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Writing tips

How to prepare for the IELTS Writing test, tips and techniques that help to raise your score

Writing Task 1 letter – is the order important?

Have you ever thought about the order of information in your GT Writing Task 1 letter? Have you ever wondered if there’s a specific order in which you should write all the information that the task statement requires? Here is what you need to know:

The GT Writing Task 1 statement usually asks you to write a letter to someone, including the reason why you are writing and some bullet points with information for you to include in your letter.

For example, the task statement can be:

You are travelling next month to stay with a host family you do not know as part of a student exchange program.

Write a letter to the family to introduce yourself. In your letter,
– say when and how you will be arriving
– tell the family a little about yourself
– ask about the weather to pack suitable clothes

A student asked a very good question: what will happen if you write about the bullet points, but NOT in the same order they appear in the task statement? Will your score go down if, for example, you first write about yourself (2nd bullet point), then about when you will be arriving (1st bullet point) and then ask about the weather (3rd bullet point)?

The answer is – your score will not suffer if you write in a different order from the task statement. If your letter is long enough (at least 150 words), has no spelling errors, is grammatically correct and written using the appropriate tone and vocabulary, you don’t have anything to worry about.

One thing to keep in mind though is that often there is logic to the order of bullet points, and following that logic may be easier than re-arranging it. This means that if you write in the same order of bullet points, your letter will turn out coherent and there will be a logical progression. However, if you can write a good logical letter with all the information in a different order from that of bullet points’ – that would be absolutely fine.

You can find more writing tips in our new book, ‘IELTS Success Formula’ – go here to learn more.

Essay Writing

As an IELTS writing instructor, I am often asked by my students what the secret is to successful essay writing. When I tell them ‘lots of practice, lots of guidance and lots of patience’, they usually look at me a bit disappointed as though my answer was too obvious.

So I tell them, ‘just follow the 4 Cs.’

‘The 4 Cs?’ they ask with new interest.

Yes, the 4 Cs: conciseness, cohesion, coherence and composition. Each needs to be employed properly if you want to score well on your Task 2 essay. In this short article, which I am writing exclusively for www.ielts-blog.com, I would like to touch on each of the 4 Cs and describe how you can use these powerful ideas to heighten your IELTS score.

So let’s begin with conciseness. Unlike other languages which prize long and very elaborate sentences, proper written English is language that says a lot in few words. Students often falsely believe that the longer a sentence is the more academic it sounds.

Writing longer sentences in your response is problematic for 2 reasons. The first is it heightens the chances of errors related to coherence. The second is it makes it more difficult for you to control the grammar of the sentence, leading to silly grammatical mistakes. Too often, students receive disappointing marks on their IELTS essay simply because their long sentences led them to issues with coherence and grammar.

So how long should a sentence be? Including cohesive phrases (the second ‘C’ in our list), typical sentences are somewhere between 8 and 15 words.

Now let’s take a look at how to write these cohesive phrases.

Cohesion refers to words and phrases that help ideas link together. Cohesive phrases include wordings like…

Because of this, …
As this shows, …
As can clearly be seen from this example, …
It is clear that…
Thus, the idea that…
To illustrate this, …
After analyzing both points of view, …
To provide a summary, …
Without a doubt, this causes…

What I always suggest to students is to commit many of these phrases to memory and learn how to use them properly. When you get to your examination, you can use these phrases with confidence, which will not only save you time but also reduce the chances of grammatical mistakes.

Our third C is coherence, which is the notion that all ideas you present in your essay should be easily understood by your reader. As you can probably guess, using the cohesive phrases above correctly can really help to boost the coherence in your essay as they clarify your ideas. Coherence is also greatly improved by proper grammar, so make an effort to brush up on this prior to your examination.

Our final C, composition, refers to employing a proper essay structure. This means including a thesis (in the case of an argument essay), at least 2 supporting ideas, real-life examples, proper discussion of those examples as well as some kind of summary and finally a reasoned conclusion. To break it down, an argument essay is most likely going to contain 15 sentences partitioned into 4 paragraphs and follow a pattern something like this:

Introduction paragraph

  • A background sentence giving some background information on the essay topic.
  • A more detailed sentence linking the background sentence to the thesis.
  • A thesis that presents your point of view on your given topic.
  • An outline sentence declaring the 2 points you are going to use to support your thesis.

Supporting paragraph 1

  • A topic sentence illustrating the first point you will be presenting to support your thesis (this point taken from your outline sentence).
  • A sentence showing a real-life example of this topic in action.
  • A discussion sentence that shows how your example links or proves your topic sentence.
  • A conclusion sentence that links this entire paragraph back to your thesis.

Supporting paragraph 2

  • A topic sentence illustrating the second point you will be presenting to support your thesis (this point taken from your outline sentence).
  • A sentence showing a real-life example of this topic in action.
  • A discussion sentence that shows how your example links or proves your topic sentence.
  • A conclusion sentence that links this entire paragraph back to your thesis.

Conclusion paragraph

  • A summary sentence that briefly states the 2 points you discussed in your supporting paragraphs.
  • A restatement of your thesis using different words.
  • A prediction or recommendation based on the topic you have been given.

By employing a logical structure like this you fulfill your essay’s requirement for proper composition.

So, in a nutshell, the 4 Cs make up the essential elements in a successful essay. Conciseness keeps sentences brief, cohesion helps the sentences link together, coherence maintains understanding in the essay and composition links all parts of the essay together logically.

Make an effort to use the 4 Cs properly and I guarantee your IELTS written mark will improve.

Good luck on your exam!

This article was written by Ryan Higgins, an online IELTS instructor, blogger and author. For more of his free IELTS resources, visit his blog.