IELTS Writing Tips

Work with a teacher. Write several sample essays and have them corrected by a teacher. You cannot prepare for the writing section of the IELTS alone, as you have no way of receiving feedback on your errors. If you are short on money, at least invest in a teacher or class to prepare for the writing and speaking sections of the IELTS, and then do the listening and reading sections on your own by working with a good preparatory IELTS guidebook. Read the questions very carefully. Often the question will ask you to do three or four different things, aside from the main question. Jot them down and make sure you address all of them in your answer. The IELTS examiner will be checking for this. Practice writing tasks within the given time limits. It really doesn't matter if you can write a beautiful answer in two hours. Always recreate the conditions of the exam as closely as possible, when doing any kind of practice exercises. Plan before you write. Even though you feel under pressure for time, spend the first few minutes planning your writing. Decide what you're going to say and how you'll expand on it. When you know what to write, you can concentrate on how to write it best. Experiment with the great variety of outlining and mind-mapping techniques to help you sketch out a plan quickly. Write in an organized way. When you've planned in advance, you'll end up with a more organized, logical piece of writing, which will earn you higher marks. There are many ways to be organized linear, circular, etc. but in the end the final product must be cohesive. Stay on topic. You will be penalized if you stray off topic. This is where the initial few minutes of planning can help you a great deal. Divide your writing into paragraphs. It is confusing to be faced with a block of writing, with no divisions. You wouldn't expect to read a magazine article or book like this. Always divide your writing into paragraphs. Write clearly. This is not the time or place to experiment with new vocabulary or idioms. Use simple, clear English to get your ideas across in a powerful way. Write legibly. Though marks are not granted or taken away for poor or messy writing, the examiner should be able to read what you have written without undue difficulty. Spell correctly. Yes, this does affect your score so avoid careless mistakes. A careless mistake is when you have spelt the same word in various ways in the same piece of writing or when you misspell a word which is already given in the exam topic and all you have to do is copy it correctly. That's not okay. Watch for this when you're practicing and resolve to overcome it. Don't use slang. This is the time to show off the best English you know. Find the correct way to express your thoughts and convey your ideas, without resorting to slang. Be aware that certain expressions, such as "kids" instead of "children" and "guys" or "gals" instead of "men" or "women", also fall into the category of slang and should be avoided. Don't use contractions in the Academic Writing tasks. In English, contractions are used in informal writing, and the Academic tasks demand formal writing. Use rich vocabulary. You have learned English for many years and this is the time to use what you know. Stay away from over-used adjectives such as "good" or "bad". Instead, use more dramatic, expressive words, such as excellent, wonderful, superb, or adverse, horrible, terrible, etc. Choose the more precise word over the more general one. This will make your language come alive, in speech or in writing, and earn you higher marks.

Don't write more or less words than you need to. Writing too many will take too much time, and there is a greater possibility of making mistakes. Writing too few is worse it will cause you to lose marks. In the essay, don't repeat major chunks of the question in your answer. Instead, state what you understand of the questions and what you plan to include in your answer

IELTS Writing Key Words & Expressions

By learning to use common phrases and set expressions, you can add variety and interest to your writing. You will also be able to write more quickly and effectively during exams, when time is limited. Of course, you won't need to use all of the expressions on the IELTS . Ideally, you should be comfortable using at least three or four expressions from each group below, so they come to mind easily during the IELTS. It is also helpful to have someone call them out so you can test your spelling. Unfortunately, students sometimes make spelling errors even in these commonly occurring expressions. Practice sufficiently so you don't lose points unnecessarily on something that's within your control. KEY WORDS for IELTS WRITING Stating Your Opinion In my opinion, In my view, From my point of view, It seems to me that From my perspective It appears that I realize I imagine Giving Examples For example, such as as that is To illustrate For instance, In other words, like namely To paraphrase According to me, To me, I think I believe To my way of thinking I suppose I understand I feel

Comparing Similar to in common Either...or Neither...nor Just as Contrasting However, On the contrary, Differ from Although Otherwise Alternatively, Generalizing Generally, Overall, In general, It seems to me that All in all, Essentially, All things considered Expressing Certainty Certainly, Doubtless, Definitely, Expressing Partial Agreement Undoubtedly, No doubt, Of course, Generally speaking, On the whole, By and large, I believe Basically, As a rule, For the most part But On the other hand, Nevertheless Though Instead Even though As...as also In the same way, At the same time resemble

More or less, Up to a point, In a way, Showing cause Due to Because of Showing effect Therefore, Consequently, Thus, thereby Hence, Marking time First, Second, Third, Firstly, Secondly, Thirdly, During To begin with Simultaneously Since Afterwards When

To some extent, Almost, So to speak,

Because Owing to

As a result, For this reason, So, Eventually, The reason why

Last Lastly, Then, First of all, Before After While At the same time After this / that Meanwhile Following this As soon as

Adding Information Furthermore Also Moreover Likewise Besides Even Expressing condition If In case Provided that Concluding To summarize Lastly, To conclude with, In conclusion Finally, In short, Whether Unless So that In addition And Similarly As well as Too Whats more