hi I'm Justin welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you can learn how
to answer task 1 on the IELTS general
writing exam in the general IELTS
writing exam task 1 usually involves
writing a letter usually you have to do
3 things in your letter you have 20
minutes and you need to write at least
150 words in this lesson you'll see how
to plan and write an effective general
task 1 IELTS answer you'll learn simple
strategies you can use to write a better
answer and improve your IELTS writing
score let's start by looking at a sample
question your neighbor has been making a
lot of noise recently and this has been
causing you problems and you want to ask
them to stop write a letter to your
neighbor in your letter ask for an
explanation for the noise explain the
problems this has caused you say what
will happen if the problem is not solved
pause the video if you want more time to
look at the question
let's begin by looking at what you need
to think about before you write
planning for IELTS general tasks one
answers is easier than for other IELTS
writing tasks all general tasks one
questions have the same structure this
means that your answer can have the same
structure every time the question asks
you to do three things each point can go
in its own paragraph so your answer will
have three short paragraphs like this
then you need a short introduction for
this question you can just write a
single sentence to explain why you're
writing like this I am writing to
complain about the noise levels coming
from your apartment in recent weeks the
introduction might be different in other
tasks for example if you're writing to a
friend you'd write something much
simpler there is one more thing you need
to think about when planning tone when
we say tone we mean how formal or
informal your letter should be task one
of the general IELTS writing exam is the
only place where tone is clearly
mentioned in the scoring scheme you need
to write in an appropriate tone and your
tone needs to be consistent what tone do
you think you need here should your
letter be formal neutral or informal
probably your letter will be somewhere
between neutral and formal you're
writing to your neighbor so you don't
need to be incredibly formal but you're
also writing to complain which adds
formality in our experience one of the
most common mistakes with task 1 answers
is not getting the tone right either
candidates choose an appropriate level
of formality or they mix different
levels in the same answer both of these
mistakes will hurt your score so before
you write anything think about how
formal your letter should be now
you have a plan let's write our first
paragraph
look at the beginning of a letter dear
Emily how's it going I'm actually
writing because I have some issues with
noise coming from your apartment
I would like to demand an explanation
for the noise levels I mean what on
earth are you doing
that's so noisy I can hardly have a
conversation with someone sitting next
to me because it's so loud please inform
me what is occurring pause the video if
you want more time to look at the answer
think about whether this is good or
whether it needs some work there's a
problem with this beginning do you know
what it is
the problem is tone as you heard before
it's a common mistake to mix formal and
informal language here you can see very
formal sentences like I would like to
demand an explanation for the noise
levels you can also see more informal
language like I mean what on earth are
you doing that's so noisy the start of
the letter also mixes different levels
of formality writing how's it going is a
more informal way to start a letter or
an email but if you're writing to
complain you would almost certainly need
to use a more neutral or formal tone to
get a high score in the general IELTS
writing exam you need to write in a
consistent tone if you want to practice
think about how you could improve the
answer you saw before you can pause the
video and start again when you're ready
let's see how you can improve this
answer pause the video if you need more
time to read you can see that we've got
rid of some of the more informal
language like how's it going this is
also better because it's consistent
without being too formal
our original answer included very formal
language like please inform me what is
occurring you don't get more points for
being more
formal you get a high score by writing
in an appropriate and consistent tone
next let's continue by thinking about
use of language in your answer
tasks one of the general IELTS writing
exam is the simplest of all the IELTS
writing tasks this is an advantage but
it also means you need to think
carefully about using a wide range of
language let's look at this by adding
another paragraph to our model answer
this situation is having a bad effect on
my entire family I have been unable to
sleep because of the loud noises even
late at night my son complains that he
cannot do his homework even our dog has
been behaving oddly she's not eating
well and has no energy this is a good
paragraph and the use of language is
already good however to get higher
scores you would need to use a wider
range of language let's do two things
here first look at the five underline
words and phrases can you change these
words and phrases to make them more
detailed and more specific think about
it you'll see some possible answers in a
minute your second job is to take two
sentences and combine them into a more
complex sentence there's more than one
way you can do this so find an idea
which makes sense to you think about
your answers now pause the video if you
need more time ready let's look you can
see that you don't need to make big
changes a lot of students think that you
need to use a lot of very academic
language to get high scores and IELTS
you don't to get high scores even band 9
you need to use a range of language with
flexibility and precision that might
include academic language in some cases
but for a letter that wouldn't be
appropriate collocations are very
important for your IELTS vocabulary
score using collocations like sleep
properly
noise levels lose your appetite or focus
on your homework
will boost your vocabulary score for
grammar we simply connected two
sentences with a conjunction while this
adds variety to the sentence structures
which will also help your score at this
point you need to write one more
paragraph here you're going to see how
you connect your ideas more effectively
there's a common problem we see with
IELTS writing in our students students
often plan each paragraph separately
then they write each paragraph as a
separate unit and the paragraphs don't
have much connection to each other this
will hurt your score 25 percent of your
score is for coherence and cohesion to
get a higher score for coherence and
cohesion your writing needs to have a
clear progression that means it needs to
have a clear beginning middle and end
let's look at the final paragraph which
doesn't handle this well I must ask you
to reduce the amount of noise you make
and try to keep quiet
during the evening when we are at home
if you continue making noise at these
levels I will have no choice but to make
a noise complaint to the police and/or
to the City Council regards Samira pause
the video if you want more time to read
the paragraph this is not bad but it
doesn't include any links or references
to the other points you made in the
letter it also lacks a concluding phrase
which could provide a strong clear end
to your letter let's see how you could
improve this can you see what's changed
pause the video to read there are four
changes first we made a reference to the
first paragraph then we added a
reference to the second paragraph we
also provided repetition by adding a
reference to this situation instead of
talking about noise levels again finally
we added a concluding phrase and you
finished practice these steps and ideas
and you should be able to get a high
score and task one on the general IELTS
exam here's the question for you what
did you find most difficult and task one
of the general IELTS writing exam please
let us know in the comments you can see
the full-text of the model answer on our
website oxfordonlineenglish.com look for
a link in the video description if
you're watching on YouTube thanks for
watching see you next time