When preparing for the IELTs writing test, the most intelligent place to start is with understanding how the essays will be marked. Students can easily avoid common mistakes and achieve a 7.0 or higher by fully understanding the 4 IELTS score components. If you want to score well, understand the IELTS writing grading criteria first. In this post we will look at each category and provide ways to boost your test score.
The 4 Score Components
The marking criteria falls into the following 4 categories – which are equally weighted at 25% to makeup your overall writing score:
- Task Achievement (Task 1) and Task Response (Task 2),
- Coherence and Cohesion,
- Lexical Response,
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
Task Achievement (Task 1) and Task Response (Task 2)
To get full marks in this category you need to do what the task asks you to do.
- Do you answer the question being asked?
- Do you answer all parts of the question?
- In Task 1, do you clearly give details of the key features, trends and differences?
- In Task 2, do you clearly justify your position and write in a direct fashion?
Ways to boost your score in this area:
- Don’t rush into writing! Allow yourself time to read and fully understand the question. Often you will have 2 or 3 points to consider/answer. Underline them!
- Determine what type of question is being asked and use the right structure. The first paragraph should be the introduction. The last paragraph should be the conclusion. The middle two / three paragraphs should be your body paragraphs.
- Include ALL of the key points in a graph/chart. Omitting important elements can lose you points. Again, spend time reviewing the chart before you start writing.
- Remember to state your position/opinion in the introduction.
- Use examples to explain your position in more detail in the two middle supporting paragraphs.
- Write at least 150 words for Task 1 and 250 words for Task 2.
- Task 2 contributes 2x as much as Task 1 so you may want to focus on it first.
- Watch your timing and leave enough time to answer both essays. Allow 40 minutes for Task 2 and 20 minutes for Task 1.
Coherence and Cohesion
In this category, the examiner is looking to see if you can:
- logically organize information and ideas,
- clearly progress from one thought to another. This should be achieved by using a range of cohesive devices throughout (i.e. connecting sentences with the appropriate phrases like ‘on the one hand’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’, etc),
- present a clear central topic within each paragraph when answering the Task 2 question.
Ways to boost your score in this area:
- Plan before you write! Think about your ideas and examples first. Jot down a few keywords to keep you focused.
- Use an idea that will be easy and simple to write about. This is not the place to show off your creative thinking. Complex ideas are often too hard to communicate and will lose you points.
- Present only one idea in each paragraph.
- Remember to clearly state your position in the introduction and make sure that each following paragraph links back to that.
- Learn to use a range of linking words and phrases correctly. (I.e. ‘on the one hand’; ‘on the other hand’; ‘Furthermore’; ‘Moreover’, ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’ etc.)
- Perfect your punctuation! Often essays become incoherent simply because commas, and semicolons are in the wrong place or full stops are missing.
Lexical Response
In this component, we are essentially looking at the vocabulary/words that you use in your essay. Here you need to:
- use a range of vocabulary
- use vocabulary with precision (i.e. use the right word for the meaning you want to portray),
- use the correct combination (collocation) of words together.
Ways to boost your score in this area:
- Do not use the same noun, adjective, or verb in the same sentence, or preferably not even in the same paragraph.
- Leave time at the end of your essay to check for repeated word use and change words where you can.
- Learn native English collocations of words (i.e. commit suicide, NOT undertake suicide; burst into tears, NOT blow up into tears; surge of anger, NOT rush of anger; completely satisfied, NOT downright satisfied).
- When you are learning vocabulary, learn word combinations as well.
- Use less common vocabulary where you can use it precisely (i.e, enormous, NOT big; minute, NOT small; intellectual property; INSTEAD of copyright law).
- Check for spelling mistakes. One easy way to do this is to read your essay backwards word by word.
- Write a list of three similar ideas. This is an easy way to pack in some vocabulary. (i.e. International marketing is invasive, insensitive, and inappropriate in the 21st century)
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
In our final category, students need to remember to:
- use a variety of complex sentence structures,
- produce error-free sentences,
- have a good control of grammar and punctuation.
Ways to boost your score in this area:
- Be more accurate with simple grammar than complex grammar.
- Learn how to use articles correctly (i.e. a, an, the, etc)
- Use relative clauses (who/that/which/when etc) to impress the examiner.
And the Most Important Ways to Boost Your Score
Practice writing numerous essays. Get feedback on your writing from a native English speaker. Create an error list of the types of mistakes you frequently make. Spend time working on the grading criteria that you feel you are the weakest in. Finally, save five minutes at the end of your exam to read through your essay and check for silly mistakes.
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