Writing
Essay Vocabulary
In the academic writing test, it’s important your
vocabulary is at a tier 2 level. It can be difficult to know
what words to use, especially when you are under a time
constraint, but with these tips you are sure to bring your
writing up a notch.
There are a few things you can do right away to improve
the quality of your writing. The first is to make sure never
to use idioms as part of an academic essay. It can be a
tempting way t sound fluent but idioms are too informal,
and although they can show an understanding of a
language and are a good way to add interest to your
writing, they’re inappropriate for formal essay writing. The
only time it may be appropriate in the IELTS exam is in
the general writing task 1 where you are asked to write a
letter to a friend. Otherwise keep your writing as formal as
possible.
Another way to improve the quality of you writing is to
make sure you are using cohesive devises correctly.
Words like however, finally and moreover are great words
to direct the flow of your essay. These are important and
something the testers will look for but be careful not to
use too many as your writing may then begin to sound
cluttered and unnatural un-natural.
Writing
Essay Vocabulary
Finally, by substituting more formal words for the ones
that we would normally use when speaking or writing
informally will greatly improve the quality of your writing.
However, be careful here, it’s easy to show off with
difficult and large words, and that isn’t the point of the
exercise. A good cue to insert more academic language
is in places you want to use either the words very or
really.
Instead of very tired, saying exhausted will improve your
writing and show a wider vocabulary range.
Stay away from large uncommon words. It’s important
you’re able to clearly express your opinions or ideas
using a formal style of writing and these words are easily
used incorrectly. If the examiner has a difficult time
reading your essay you will lose marks.
Writing
Essay Vocabulary
Here are some words you can use in exchange for less
formal language. Practice using these in your own writing.
Expressing personal opinions:
• In my opinion, …
• Personally, I think that … Very strong opinions:
• It seems to me that ... • I am sure that …
• I must admit that … • I am convinced that ...
• I believe/suppose that ... • I am certain that ...
• I cannot deny that …
• As I see it, …
• As far as I'm concerned, … Outlining facts
• I would argue that ... • The fact is that …
• I'd like to point out that … • It is obvious that …
• In my experience, ... • It is clear that …
• There is no doubt that …
Proving your arguments • This proves that …
• to attest, ...
• to prove, ...
• this (fact) is attested/proven by ...
• this (fact) is evidenced by ...
• this (fact) is testified by ...
• this (fact) is endorsed/supported by...
• this (evidence) establishes that ...
Writing
Essay Vocabulary
Expressing general point of view:
• It is (generally) claimed that …
• It is (generally) said that …
• It is (generally) thought that ...
• It is (generally) considered that ...
• A common opinion is that ...
• A popular belief is that ...
Generalizing
• Generally speaking, ...
• On the whole, ...
Giving Examples
• Typically, ...
• For example, ...
• By and large ...
• For instance, ...
• A good illustration of this is
seen ...
• Evidence for this is provided
Concluding by ...
• To summarise, ... • We can see this when ...
• In conclusion, ...
• Overall, ...
• On balance, ...
• Taking everything into
consideration, ...
Writing
Organising Answers
In the writing section you will be asked to summarize or
explain a chart, graph or diagram. It’s important to
organise the information well to effectively convey the
information presented. There are a couple of ways that
you can organise the information that we’ll outline here.
When looking at the graph, take a few seconds to decide
the best way to present the information to be as clear and
precise as possible. We can look at this example of a line
graph from a previous test.
The first thing you
should do is decide
what the main
information is that the
graph is describing,
and then group similar
criteria together. In this case you can group the ages
of homebuyers together and then the factors involved
in buying a home.
Writing
Organising Answers
A sample question that would accompany this graph
might look like this:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The line graph shows the percentage of people of
different age groups and how they rate a set of factors in
terms of importance when buying a new home.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the
main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Writing
Organising Answers
This question outlines the relevant information and asks
for a comparison. A good way to complete this task is to
summarise all the information briefly, then compare the
different criteria between age groups with the most
difference. For example, the 25-34 year old’s compared
with the 45-54 year old’s.
It’s extremely important to make sure you’re including as
much data as possible. The examiners are looking for
evidence that you can understand and express the
information you see in the chart. Writing numbers and
matching information correctly will make sure you achieve
a high score.
Here is a sample answer to this question that focuses on
the age groups:
Writing
Organising Answers
The line graph illustrates the importance, measured in
percentages. that four age groups place on five different
factors when they move to a new home. It is immediately
apparent that a low crime rate is the most important
variable across all the age groups.
The factors that are very important when purchasing a
new house are very similar for the first two age groups. A
low crime rate represents the greatest percentage of
these groups at around 80%, though it is slightly higher
for those aged 35 to 44. Schools as a factor is again very
similar at around 60% for the younger age group but
dropping to around 45-50% for 35 to 44 year old’s. A
much lower percentage rate shopping, parks and public
transport as important.
Turning to those aged over 45, low crime accounts for the
largest proportion at approximately 80%, similar to those
of a younger age. In contrast to the younger groups
though, schooling was far less important, falling to below
25% for those aged over 55. This older group rate them
as less important than shopping facilities. In fact,
shopping facilities, parks and public transport all become
more important factors as people get older.
Writing
Organising Answers
The information has been organized primarily around age
groups. The student feels that the first two age groups
are fairly similar and so can be grouped together, and the
second 2 age group are similar so are grouped together.
The differences between the under 44s and over 44s
have also been highlighted. For example:
"In contrast to the younger groups though, schooling was
far less important, falling to below 25% for those aged
over 55."
Another way to organize the information might be to
organise it by the factors, as this example has outlined:
Writing
Organising Answers
The line graph illustrates the importance, measured in
percentages, that four ages groups place on five different
factors when they move to a new home. It is immediately
apparent that a low crime rate is the most important
variable across all the age groups.
Of all the factors, the desire for a low crime rate is by far
the most important. Amongst the all the age groups this
figure stands at around 80%, with the middle aged and
elderly viewing it as slightly more important. Next, schools
are seen as very important by a significant proportion of
25 to 44 year old’s although the percentages drop
markedly as people get older, with just under 25% of 55
to 64 year old’s viewing this as important.
Shopping facilities, being chosen by around 13%, are not
viewed with such importance as schools and crime by the
younger age groups. However, as people get older, this
increases in importance to approximately 30%, and, as
would be expected, is actually more important than
schools to those over 55.
Writing
Organising Answers
Finally, although increasing in importance with age,
neither parks nor public transport are viewed to be as
important as the other factors by any of the groups.
This student has organised their answers around the
factors rather than the ages of homebuyers.
Each factor has been described from the most important
to the least. This means that less is written about the
factors that aren’t as important to any of the age groups.
Also, each factor isn't discussed individually, but a
comparison is always made to link the information
together across the factors. For example:
“Of all the factors, the desire for a low crime rate is by far
the most important. Shopping facilities are not viewed
with as such importance as schools and crime by the
younger age groups.”
It’s important to try to avoid simply discussing each point
on a graph with no reference of how it relates to the other
points.
These tips can be used with any visual element. The
important thing is to state the information in the visual
element as clearly as possible.
Writing
Grammar
Although grammar isn’t tested specifically in the IELTS
test, it’s important in your writing and speech. This
doesn’t mean that you have to go over hours of grammar
rules though. Let’s have a look at a few things that will
help us through the test.
The simple aspect
You probably know that using the simple tense talks
about things what are either habit, (Jill walks to school
each day) or things that are temporary or happening
close to the time of speaking ( Dave is living in London for
3 months. I am cooking lunch right now). It’s also the
tense used in formal essay writing.
You won’t find much past or future tense in formal
essays. When you’re presenting information in a diagram
or graph it’s important to make sure you’re using the
present simple verb form.
Avoid using the passive voice as much as possible when
essay writing. The passive voice can sound awkward and
be difficult to read. You want to be a clear and concise as
possible and writing in the active voice will help you
achieve that.
Writing
Grammar
Cohesive Devices
Cohesive devices are another important aspect of writing
that will help your essay read clearly. These are words
that give your essay direction. Likewise, however,
alternatively and finally are cohesive devices. They let
your reader know when you’re moving on to a new point,
making a comparison or contrasting an idea.
Examiners will look for these specific words so make sure
you’re including 1 or 2, but don’t go overboard or your
essay will start to get confusing.
Spelling
Finally, mind your spelling. Examiners may overlook a
spelling mistake or two, but if a word is consistently
spelling incorrectly or there are too many mistakes it will
make your essay difficult to read, bringing your band
score down.
Writing
Writing task 2 - opinions
In the writing section of the IELTS test there are 2 tasks
that you must complete. While task 1 evaluates your
ability to read and report on a chart or graph, task 2 is
longer and asks you to write your opinion on a general
subject.
There are 4 main criteria that you will be graded on in
both the writing tasks. In task 1, you will be assessed on
task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical
resources, and grammatical range and accuracy.
You will be assessed on similar criteria in task 2 but task
achievement is exchanged for task response, as you will
be asked to respond to and support a position to a
question.
Writing
Writing task 2 - opinions
As we saw before, task 1 consists of a diagram or chart
you have to understand and summarise. This task has a
predictable answer and students will be assessed on how
well you understood what you saw and were able to
define within the 150-word minimum limit. You’ll be
assessed on accuracy and relevancy as part of the
achievement criteria so it’s important to understand what
you’re looking at to be able to describe it in your writing.
The General task is similar in that the letter writing
purpose is clearly laid out for students to complete.
Information should be relevant and complete.
Cohesion and Coherence is how well you've organised
the information in a chronological order or in a sequence
that makes sense. Both the academic and general tests
will assess if the writing follows a logical order and makes
sense to the reader.
Lexical resources assess your vocabulary range. The
Academic test will require the use of teir 2 vocabulary
while the general test will assess the range of basic
vocabulary. Grammatical accuracy will assess the proper
use in your writing for both general and academic tests.
Writing
Writing task 2 - opinions
Task 2 is a response to a question or statement. You
must take a position and support it with evidence from
your own experience. Examiners will be looking for how
well you’ve formed your response as well as the criteria
already outlined in the first task such as cohesion and
clarity. It’s important that responses meet at least the
minimum word count, is clear and cohesive and is
grammatically accurate.
Take a look at this example and model answer to get an
idea of what examiners are looking for.
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Social media is becoming increasingly popular amongst
all age groups. However, sharing personal information on
social media websites does have risks.
Do you think that the advantages of social media
outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant
examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words
Writing
Writing task 2 - opinions
Sample answer
Since the invention of social media, many people have
been better able to connect with each other and also to
keep up to date with the lives of their friends, families, co-
workers and even celebrities, to such a degree which was
previously impossible.
However, social media has its risks. As people of all ages
have access to social media, children can be exposed to
adult content, and are themselves vulnerable to be
approached by strangers with unknown intentions. Even if
children are sure of who they're talking to on social
media, social media's issues are not completely
eliminated. Cyber bullying is frequently reported in the
news and occurs on social media between children and
schoolchildren. This is problematic, as it means even
when children are at home, remote from their bullies they
can still be bullied when they're inside their own homes.
Social media can be problematic for adults, too. People
often feel comfortable posting things on social media that
they wouldn't say in real life. This can indirectly cause a
bad impression on other people, and if employers judge
the nature of the content prospective employees post on
social media to be inappropriate, it can affect their
chances of attaining or keeping jobs.
Writing
Writing task 2 - opinions
As long as people are aware of the risks of using social
media, and are careful to post only respectful and
respectable content, then the advantages of social media
far outweigh the disadvantages, and children and adults
alike should be allowed to benefit from such technology.
Remember
250 words might seem like a lot to write in the short
amount of time you are given, but if you break the answer
down into paragraphs it will be easier to do. The
introduction and concluding paragraph should be about
50 words each, then two main body paragraphs of
approximately 100 words each. Each of these paragraphs
has to include at least 2 or 3 ideas, and don’t forget to
support these ideas with an example. you should be
aiming for around 270-280 words for this task. Going over
the word count is great, but writing less will lose you
some marks.
Writing
Rubric
You can find the pdf rubric used to grade the task 1 and
task 2 essays at the links below
Task 2 Rubric
Task 1 Rubric
