The IELTS is a one-of-a-kind examination that evaluates your English skills according to international standards. Top educational consultants combine their efforts to come up with questions that assess the candidate’s skills accurately. That’s why thousands of organizations, both educational and non-educational, accept IELTS scores while evaluating international candidates.
If you check the IELTS exam syllabus and pattern on AbroAdvice.com, you’ll notice that the exam is divided into four segments – Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. According to candidates, the Writing segment can be quite challenging. So, in this blog, you’ll cover detailed insights into the Writing Tasks outlined in the exam pattern and tips on how to ace them.
What is the Writing Test Format?
The Writing segment is arguably the toughest section of the IELTS. Most Indian candidates always struggle with writing proper English that is grammatically correct, comprehensive, flows well, and includes all the characteristics of good writing. That’s why they also prefer to get help from the best SOP writing services in India for their SOPs rather than trying to attempt them on their own.
Even if you struggle with this section, you can’t give up! After all, your academic and career goals are on the line. Now, the first step to improving your skills and acing this section is to have a firm grasp of the format. Once you do, you can come up with a strategy that will ensure high scores. On that note, let’s go over the format.
IELTS General Test
Timing – 60 minutes
Number of Questions – 2
In the General Test, you have to complete two tasks. The details are as follows –
Task 1 – Write a letter of correspondence in at least 150 words. This letter can cover a wide range of topics. You might be asked to convey your apologies for missing a friend’s engagement. Or, you might have to write a letter of complaint to the manager of a company. So, it’s a toss-up between a formal and an informal letter.
Task 2 – Write an essay in at least 250 words. The essay topics for IELTS General candidates are quite generic. You might be asked to state your opinion on introducing mental health classes in school, the role of technology in medicine, or the negative effects of social media. You don’t have to express in-depth knowledge of any field in this segment. However, you should brush up your general knowledge and social awareness,
IELTS Academic Test
Timing – 60 minutes
Number of Questions – 2
The IELTS Academic Writing segment also includes two tasks. Let’s look into the details –
Task 1 – Describe/Summarize/Explain the information that you can gather from the provided graph/table/chart/diagram in at least 150 words. The goal here is to identify relevant information or trends in the data after observing them carefully. You might also encounter questions where you’ll be provided with two maps or structural drawings of the same area taken at two different times. You have to observe the two diagrams and point out the major differences between them.
Task 2 – The second task comprises an essay of at least 250 words. While it might seem similar to the General Training task, the topic for Academic Writing is slightly different. It is more focused on academic issues and incidents or discussions surrounding contemporary events. You might be asked to agree or disagree with a certain opinion, present your personal ideas on a topic, note down advantages and disadvantages, or explain a problem and provide a solution to it.
What are the Assessment Criteria for IELTS Writing Tasks?
The first step to improving your writing skills is to figure out which aspects the exam will focus on. It’s easy to score the Listening and Reading sections of the exam since there is only one right answer for the questions. If you answer correctly, you get one point.
But the Writing section is where subjectivity comes into effect. That’s why this part is evaluated by human examiners who assign a score to each task based on the following aspects –
- Task Achievement (TA)
- Were you successful in providing a clear explanation of the visual information?
- How accurate were you when describing the comparisons between two diagrams and the trends in a chart or a table?
- Were you able to cover all aspects of the topic?
- Task Response (TR)
- Have you answered the topic accurately?
- Have you taken a clear stance on the topic?
- Were you able to develop your ideas properly using examples?
- Coherence and Cohesion (CC)
- Is it easy to distinguish different parts of your essay, such as the introduction, the body paragraphs, and the conclusion?
- Do the points that you explored in each paragraph flow smoothly and logically into the next one?
- Have you highlighted one issue properly in a single paragraph?
- Lexical Resource (LR)
- How appropriate is the vocabulary that you have used in correspondence to the topic?
- Have you used any subject or domain-specific vocabulary based on the visual information presented to you?
- Are you able to understand the subtle differences in meaning between synonyms?
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA)
- Have you used complex grammatical structures throughout the tasks?
- Have you expressed masterful control over subject-verb agreement, tense, sentence structure, and punctuation?
- Have you expressed your opinions in writing with little to no grammatical errors?
As you can see, the evaluators focus on your ability to express yourself properly, your use of extensive vocabulary, and your mastery of English grammar and punctuation. In order to ace all these, you should ideally start reading extensively in order to broaden your vocabulary. Additionally, you should review basic English grammar to remember all the rules that you’ve covered in class ages ago.
Step-by-Step Guide to Scoring Well on Writing Tasks
If you’re worried that your overall band score will be affected because of this section, then this guide is just for you! Worrying won’t get you anywhere. So, check out this step-by-step guide to figure out how you should approach these writing tasks:
- Cover your bases before the exam
Start prepping for the IELTS at least 3-4 months before the exam. It’s easy to forget some of the intricacies of grammatical rules and conventions. So, you should dedicate an entire month to revising English grammar. Once you’re done, it’s time to move on to vocabulary. Write down any new words that you come across from newspapers, social media, books, blog posts, magazines, etc.
- Understand the task instructions
You only have 60 minutes to complete two writing tasks. So, if you don’t understand the task instructions properly, you’ll end up approaching the question from the wrong perspective. That’s a nightmare you don’t want to experience. Hence, you should familiarize yourself with the various types of questions you might encounter in this section beforehand.
- Read the question carefully
One of the main evaluation points of Task Response is to check whether you have been able to answer the topic accurately. So, you must learn to comprehend what the question asks of you and avoid going off-topic.
- Organize the points you want to cover
Don’t start writing as soon as you’ve read the question. Take your time to think about the points that you’d like to cover, the stance you’d take, and which examples you wish to use. Once you’ve chalked out a rough draft in your mind, you can start composing your task.
- Hook the readers in the introduction
Evaluators will focus on whether you’re able to grab the reader’s attention from the start. So, remember to use an interesting hook to stroke the reader’s curiosity about the topic.
- Cover different issues in separate paragraphs
You must maintain a proper structure in your writing. That means dedicating a single paragraph to one point only. Don’t try to jam in multiple issues in a single segment. It decreases the readability of the content.
- Proofread and revise your content
A single spelling or grammatical mistake can have drastic consequences on your scores. So, make sure you revise your content thoroughly until the last second.
In summary,
The writing tasks of the IELTS vary depending on whether you’re appearing for the Academic or the General Training exam. While both share the essay, the first task is different. The topics for General Training are more focused on common knowledge, while the Academic tasks are more related to academia, research, and contemporary issues. Since the evaluation covers multiple aspects, you must cover all bases and keep practicing in order to write flawless papers under time constraints.
