IELTS Writing

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Grading System for Essays

• Task Response
• Coherence and Cohesion
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy

“Task Response”
Means that your essay shows that you understood and covered the topic from all its sides, aspects, etc. Let’s take this topic for example – “Internet: connecting or isolating people?”. Those who chose to write about how Internet connects people – loose marks, those who chose to write about how Internet isolates people – loose marks, those who compare and contrast both sides of the Internet and give arguments for and against – gain marks.

“Coherence and Cohesion”
Means how well you connected the paragraphs and sentences inside each paragraph. You see, all of your paragraphs need to be logically connected. For example, if paragraph 1 explains the advantages of the Internet, and paragraph 2 explains its disadvantages, then paragraph 1 should have last sentence saying something like this: “In spite of Internet being such a help in communication, its drawbacks can not be overlooked”. This sentence creates the connection between 1st and 2nd paragraphs. If it wasn’t there, examiner could think that you jumped from advantages to disadvantages without a reason. The same rule applies to sentences inside the paragraph. Every sentence should lead to the next one.

“Lexical Resource”
Means vocabulary and different types of sentences, simple and complex. You should be able to use words and their synonyms.

“Grammatical Range and Accuracy”
Means spelling and grammar of sentences. You should be able to spell the words correctly, do not forget articles “a” and “the”, punctuations is also important, etc.

WRITING

W – Work with a coach.

Practice is one way to enhance your writing skills. However, it would be ideal if you practice with a teacher or IELTS coach that will correct your output. You can never be prepared to combat the IELTS writing tasks without receiving feedbacks on your writing errors. For those who are in a tight budget and cannot afford to hire an IELTS coach, you can work on your own but be sure to have a good IELTS preparatory manual that will serve as your guide in honing of that writing ability.

R – Read through the instructions and questions carefully.

Aside from the main question, the point of issue often will ask you to address three or four things. Make sure to get these queries and discuss them in your answer.

I – Inspect your watch!

Keep track of your time! Monitor your own progress! Remember you only have one hour to finish both writing tasks. For those who have difficulty hitting the 60-minute mark for tasks 1 and 2, speed is developed by practicing constantly.

T – Think and write it out.

While rehearsing your writing ability, sit and write out tasks 1 and 2. Some people are not actually writing the brilliant ideas they were thinking while reading the question. Thus, a structured format approach should be utilized in this case. Repetitive writing can also be avoided if you practice, practice and practice.

I – Inscribe those words legibly!

Messy writing is not a criterion in marking your written output. However, if the examiner cannot read what you have written, then, you are not getting any mark either. Before taking the examination, my coach kept on reminding me about my writing because the words are too small and she had difficulty reading them. Keep in mind than an unreadable output means no mark at all!

N – No reason to start writing immediately for task 1.

Yes, I told you to keep track of your time. But don’t start writing immediately after looking at the graph or table and understanding what is asked and given. Before writing, make sure that you know what each axis represents and the units that are used. Even if you finished writing task 1 for 10 minutes but the data written is incorrect you will never hit your target mark.

G – Go for task 2 first!

Task 2 in the IELTS writing section is easier to compose and is worth more mark than task 1. I am not saying that you should ignore the other component in this section, but making sure you completed the part which weighs more points to your mark is a wise choice.