It is really common for students to say how they are afraid of the speaking test because they have to speak to a native speaker. However, almost every IELTS student I have ever met is more worried about their IELTS writing test, so worried in fact, that they don’t like to talk about it.
So rather than hiding your writing worries, here are 48 amazing tips on how to improve your IELTS Writing, regardless of whether you are taking the academic or general training test. I hope you find these useful and they encourage you to practice more and push through the pain!
Several tips talk about how you can prepare for your test, because for most people, time is the killer!
Before Your IELTS Writing Test
1 – Reading – If you want to write well, then read. If you want to write well in IELTS, then read more academic articles, such as those in the better UK newspapers (The Times, The Guardian or The Telegraph), The Economist or National Geographic.
2 – Know your test – It is essential to learn exactly what is expected of you in each part of the IELTS test and how to complete them well. Advice, tips and information are also here, and for Academic Task1, General training Task 1 and Task 2. Test yourself with the related quizzes here, here and here.
3 – Rubric – When you are preparing for your test, it is crucial that you understand how you can improve your score. You can do this by looking at how Task 1 and Task 2 of the writing test are marked.
4 – Questions – Practice using official questions for Academic Task 1, GT Task 1 and Task 2, some sites use questions reported by recent test takers, but the grammar in these questions is often wrong.
5 – Clarity is key – if in doubt, be clear. The object of the task is to communicate your ideas to your reader. If you are unclear, then you will fail to do that.
6 – Planning – Learn how to plan what you need to write. Having a basic template will help you fit the question to what you can do rather than treating every question as new. This will make it much easier to write your Task 1 and Task 2 answers quickly and correctly.
7 – Opinions – Understand that you MUST write your best essay etc, not the one that shows the examiner how clever you are. Maybe this means that you support an opinion you don’t usually agree with! Ordinary ideas in great English, not great ideas in ordinary English!
8 – Structure – If you have a structure or even a template before you go into your test, it will save a lot of time. There are many templates available, here are the ones I use for Academic Task 1, GT Task 1 and Task 2.
9 – Practice – If you practice, you will know your structure, the best places to use good grammar, how to talk about people in different ways and so on. When you’re ready, get a teacher to take you further.
10 – Proofread – As you practice, notice your common errors, then in the last five minutes, check your essay for those errors.
11 – Paraphrasing – Learn how to paraphrase quickly and effectively, it will save your precious time in Academic Task 1 and Task 2.
12 – Linking words – Memorise linking words and their synonyms.
13 – Noun phrases – Learn how to use noun phrases to make your writing much more concise, easy to write and also to read.
14 – Referencing – for example after mentioning people once, you can then talk about ‘them’, ‘they’, ‘their’ and so on. However, only do this if it is obvious to the reader, you are still talking about the same people. Once you practice this, you’ll begin to trust yourself to use them correctly, and to trust your reader to understand. If you are more that two or three sentences away from the initial ‘people’, then mention ‘people again, just so your, reader knows.
15 – Formality (also called register or tone) – Be absolutely clear how you can express yourself formally, semi-formally or informally. This is immensely important in many exams. If you are in doubt, remember who is going to read your answer. Your teacher, your neighbour, your best friend, your bank manager?
16 – Teacher – Although you can learn by yourself, learning with a teacher will be more structured and they will be able to give you quick and easy corrections, advice and usually a score, so you track your progress.
17 – Sample Answers – Read sample answers to show you what is expected, how they are written and follow the structure in Academic Task 1, GT Task 1 and Task 2.
During your IELTS Writing Test
18 – Don’t repeat the question – Paraphrase the question so if someone reads it, they can understand what the essay is about without needing to read the original question. If you can’t paraphrase the question in your test, just do your best and move on. Don’t waste time.
19 – Grammar – Whatever grammar you use, try your best to be accurate. Many believe that if you attempt to use better grammar, then you will get an extra point for trying. This only happens if you do not impede communication, which often happens due to errors in that grammar. Get it right!
20 – Vocabulary – Many tests talk about less common lexis or idiomatic vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean you have to use rare words or lots of idioms, it means you need to be natural. Topic vocab is always really useful.
21 – Conclusions – you must write a conclusion – any essay or other piece of writing is considered incomplete if there is no conclusion. If you are out of time, stop writing the body paragraph and write a quick conclusion.
22 – Proofreading – When you are finished writing, as you check your work, if you realise that the essay doesn’t match the introduction (it happens often), then change the introduction rather than the paragraphs.
Academic Task 1
23 – Academic Task 1 – This is really difficult for many students who are not used to writing reports based on figures or charts. Task 1 is worth 50% of the points for Task 2, so if you practice how to write an Academic Task 1 essay, then it shouldn’t affect your score too much. If you can structure your answer and learn exactly what to do, such as paraphrasing, it could even push your overall writing score up!
24 – Choosing key features – Key features are usually the starting points, the highs, the lows and the finishing points. Lesser ones are crossovers and trends.
25 – Overview – An overview should give a general view with no numbers except years if they are necessary. For example, i you looked at a chart from the other side of the room, what would you see?
26 – Topic sentences – Try to introduce the content in your paragraph with a topic sentence. Don’t worry, this can include relevant details and figures.
27 – Language – Try to use different grammar and vocabulary in each detail paragraph. If you just say the same things about two charts for example, you won’t show the examiner enough for a good score in this task.
28 – Comparison – keep comparing one thing to another or two different times which will give you lots to write about.
29 – Vocabulary – learn the vocabulary for graphs, charts and trends to save you time in your test.
General Training Task 1
30 – General Training Task 1 – Writing a letter or an email is common for many students, but you really have to understand how to write them for this part of the General training IELTS test. If you can write them well, this part of the test should push your overall writing score up!
31 – Structure – Have confidence in knowing how you like to structure letters or emails so you can fit any question into your template.
32 – Tone/formality – Register or tone is critically important, for example how would a letter to a friend or best friend be different.
33 – Emotion – Don’t be afraid to express joy, fury or any other emotion as long as it appropriate.
34 – Call to action – It is common to finish with some kind of statement or question so the recipient knows what he or she should do next, even if it’s just to reply quickly.
35 – Your reader – As ever, write for your reader. If they are your friend, then they should know some of your background at least. If they are your bank manager, they should know your financial circumstances etc.
IELTS Writing Task 2
36 – IELTS Writing Task 2 – Understanding exactly what you need to do to write an IELTS Task 2 essay is essential. If you are in doubt about anything, then you will not have enough time.
37 – Paraphrasing n referencing – although synonyms are useful, if you can paraphrase by changing word order or form, it is much more accurate and less stressful than trying to think of other words that mean exactly the same thing.
38 – Global sentences – Don’t use a global sentence in your introduction unless you are absolutely certain it is correct. These sentences that are supposed to set the context for the whole essay are written poorly by test takers who are under enormous pressure. Yes, they will add words that maybe you can’t write later, but you are showing the examiner how poor your writing is if you get them wrong.
39 – Sweeping Statements – You will really improve the accuracy of your essay if you avoid saying that everyone does the same thing. For example, ‘young people like playing computer games’. That’s not true, while ‘Many young people like playing computer games’ is true.
40 – Practice time – When you start practicing, give yourself more time. Later keep to the time limit.
41 – Word count – Writing a lot more than the required 250 words, for example 350 words, is just wasting time you could use planning, proofreading or improving. About 300 words is better because it’s difficult to go into the topic in any depth in less words.
42 – Ideas – Your essay should move forward with each sentence. Don’t repeat what you said in the last sentence or give a really obvious example. Move your argument forward!
43 – The examiner – Don’t think your writing examiner is stupid. It is amazing how many people will give examples that are too simple when they are obvious from the rest of the essay. Don’t explain what a bus station is or go into detail about why people go on holiday. He or she knows most things about everyday life.
44 – Examples – Don’t base your paragraph on an example. To give a short example, just add it to a sentence. A longer should have its own sentence, but it must be brief.
45 – Paragraphs – try to use different language (grammar n vocab) in each paragraph. Writing this way will show the examiner what you can do rather than repeating what you have done. If you use a conditional sentence once, then you will get a point. But you will still only get one point even if you use three or four of them.
46 – Conditional sentences – these sentences are incredibly useful, but make sure you use the right type otherwise your meaning may change.
47 – Subject-verb agreement – Take care that your subjects and verbs match. If you write about one if something, then that something must be plural. Easy to miss, but easy to lower your score.
48 – Vocabulary – IELTS is an advanced English test, so be careful about using words that most English learners learn in Primary school, such as beautiful, big or clever. If you must use them add an adjective, for example: stupendously beautiful, quite big or incredibly clever. Topic vocabulary is always useful and apps such as Quizlet make learning it fun and easy.
I hope you found these tips useful. Please think about how much you can do before your IELTS Writing test, the more you do, the more time you will have. Good luck with your test!