Writing:

IELTS Writing has two tasks:

Writing Task 1 Writing Task 2

20 minutes 40 minutes
150 words 250 words
Writing a summary of a Essay
visual content or process

Total 60 minutes
You'll be tested on how well your ideas flow
together, your vocabulary and grammar,
and if you fulfilled all the IELTS Writing
requirements.
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Scoring categories

Coherence and Cohesion: 1. Organization of ideas (Point + evidence)

1
2. Link between ideas (use of connecting words and phrases)

Lexical Resource: 1. Vocabulary 2. Word choice, spellings 3. Use of

2
idioms and collocations

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: 1. Grammatical Structures (phrases/

3
passive voice/ tenses) 2. Grammatical errors

Task Achievement and Task Response: 1. Addressing the question/s 2.

4
Developed/ accomplished ideas
 Writing

Exercise PDF and discussion

 Writing Exercise 1
Many old buildings protected by law
are part of a nation’s history. Some
people think they should be knocked
down and replaced by new ones.

How important is it to maintain old

buildings?

Should history stand in the way of

progress?
 Writing

Exercise PDF and discussion

 Writing

Task 1 & 2: Bullet points

Government: Reasons - why - Because we are paying taxes, we have

elected these people to look after us. Eg: Australia - health insurance -
1
citizens - low economy - free health service. Eg- Nepal has nothing. Poor
people have no access to health care.

People themselves - why - more important factor personally. We know

better what affects us physically and mentally.- we are the best judges.
2 = being healthy is the core part of being alive. Nepal - People - aware -
health insurance - walks - exercise so they don’t have to rely on anyone
else.
Your opinion?? People themselves - + eg - my grandma - walks - healthy
3 till today - no need for government support. + that will make us
independent. Not be lazy or take govt support for granted.
4
 Writing

Division of Paragraphs

1 Introduction: paraphrase the question + give a slight hint to the opinions.

2 Body part 1: Opinion 1 + evidence/ example: Maintaining

Body part 2: Opinion 2 + Evidence/ example: Replacing/ obstacle to

3
progress

Conclusion: Paraphrase the opinions. - Personal opinion that one can

hold however, natural history could have many benefits in the coming
4
generation than completely destroying them, as they could even become
the only identity markers of who we are in the future.
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Writing Task 1

20 minutes, 150 words, Report-writing / summary of visual content such

1
as bar chart, Line graph, map, flowchart, process, pie chart, table).

Language - Past, present and future tense or all of them according to the
2
diagrams given.

3 Vocabulary: Comparative, Connecting words/ adverbs, conjunctions.

4

Language of Change
Here are some examples:
• gradually increasing
• a slight fall
• kept rising
• reached a peak
• increased at a steady
rate
• fell
• increased sharply
• a low of
• finish at
• stood at
• finishing the period at
Grouping the data
Here are some examples:
• You can write similar things
together although they are
from different categories.
• You can decide to group them
the way you like it - dates,
quantity, ratio and such.
Writing
Making Comparisons
Here are some examples of where comparisons are made
between the products in the IELTS task 1 graph, and the
language of comparison is highlighted in bold / red:
It can clearly be seen that ActiveX was the most
popular computer package to download, whilst Net was
the least popular of the three
Downloads of ActiveX and Java showed similar patterns,
with both gradually increasing from week 1 to week 5
However, the purchases of Active X remained
significantly higher than that of the other product over this
time frame
In week 1, purchases of ActiveX stood at around
75,000, while those of Java were about 30,000 lower
Java downloads also increased at a steady rate, finishing
the period at 80,000
The product that was downloaded the least was Net. This
began at slightly under 40,000, and, in contrast to the
other two products, fell over the next two weeks
It then increased sharply over the following two weeks to
finish at about 50,000, which was well below that
of ActiveX
Writing

Task 1 & 2: Bullet points

1. Read the question. 2.
Look at the diagram. 3.
1
Bullet points. 4. Start
writing.
1. Inc. 2011- dec. 2012. Rapidly
increases 2017. 2. Inc
gradually, stable for 3 years -
2 fluctuate in 2016 and 2017. 2.
Grows swiftly till 2016 -
sudden hike in 2017.

1. Gradual increase from

1.4 to a little more than 2.5,
3 sudden hike to 3.5 in one
years time in 2017.
Writing
Introduction
Paraphrasing the question+ main highlight of
the diagram.

The line graph given in the diagram illustrates

the amount of visitors at a specific Caribbean
island from the year 2010 to 2017.
While the island had only about 1 million total
tourists in 2010, by the end of 2017, it saw a
spectacular number of 3.5 million tourists who
visited.
Writing
Bullet points:
1. 4 cities except Adelaide consume coffee or
tea at a cafe the most in the last 4 weeks.
2. Next popular option is instant coffee in all
the cities.
3. The least preferred drinking habit is seen to
be fresh coffee.
4. Brisbane - least fresh coffee consumption
with less than 35% and the highest purchase
is by Sydney.
5. Largest amount of cafe drinking is in Hobart
and Melbourne with about 62% and the
lowest in Adelaide.
Introduction
Paraphrasing the question+ main highlight of
the diagram.
The bar graph illustrates the coffee and tea
purchase and consumption in five different
cities in Australia, where the highest cafe
culture is seen in Melbourne and Hobart while
the least is in Adelaide. It can also be observed
that Adelaide sees the minimum buying of fresh
coffee while the highest buy is in Sydney.
Writing
Body :

1. Five cities: data of coffee consumption

and purchase . Highest amount of cafe
culture - Melbourne and Hobart. %
2. Largest purchase of fresh coffee and
the lowest. Sydney and Adelaide
respectively. %
3. Instant coffee buyers are almost
similar in all the cities ranging from
45% to nearly 55%.

Conclusion:

Summarise the entire section if you

haven’t done it in the introduction.
DO NOT repeat the introduction
statement.
In this manner, it can be observed that
cafe culture is popular in these cities
while the least number of people prefer
drinking fresh coffee at home.
 Writing
Vocabulary:
Introductory Verbs for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1
• The table illustrates the trends in...
• approximately
• gradually

•  The chart reveals information about the changes in... • dramatically

• markedly
• exactly • significantly
• The bar graph provides the differences between... • specifically • slightly
• roughly
• slowly
• The line graph presents how X has changed over a
period of... • abruptly
• steadily
• dramatically
• According to the pie chart...

• The graphic clearly shows that...

• As the chart indicates...

• The table reveals that...


PIE CHART:
This table presents some
examples of how you can
change percentages to
fractions or ratios:
Percentage
Fraction
80% - four-fifths
75% -three-quarters
70% - seven in ten
65%- two-thirds
60% - three-fifths
55% - more than half
5% - one in twenty
Writing
50%
half
45% -more than two fifths
40%- two-fifths
35% - more than a third
30% - less than a third
25% - a quarter
20% - a fifth
15% - Less than a fifth
10% - one in ten

Percentage Qualifier
Percentage proportion / number / amount /
77% just over three quarters majority / minority
75% - 85% a very large majority
approximately three
77%
quarters 65% - 75% a significant proportion
49% just under a half
10% - 15% a minority
49% nearly a half
5% a very small number
32% almost a third
 Writing
PROCESS VOCABULARY:
A process is a series of events, one taking place More vocabulary for TASK 1
after the other. Therefore, to connect your stages,
you should use ‘time connectors’.

To begin

Following this

Next

Then

After

After that

Before**

Subsequently

Finally

Passive voice when it is a human performing any task.

Can be active voice if it is a non - human.

Writing
• What is the table measuring?
• What type of language do you
need to use (Change? Comparing and
contrasting?)
• What tense would you use?
• Which country has the best
quality of life and which has the worst?
• What information could you use
for an overview / conclusion?
• How could you group the
information?
• How many paragraphs would you
have and what you would write about
in each one?
 Writing
Writing Task 2
40 minutes to answer - minimum 250 words. A formal essay- These
are some of the types of IELTS essays you can get in the test: 
• Agree / disagree
1 • Discuss two opinions
• Advantages & disadvantages
• Causes (reasons) & solutions
• Causes (reasons) & effects
• Problems & solutions

2 ALWAYS read the question very carefully to see exactly what you are being asked to do.

An IELTS essay is structured like any other essay; you just need to make it shorter. There are three
key elements:
3 1. Introduction
2. Body Paragraphs
3. Conclusion
 Writing
Writing Task 2

1 Identifying the Topic: Look for Key words and find the main question.

Identifying the Task: The ‘task’ is the part of the question that tells you what you have to do to answer
2 it.

Brainstorming and Planning: Developing Focus Questions: What/ why/ how/ Problems - solutions -
3 impact

IELTS Task Response:

Fully answering the question
4 • Developing and extending your ideas
• Understanding
 Writing
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Writing Task 2
Introduction Write about the following topic:

You should keep your introduction for the IELTS essay short.
Remember you only have 40 minutes to write the essay, and some of
this time needs to be spent planning. Therefore, you need to be able to
write your introduction fairly quickly so you can start writing your body
1 paragraphs.
You should do just two things:
• State the topic of the essay, using some basic facts (that you may
be able to take from the question)
• Say what you are going to write about: Thesis Statement -
In the last 20 years there have been significant
developments in the field of information
technology (IT), for example the World Wide Web
and communication by email. However, these
developments in IT are likely to have more negative
effects than positive in the future.To what extent do
you agree or disagree?

main idea.
For an IELTS essay, you should have 2 or 3 body paragraphs - no
more, and no less.
For your body paragraph, each paragraph should contain one
2 controlling idea, and have sentences to support this.
Give reasons for your answer and include any
relevant examples from your own experience or
knowledge.

Paragraph 1 - Opinion 1+ evidence

Paragraph 2 - Opinion 2 + evidence (Sometimes 1 more para to
support but shorter) Write at least 250 words.

The conclusion only needs to be one or two sentences, and you can do
the following:
3 • Re-state what the essay is about (re-write the last sentence
of your introduction in different words)
• Give some thoughts about the future
 Writing
You should spend about 40 minutes on this
task.
Intro:
Write about the following topic:
In the last 20 years there have been significant
developments in the field of information
technology (IT), for example the World Wide
Web and communication by email. However,
Opinion 1: Web means that information on every conceivable subject is
these developments in IT are likely to have
more negative effects than positive in the
future.To what extent do you agree or disagree?
The last two decades have seen enormous changes in the way
people's lives are affected by IT, with many advances in this field.
However, while these technological advances have brought many
benefits to the world, I strongly believe that these developments
in IT will result in more negative impacts than positive.
On the positive side, email has made communication,
especially abroad, much simpler and faster. This has resulted
in numerous benefits for commerce and business as there is
no need to wait weeks for letters or take time sending faxes,
which was the case in the past. Furthermore, the World Wide
now available to us. For example, people can access news,
medical advice, online education courses and much more via
the internet. These developments have made life far easier
and more convenient for many.

Give reasons for your answer and include any Nevertheless, the effects of this new technology have
relevant examples from your own experience or not all been beneficial. For example, many people feel
knowledge. that the widespread use of email is destroying traditional
Opinion 2:
forms of communication such as letter writing, telephone
and face-to-face conversation. This could result in a decline
Write at least 250 words. in people's basic ability to socialize and interact with each
other on a day-to-day basis.

In addition, the large size of the Web has meant that it is nearly impossible to
regulate and control. This has led to many concerns regarding children accessing
Opinion 3: unsuitable websites and the spread of computer viruses. Unfortunately, this kind of
problem might even get worse in the future at least until more regulated systems
are set up.

In conclusion, developments in IT have brought many benefits, yet I believe that

Conclusion: these are outweighed by the drawbacks. In the future these will need to be
addressed if we are to avoid damaging impacts on individuals and society.
 Writing
Language/ Structure you can use or not use:

1. Contraction : is not = isn’t , does not=

doesn’t When responding to Writing Task 2,
2. Abbreviation: USA, ADB, WHO remember to:
3. Short informal abbreviation: btw, wo, • Use your own words.
becos, cos • Don’t use memorised phrases such
4. Cliche’: Overused words which have lost as:
meaning • Controversial topic/hot topic
5. Idioms • Two-edged sword/double-edged
6. Proverbs sword/2 sides/faces of a coin
7. Wordiness • In a nutshell
8. Redundant/ repeated meaning words • I pen down by saying
9. Collocations • There are pros and cons
10. Not enough paragraphs: • This essay will discuss
11. Bullet points within the answer. • Reasons why I hold this view
12. Grammar/ Spelling • This is a highly controversial/is a
13. Avoid using research data/ survey. Rather highly debated issue
use real life experience of yourself or Avoid proverbs and clichés – ‘old is
someone else. gold’
14. Decidedness - Take a stand on a point and
continue (agree/ disagree/ opinion essays)
 Writing

As global trade increases, many goods including those we use

on a daily basis are produced in other countries and
transported long distances.

Do the benefits of this trend outweigh the drawbacks?

Due to the increase in global trade, many of the goods that we

Thesis Statement consume every day are made in a different country and then
transported over a long distance in order to reach us. In my
opinion, this trend has more disadvantages than advantages.
Body 1

Body 2

Conclusion
 Writing You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Writing Task 2
Introduction
You should keep your introduction for the IELTS essay short.
Remember you only have 40 minutes to write the essay, and some of
this time needs to be spent planning. Therefore, you need to be able to
1 write your introduction fairly quickly so you can start writing your body
In the last 20 years there have been significant developments in
the field of information technology (IT), for example the World
Wide Web and communication by email. However, these
developments in IT are likely to have more negative effects than
positive in the future.To what extent do you agree or disagree?

paragraphs.
You should do just two things:
• State the topic of the essay, using some basic facts (that you
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples
may be able to take from the question)
from your own experience or knowledge.Write at least 250
• Say what you are going to write about
For an IELTS essay, you should have 2 or 3 body paragraphs - no words.

more, and no less.

For your body paragraph, each paragraph should contain one
2 controlling idea, and have sentences to support this. 1. More negative effects than positive - when??

Paragraph 1 - Opinion 1+ evidence

Paragraph 2 - Opinion 2 + evidence (Sometimes 1 more para to
support but shorter) 2. Future. In the coming days - next generation, older, in the
next 20 years,

The conclusion only needs to be one or two sentences, and you can do
the following:
3 • Re-state what the essay is about (re-write the last sentence 3. Yes I agree there might be negative impacts but they can be
of your introduction in different words) mitigated with modified technologies.

• Give some thoughts about the future

4. No I don’t think there might be any negative effects..why..


“Agree or disagree” essay?
• An “agree or disagree” essay offers a
statement and invites you either to
agree or disagree with it.
• For this type of task 2 essay , you are
expected
• (1) to state your opinion clearly
• (2) to address all parts of the statement
with which you are agreeing or
disagreeing
• (3) fully to support your opinion with
reference to further knowledge or
experience.
Writing
Libraries are irrelevant in
the age of the internet and
should not be publicly
funded.” Do you agree or
disagree?
Irrelevant: ? a/d
Public funding? a/d
A.If they are rel, yes
Publicly funded
If they are not rel., no they should
Not be publicly funded.
B. If they are not rel, they should
Not be publicly funded.
c. They are not rel. anymore, but they
Should be funded.
d. They are rel. but they should not be
funded.

Advantage Disadvantage
Essay Lesson
• If you are asked “What are the
advantages and disadvantages of…..”
you are not being asked your opinion.
You simply have to discuss the benefits
and drawbacks.
• However, if you have the word
“outweigh” or “Will this trend have
more positive or negative effects?” then
you are being asked for your
opinion and you must say which there
are the most of – positive or negative
impacts.
You could do this in two body paragraphs:
• Body One: The positive points
• Body Two: The negative points
elements of having the liberty to move around the world in order to celebrate a
together for achieving similar goals whether it is learning, working or simply
Writing
People now have the freedom to work
and live anywhere in the world due to
the development of communication
technology and transportation.Do the
advantages of this development
outweigh the disadvantages?
Introduction: Paraphrase + thesis statement
There are seemingly more positive elements of
being able to work freely from anywhere in the
world.
With the enhancement of technology and the means to commute
from one end of the world to the others, holding a job or a business
from any corner of the globe is just a matter of a quick set up and
planning. This has allowed people to explore a wider network of
audience as well as opportunities. As an example, a friend of mine
holds a job at a company based in China but she works from Nepal
just using her laptop and phone. This has allowed her to earn more
and also enjoy a multinational work experience.
Some people argue that the development of this kind of wide - spread
advanced system of communication as well as means of travelling has only
amounted to a more chaotic work practice and also lesser and lesser curiosity
amongst people about other nations and their cultural characteristics.
However this can be easily addressed through a proper induction and
education when people travel from place to place for varied reasons. It is
about building mutual respect and understanding norms of each other’s way
Therefore, it can be summarised that there
of living definitely are more beneficial
and ethics.
more globalised world where despite the differences, everyone is brought
travelling.
 Writing
Overpopulation of urban areas has led to
numerous problems.
Problem and Solution: Identify one or two serious ones and
suggest ways that governments and
individuals can tackle these problems.
• In this type of essay you need to
discuss the problems with regards to Problems:
a particular topic and then suggest 1. How many problems are discussed?
2. What are they?
possible solutions to these problems. 3. What expressions are used to introduce the problems?
• One of the first things you want to 4. How are the problems illustrated further?
5. What results are discussed for each problem?
make sure that you are able to do is Solutions:
identfy one of these questions when 1. How many solutions are given?
2. What are they?
it arises.  3. What different groups of people does the writer say are responsible for
• No more than 3 supportive ideas. these solutions?
• Using Modal verbs: May 4. How would the solutions be implemented?
5. What three modal verb structures are used to make the suggestions?
Might
Can
Could Health problems because the hospitals do not have the capacity that
Shall Matches the population in that particular service area. For example, recently
Should Introduction a neighbour
Will P1 - Problem 1 + solution + eg Went to the hospital due to throat pain and she had to wait for 5 hours
because there
Would P2 - Problem 2 + Solution + Were too many patients that were queued up for check up. Hence, she had
Must to travel
Ought example
To another part of the town to receive a quick check up which made her
Need Conclusion lose a lot of time and energy.
Have These kinds of issues can be addresses if the hospitals start categorising
health issues according to general, mid urgency, high- urgency and
emergency like it is always there. At the same time, the government can
ensure that there is a system to build or approve hospitals of the capable
size in a certain locality after a census is completed.
 Writing
Opinion Essays:

• The important thing is to analyze each

question as you see it and answer it.
• The aim of this lesson is to give you a
brief overview of the common types
of essay that ask for your opinion.

1. Discuss ONE opinion

Advances in technology and automation have reduced the need for
manual labour. (opinion) Therefore, working hours should be reduced.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
With these essays you are normally given ONE opinion, and then asked
specifically if you agree or disagree with it, or to what extent you agree or
disagree. You must make it clear whether you agree, disagree or partly agree
and give your reasons why.

2. Discuss TWO OPPOSING opinions

(opinion one) A growing number of people feel that animals should
not be exploited by people and that they should have the same
rights as humans, (opposing opinion) while others argue that
humans must employ animals to satisfy their various needs,
including uses for food and research.

Discuss both views and give your opinion.