IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 Information and Advice

Many students seem to miss basic facts about the IELTS General Training Writing Task 1, so this page is to fill in some of that missing information. There are also separate pages for more detailed information and advice for each part.

General

Task 2

Timing	20 minutes for Task 1
Number of Tasks	1
Task Types	In General Training Task 1, you have to respond to a situation by writing a letter, for example, asking for information or explaining a situation. You must write more than 150 words in about 20 minutes.
Skills Tested	This task tests if you are able to write a letter which is well organised and appropriate in its register and style. Depending on the task type, you will be assessed on your ability to: ask for and/or provide general factual information express needs, wants, likes and dislikes express opinions (views, complaints, etc.).
Marks	Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to your overall Writing score.

You should not reproduce a piece of writing that you have done in class on the same topic. It is essential that you fully address the specific task in the exam, and a pre-learned answer is very unlikely to meet the exact requirements.

Writing over 150 words is an integral part of task achievement. If fewer words are written, this is likely to mean that the task has not been successfully completed.

It is important to become familiar with the types of questions and the time it takes to write them.

Depending on the task, the letter may be personal, semi-formal or formal in style. The question paper tells you what information to include in the form of three bullet points.

You have about 20 minutes for General Training Writing Task 1, which is enough time to make a brief plan and write at least 150 words.

There are four assessment criteria (things which the examiner thinks about when deciding what score to give you):

Task achievement/response
Coherence and cohesion
Lexical resource
Grammatical range and accuracy.

For the paper test, you must write your answers on the lined pages in the separate answer sheets for Writing. There is no need to make a fair copy of a response, and copying what has already been written is a waste of time in the exam. If you need to make an alteration to what you have written, you should cross out the relevant words. The Writing Examiners will then ignore those words. Crossing out and making legible alterations will not have a negative effect on a candidate’s mark.

Use the official Cambridge IELTS Exam books for official writing questions and sample answers, which also have examiner’s comments. There are also questions and sample answers here and here.

a) Read the questions carefully, highlighting or underlining the most important parts. Then you need to make a plan, referring closely to the question and looking for opportunities to develop (expand) your ideas and show your range of language.

b) Be certain who you are writing to. The tone or register of the letter is crucial. For example, you would not write to a friend in the same way as you would to write to an important government official.

c) Practice expressing your formality or informality by the way you start your letter, your use of contractions, such as I’m or can’t and whether you use slang, idioms or phrasal verbs in your answer.

d) You do not need to write any addresses at the top of your letter.

e) Using a variety of linking words is important, as is ensuring that the flow of ideas in the writing is logical and easy for the reader to follow.

f) You should use a range of complex language. If, in doing so, you make mistakes, you will always be given credit for the complex language attempted, as long as the mistakes do not impede communication.

g) Be aware of the importance of spelling and punctuation. Although spelling errors and faulty punctuation are not specifically penalised, they can sometimes impede communication. (N.B. American usage and spelling are acceptable.)

h) Always plan so you can check your work.

i) You will be penalised if you do not write enough words, if what you write is not related to the topic or if your essay is not written as a whole piece of connected text (i.e. you must not use notes or bullet points). You will be severely penalised if your writing is plagiarised (i.e. copied from another source).

j) Task 2 carries twice as many marks as Task 1, so you should practise planning the time you spend on each question carefully.

k) Practice typing and editing your answers, so you can complete both tasks within the required time.

l) The questions are in a booklet. The answers are written in a separate booklet with lined pages.

m) Any corrections candidates make should be clear, so that they can be easily followed.

n) Counting words wastes time in an examination and leads to clumsy alterations to what a candidate has already written. Practice writing tasks within the word limit so that you can estimate when you have written enough.

o) It is important to write clearly so that the answers are easy to read.

p) It is not important whether you write in upper or lower case, or whether their writing is joined up or not.

I hope that has helped to give you a better understanding of what is required for IELTS General Training Writing Task 1, and that you will look into each part in more detail. There is a full list of pages on the IELTS Writing test here. Good luck with your test!