Hey everyone! welcome back to my channel This is Dori I'm a teacher of English and today we're
going to talk about the top 15 IELTS writing tips that you should keep in your mind
So, let's get started! Avoid contractions of verbs in formal essays, for example, avoid using "isn't" "don't" "can't" "won't" instead of "will not"
"is not" "do not" "cannot". In formal essays always use the whole 2 words or 1 word in case of cannot ok you can still use
contractions of verbs in general writing task 1 but only if you're asked to send
a letter to a friend or a very close relative If you are asked to write a formal letter again avoid
using contractions of verbs
You usually take this for granted or you are not thinking about it at all but please try to express your ideas
clearly sometimes you may have a lot of ideas and your own personal thinking and
you think that your reader can keep up with that but the reader is not in your
mind so how you can do that
in practice. Take your ideas step by step; express them on paper in this way and always ask yourself: if
someone else reads what I'm writing, will he understand what I'm trying to say?
I know that you think that if you use complex phrasing in your essays
you're going to get more marks but really this is actually true only if you
know 100% how to use complex phrasing the correct way if you don't and you
try to do that this will count against you because you're bound to make
even more mistakes in both grammar and syntax
so use complex phrasing only if you're 100% sure that you know what you're doing if
you want a step by step guide on how to use complex phrasing you can watch this
video over here in this link. Academic vocabulary and the variety of it is really important, too
we know that but again keep in your mind that you cannot just use words that you
think are academic but you've only heard them once and you don't know how they are used
in context so learn your new vocabulary with examples of how these words are used and then try to use them
in your own essay. If these words are not appropriately used in context in your essay
you're going to lose points for that. Be the leader and guide your reader! what do I mean by that; state in your essay what you're going to write
about you can do that in your
introduction and you can do that in the opening sentence of the rest of your paragraphs. If you do that, you're organised,
the reader really knows what to expect and you've got his full attention also you get to
be more structured and less likely to get off track or off topic if you do that
Paragraphs are your friends
Students tend to forget to separate their paragraphs clearly and sometimes you don't
you don't separate any paragraphs at all! You're going to lose points for that. It affects the structure and the whole appearance
of your whole essay. So, please don't forget your paragraphs. As a general rule you need one paragraph for your introduction two or three paragraphs for
the main body and one paragraph for your conclusion do keep that in mind--so easy to do it!
Be careful of punctuation always students do forget that but it is vital
It's not considered a minor thing punctuation is really important in English and by punctuation I basically mean
to use your commas in the right way yes a comma is important so how
do we use them? basically you use commas to separate the same things in a sentence for
example
we need a comma between these. Now, to separate parts of a list, so basically
when you say firstly, secondly, thirdly, first of all, you use all these phrases in your writings so make sure
that you put a comma after them. To separate two parts of the same sentence you always use although and however in your writings
however sometimes you don't use them in the correct syntax for example let's have a
look at these two examples
so this is the
way you need to use them with the commas with the fullstops and with the whole
syntactical structure. With conditionals, we use a comma
for example and basically with all linking
phrases that you're going to use
always always always use a comma
after linking phrases. Avoid using informal and casual vocabulary in formal essays
for example avoid using casual phrasal verbs such as
"give up" you can use "quit" instead and avoid using informal phrases that we use
in speaking in your writings such as "of course, okay, really, alright" don't do that you can do
that in
general task 1 but only if you write a letter or an email to a very close friend or relative. As a general rule avoid these phrases in your writings.
Try to use the passive voice as much as you can because
it is conceded more formal and more academic
for example instead of saying
try to do that as much as you can because it will improve
the academic appearance of your writing if you want to refresh your
memory on passive voice you can do this here in this video. Stay on topic throughout your essay
this may be considered as self-explanatory but actually students especially in task 2 which is more difficult tend to get off track
especially if they have a lot of ideas to write about so never forget what is
the actual question of the topic and be specific in your answer. One thing that will help you
with that is to underline the most important points and be precise in your plan. Avoid using "and" or "but" at the beginning of a sentence
It is considered a little bit abrupt, less advanced users of English do that but really prefer "however" instead of
using "but" at the beginning of a sentence and if you want to use "and" prefer "in addition, additionally,
or also". It will be a lot better and a lot formal. Use linking phrases in between paragraphs
it is very good to use a linking phrase in order to start a new paragraph If you're adding a new point
in your new paragraph that justifies the same idea you can use a linking phrase that does that for
example "in addition, additionally, also, another point
that I want to make" or if you want to say something entirely different
and differentiate the new paragraph from the previous one you can use phrases like "on the other hand, however,
let us not forget the fact that," actually there are lots of phrases for
everything you need to say so don't forget to use them because they would really
help with the cohesion and coherence of your writing which leads us to our next tip
Cohesion and coherence! Your writing is marked by these two friends and if your writing
lacks on one of these two or on both of them
cohesion and coherence you're about to lose valuable points basically what this means is how your
ideas are organized and how they are connected with one another and how
smoothly one idea or one thought follows the previous one so if you want a guide on cohesion and coherence and how you can achieve that in your essays
you can watch this video over here in this link. Task 2 is worth double the marks of task 1 so it is considered more important
and you are gonna get more marks for it so time management it is really going to
help you here. Try to use twenty minutes the most in order to write task 1 and then leave forty minutes in order to do your
best at Task 2. Underline what you are asked in the topic. You'd better do that in all tasks. In General task 1
the topic guides you; it gives you the bullet points and the ideas that they want
you to talk about so underline these bullet points; take down your own notes, your own ideas what
you need to write about and follow this plan as it is. Use as a general rule
one paragraph for each bullet point. In academic task one you can do that too, you
have a lot of information to think about underline key words in the topic and then read carefully the
picture the diagram that you are given and then circle or underline the highest
value the lowest value the two axes if they exist these will really help you to be
organized and focused on what you need to write about and on the most important points basically. In task 2, the topic is going to be a little bit more demanding so underline what you need exactly
to write about. Then, decide beforehand if it is a disadvantages-advantages essay, a problem solution essay, a discussion essay, an opinion essay and decide where you stand and follow this plan
according to the question and what kind of essay it is. This will greatly help you with your cohesion and structure. As a general rule these are the main points you need to consider
Each task has different details and different tips but these tips are going to help you with
whatever tasks you may come across