Two of my favorite pastime are collecting and organizing. Counting down the final exam day, I am sure that something I should do to sum up my study lessons here. Still, writing is my weakest part in my IELTS but I will not surrender because I know I sacrifice many things to be here: my students, my final project supervision and my love life with my husband :p
So, Let’s begin!
General
- Do not copy exact words of the task instructions, by rephrasing the instructions you can show your ability to comprehend the task and your vocabulary range.
- Academic writing values modesty and tolerance of others’ views, hence, instead of using ‘I insist that governments do more to protect minority languages’ please write ‘I believe that governments should do more..’
- One of most useful strategies to link between sentences is by using this or these.
- Make sure you already noticed in what areas are your lacks in writing skills. Keep them in mind when you check your work. It is worthwhile learning how to effectively proofread your writing.
IELTS Writing Part 1
- Instead of using from .. to .. for indicating the time period, you can also use between .. and …
- Use varied adverbs to make your comparisons more exact: popular, interesting, appealing, preferable.
- Use markers to emphasize which the small and big difference. For big differences use: many, much, far and significantly and for small differences use: slightly, nearly.
- For describing process, do not overuse signpost expressions. You can insert the signpost in between subject and verb (precipitation then increases) or between auxiliary and verb and main verb (the trees are then extracted).
- To find the pattern of the data easily, group the similar items together and looking associated trends. If you can’t see the pattern, feel free to change your focus until you can find the appropriate pattern.
IELTS Writing Part 2
- Please spend 6-7 minutes on the first 3 stages of writing: analyzing the question, thinking of ideas and making a plan. Then, spend 30 minutes to write your essay based on your plan and the rest 3-4 minutes is error checking.
- Your writing supposed to be clear and easy to read, therefore, avoids writing more than one subordinate clause in each complex sentence.
- It is important not to make absolute or sweeping statements, you can do this by using a range of modifiers and softer vocabulary. In spite of writing ‘Rapid technological change destroys traditional values’, please use ‘Rapid technological change can weaken traditional values’. Do you feel the difference?
- Use range of expressions to signal the reader about giving examples with: for example, for instance, another good example, and an example. If you want to pour several facts use indeed or in fact.
- Use modal verbs to frame your ideas. Such as will to state your intention, must and should to express a necessity, can and could to make suggestions and would to indicate the consequences of implementing suggestion.
- Make sure you complete your essay by writing a conclusion, even if this consists of only one sentence. It is better to omit or shorten body paragraphs rather than fail to complete the task.
I hope these tips which were taken from Writing for IELTS can help us to pass the exam 🙂
Vhyn's Zone 