IELTS General: Writing

60 min. to complete 2 tasks

Task 1
In Writing Task 1, test takers are presented with a situation and required to write a
personal response in the form of an informal, semi-formal or formal letter of at least
150 words. The situations they are asked to write about are common, everyday ones
such as: writing to a college accommodation officer about problems with
accommodation, writing to a new employer about time management problems they
are having, writing to a local newspaper about a plan to develop a local airport,
writing to a renting agency to sort out problems with the heating system in their
house.
Test takers do not need to include any addresses at the head of their letters.
Test takers should spend no more than 20 minutes on this task. They are asked to
write at least 150 words and will be penalised if their answer is too short. While test
takers will not be penalised for writing more than 150 words, they should
remember that a longer Task 1 answer may mean that they have less time to spend
on Task 2, which contributes twice as much to the Writing band score.
Test takers should also note that they will be penalised for irrelevance, if the
response is off-topic or is not written as full, connected text
This task assesses the ability to follow English letter-writing conventions (i.e. what
order to put information in, what style to use, how to start and finish a letter), to use
language accurately and appropriately and to organise and link information
coherently and cohesively.

Task 2
In Writing Task 2, test takers write a semi-formal/neutral discursive essay of at
least 250 words in the answer book provided.
The task instructions give information about a point of view, argument or problem.
They then tell test takers how to discuss this, which may involve providing general
factual information, outlining and/or presenting a solution, justifying an opinion,
evaluating evidence and ideas.
Topics are of general interest, - such as: whether children’s leisure activities should
be educational, why families are not so close as they used to be and how they could
be brought closer, how environmental problems can be solved, who should pay for
the care of old people, whether smoking should be banned in public places.
Test takers should make sure that they complete the task carefully and provide a full
and relevant response. They should organise their ideas clearly and make sure to
support their argument with relevant examples (including from their own
experience where relevant) or evidence.
Task 2 contributes twice as much to the final Writing band score as Task 1.
Therefore, test takers who fail to attempt to answer this task will greatly reduce
their chance of achieving a good score.
Test takers are asked to write at least 250 words and will be penalised if their
answer is too short. They should spend no more than 40 minutes on this task.
Test takers should also note that they will be penalised for irrelevance if the
response is off-topic or is not written as full, connected text
This task assesses the ability to follow English discursive writing conventions (i.e.
what order to put information in, what style to use, how to start and finish
discursive writing, how to paragraph), to organise and link information coherently
and cohesively and to use language accurately and appropriately.

Both tasks are assessed on:

 Task achievement

 Coherence and cohesion

 Lexical resource

 Grammatical range and accuracy.

Task 1 Example + guide
Prompt:
You have some library books that you are unable to return as a member of
your family in another city has fallen sick and you have had to go and look
after them.
Write a letter to the library explaining the situation. Apologize for the inconvenience
caused and say what you are going to do.
You should write at least 150 words.

In this case it asks you to do 3 main things:

1. explain the situation
2. apologize for the inconvenience
3. say what you are going to do

A friendly letter will open with Dear followed by a name which should then be
followed by a comma, eg:
Dear John,
A semi-formal letter will also open with Dear and then be followed by a name, (if
you decide that in the situation you would know the name) or by Sir (if it’s a man),
Madam (if it’s a woman) or Sir/Madam if you don’t know, eg:
Dear Mr. Phillips,
Dear Mrs. Phillips,
Dear Sir,
Dear Madam,
Dear Sir/Madam,

In a semi-formal letter, I feel it is important to state the reason for the letter straight
away. You could use the following to help you:
I am writing to ask/ tell//inform you that…
I am writing to ask/inquire…
I am writing with regard to…
I am writing with reference to…
I am writing in connection with…
I am writing in response to…
In reply to your letter, I am writing to… (if the question indicates that you
have had a letter)

If the letter is a less formal one to a friend then you should open the letter in a
friendlier way. EG:
Dear John,
Hi there! It’s been so long since I’ve heard from you. I hope you are doing well and I
hope all you family is doing fine. I’m pretty good in spite of working hard. Anyway,
the reason I’m writing is…
The Substance of the Letter

Asking for Help

I would like you to…
I would be grateful if you could…
I need to ask your advice about…
I’d like to ask for information about…
What I’m looking for is…

Complaining
I’m writing to express my dissatisfaction/annoyance/ about…
I’m writing to express my anger at…
I am not happy about…
… is not what I expected/was expecting.
I want to know what you are going to do about this situation.

Thanking
I’m very grateful for…
I’d like to thank you very much for…
I very much appreciated…

Apologizing
I’m very sorry that/about…
Please forgive me for…
I’d like to apologize about…
Please accept my apologies.

Ending your letter

For a formal letter, you could use:
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanking
you in advance for your help, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

For a more informal letter you could use:

If you need to know anything else, just get in touch with me as soon as you can. Thanks
a lot for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.

Finally you’ll need to sign off your letter. For a formal letter use:
Yours faithfully, OR
Yours sincerely,
For an informal letter, love is not always appropriate though English speakers use it
a lot. Better would be to use:
Regards,
Yours,
Best wishes,
Task 2 Example + Guide
Prompt: “Do you believe that societies ought to enforce capital punishment or
are there alternative forms of punishment that would be better used?”

Example of outline:
Intro
 What cp is. Where it’s used. (not my country). Differing opinions.
 I don’t believe in cp.
 There are alternative punishments.
Body
1. Inhumane – we shouldn’t sink to the level of criminals.
2. We can get convictions wrong; prisoners can be released if there’s an error.
Mentally ill. Examples.
3. Alternative punishments: life means life; hospitals for criminally insane.
Costs more but society has a duty to care.
4. Many countries favour it and they say it works. Prisons too full. Killers
deserve nothing less. Some crimes deserve it. Not my morals though.
Conclusion
I don’t agree. We can do other things. Avoid mistakes and make modern society a
humane one.

Tips:
 Always paraphrase the question in your introduction (don’t copy it directly)
 The test is handwritten. Estimate words by counting how many words you
wrote in an average line and multiplying by the number of lines you’ve
written.
Speaking Tips
 Smile and be friendly
 Give a full answer
 Don’t worry about small mistakes; perfection is not necessary
 Don’t try to be clever, just speak normally
 Keep eye contact
 Concentrate on fluency rather than accuracy
 State your answer, then expand
 In task two, use your planning time; write a brief plan to talk for two minutes
maximum