IELTS Writing Scoring

The Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 Examination takes about 20 minutes out of 1 hour available for the writing test. During this part of the writing exam you will need to analyze a graphic with some data. It can be presented in different ways like for example a bar chart, a pie chart, a table with numbers, a process diagram, etc. This writing task is scored based on 4 criteria:

Task Achievement
Coherence and Cohesion
Lexical Resources (Vocabulary)
Grammatical Range and Accuracy

The score goes from 0 (Does not write anything or Writes a recited paragraph) to 9 (Fully achieves the requirements of the task) You can view the Band Descriptor to the right. We will take a look at each of the criteria and try to explain what do they mean.

Writing requirement: At least 150 words.

Timing: Try to finish in about 20 minutes. (Up to you)

Task Achievement is basically did you understand the exercise and how well you point out the important and relevant information from the graphic. It also looks at how you illustrate the key features of the exercise. For this criteria you should:

Address the task accurately. Don't don't make mistakes with the things you have to describe.

Select the key information. There is no need to report 100% of everything. You need to report the most important trends.

You don't confuse detail with key points. Details are the names of the things you are seeing on the graphic and key points are the most important trends you should discuss and compare.

You don't repeat yourself and report irrelevant information. As this is a shorter task, you need to report only the most important information.

You don't write less than 150 words. This will reduce your score. Also overwriting, or writing too much will hurt your score the same way. A good balance would be around 160 words.

Scored 0 to 9

Task Achievement Example:

Museum Visitors Numbers, 2007-2012

Looking at the data, select the key points to report. As you can see the graphic has a lot of information. You cannot report everything as that will be a huge essay. So what is the key information here?

A Good Example:

"Visitors in the National Gallery increased all the years from 2007 to 2012, with the largest jump in 2012 from 7 million in 2007 all the way to 16 million in 2012. This was the largest rise of visitors from all 3 museums."

*This information is clear, relevant, very obvious by looking at the graphic, and is key, as it's one of the biggest changes on the graphic.

A Bad Example:

"The amount of visitors in the Victoria and Albert Museum remained the same in 2007 and 2008 and was the largest amount of visitors among all museums at that time."

*This is too selective. It shows a very small, narrow picture of the graphic and although it is true, it is not that important. Further it does not show any trend.

Coherence and Cohesion are about the logic of your answer. This means how well you organize your answer, how well you make your answer progress logically, how well you link all the parts of your answer and so on. You should:

Sequence information and ideas logically. You should learn how to sequence a paragraph and a whole essay with logical linking phrases.

Reference data from the graphic to the essay clearly. You need to learn how to report clearly information from the graphic.

You use many cohesive (linking) phrases and don't over-repeat them. You should learn about 10 or 15 linking phrases and avoid repeating each one of them if you can.

You arrange the information in a clear progressive way. You should avoid writing in a messy confusing way and let the examiner follow clearly your writing.

You clearly follow a writing structure. The writing structure for the Task 1 is:

Introduction - paraphrase the task.
Overview - summarize the important information/trend of the graphic.
Paragraph 1 - illustrate one key data point.
Paragraph 2 - illustrate second data point.

Scored 0 to 9

Coherence and Cohesion Examples:

To have great coherence and cohesion, it is important to first know how to structure the whole writing response. A good response should have well-linked:

1. Introduction

2. Overview

3. Paragraph 1

4. Paragraph 2

The next step is to learn how to link within a paragraph. Here you should learn a large amount of linking phrases that create complex sentences. You should learn sentence structures using - "while", "however", "even though", "despite", "although", "whereas", and many more.

And it is not only about learning them, but further not repeating them too much (or at all). As Task 1 is quite short, it is absolutely possible not repeating a single sentence structure more than once.

A Typical Low Level Response:

The data _______________ and _______________and_____________.

Then _________________, and_______________, so______________.

A Typical High Level Response:

The data ________ illustrates _________, while ________. Despite ________, the data _______. However during ________, whereas ________.

Lexical resources are your vocabulary that you use. In Task 1 you will need to write about data, and so this means that not only you need to use a range of vocabulary about the topic, but you need to use a large amount of trend description phrases. This means that:

You should use a variety of trend description phrases. These are words and phrases like - rise, soar, increase, rocket, jump; or - fall, decrease, plummet, plunge.

You need to use synonyms and related phrases to the topic. For example if you are having a graphic about energy consumption you need to use as many words and phrases as you can think of related to energy.

Use many phrases for "people". As the data is mostly about people consuming something, you need to replace people with as many words as possible - individuals, users, consumers, citizen, passengers, visitors, drivers, etc.

You spell the words correctly. Obviously, before using words, you should learn how to write them without any mistakes.

Scored 0 to 9

Lexical Resource Mistakes:

Some Typical Mistakes:

1. The "People" word. This is a very common mistake. Many students do not know how to replace the word "people". There are hundreds of ways depending on a topic and you should learn at least 5 different words for "people".

Good Example:

"Individuals who ________. Those users ________ where other consumers _________. Those who _________ the ones that _________. "

Bad Example:

"People who _________ while people that _________. Those people with higher _________, while people aged __________."

2. Repetition of trend words. This is another common mistake. Students learn only 2 or 3 words related to trends and then write the same over and over. Further, often times there is lack of adjectives before the trend words. You should learn around 20 different trend phrases.

Good Example:

"The consumption of gasoline gradually rose to _________. What followed was a sharp jump in the use of _________. Eventually, the usage of ________ peaked at a high ________."

Bad Example:

"The consumption of gasoline increased to _________. Then next it still increased by _________. At the end it was up _________."

Your Grammatical Range and Accuracy is very similar here to the Speaking part. This is all about your sentences and sentence structure. Do you use complex long sentences, accurately linked together, or small, simple sentences without any complex link between. You should:

Write complex sentences. This is a must if you want to score high on the exam in both Writing sections. Your sentences should be long and linked with 1-2 linking words or phrases in-between.

Make very few grammatical mistakes. Of course here you can allow yourself a few, but overall your text should be grammatically accurate. This means you use the right tense, the right prepositions, the right word forms and so on.

Do right punctuation. The main issues here would be commas (,) as most sentences would be claims or factual. You will rarely use question (?) and possibly never an exclamation (!).

Avoid misunderstandings and confusions in your sentences. A common thing to see is sentence structure problems like sentence syntax. Work with a teacher to clear these out.

Scored 0 to 9

Grammar Problems in Task 1

1. Complex sentences vs. Simple sentences. For achieving a higher score (above 6.5) you should use much more complex sentences than simple ones. This does not mean that you can't use simple sentences but they will be fewer than the complex ones as you are trying to "show off" all the grammar that you know.

A Good Example:

"While the citizen of _______ accounted for _____% of the survey in 2015, the natives of _______ represented a minor _____% of the whole report, which clearly showed an ongoing trend for ________."

A Bad Example:

"The people of _______ were _____%. The other citizen were _____%. The last data was _____% for the _______."

2. Syntax mistakes. Syntax is the right arrangement of words in a sentence. What follows what in the sentence. You need to have extra help from an experienced teacher for removing these mistakes, as often times students are not aware they make them.

Good Example for Syntax:

"The number of workers taking the public transport increased quickly to _______."

"The pie chart represents different percentages of expenses for companies in 2010."

Bad Syntax Examples:

"The number increased to ________ for the workers taking the public transport."

"The pie chart of expenses for companies in 2010 represent percentages for the companies."

The IELTS Writing Task 2 (essay) follows when you finish task 1. It should take you about 35 to 40 minutes out of your 1 hour available for the writing test. During this part of the writing exam you will need to write an essay response to a serious question related to a big topic. Some topics are related to society, relationships, education, crime and punishment, climate change, technology and more. This writing task is scored based on 4 criteria:

Task Response
Coherence and Cohesion
Lexical Resources (Vocabulary)
Grammatical Range and Accuracy

The score goes from 0 (Does not write anything or Writes a recited paragraph) to 9 (Fully achieves the requirements of the task). You can view the Band Descriptor to the right. We will take a look at each of the criteria and try to explain what do they mean.

Writing requirement: At least 250 words.

Timing: Try to finish in about 35-40 minutes.

Task Response is simply did you understand the question, did you express good ideas and reasons for your beliefs and did you write relevantly about the topic. You need to have a good understanding of the topic, as some of the questions are quite challenging and big. You should:

Address the task fully. This means that you discuss the question fully, without forgetting to talk about a part of the question.

You support your opinions with great ideas. It is important to have good, unique examples in your writing. Repetitive and too generalized opinions will lower your score.

You present real life examples. Writing about companies, places, locations, people and so on from real life adds depth to your examples and makes them believable. Use names!

Do not present irrelevant ideas. If you go outside of the scope of the topic, you will lose points. You need to stay only in the topic you are given.

Scored 0 to 9

Task Response Problems:

Mixing up Topics

It is common for students to mix up topics and lose points in Task Response because they left the topic of discussion. Lets take a look at an example with this topic:

"Many people put their personal information online (address, telephone number, and so on) for purposes such as signing up for social networks or online banking. Is this a positive or negative development?"

Bad Example:

...Many young people will create accounts in multiple different computer games. There they will write a lot of information like name, address, credit card details and more. Most of them do not think about what it could lead to, or how their information is used. For example, I have a friend who plays games for a hobby. He plays every day, all the time. He changes game after game, and spends all his nights in those games. I believe he could use his time for something different instead. What's more, this behavior is absolutely unhealthy. Instead he should do more sports and go out with friends...

*Example not relevant for this discussion.

*The purpose of the question is lost after the first 3 sentences.

As you an see, in this example, the student went in a completely wrong direction. The topic asks to discuss personal information and data, and he went giving an example about health and hobbies.

Sequence information and ideas logically. You should learn how to sequence a paragraph and a whole essay with logical linking phrases. You know how to build a paragraph and link paragraphs together.

You use many cohesive (linking) phrases and don't over-repeat them. You should learn about 10 or 15 linking phrases and avoid repeating each one of them if you can.

You arrange the information in a clear progressive way. You should avoid writing in a messy confusing way and let the examiner follow clearly your writing thought.

You clearly follow a writing structure. The writing structure for the Task 2 is:

Introduction - Introduce the question and your stance.
Paragraph 1 - Illustrate your first reason.
Paragraph 2 - Illustrate your second reason.
Conclusion - Summarize the topic and end your discussion.

Scored 0 to 9

Coherence and Cohesion Problems:

Writing a Cohesive Paragraph

A paragraph can be structured as the whole essay. When you write a paragraph you need to think about this general structure:

1. Introduce your idea you are going to discuss - 1 sentence.

2. Answer these questions - How does it affect people? and Why is it important for this discussion? - 2 sentences

3. Give a real life example - 3-4 sentences

4. Close your paragraph with a conclusion - 1 sentence

Following this formula, you can write any paragraph logically and coherently. Also make sure you use appropriate linking words to connect these 4 parts of a paragraph together.

Lets take a look at this topic:

"Some people think that social skills are as important as academic qualification. To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

A Good Example:

…

The first reason to support my belief is that communication and socializing with others is becoming a more valuable skill in our society. (1) It is beyond any doubt that because our technological development, people have become more introverted, less confident and highly-doubtful in themselves. (2) A great ability to communicate with others can play a huge role in a person's success in any work field. (2) For example, imagine a programmer, working in a big tech company. If that person does well at his job and further holds a great ability to express his creative ideas, he will definitely be noticed and will most likely rise up in the ranks. Moreover, that person will be able to build key relationships, which in turn might help him later. He might even leave the company and start his own venture. This will be impossible for someone without the ability to communicate well and build relationships. (3) This example clearly illustrates that social skills are essential for a person to achieve success in his field, even if his field of work is very technical. (4)

…

As you can see this example of a paragraph is well-linked, coherent, follows clear logic (idea-why-how-support with example-close). You should aim at writing every paragraph of an essay in the same way.

Lexical resources are your vocabulary that you use. In Task 2 you will need to write an essay about a discussion topic. The exam will provide you with a difficult question that you will need to analyze. As the topics are different you will need to write a lot of practice essays and learn vocabulary targeted to these different topics. This means that:

Learn topic based vocabulary. You should learn specific vocabulary for the big topics in IELTS like - crime, education, health, technology, social problems, family problems, business, entertainment, climate change, etc.

You need to use synonyms and related phrases to the topic. For example if you are having a topic about climate change, you should use words that are related to that topic like - global warming, temperature changes, Earth warming up, climate crisis, greenhouse effect, etc.

Use many phrases for "people". As the topics are mostly about people in society and decisions about something, you need to replace people with as many words as possible - individuals, users, consumers, citizen, passengers, visitors, drivers, employees, managers, leaders, etc.

You spell the words correctly. Obviously, before using words, you should learn how to write them without any mistakes.

Scored 0 to 9

Vocabulary Example:

Vocabulary Range Differences

When looking at a text, it is clear when a person repeats certain words, uses the same linking phrases or does not make use of harder expressions. Lets see this topic:

"Computer games are very popular for all ages and nationalities. Parents think this has little educational value and it will be harmful for children.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

Bad Example:

...Computer games are bad for the children. Many parents agree that the game is bad for the eyes, makes kids become fat and lazy, and even affects their ability to make friends. Also, games do not teach kids anything important. All they do is show them different ways to kill and do other kind of violence. Games are a bad example for young people and hurts our society...

*As you can see, the words are very same same.

Lets try better...

Good Example:

...It is beyond any doubt that video games affect young adults negatively. Some of these harmful effects can lead to short-sightedness, increasing levels of obesity, prolonged periods of inactivity, and even affect the ability of the youth to build any long-lasting and meaningful relationships. An important fact about the gaming industry is that it does not educate the young about moral values and social norms. By being filled with violent murders, blood and immoral judgements, video games could cause many societal hardships in the near future...

Your Grammatical Range and Accuracy is very similar here to the Speaking part or Task 1 requirements. This is all about your sentences and sentence structure. Do you use complex long sentences, accurately linked together, or small, simple sentences without any complex link between. You should:

Write complex sentences. This is a must if you want to score high on the exam in both Writing sections. Your sentences should be long and linked with 1-2 linking words or phrases in-between.

Make very few grammatical mistakes. Of course here you can allow yourself a few, but overall your text should be grammatically accurate. This means you use the right tense, the right prepositions, the right word forms and so on.

Do right punctuation. The main issues here would be commas (,) as most sentences would be claims or factual. You will rarely use question (?) and possibly never an exclamation (!).

Avoid misunderstandings and confusions in your sentences. A common thing to see is sentence structure problems like sentence syntax. Work with a teacher to clear these out.

Scored 0 to 9

Grammatical Mistakes:

A Flawed Introduction

Here is an introduction from an essay that we have received on a topic of "Are people too dependent on cars in their life." There are multiple flaws in the structure, spelling, syntax and more:

"Is the 2nd industry revaluation, automobiles come into our daily life. It provide lots of convenience to human. Some people think that people are too dependent with the cars that means they drive to everywhere. But I don’t think so.

In my opinion, technology is invited for servicing people. Make full use of the automobiles should not be discussion. The invention of automobiles is for transportation of people and their stuffs. Driving cars to everywhere is the correct way of using it for people. Also, there’s lots of issues that can not use cars such as exercise running."

*Repetition of the word people way too often.

*Use of simple sentences only.

*Introduction divided in 2 separated parts.

*Syntax mistakes make sentences difficult to understand.

*Misuse of pronouns. (It/They)

*Misuse or misspell of words.

Written like this, the introduction is difficult to understand and fails to deliver the main message clearly. The grammar and accuracy will be scored in the low 5-s, even if the student tried to use better vocabulary.

How is the IELTS Writing Scored?

An in-depth look at the criteria.

IELTS Writing Assessment Task 1 (Academic)

Task Achievement

Coherence and Cohesion

Lexical Resources (Vocabulary)

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

IELTS Writing Assessment Task 2 (Essay)

Task Response

Coherence and Cohesion

Lexical Resources (Vocabulary)

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

How are they scored?

Task Response

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Lexical Resources

Coherence and Cohesion

IELTS Speaking:

Everyday English:

IELTS Writing: