Tips and Tricks IELTS Writing – Band Descriptors Simplified | Grammatical range and accuracy | Cohesion and Coherence | Lexical resource | Task Response. Do you often wonder what exactly IELTS examiners are looking for in our essays? Or Are you stuck at 6.5 Bands even after attempting multiple times?
Here in Tricksmagical.com, we will share the logic behind IELTS checking and try to explain it in a simpler manner. We hope once you understand and follow these in your essay, your problems will get solved.
Tricks Magical will share my tips and tricks to answer the three most common types of IELTS reading.
Tips and Tricks IELTS Writing for 4 components
Basically, there are four major components on which IELTS writing tasks are checked. The 4 components are as follow:
- LEXICAL RESOURCE
- COHESION AND COHERENCE
- GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY
- TASK RESPONSE
Let us discuss them in detail. First in the series is LEXICAL RESOURCE, we have show below.
1. LEXICAL RESOURCE
In this, examiners look for the different vocabulary its variety and accuracy. This means candidates are required to use different words to express similar ideas in the entire essay specifically introduction and conclusion.
This brings us to another question: Do we require to memorize and write difficult words? The answer is No.
Thus, to achieve high bands in Lexical resource section, test takers shall use different words.
We have seen people memorizing heavy words and often use them incorrectly in their writing tasks. It should be strictly avoided. In fact, we should use simple words.
This brings to another question.
What types of Synonyms then you should use?
Here are some examples.
- Big:- huge, immense, gigantic, large, vast
- Famous:- well-known, renowned, eminent
- Answer:- reply, respond, acknowledge
- Let’s take one example of a real essay.
- An essay prompt in the exam will look like this:
Buying things on the Internet, such as books, air tickets and groceries, is becoming more and more popular.
Do the advantages of shopping in this way outweigh the disadvantages?
In our response, we should try not to copy words from the question prompt.
Instead, we should try to write something like this below:
Internet access these days has been a revolution. With just a click now everything has become easily accessible. The Internet has made shopping much easier these days. For purchasing books, air tickets, and groceries, people just need to go online to place an order. Getting products online has its advantages and disadvantages to the consumers and the sellers in different ways.
Pay close attention to coloured words, how they have been changed.
2. COHESION AND COHERENCE
In this, examiners check the structure and flow of writing tasks. You should use a proper structure to maintain a logical flow in your writing. You should spend about five minutes on planning the essay and develop a logical flow in your writing.
Most of the people insist on using more connectors like moreover, however, and so on in the writing; however, connectors can be simple words like this, those and they.
The main idea is to connect sentence to sentence and ultimately, paragraph to paragraph in a logical way.
The progression of ideas should be smooth.
Obviously, there are numerous advantages of buying things online. It has not only become convenient, but it has given a large variety to the consumers in terms of goods and groceries that they can order anytime using the online platforms. Moreover, the online ordering company also offers a variety of discounts and lucrative offers to lure customers and encourage them to order online. Buying air tickets, for example, is now on people’s fingertips. They just need to open a travel site or an app to book the tickets for any place they want to fly without the hassle of visiting the travel agent. Thus, online shopping has now become a fashion.
Note: Here, words like ‘It’ and ‘they’ are acting as good connectors. Additionally, you should use connectors like moreover to add another idea to the main idea of a paragraph.
3. GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY
In this examiners check the range and accuracy of grammar you should use different types of sentences in complying your essay. This includes a combination of simple, compound and complex sentences. Here, test takers should not only use the complex sentences, but they should also use complex structure in their writing.
We will discuss types of sentences and complex structure in my other blog soon.
However, here we just briefing the common types of sentences for the sake of understanding.
The common types of sentences:
- Simple: These days people work hard to earn money.
- Compound: Government launched this campaign very late, so many people could not get the benefits.
- Complex: After the implementation of this policy, many businesses were closed.
There is another category also that is called compound-complex sentences which are formed with the combination of compound and complex sentences. This I will discuss in another blog.
Let us continue with our essay. The next paragraph is as below:
On the contrary, there are some disadvantages as well. There have been many cases where the customers either have to return the orders or get them exchanged due to being different than what they ordered. Time is another factor that the ultimate end users have to wait for after placing the order, which they could have instantly got by visiting a store or a shop near them. For instance, I ordered a pair of shoes from Amazon, a big online shopping platform, for Adidas brand size 10; however, when I received my order, I realized that the actual size is not my fit. Thus, I had to go through the hassle of placing a return. Therefore, the demerits of this trend cannot be overlooked.
Sentences with different colours show different types of sentences. You try to use such variety to score high in grammatical range and accuracy.
4. TASK RESPONSE – Tips and Tricks IELTS Writing
Tips and Tricks IELTS Writing:
Examiners check how well have you answered the question prompt.
Candidates should understand the question prompt thoroughly.
Candidates should answer all aspects of the question.
It is very important to approach the writing task properly. Many times, test takers get low bands even after writing so good because they fail to cater to the task’s demand. Thus, always take five minutes to understand and plan the essay. Look and read the question prompt again and again until you understand it completely.
I will soon share a simple approach to the IELTS writing questions by following a fixed structure.
Let us finish our essay in the example here. Thus, the last paragraph is as below:
To summarize, despite having the disadvantages of online shopping like time and hassle, we must take into consideration the merits, such as convenience and discounts. In my opinion, the advantages outshine the disadvantages.
In the end, let’s revise once again the four Tips and Tricks IELTS Writing:
- a. Use different words to explain the same topic in each paragraph.
- b. Use different types of sentences such as simple, compound and complex.
- c. Use structure and connectors to maintain a logical flow in the writing task.
- d. Understand the question thoroughly and answer all the aspects of the question.
Tricks Magical hope it would have been fun reading this article and you would be clear of various bands descriptors in IELTS writing. I await your comments and suggestions to improve it further.
