IELTS Writing Information and Advice

Many students seem to miss basic facts about the IELTS Writing test, 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.

Task 1

Task 2

Format	The Writing test contains two parts
Timing	60 minutes in total (usually 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 minutes for Task 2).
Number of Tasks	2
Task Types	In Academic Task 1, you have to describe some visual information in your own words (a graph, table, chart or diagram). You must write more than 150 words in about 20 minutes. 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. In Task 2, you are given a point of view, argument or problem which you need to discuss. You need to write at least 250 words in about 40 minutes.
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 the minimum number of 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 in each task and the time it takes to write them.

You have 1 hour for the whole writing task, which is enough time to make a brief plan and write the required number of words. Most people plan to use 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 minutes for Task 2.

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) 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.

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

d) 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.)

e) Always plan so you can check your work.

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

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

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

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

j) 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.

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

l) 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 the IELTS Writing test, 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!