Join me as I give you tips and techniques to improve your writing as you practice for the IELTS Academic writing exam. See you in class!
*****
Welcome to your IELTS Academic exam writing masterclass. In this masterclass you are going to learn the necessary tools to take your result from a 4 to an 8! So let's start!
PLANNING
Now, this is the most obvious thing. In the assessment criteria you can clearly see that it is extremely important to give a clear and detailed reply that covers all key aspects of the question.
So in part 1, if they ask you to summarise the information and make comparisons, then do exactly that! In part 2, if they ask you to discuss two views and give your opinion, giving reasons and including your own personal experience then do exactly that!
So, let's look in detail at how to plan our text.
BRAINSTORM
The saying goes that the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Write all your ideas down quickly at the beginning and then we can choose the best ones for the text.
USE PARAGRAPHS
Paragraphs are designed to help the reader to read your text. A typical paragraph has four sections;
- Link (optional - this part links to the previous paragraph if necessary)
- Topic sentence (tells us what the paragraph is about)
- Body (usually between 2 and 5 sentences that explain the idea)
- Conclusion (To summarise the paragraph and lead to the next paragraph)
USE COMPLEX SENTENCES
If we look at the assessment criteria we can see that simple sentences attract scores around the 3-4 band, but if we use complex sentences (with no errors) then we move up into the 7-8 band! So, what's the difference between a simple and a complex sentence?
- A simple sentence contains only one clause
- A complex sentence contains 2 or more clauses
So, how can we make more complex sentences to get a higher mark? Well, we can use subordinating conjunctions like;
although
where
until
why
since
We can use these to make subordinate clauses. This means that the clause depends on the first part of the sentence, and cannot exist without it. So, let's look at some examples;
I like pizza. (simple sentence)
I like pizza. I don't like pizza with mushrooms. (simple sentence)
I like pizza. I don't like pizza with mushrooms. I like pizza with ham and cheese. Ham and cheese pizza is delicious. (simple sentence)
I like pizza, unless it's mushroom pizza, because my favourite pizza is ham and cheese, which is delicious! (complex sentence with multiple subordinating clauses)
We can also make relative clauses, where we give additional information about something. We make these by using relative pronouns or relative adverbs, such as;
who
which
that
when
where
why
Relative clauses allow us to add more information to a sentence without repeating the subject, for example;
Wow, this is a big pizza! This pizza is from the new restaurant.
Wow, this pizza (that's) from the new restaurant is big! (In this case the pronoun is optional because the subject is obvious)
Practicing using these more complex types of sentences will increase your score in the IELTS a lot.
HOW TO USE PUNCTUATION
Punctuation is the traffic lights of the English language. It tells you when to stop, when to slow down, when to pause and when to go. Punctuation helps people to read your text and if you use it correctly you can increase your IELTS writing score.
- Full stop (marks the end of a sentence)
- Apostrophes (make sure you don't confuse possessive with contractions)
- Semicolons (to mark a break that is stronger than a comma but not as final as a period or full stop. Typically, you want to use a semicolon when two main clauses balance each other and are too closely linked to be made into separate sentences)
- Colons (where the semicolon provides a strong division in a sentence, the colon provides a sense of forward motion, also for lists and quotations)
- Brackets (contain additional but non-necessary information, such as examples or authors' comments)
- Hyphens (for linking words and parts of words, mainly compound adjectives)
- Do not use ellipses or dashes
ACADEMIC vs INFORMAL WRITING STYLES
- Do not use OK
- Do not use contractions ("I am" instead of "I'm")
- Do not use phrasal verbs (use the longer latin-based verbs)
- Use less common synonyms (study your thesaurus)
- Use the passive (is more formal)
TIME AT THE END TO CHECK
Make sure you leave enough time at the end to read ALL of the text you have written. Everybody makes mistakes when they write, even native speakers, and it's really important you have time at the end to look for spelling mistakes, missing words subject/verb agreement, etc. Also you need to count your words to make sure you have written more than the minimum!
