IELTS Writing: How to get the best results

Hi everybody, welcome back to www.engvid.com, I'm Adam.

Today's video is about the IELTS writing section, and again, as usual, I'll speak a little bit

more quickly just so you get a little bit of listening practice as well.

More specifically, I'm going to talk to you about how the IELTS writing is scored, and

there are four criteria that you need to understand in order to prepare yourself for this part

of the test.

Now, before I get into it, I just want to let you know also, I've written a book specifically

to help you with the IELTS writing self-evaluation.

A lot of people don't have someone to look at their essays and see what they're doing

wrong, so I've written a book that will show you all the things you need to know about

the scoring section, plus a lot of sample essays and summaries that are fully edited,

scored and assessed so that you can understand how people are losing points and how you might

be losing points as well.

But I'll get back to that in a moment.

So there are four scoring criteria.

Task achievement and task response, and the reason there's a difference is this is task

one, and this is task two.

There are two different things they're looking for for each task because different structures

of writing, right?

Then there's cohesion and coherence, that's for both tasks one and two, and that's basically

organization.

These two are about content.

So for those of you taking the TOEFL exam, not the IELTS, all of this information can

still help you.

It still applies to your TOEFL writing because writing is assessed the same way.

Lexical resource is vocabulary, and grammatical range and accuracy is grammar and structure.

Now, it's very, very important to understand that there are four sections, each worth 25%

of the score.

So grammar is not worth more than content.

Vocabulary is not worth more than grammar or cohesion and coherence; 25%, 25, 25, 25.

So make sure that you're not only focusing on vocabulary and grammar.

Just because it's an English exam doesn't mean that they just want to see English.

It's a communications exam.

Make sure that you're communicating a very clear, well-organized idea with good vocabulary,

good grammar, and so on.

But I'll get into each criterion separately.

Another thing that's very, very important to understand is that the examiners who read

your writing section, and there are going to be at least two examiners reading it, are

looking at this holistically.

Okay, they're reading your essay holistically.

They're not reading it once for the task response score, then reading it again for the cohesion

and coherence, then reading again for vocab, then reading again for grammar.

They'll usually read it once to get a sense of how everything works together.

They may read it a second time just to get the finer points that they can then assign

each criterion a score.

But generally, they're looking at the whole; that's what "holistically" means.

The whole, not the parts.

How all the parts work together.

Which means - and this is very, very important to remember - if you make a mistake with vocabulary,

you can also lose points, not just for vocabulary, but for cohesion and coherence if the sentence

doesn't make sense because of this one misused word.

If your grammar, if your sentences are so confusing, if there are so many errors in

them that I can't exactly get your idea, then your task response or task achievement score

is also losing points because your ideas are not clear.

Right?

So, everything works together.

So, don't focus just on one or two criterion, okay?

So, now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you the top three questions you should

always be asking for each criterion when it comes to your particular writing sample, okay?

Let's get into the first one.

Okay, so let's start with the task response and task achievement.

Essentially, the content of your summary and your essay.

So, TA, task achievement, task one, let me just make sure we understand that.

So, the first things you want to have in mind are did you include an overview, an overview

statement?

Now, some people prefer to put a conclusion at the end, some people prefer to put an overview

as a second paragraph or blend it with the introduction.

Either way is okay, just make sure that you do it.

Now, what is an overview statement?

An overview is a very general look at the infographic, at the bar graph, pie chart,

diagram, etc.

You must have an overview statement.

If you don't, you're automatically losing points for the task achievement.

Did you use selective details?

Now, a very common mistake that people make is they put all the information, as many numbers

as they can fit in, because they think they need to get their word count up.

Including this will lose you points.

Remember, one of the instructions for the task one is, you know, select or highlight

features of the task and make comparisons.

If you're including everything, then there's no real sense of you summarizing because you're

just repeating, basically.

Make sure you carefully select your details and make sure that if there is anywhere to

make a comparison, that you're making that comparison.

If you don't do that, you're losing points.

And all of this comes together with, did you understand the infographic?

Did you understand that something is going up, something is going down?

In other words, did you have the correct information and did you notice - again, it comes back

to the comparisons - did you notice that something went up while something went down?

Do not add your own ideas or opinions, you're only working with what's on the page in front

of you, but show the examiners that you clearly understood what's going on and what is the

most important part of the infographic.

In terms of the essay, the task two, a few things you must keep in mind.

One, did you understand the task and did you address the task?

How will they know?

Basically, the paraphrase will show them that you understood the task, but most importantly,

the thesis statement, right?

The thesis is what this essay is about.

If the thesis statement is clear, it means you understood the task and you addressed

it.

If the thesis statement is not clear, then it's not exactly sure that you understood

the task and you might be making mistakes as you go along.

So, I always recommend to people, put your opinion, put your thesis in the introduction.

Yes, you can put it in the last paragraph, but because this is a timed test, put it in

the first paragraph, that way you know you've answered the question and it'll help you stay

focused as you write your body paragraphs, because you know what it is you're supporting.

I've seen many people say, "Right, this essay will examine the reasons and provide an opinion,

and provide an opinion."

So, you used all these words to tell me that you're going to give me an opinion, why not

just give me the opinion and then go on to support it, right?

Put your opinion in the beginning, make sure you address the task right away.

Did you support your thesis?

Now, there's a couple things to keep in mind here.

One, did you, like, expand or elaborate on your argument?

Did you provide examples?

Did you connect everything in the body back to your thesis?

But most importantly, if your thesis is, like, I believe A is more important than B, and

then your body paragraph is A is very important because of this, B is very important because

of this, that's why I believe A is more important.

If you're going to give me a balanced argument, although you took a side, a very clear side

in your thesis, then it's not clear, you didn't support your thesis because you have to convince

me that A is more than B, etc.

Did you follow academic standards?

This is very basic.

Do you have at least 250 words?

Do you have very clear paragraphs, introduction, body, body, conclusion?

You can have two or three body paragraphs, don't have four, don't have five.

And then, do you have tabs or do you skip a line between paragraphs so it's very clear

to see where the paragraphs are?

Don't skip a line and put a tab, one or the other.

Did you use contractions?

For example, did you write "don't", "isn't", "can't", or did you open them?

"Do not", "is not", "cannot".

Don't use contractions in formal academic writing.

So, all of these things you need to keep in mind as well to make sure that you're not

losing points for kind of a silly reason, right?

Now, there are of course other things you need to consider, but if you want more details,

go to my other YouTube channel, youtube.com/writetothetop.

I have a little mini-series explaining all of this stuff in greater detail with some

more examples that you can see and then that'll help you as well.

Okay, so now we're going to look at cohesion and coherence.

Cohesion is basically making things stick together.

It's basically making things understandable.

So, basically words and ideas have to connect in such a way that the idea comes across easily

and simply to the reader, right?

So, the things you - the main things you need to consider are, are paragraphs unified?

Now, what do I mean by unified?

Every paragraph should have a central focus.

Don't include too many unrelated ideas in one paragraph.

In one paragraph, you're making one point or presenting one point or making one argument.

Make sure that everything in that paragraph is relating back to that.

And basically, connected to this idea is do you have topic sentences?

Do you have a very clear topic sentence at the beginning of each of the body paragraphs?

And this is something that costs people a lot of points, and this is something that

examiners are very, very specifically looking for.

So, make sure that you start your paragraphs making it very clear what you're going to

discuss here, and then stick to that.

I see a lot of people start right away with an example.

Never begin a body paragraph with an example because you don't have anything to give an

example of.

You haven't presented an argument.

So, first, my - I think this is - well, you already gave your opinion in the introduction.

First, this is because A or B. A or B is like this and that.

An example is this and that, and that's why, and then connect back to your thesis.

That is a topic sentence that presents the idea, and then a unified paragraph that builds

it and connects it back to the thesis statement, and then you have your coherence and cohesion.

Another thing you have to be very careful with is do you make good use of transitions,

links, conjunctions, pronouns, all of these cohesion devices, okay?

Especially transitions.

When you begin a new paragraph, make sure you're not suddenly starting an argument without

any connection to what came before.

This is especially true in the second and if you have a third body paragraph.

If you're shifting focus to a new point, make that clear.

If you're providing a contrasting argument to what you did before, make sure that's very

clear.

If you're adding, if you're continuing, anything you do, make it very clear to the reader where

they are going as they follow you into the second body paragraph and the third body paragraph.

But also, between sentences.

Don't have an idea in one sentence and then something completely unrelated in the next

sentence because then the reader is, you know, wait, what did I miss here, right?

Then they have to go back and try to figure out the connection for you, and you're losing

points.

The main thing to remember, every time that a reader must stop to try to figure out what's

going on, you're losing points, right?

So make everything flow smoothly from one idea to the next, one sentence to the next,

one paragraph to the next, and then this will create a whole unified essay that is easy

to understand and follow, okay?

So that's cohesion and coherence.

And this applies to both task one and task two.

But just be careful.

Don't use formal academic transitions in task one.

In the summary, don't say.

On the other hand, because you're not really making that kind of comparison, paragraph

one has this focus, paragraph two has this focus, you can just say, "Now, in terms of

the second pie chart, go on."

And all you have to do is tell me what you're focusing on and then get to it.

Don't make it a big deal.

Don't use too many words is another big issue with cohesion and coherence.

Having said that, let's look at lexical resource because that's also an issue there.

Okay, so now we're going to look at lexical resource, vocabulary.

First thing, like, I'm going to focus mostly on the essay, but I'll give you a couple of

tips about task one as well.

So, for the essay, this is super, super important.

Did you paraphrase the task?

If you're using a lot of words from the task, like words that were given to you, you're

losing points.

Make sure to change or rewrite the task as much as possible to avoid this.

Now, the reason is, one, because they're giving it to you; two, it shows that you understand

the task, that's also part of task response; but mostly, it's just to show that you have

enough vocabulary that you can say one thing a different way, and that's the key.

Lexical resource, do you have the resources to express yourself in different ways in different

contexts?

Very, very important.

Now, in the task one, they're not giving you that much information, and there's only so

much you can paraphrase.

You're not going to change certain things that can't be changed, especially if they're

part of the infographic, but again, change as much as you can.

If they're using "average", say "mean".

If they're using "the most", say "the highest", or again, depending on the context and what

information is given.

Every word you can change, change.

Also, did you or do you repeat words that have clear alternatives?

Now, clear alternatives doesn't only mean synonyms.

Of course, use synonyms, but I've seen people write an essay and they had, like, one word,

and throughout the essay, they've used every synonym in the thesaurus for this one word.

That's not helping you.

That's showing the examiners that you memorized a bunch of words in their synonyms and you're

just trying to force them in.

So, don't necessarily use all the synonyms.

You can also use pronouns, or you can rearrange sentences so you don't actually even need

to use this word.

Combine sentences, make this word use - like, help you produce two ideas instead of one

word with one idea, the same word with another idea.

Combine those two sentences and make them work together.

Minimize your need to use that one word.

Lots of different alternatives, part of your resources, show them you have those resources.

And of course, did you use words naturally?

So, I've seen this a lot of times.

People write a very, you know, relatively simple style of writing, not crazy big words

or complicated words.

But then suddenly, this one word that is obviously very academic, very high-end, not commonly

used in everyday situations, and it's very clear to the examiners that you forced this

word in thinking it will get you more points.

Right?

So, that's not natural, that's forced.

So, for example, if you're going to use the word "plethora", but in all the other situations

you just write "a lot", which is what "plethora" means, then that word "plethora" means you've

memorized it somewhere and you're losing points for that word, not gaining points.

Better to use "a lot" than use "plethora" as the only academic word and then all simple

words.

So, if you have "plethora", make sure you have "myriad", make sure you have all kinds

of like "mitigated" instead of "reduced".

Make sure you are on a consistent level of vocabulary, not forcing it in.

And also, and this I see all the time, it's very obvious you memorized words if you're

not using them correctly.

Just because you know the word, it means nothing if you don't know how to use this word.

Don't use it.

If you use simple words, you'll actually get a higher score than using big words incorrectly.

Now, for task one, the lexical resource is not about big words, because this is not an

academic essay.

This is a summary of details, right?

What they're looking for in task one are your function words.

Increase.

Are you using "increase", "increase", "increase", "increase", or are you using other words like

"rise" or "blow up" or whatever other expressions you have?

And so, function words for "increase", "decrease", but especially words like "plateau", "fluctuate"

respectively.

They know all these words are coming, they want to make sure that you're using them correctly.

So, don't try to write an essay style in your task one.

Write very simple and worry about the function words more than anything else, okay?

So, that's lexical resource, now we still have grammar to look at.

Okay, so now, finally, our last criterion is grammatical range and accuracy.

And again, basically it's grammar, and too many people focus too much on this and the

vocab.

So, a few things you have to keep in mind.

Do your structures show variety?

So, yes, you do need to try to have different types of sentences and different types of

clauses, but don't overstress about this.

If you have two or three good, complex sentences, that's usually - you know, it's pretty much

enough to show that you can do it.

But I've seen a lot of people, they try to make every sentence a little bit complicated

or complex with all kinds of different structures, and inversion, and subjunctive, and this clause

and that clause.

At some point, you're just giving yourself more opportunities to make mistakes.

Get your message across first, that's your first priority, make it clear, and then add

a little bit of variety and style to it, just to show them that you can.

If all of your sentences are simple, also not good.

But better to be simple and easy to read than overly complex and not make any sense or not

make any argument to the examiners, to the readers.

This one, I shouldn't have to ask this, but it's a real thing.

Are you aware of basic language rules?

Are you aware that subject and verb must agree?

Are you aware that he or she must take an "s" in the verb, like in a simple present?

Are you aware of how to use basic prepositions, basic punctuation?

All of these things, how to capitalize, how to avoid a run-on sentence or a sentence fragment.

These are all basics of the language, basics of grammar that a lot of people are still

losing a lot of points for.

And again, remember the whole idea about being the holistic scoring?

If you're making basic mistakes, and I'm not exactly sure what's going on, you're also

losing points for task response, maybe for cohesion and coherence as well.

Everything affects everything else, which leads to the last question.

Do your mistakes, do your errors distract from the reading?

And the same as cohesion and coherence, if I'm reading your essay and I have to stop

and try to figure out what is going on, try to make the connections for you, try to make

sense of your syntax for you, then you're losing points.

If your grammar is not at a high enough level right now, work on your grammar and build

your vocabulary first, then think about the IELTS exam.

If you're desperate to get your IELTS score, it's not going to help you.

Desperation doesn't help you.

Desperation should only push you to study harder.

But there are no tricks to the IELTS writing, right?

You have to know how to express an idea, how to get an idea across to a reader, that's

the key.

Anyway, if you want to know more about all this stuff, like I mentioned, right to the

top on YouTube, I have more things you need to consider and I have a lot more examples

that you can actually see how all of these things apply.

And if you want even more examples, like I mentioned, my book is available.

It has ten summaries written by students or written by people preparing for the exam.

I edit these summaries and I have 40 essays, fully edited, scored, assessed with notes

of where the problems are, and all of them have been rewritten.

So, every essay submitted by a student was not only fixed, but was rewritten to a band

nine level so that you can compare.

So, you can see why this person got a 5.5 and why - what this essay could look like

as a 9.

And I try to keep as many of the original ideas as I can.

You can buy the print book through Amazon, you can buy the PDF e-book through my website,

www.writetotop.com.

And, again, it's only there to help you improve for the writing section because I know that

the writing section is the hardest section of the IELTS exam and the TOEFL exam as well.

So, make sure you're prepared for it.

Don't focus on one area, focus on all four areas.

Now, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me at the www.engvid.com page.

There's also a quiz, you can take it there.

And come back for more useful tips on test prep, English, grammar, all kinds of useful

things.

See you again soon.

Bye-bye.