to improve your IELTS writing essays and your score you should work on four main areas and
I have a four week action plan that will take you through this process step by step no need to
write anything down as you can download this plan in the PDF format it's Asiya let's get started
the four areas to work on are how well you complete the task your essay structure and
flow vocabulary and grammar these are the four areas IELTS examine SSS vocabulary and grammar
depend on how well you know English but the first two also depend on how well you write
essays so these are your essay writing skills and if you learn how to meet these requirements it
can really help you improve your score quickly let's talk about a four week plan week by week
in week one I suggest concentrating on the first area the task unlike IELTS speaking where you can
just get by nine by fluently chatting about the topic in IELTS writing you really need
to put some thought into your essay you must do everything that the task tells you to do so what
is it first of all write at least 250 words this requirement is straightforward if your answer is
too short you'll be penalized but you won't be rewarded for writing essays that are too long
so aim for 270 300 words if you're Advanced you may go as high as 330 words next
address all parts of the task basically you must answer the essay question fully what
exactly that means depends on the question it's very important to understand this
there are five main types of questions the first is advantages and disadvantages where the question
reads do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in this case you must discuss three things
the advantages the disadvantages in your opinion explaining which you think are greater
even if you think the advantages are far greater you must still write about the disadvantages
as much as about the advantages next the two views and your opinion the question is always
discuss both these views and give your own opinion similarly to the previous essay you
should discuss view one view two and present your opinion explaining what you think next
there are two main types of questions do you agree or disagree and is this a positive or negative
development in the essay of this type you should not write about why you agree and why you disagree
with this statement rather you should present your opinion and explain why you think so next problem
Solutions essay explain some possible reasons for this problem and suggest some solutions
there are two parts to cover reasons and solutions and finally two direct questions
this is when you have two questions in your essay rather than one
what might be the reasons for this what are the disadvantages of this situation in this
essay you should answer each question here is what you should do in week one
find and analyze one topic of each type think what should you write about in each essay IELTS tasks
are typical once you understand how they're built reply to them will become a bit easier
the next requirement is to present a clear position throughout the response
as you've just seen some of the tasks directly ask for your opinion do you agree discuss both
views and give your own opinion others don't for example problem Solutions in any case have
a look at the five questions you found what do you think of each topic don't be afraid to
express your opinion tell the examiner what you think throughout your essay make it very clear
finally examine this check if you present relevant well-developed ideas
every idea should help you answer the main essay question plan all five essays once you're finished
check if each idea is relevant and each example is relevant if not you shouldn't include them
then write two essays leave them for one day at least one day then read each essay and check if
your position is clear and your ideas are relevant week two this week we concentrate on the next area
of essay writing skills structure and flow in the official list of IELTS requirements it's
called coherence and cohesion examiners do check if you logically organize information and ideas
your essay should have four or five paragraphs an introduction two or three body paragraphs
and a conclusion and you shouldn't have any one sentence paragraphs and your ideas should
develop logically you present one idea then the next and the next and you shouldn't jump from
one idea to another and then back or repeat the same idea several times there should be
progress in USA in each sentence there should be something new you should also present one
Topic in each body paragraph for example you may have a paragraph about all the advantages
the first sentence of this paragraph should say what you're gonna write about for example
studying a variety of subjects at school has a number of benefits
this topic sentence doesn't have to be complex but it should explain what will be in this paragraph
all this is closely related to another important aspect of writing essays developing your ideas
that's when you give an idea explain why you think so why this is important Give an example A
Cause A Reason basically discuss this idea deeper before you move on to the next idea your tasks for
week two are right three essays this week in these essays try to logically organize ideas and present
a clear Central Topic in each paragraph but there is another requirement to link your ideas
all the sentences in your essay should be connected to link sentences we use linking
words however moreover besides although and so on learn formal linking words to use in your essay
you need to know several words for each situation how to present another idea how to contrast ideas
how to give a reason and so on check the linking words in the essays you've written
did you repeat any of them too often could you use more formal linking words find what linkers you
could use instead by the end of week two you will have written five essays one of each type and you
will have brushed up on all the essay writing skills week three half of your score depends
on your vocabulary and grammar in short examiners check how many words you know how many grammatical
structures you know and how many mistakes you make I've seen a lot of IELTS essays where candidates
try to impress The Examiner so hard that they make many more mistakes than they normally would
yes complex structures pull your score up but only if used correctly mistakes drag your score down
my advice is to concentrate on explaining your thoughts and making your essay clear this week
you should do two things find typical mistakes you make by checking your essays at textrunch.com it
costs between two and four dollars per essay check several essays to see where you make
mistakes and how many ask your proofreader to only correct things which are definitely wrong
otherwise they may change some things just because they feel it sounds better we don't need that
look for patterns are there any errors you make repeatedly could you try to avoid them
I know there is no switch to error-free writing but try to reduce the number of mistakes you
make next correct unnecessary word repetition this is another thing examiners check for do
you repeat the same words over and over reading your essay loud can help you spot this problem
think if you could use pronouns it they or synonyms to avoid repetition where possible
in this video I'm giving you a plan of what to learn but if you like to get in-depth
information on each aspect of IELTS writing with examples and benign sample answers check out my
preparation packs you learn what to write about in each paragraph what are the different ways
to answer each type of task and how you can meet each band 7 plus requirement I'll link them below
the next stage of preparation is the same for everyone week 4 is practice
so far you've been writing essays concentrating on a certain aspect of writing presenting a
clear opinion or structure or word repetition now it's time to practice writing in timed conditions
this is very different and most likely you have to compromise on quality to finish but
this is part of the task and if one of your answers isn't finished you'll lose a lot of
points so you need to find a way to finish set your timer to 40 minutes and write one essay
every day for five days each day choose a different type of essay if you take my courses
you'll also be able to compare your practice answers to band 9 sample answers and see different
ways to answer each question by the end of this four week practice you will have worked on all
aspects of your writing and will have written two essays of each type this is a very thorough
preparation for your exam you can download the action plan with all the requirements and tasks
to do in the PDF format right now it includes some essay topics from Mario exams you could use to
practice thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye