www.ieltsweekly.com

How writing task 2 is assessed – Task Response

If you want to improve your IELTS writing test score, then it is very important to

understand how your answer is assessed. If you already know your IELTS writing test

score, and you are hoping to increase that score, then the assessment criteria for your

current band will help to show you where you are going wrong and the assessment criteria

for the band you would like to be will tell you what to need to improve and work on.

Since most people who contact me are currently stuck at Band 6 or 6.5 in writing and

would like to score band 7 or 7.5, let’s look closely at the assessment criteria for those

two scores. In this post, I will look at Task Response, this means that way that you choose

to answer the question you are given. This is what the criteria for Task Response says:

1) The first bullet point refers to the essay question itself. This bullet point is the reason

I always tell you that you must stop thinking that there are different approaches for a

‘discussion essay’ or ‘an opinion essay’. As this bullet point makes very clear, if you do

not address every part of the essay question, you will not score band 7. This is particularly

important when you are given a question that asks ‘To what extent do you agree or

disagree?’ I see too many people who are taught that they should only mention the part

that they agree with. Doing that will guarantee a lower band score for you because you

will not ‘address all parts of the task.’ See this post to find out how to answer that type

of essay question: If I agree with the opinion in the task 2 question, should I only mention

that?

2) According to the second bullet point, band 6 candidates may ‘reach a conclusion’ but

then repeat that conclusion within their essay. Again, this is one of the main reasons I

say that you should not write what some call a ‘thesis statement’ in your introduction. I

believe this is typical in American essay writing, but it isn’t necessary to do that in IELTS.

If you do, you must be very, very careful not to sound too repetitive in your essay. Often,

band 6 students have one or two main ideas about a topic that they introduce, mention

again in their body paragraph, and then repeat in their conclusion. Look carefully at your

own essays to see if you are making this mistake. Notice that a band 7 candidate,

‘presents a clear position throughout’. So, if you want to score band 7, you must do the

same. Again, the post I have shared above as well as this post about using personal

pronouns will show you how to do that.

3) The third bullet shows that you must fully develop all of your ideas. This means, you

should not simply make a statement as though it is a fact. Instead, you need to present

your ideas and then explain why you think this by offering support or an example.

In the example below, I have presented my idea in pink and then given my support in

green:

Travelling can very educational, particularly for young people traveling independently. As

children, our main experiences are with our family doing familiar things, but when we

travel alone, we are forced to meet new people and experience the new and the unfamiliar.

A band 6 candidate would simply write: ‘Travelling can very educational for young people.’

without offering any explanation or support.

How to answer ‘To what extent do you agree or disagree?’ questions.

A lot of people have asked me about this recently. Here are two typical questions:

1) ‘When the writing task question says ‘To what extent do you agree or disagree?’ Do I

have to discuss both of the views in the question? So, one body paragraph for ‘agree’ and

other one for the ‘disagree’? Or can I choose to just either agree or disagree?’

2) ‘In “To what extent do you agree or disagree” type questions, will I lose marks if I write

only the points in the body paragraphs that I agree or disagree?’

These questions are basically asking – ‘is it ok to only give only one opinion or do I have

to mention both opinions?’

Let’s take a look at an authentic example of this type of writing task. It is very important

that the writing tasks you use for practice are authentic and reflect the real IELTS test. I

find that it is test questions that are NOT authentic (the ones that advertise themselves

as ‘free!” or ‘cheaper than Cambridge!”) that often cause problems and confusion.

Here is an image showing an authentic writing task question that comes from Cambridge

Practice Tests Book 9. I’ve added notes to show how you should approach this type of

question. Click on the image to see it larger. If you have any questions or if this is not

clear then please let me know – you can message me easily on my Facebook page.

How writing task 2 is assessed – Coherence and Cohesion

Coherence refers to how easy it is for the reader (the examiner) to understand and follow

your ideas. Cohesion refers to how you connect those ideas together, and this also affects

how easy it is to follow your ideas.

Again, if you already know your IELTS band score, and you are hoping to change

your score, then the description of your current band shows you where you are going

wrong and the description of the band you would like to be tells you what to need to

improve and work on.

1. With the first bullet point we can see that, for band 6 and band 7, ideas are presented

clearly and coherently. The difference is in the ‘progression’ of these ideas. This means

how your ideas lead from one to another and build up on each other to create your

argument. With band 6 candidates, this is done clearly ‘overall’, but with band 7, this is

much more consistent. So, we could say that, with a band 6 or 6.5 answer, we can

generally follow the argument, but with a band 7 answer, we can follow the argument

‘throughout’ the essay.

2. That idea may be linked to the second bullet point, which refers to paragraphing. At

band 6, the ideas within a paragraph sometimes appear a little odd or as though they

belong in another part of the essay. But a Band 7 candidate is able to logically present

their ideas. I always maintain that you can only achieve this by planning your answer

before you begin to write.

3. The third bullet point refers to cohesive devices. We are told that, at band 6, candidates

may make mistakes with cohesive devices, while at band 7 they are used well (even

though sometimes they may be over-used). A criticism of band 6 is that the cohesive

devices may be either ‘faulty’ or ‘mechanical’. So, what are ‘cohesive devices’ and what

do the terms ‘faulty’ and ‘mechanical’ mean? This links very nicely to questions I am

often asked about using common phrases that some people see as too simple.

Several people have recently asked me if it is ok to use phrases like this: ‘On the one

hand….on the other hand’. They referred to them as ‘clichés’, and were concerned about

these phrases being ‘too simple’. Here is what I think. Firstly, I don’t believe it is accurate

to call these phrases ‘clichés’ – they are good examples of cohesive devices, in other

words, words and phrases used to connect ideas together. Some other examples of

cohesive devices are: as a result, in spite of, although, despite, however, nevertheless

etc.

A ‘cliché’ is a phrase that is seen or heard often, the term cliché tells us that an idea is

not very original. For example, ‘My wedding was the happiest day of my life.’ But the only

people who need to worry about using clichés are professional writers, who are supposed

to write in an original and fresh way. IELTS candidates don’t need to worry about

entertaining the examiner, you just need to communicate your ideas as clearly as

possible. Phrases like ‘On the other hand’ are natural and accepted ways of joining ideas

together. Your examiner will have seen these phrases being used in a ‘faulty’ way (e.g.

‘Another hand’ or “On other hand’ or when it isn’t appropriate to use it) so seeing

them used effectively will be rewarded.

If you were building a wall, we would not think that it is a ‘cliché’ to use bricks and

mortar. What the examiner is looking for is whether you choose the right bricks at the

right time and whether you join them together effectively and skillfully, so that your

argument stands up.

Let’s look in more detail at this idea of ‘faulty’ or ‘mechanical’ use of cohesive devices. At

band 6, candidates may have seen these words being used, but they haven’t yet learned

how to use them correctly. So, at band 6 we see mistakes like these:

Despite of these problems, many people still choose to travel. On the other hand,

the number of international flights rises every year.

These two sentences show ‘faulty’ use of cohesive devices. In the first sentence we need

to say ‘Despite these problems, (without ‘of’)…’ while the second sentence contains an

idea that is the result of the previous fact – not contrasting information, so it should say:

Because of this, or As a result,

‘Mechanical’ cohesive devices come, I believe, as a result of people learning lists of words

and phrases to slot into an essay without really thinking of their meaning or whether they

are appropriate. I often see sentences using phrases like these:

This is nowhere more evident than…’;

This essay will provide evidence in support of this position;

This will be proven by analyzing…;

After analyzing the above it can be concluded that…;

Following the above examination…;

As the above shows // As the above essay explains’

These are ‘mechanical’ or artificial ways of connecting ideas and generally don’t fit

naturally into the essays where I have seen them. Those who write in this way are seeing

language as similar to a piece of furniture that comes in a box that you simply need to

assemble. That isn’t how language works. That isn’t how to score band 7 or above.

4. The final bullet point in the band 6 description mentions ‘referencing’, which is another

way of joining ideas together. Referencing is when we refer back to a previous idea. We

can do this either with pronouns or with synonyms. At band 7, this comes under the idea

of a cohesive device being used appropriately. At band 6, these may not always be used

clearly. Look at these examples:

Travel can be expensive and dangerous. Despite being expensive and dangerous, many

people still choose to travel. Because of them, the number of international flights rises

every year.

Instead of repeating ‘expensive and dangerous’ in the second sentence, it is better to

refer back to these with a synonym like this:

Travel can be expensive and dangerous. Despite these problems, many people still choose

to travel.

The pronoun ‘them’ in the third sentence is referring back to ‘people’, but we need to refer

back to the whole idea of ‘many people travelling’, so ‘this’ is better: ‘Because of this …’

Learning language is the only way to improve your IELTS score.

For bands 5 – 7 For bands 7 – 8

For bands 6 and above

How to quickly plan your Writing task 2 answer

If you hope to score band 7 or above in IELTS writing then your writing must be organized

into logical paragraphs and you must discuss all of the points in the question in a balanced

way. The only way to achieve this is to plan your answer.

Many people say to me ‘There isn’t enough time to plan in the test!’ and my answer is

always, ‘If you want to score band 7, you can’t afford not to plan.’ Your plan does not

need to be long or take a great deal if time – just a few minutes is enough to make sure

that you:

1) Completely understand the question

2) Cover all of the different parts of the question and

3) Think about your own position or point of view about this topic.

If you write without planning then your ideas will not progress logically on from each

other. To plan quickly and effectively, just look carefully at the essay question you are

given and divide it up into its separate parts.

Look at this image of a writing task 2 question from Cambridge Practice test book 11. In

the image, I have used different colours to show the different parts of the question and

how these make up the different parts of your essay.

If I were to write my own quick plan for this essay, I would fill in the boxes like this:

Writing a plan like this will ensure that I cover all parts of the question, my essay is

balanced, my paragraphs are relevant and logical and my position is clear. If you don’t

think you have the language and vocabulary to answer this question, my IELTS Vocabulary

apps and books will teach you the words you need.

Is it better to agree or disagree with the question?

Many people ask me the best way to answer IELTS writing task 2 questions. The most

important thing to remember is that there are no set structures for different ‘types’ of

question. The best way to answer any IELTS writing task 2 question is to:

1. Decide what your position is (Do you agree / disagree / neither agree or disagree?)

2. Discuss the issue, explaining your ideas and organizing them into logical paragraphs

3. Reach a conclusion that makes your position very clear.

If you have an American or Canadian teacher then you may learn to give your opinion in

the introduction. I don’t do this myself and it is not at all common in the UK or Australia.

Writing your opinion in the introduction is not something that you must do in IELTS.

To help you write a balanced answer, it is very important to write a plan. This image

shows you how to create a very quick plan using the essay question:

I have written three sample answers to this essay question showing three different ways

to answer it. In fact, there are many, many different ways to answer this question – there

is not only one way. Just remember, it is better to write what you honestly think and

believe. Here are my three different versions:

Depleting: to reduce the amount of something that is present or available:

Salmon populations have been severely depleted.

Reluctance: when someone is unwilling to do something, or when they do something

slowly to show that they are not very willing.

Resentment: a feeling of anger because something has happened that you think is unfair

SYN bitterness

What does Band 7 writing look like?

I was recently asked to give feedback on a writing task 2 question by a follower of my

page who has been using my book ‘Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS Advanced’ and was

unsure of his current level. His previous test result was: Listening 8, Reading 7, Writing

6, Speaking 7, and he is hoping to improve his writing score in his next test. Below is

the writing task question and answer he sent me followed by my feedback. I have

highlighted problems in the answer in yellow.

Here is my feedback on the answer as well as a guide to how to improve the language

problems.

As you can see with the final criteria, Lexical Resource, vocabulary is a big problem at

IELTS band 6.5–7. Using my Vocabulary books and apps, you can build and improve your

lexical resource and finally achieve the score you need. Now read the comments about

lexical resource. Do you make any of these vocabulary mistakes?

How much should I write?

Should you write as much as possible in the IELTS writing test? Will a longer answer

receive a higher band score? The answer to both questions is ‘no’.

When the IELTS examiner assesses your writing test, it is not compared to other tests in

any way. Instead, the trained assessor reads each individual answer, assesses it

using very clear criteria, and awards a band score. There is no ranking or comparing and

there is no limit to the number of Band 6 or 7 (etc.) scores that are given. The scores are

also checked by other experienced examiners, so you can be sure that the scores given

are very reliable.

One important problem with writing ‘as much as possible’ in the writing test is that the

instructions for each writing task tell you how much time you should spend on the task

and how many words you should write. If you produce an answer that is very long, then

it is likely that you will take more than the allocated time and you are also likely to make

mistakes in some important areas. For example, your ideas may be repetitive, may lack

coherence and it’s likely that you will not have enough time to check the accuracy of your

answer. More importantly, if you spend more than 20 minutes and write a very long

answer for writing task 1, you will not have the full 40 minutes needed to produce a well-

organized and complete answer to writing task 2. Writing task 2 is worth double the

marks of writing task 1 and needs a full 40 minutes to answer it well.

The best advice for the IELTS writing test is to follow all of the instructions in the

question. These tell you to:

• Write ‘at least 150 words for writing task 1

• Write ‘at least 250 words for writing task 2.

Use the time you are given for each writing task to:

1) Plan and organize your ideas (making sure they are relevant to the task)

2) Write your answer

3) Check your answer for accuracy and to make sure you are not repeating the same

ideas or the same vocabulary and structures.

Correct Punctuation in the IELTS writing test

Punctuation is important if you are aiming for IELTS Band 7 or above. It can be very

confusing to study punctuation because there are a lot of quite complex rules and some

uses are changing. However, there are some key points that I think are the minimum you

need to learn and master. Here they are:

1) Punctuation includes using a full stop at the end of a sentence and beginning a

new sentence with a capital letter. You would be surprised how many people don’t do

this, even when they are writing at a high level. Go back over any previous writing you

have done to check if this applies to you.

2) You need to use commas accurately, especially:

After adverbs showing your position e.g. Unfortunately, Actually, Personally,

Interestingly, Surprisingly, etc.

After However, and between 2 clauses when you begin a sentence with the conjunctions

although, though etc. (e.g. although it was raining, we decided to go out.)

Before ‘which’, when it is used as a non-defining relative pronoun (e.g. some

people believe that money buys happiness, which I find surprising.)

Between words in a list: More money should be spent on essentials such as schools,

hospitals and public transport.

The Oxford comma is a comma added before ‘and’ when you are writing a list. In the

above example, I wrote: ‘More money should be spent on essentials such as schools,

hospitals, and public transport.’

The need for this comma is debated among native speakers and so it is not an issue for

the IELTS test – both are correct. I will try to explain why people debate this and why

they think it makes a difference. In my example above, the last 2 items in my list:

hospitals and public transport, are completely different, no one would assume that I meant

to link them together. Sometimes, though, the items in the list are similar and then, some

people argue, the Oxford comma does matter.

A health care professional wrote this on a discussion forum about the Oxford comma:

‘For lack of an Oxford comma, speech therapy and physical therapy must share their

number of visits for Medicare patients while occupational therapy gets the same number

of visits all to themselves. The bill was written “(X number of visits) for occupational

therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy.” Oxford commas can make a huge

difference. If there had been an Oxford comma, each discipline would have received the

same number of visits instead of making PT and speech share. All for the lack of a comma.’

Medicare is healthcare funded by the government. So this document (the bill she refers

to) was listing the ways in which the money for types of therapy could be allocated. It

effectively says: patients can receive money for 10 visits for occupational therapy, speech

therapy and physical therapy.’ The writer claims that this has been interpreted as

occupational therapy = 10 visits but speech therapy and physical therapy are linked

together and so they must receive a total of 10 visits between them. She would like the

bill to say: “(X number of visits) for occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech

therapy.” in which case each type of therapy would qualify for 10 visits each.

For myself, I believe the people who interpret it the first way are reading it incorrectly. To

me the wording of the bill says that each therapy should be allocated 10 visits. What do

you think?

Why your handwriting is important

In the writing test, you need to write by hand, so your handwriting is important. Here are

two words that help to explain why:

1) Legible (adj.) = easy to read

2) Decipher (v) = work out what something says or means

It is very important that your handwriting is legible. If the examiner can’t read it easily

then they will have to guess at the words you have tried to write. The examiner should

not have to try to guess whether you have written ‘are’ or ‘one’, for example, or whether

or not you have made a spelling mistake because some of your letters look the same (e.g.

‘s’ and ‘r’).

This doesn’t just affect the writing tasks. In the reading and listening tests, you MUST

always use the correct spelling. So the people marking the test need to be able to easily

decipher the individual letters you have written.

Writing Task 2 – Sample Essay

So, the question has 2 clear parts:

1. A problem (too many cars on the road and the number is growing) and

2. A possible solution (alternative forms of transport and international laws to control

car ownership)

So, your essay should:

• Introduce the topic

• Discuss the problem

• Discuss the proposed solutions

• Reach a personal conclusion saying to what extent you agree or disagree

The image below shows one candidate’s answer. Can you find any language errors in the

answer? Have a look at the public version of the writing task descriptors. Do you think

this is closer to a Band 5, a Band 6 or a Band 7?

Below is my feedback on this answer. It’s important to point out that I am not a current

IELTS examiner, these are my own opinions based on my own experience in the past

and based on the public band descriptors. I have divided the comments and the errors up

into the 4 different criteria. As you can see, most problems are in Lexical resource and

grammatical range and accuracy. The task is 358 words long – this is 108 more than you

are asked to write, so it is overly long. If the candidate had written a plan then they might

have controlled this better and they would then have had more time to check for silly

mistakes at the end. Try to correct all of the errors I have listed in Lexical resource and

grammatical range and accuracy.

Writing Task 2 feedback – How to improve a Band 6 score

Many candidates feel stuck at the band 6 or 6.5 level in their writing. This post gives

feedback on the previous sample essay showing where the improvements need to be

made to increase the band score.

https://i1.wp.com/www.ieltsweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Lexical-Resource-feedback.png

The most important feedback here is to plan, check and make sure you answer all of

the question.

Can I use personal pronouns in IELTS writing task 2?

Many people are taught that you must not use personal pronouns, such as I, you, we etc.,

in IELTS writing. This advice comes from the belief that academic writing must be

impersonal, which is generally true (although there is a recent move away from this idea

and towards more direct and accessible language). Nevertheless, IELTS writing task 2 is

NOT an academic writing task. You are not being asked to write a report on a research

study, instead you are being asked to write a formal essay giving your own views and

opinions. In the IELTS test, you must make your own position clear in your essay if you

want to score well. In fact, it is essential if you want to score band 7 or above.

Band 7 candidates ‘present a clear position throughout’ their essay, while for Band 6

candidates, their position is sometimes ‘unclear’.

Why is the advice to avoid personal pronouns a problem?

The reason this is such an important issue is that, in trying to avoid the use of personal

pronouns at all costs, many candidates resort to using the passive. So, instead of saying

‘I believe…’ or ‘I feel…..’ they write ‘It is believed // It is felt….’ etc. But this does not tell

the reader anything about your own position. In fact, it is very unnatural to use the passive

in this way. A native speaker would never write this. We only use the passive when the

person (the subject of the verb) is unimportant or unknown. Look at these examples:

Examples of the correct use of the passive:

1. At the factory, the different parts of the car are manufactured and checked before

being assembled. (NB This is done in a factory and we don’t know which individual

person is doing this)

2. It has been decided that the test will be postponed until next term. (NB Using the

passive tells us this has been a group decision, not made by one person).

What can I do to show my position?

There are many ways you can make your position clear, including through your choice of

positive or negative vocabulary, and through using conditional tenses and modals (to

show if you think something is likely or unlikely). You can also show your position by using

personal pronouns, which can be very effective if this is something you feel very strongly

about. ‘I firmly believe....’ is much stronger than ‘In my view....’ for example. What is

important is understanding that phrases such as ‘It is felt..’ or ‘It is agreed…’ do not give

any information about your views and are an unnatural use of language and so should be

avoided.