, such workouts allow people to strengthen their immune system and increase metabolism, thus becoming healthier. Additionally, gym classes help people shape their body, lose excessive weight and, as a result, become more attractive.’

6. Not checking your essay.

This is the last and very important step in completing IELTS Writing Task 2. It is also the fastest way to improve your band score because only in five minutes you can correct your mistakes or change sentences you have written. If you are aiming at 7+, you have to ‘produce frequent error-free sentences’, i.e. at least half of the sentences in your essay must not contain any mistakes.

You are able to fix these mistakes, especially if you know the types of mistakes you commonly make.

As you can see, there are many other items to consider when writing IELTS essays. However, all of the issues can be easily tackled, and now you know how to do it effectively. All of them and even more are covered in our IELTS Academic Writing self-study course with detailed analysis, automated instant feedback on writing using artificial intelligence, video comments and a full mock test imitating the conditions of a real exam. You can try the free version to feel the benefits of the course.

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Writing an IELTS essay might seem tough for most candidates. However, one can do it with flying colours if he or she knows how to do it and has a lot of practice before the exam. What should you keep in mind whilst writing an essay? How can you prepare yourself to get a higher score on the day of your Writing test? We are sharing some tips and tricks on IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 below.

Familiarize yourself with the most common topics

What is your biggest fear on the day of the exam? The majority of candidates admit that it is the fear that a question will come up that they cannot answer because they know nothing about it. Others tend to think that IELTS examiners look for some “best possible ideas” that answer the question and they will award the highest scores for this. Neither is true. What you have to do is to answer the question and justify your point using arguments and examples. What is important is the relevancy of the ideas.

While preparing for IELTS, read more about different kinds of topics that you can come up with at the exam. This is the easiest and the most effective way to get ready not only for Writing but also for the Reading and Speaking sections of the exam. You can do this by reading international newspapers or magazines and by looking at old essay questions and sample answers.

There are also topics that will never appear in IELTS tasks, and these are ones connected to religion, politics and war. Thus, there is no need to research about these.

Learn to generate ideas

While planning your essay, you need to brainstorm ideas about a particular topic or aspect. You will usually have to come up with 2-4 ideas depending on the type of your essay. DO NOT start writing an essay if you have no idea what you are going to write about. Generating ideas is a skill, and you need to develop it.

First, try generating ideas without writing an essay. Start with asking yourself wh-questions about the topic of the essay. For example:

Some people think that it is necessary to travel abroad to learn about other countries, but others think that it is not necessary to travel abroad because all the information can be seen on TV and the internet. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Who thinks that it is necessary to travel abroad to learn about other countries?

Probably young people. They have access to different exchange programs and international internships.

They don’t think about saving money, because they are still young, and they don’t care about the time when they retire.

Maybe their parents or grandparents. They grew up in the times of deficit. They got used to saving money. They think about retirement.

People in post-soviet countries like Ukraine or Russia. In these countries, older generations often live in between poverty and the air line.

Also remember, if you have too many ideas, choose those that are easy to explain.

Structure your essay

When you have come up with the ideas for your essay, be sure you organize them properly in separate paragraphs. Your essay should consist of:

Paragraphs give a clear structure to a piece of writing and they help the reader understand your message. Organise each paragraph around one main idea. Each of your supporting paragraphs should have a specific example that supports and illustrates your main point. If you put your ideas, explanations and examples into a clear structure before you start to write, you will get a higher band score.

Know Grammar, Spelling & Punctuation

Good grammar and accuracy will bring you 25% of the score. Even simple sentences need to be written accurately! Moreover, the highest score you can receive for grammar in IELTS writing if you write only simple and compound sentences is 4 (check IELTS TASK 2 Writing band descriptors). If you aim higher, learn to use a wide range of structures (Passive Voice, Subordinate Clauses, Conditionals, Modal Verbs, etc.), avoid mistakes, and master punctuation. Make sure each sentence you write is complete.

Manage your time properly

As you know, you will have 40 minutes to complete Task 2. Also, 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 write an essay.

We recommend that you spend at least 1 or 2 minutes thinking about your ideas and how you are going to present them. The last thing you want to do is to go off topic. Keeping your ideas focused and on the task with an outline will improve your writing. After this, divide the ideas into 3 or 4 paragraphs in a logical order. This will not take you long and the structure that this will give your essay will be well worth the time that you spend doing it. You could follow this timeline to complete the task:

If you feel that you need more practice in completing Task 2, improve your writing skills and get an IELTS band score evaluation for your essay, sign up for the IELTS Academic Writing self-study course. You can start with a free trial version or purchase access to the full course and get more than 40 hours of practice, lots of strong examples of IELTS Academic essay model answers, tips and strategies from our IELTS experts.

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There are thousands of resources for both IELTS Academic writing tasks that you can make good use of. Also, there are plenty of model answers but it does not mean that your practice should include memorising them as examiners can easily spot such answers and you will risk having your entire test rendered invalid.

What to do to improve your writing skills and practice for the exam? Take a look at some of our advice, and you’re sure to ace the IELTS writing test.

Understand the requirements for both tasks

The IELTS examiners use detailed performance descriptors when assessing your writing. They include:

Task achievement means you answer the question. Coherence and cohesion means you structure your essay in paragraphs, and even the paragraphs within themselves. Lexical resource means vocabulary. Grammatical range and accuracy means that you use wide range of structures with full flexibility and accuracy.

You can check British Council’s website to read Task 1 and Task 2 requirements in detail.

Start practicing as early as possible

Take one sample question per day and write your answer. Luckily, there is a huge selection of IELTS Writing questions for you on the Internet. By doing so, you will learn about the test format, types of tasks, review your answers and compare them with model answers.

IELTS Academic offers practice questions and sample answers for Task 1 and Task 2.

IELTS.org has downloadable Academic Writing sample with answer sheets and examiner comments.

ESL Lounge has a range of exercises that give good practice of what you will face in the IELTS examination.

Always make an outline

If you want to keep focused as you write and save your time, it is necessary to make an outline of your essay or graph description. If you organize your ideas, you will also know what language you should use to complete the task.

The outline of the introduction should include a thesis sentence or important points to include (e.g. in Task 1 write what information someone should know about these charts/graphs/diagrams.). For the body paragraphs, your outline only needs to reflect the main topic for the paragraph, the evidence to be used, and, if appropriate, how it supports your thesis statement. There is no need to write an outline of the conclusions because restate your arguments and do not present any new ideas.

Focus on language

As you prepare for the IELTS exam, you should be working to build your vocabulary for a variety of topics. To get a high score you need to show the examiner a range of different words.

First of all, write down all the new words and phrases you read in the sample essays. Incorporate them into your writing as you feel comfortable and as they are appropriate. This way, you will improve your vocabulary through the practice course.

Secondly, learn some vocabulary to describe trends and key features in Task 1. IELTS Liz has created a list of verbs and nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as time phrases you can use while writing your response. Learn vocabulary to describe graphs, maps and linking words to write essays.

Use online tools that will help you check your grammar and spelling. Hemingway App, Grammarly, After the Deadline, and ProWritingAid are only a few to name that can help you identify the most common mistakes you make. They will be helpful if you are going to take a computer version of the test. You should look for small mistakes in spelling and grammar. The more mistakes you make, the lower your score will be, so best ensure you make as little as possible.

You are assessed on your ability to use correct and appropriate grammar and on the range of sentence types that you produce. If you do not have much time to prepare or have already completed the preparation course, check IELTS-exam.net for grammar exercises.

IELTSbuddy offers explanations and exercises that will highlight some specific things related to IELTS so you can see how they are relevant.

Although IELTS does not have a separate section on exam for grammar, you will need to have an excellent grammar to get a high score. IELTS worldwide has a list of grammar issues you will have to review for IELTS.

Learn to punctuate correctly. It helps your readers to follow and understand your message, in the same way that using pauses and intonation help your listeners while you are speaking, and it matters for your score!

Don’t forget about timing and word count

Always practice writing on the answer sheet. It will help you know the amount of words you write on one sheet, and you will not need to do the word count on the day of the exam and waste your time on it.

Remember to spend not more than 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2 as you prepare.

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The essay is the second task in the Writing section, regardless of whether you take IELTS Academic or General. It usually takes about 40 minutes to write. Remember that you will need to write at least 250 words.

Questions to be answered in the essay (keyword – answer (!)) are very diverse: from questions about education, health care, gender roles to youth, environmental protection, i.e. almost everything you can write about and discuss. What does it mean? It’s quite simple. There is no magic sentence that can be inserted into any essay, and most likely, on the day of the exam you will not “get” a question that can be used to answer it. Even if this is the case, using a few simple steps will allow you to write the piece and get a good score.

Most of those who take the exam think that the most important thing in writing an essay is to kill the examiner outright with fanciful words, so-called ‘posh words’, and incomprehensible phrases. If you think so too, we will disappoint you: this is the worst way to write an essay.

STEP 1. ANALYSE THE QUESTION

It is important to understand what the task is. You will need to express your opinion or offer some solutions, describe the advantages and disadvantages of something, agree with some opinion or disagree with it, etc. In any case, read carefully what is required from you.

Unless you read the question carefully, you will not be able to define its type or define it incorrectly. It is also not necessary to write in a general context. Each task has tooltips: keywords, micro-keywords, and instruction words. Keywords indicate a general topic, micro-keywords specify the subject of the essay, and instruction words define its type.

In some countries, young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to do this.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words.

Words in blue indicate the general topic – young people finishing high school and starting university studies – no need to write about it (!). If you write about it, you will not answer the question.

Words highlighted in green are the subject of our essay – work or travel: young people who decide to do this. But that is not enough, we need to look at the instruction words highlighted in red: discuss the advantages and disadvantages.

Here you need to be clear about what are the advantages or disadvantages. If the benefits outweigh, write the reasons why, also write why the disadvantages are not significant. If you describe only the advantages, you will not fully answer the question.

STEP 2. PLAN YOUR ANSWER

Writing an essay without a plan is like using a cool gadget without instruction. When it breaks, it will be too late. In the case of writing an essay, even if you write a good introduction, then you simply run the risk of getting lost and will end up missing the time to finish it, or start generalizing, or the text of the essay will be incoherent or lack logical consistency, and etc., which cannot but affect your score.

Imagine that your plan is a map you will use to move around the area (the text of your essay). That is why every sentence is a step that brings you closer to your destination and it has a purpose. All sentences in your essay should be thought out and related.

Some teachers and tutorials on IELTS preparation suggest that you handle the first assignment with brainstorming. Another effective way is to answer the question directly.

In the case of our essay, for example: Why are the advantages of working and travelling before starting university studies are stronger? Why are the disadvantages weak?

The advantages of working and travelling before starting university studies are stronger because it gives more opportunities to decide about the place of getting further education, to try working in different fields and to take the final decision about your future career.

The disadvantages are that you waste time while others obtain education, but this is a weak argument, because you get valuable experience demanded by most of the employers.

Next, we organize our ideas into a structure. This will help us further make the text of the essay coherent.

As we already know, there are several types of essays, and each will have its own structure. In general, it should look like this:

Another common problem faced by those writing the essay is the repetition of the same words, especially the words in the question, over and over again. This lowers the vocabulary rating because it indicates ignorance of synonyms.

The solution to this problem may be to identify words in a question that can be used more than once. Example:

In some countries, young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting university studies.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to do this.

The more you learn to plan during the preparation for the exam, the better and faster you will write and this will cause every sentence in your essay to have a purpose, which is exactly what the examiner wants.

STEP 3. WRITE YOUR ESSAY

Before you begin writing the essay, remind yourself that IELTS does not check how good you are at the subject area. There is no right or wrong answer to the essay question. All tasks include open-ended questions, i.e. you need to discuss it and express your opinion.

To pass IELTS successfully, you will need good handwriting skills (if you are uncomfortable to write with a pencil, choose the computer version). Consider this when preparing for the exam, i.e. practice handwriting or typing on the keyboard (just do not use auto-correction of text, as spelling matters when evaluating your essay).

Keep in mind the minimum number of words – at least 250, the more – the better (in average 260-280). Counting words on the exam day is a waste of precious time. Therefore, we recommend preparing for the essay, using the official answer sheets. This will help you quickly estimate the number of words. During your preparation, you can count the average number of words you get per page. On the day of the exam, you will not have to spend time on it.

IELTS is about using an academic / formal writing style. Avoid using slang. Write in complete sentences, pay attention to punctuation. In the academic essay, it is necessary to:

As you can see, it will take time to prepare for writing an essay. Even so, learning how to analyze a task and plan your answer will save you time during the exam and make you feel confident. You should practice regularly and try your best, gradually creating conditions that are similar to real testing conditions, limiting yourself strictly to 40 minutes and writing your answers with a pencil or using the keyboard.

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