I’ve posted the answers on the original page, click here: https://ieltsliz.com/writing-task-1-paragraphs-review/

All the best

Liz

Lets check your understanding of IELTS writing task 1 paragraphing. This is for academic writing task 1.

Below are a number of options for how to structure your writing task 1. Are all these options good for IELTS writing task 1?

Option A

• Paragraph 1 = introduction & overview
• Paragraph 2 = body 1 detail
• Paragraph 3 = body 2 detail

Option B

• Paragraph 1 = introduction
• Paragraph 2 = overview
• Paragraph 3 = body 1 detail
• Paragraph 4 = body 2 detail

Option C

• Paragraph 1 = introduction
• Paragraph 2 = body 1 detail
• Paragraph 3 = body 2 detail
• Paragraph 4 = overview

Option D

• Paragraph 1 = introduction
• Paragraph 2 = overview
• Paragraph 3 = body 1 detail
• Paragraph 4 = conclusion

Questions for You

1. Which paragraphing options are suitable for writing task 1? 
2. Is there an option above which will get you a higher score?
3. Which structure is not acceptable?

Paragraph Options Explained: Answers

Options A, B, & C are all possible to be used in Writing Task 1 and get a high score. Option D will not give you a good score. Read the details below to learn more:

Option A

When the introduction is very short, such as with diagrams, I sometimes put my overview statement with the introduction. I feel it gives a better balanced of paragraphs. Although the introduction and overview are in the same paragraph, they MUST be separate statements. The introduction presents the information (paraphrases the description) and the overview contains all key features.

Option B

This is my personal favourite. Writing task 1 is not an essay. It is a report. The overview contains all the key features and I prefer to present that before giving all the smaller details. I like the reader to understand the gist of the chart, before seeing small examples of data. 

Furthermore, the overview is THE MOST IMPORTANT PARAGRAPH IN WRITING TASK 1. For this reason also, I like to put it early on in the writing. The overview needs to be both clear and contain information well selected.

Option C

It is also 100% fine to put the overview at the end of the report. However, if you choose this option, make sure you manage your time well – your overview is the most important part and needs to be thought about carefully and written very very well.

Option D

There are two very serious problems with this structure.

1. The body must be divided into a minimum of two paragraphs. You are being marked on how you take the detail and divide it into logical sections. Most writing task 2 will have two paragraphs for the body, but occasionally you might have three. 
2. You cannot have both an overview which contains the key features and a conclusion that summarises the key features. This would mean in a short report, you would have repeated the key features twice. This will lower your score. There is no reason to repeat anything at all. Once you state the key features in the overview, your body paragraphs (plural) will present all main details. You never repeat it all again. This means you do not need a conclusion. 

I hope you have found this useful 🙂 My main writing task 1 page has lots of model answers which show both option A and B. CLICK BELOW:

IELTS Writing Task 1 Tips, Model Answers & More

If you want letter writing tips for GT writing task 1, see this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-letter-writing-essential-tips/

All the best

Liz

 

 

Can your IELTS score change after remarking? This is one persons story about remarking and the amazing results that followed.

Below is Najada’s story.

My IELTS Remarking Success Story

Hello everyone.

I took my IELTS Academic module on the 8th of December 2018 in Melbourne Australia. I have been living and working in Melbourne for nearly 2 and a half years, which means English has become part of my life everyday communication.

I needed to sit my IELTS in order to apply for a registration to work as a Physiotherapist in Australia. The minimum score required is 7 in each module and overall band score 7. ​I was very lucky to come across IELTS Liz website. I solely studied from Liz’s website. I did most of the lessons, read all the tips, followed all updates and of course purchased the Advanced Writing lessons. ​I strongly recommend to all students to purchase the advanced lessons as they are ABSOLUTELY fantastic. Liz’s explanation and advice are very comprehensive and clear.​I could not afford having a tutor to study so Liz’s website and affordable advanced writing lessons saved my life!!!​​

I received my IELTS score as the following:

• Listening: 7.5
• ​Reading: 8.0​S
• Speaking: 8.5​
• Writing: 6.0

​​I was absolutely disappointed with my writing score as I was pretty sure I did better than 6. In Task 1 I had two line graphs and Task 2 a problem solution essay. I did follow Liz’s advice on how to organise paragraphs and ideas, did my planning before starting writing!!!! VERY IMPORTANT​ I used a variety of complex sentences (Liz’s lessons for complex sentences are fantastic). I was as careful as possible. I felt that something was wrong with the score, so I started checking online about the remark option.​ The majority of the websites mention that there is a possibility to get a change in the score, with a 0.5 increase being the most common and in rare cases a 1.0.​ What they also mention is that if there is a major difference between each component (like my case) they will ask for a second examiner to mark it just to be sure. ​So I thought they might have done that with mine too.

But still my gut feeling said to me that something is wrong. I did better than 6.0. ​So I decided to apply for a remark. The remark fee is quite expensive, 176 AUD to be precise, so if there is not a change you lose your money, but if there is a change you get a full refund.​ I decided to take the risk because as I said before I did study very hard for my writing, which was my weakest part.​​

After 4 weeks I received an email saying that there has been a change to my writing score. And that change was……. 7.5. I COULD NOT believe it. That’s a 1.5 increase. So my final score is overall band score 8 with:

• Listening: 7.5
• ​Reading: 8.0​
• Speaking: 8.5​
• Writing: 7.5

Even the staff at the English Centre  where I took my IELTS were absolutely surprised by this remark change. ​If you have a doubt about your results, while you are confident that you have done better than this, go for the remark. You might receive your desired score.​​

I would also like to say that please do read well all Liz’s pages as they contain crucial information about the test. I literally followed her advice for each part of the test.​

What I would like to add about speaking is…. SPEAK ENGLISH AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. I was very lucky to practice my English everyday. Living and working in Australia have allowed me ​to interact with people. I was asking colleagues and friends to correct any errors I made with my speaking and, believe me, that helped me a lot.​ You can only improve if you are aware of your weak points and you are determined to study hard. Nothing comes easy without hard work.​​Unfortunately for permanent residency I need a minimum of 8 in each component, so I have to sit the IELTS again but i can finally practice my profession. I am continuing to practise my listening, speaking, writing and reading and also my spelling as I am pretty sure some of my listening errors were spelling mistakes.​

Thank you Liz for your absolutely amazing hard work and your kindness, Najada.

From Liz: Well done Najada!! And thanks for sharing your story with everyone else. It will help many people. All the best, Liz

.

Remarking Advice from Liz

Note to consider about remarking:

1. If you are considering a remark, and have a two band score difference between your writing and speaking score (for example, speaking 8 and writing 6), your scores will already have been reviewed by a second examiner who agreed with those marks. This means the chance of your score changing after a remark by a third, senior examiner is less likely to be successful. It doesn’t mean it is impossible to change, it means it is less likely.
2. Your scores for listening and reading are unlikely to change from a remark, because those scores are not based on examiner interpretation or assessment, but on right or wrong answers. This means it is rare the marking is wrong.
3. Before you decide on a remark, make sure you do know and understand the band score requirements for speaking and writing. This will help you make the right choice.
4. “Go with your gut!” Many people decide to try remarking because they feel they did better in speaking or writing (or both). If this is how you feel, make the decision that feels right for you.
5. The remark is always done by a senior examiner. They will listen to your speaking recording and remark from that. For the writing test, they will remark your writing task 1 and task 2 again.

Share Your Remarking Story

Feel free to post your remarking story to help other people make the right choice. 

All the best

Liz

This page contains a model essay and a long list of useful tips to help you develop your IELTS writing task 2 skills.

Essay Question

Some people think that watching TV causes weight problems in children. Do you agree with this view? What solutions can you suggest to tackle children’s weight problems?

Model Essay

It is thought by some people that weight problems in children are caused by watching TV. While I agree that excessive hours in front of the TV can contribute to this problem, diet also plays a role. Furthermore, weight problems can only be dealt with by tackling the issues behind them.

Firstly, I think that although watching TV in itself does not actually cause children to gain weight, spending too much time each day sitting in front of the TV without doing exercise can result in weight problems. In other words, inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle are directly linked to problems with obesity. Secondly, however, weight problems are also compounded by poor diet consisting of a lack of healthy meals and too much processed foods containing high levels of fats and sugars. This comes from both children and parents making poor dietary choices which lack fresh wholefoods. Both lack of exercise and poor diet directly contribute to weight problems in children.

There are two obvious solutions to dealing with childhood obesity. One answer is to reduce the amount of inactivity in a child’s life by cutting out hours spent either watching TV or on electronic devices, and use that time to participate in physical activities. By doing this, children will burn off excess calories which will drastically reduce their weight. Altering a child’s diet is another measure that can be taken to tackle this issue. Parents should be more proactive in producing healthier meals and reducing the amount of junk food available in the house. It might also be sensible to encourage children to take part in the cooking process which ought to ensure they grow up being able to produce their own balanced meals.

In conclusion, by introducing children to sports and other physical activities as well as providing them with a better diet, these measures can counteract the causes of childhood obesity.

Useful Tips

I have written these tips to help you with your essay. 

The tips have two aims:

• To help you understand my model essay above.
• To help you understand some of the problems with your own essay. I have read the essays you posted and I have put advice which will relate to many of you below.

Tips for IELTS Essays

1. There are two tasks in this essay question.
   1. You must give your opinion as to whether watching TV causes weight problems. 
   2. You must present solutions to the problem of childhood obesity.
   3. Both of these tasks carry equal weight.
2. Your introduction should not be long. Your conclusion should not be long. The high scores for writing task 2 are in the body paragraphs. See my essay above to assess the length and balance of the essay.
3. Because you have two tasks, you will use one body paragraph for your opinion and one body paragraph for the solutions. This is logical organisation and logical paragraphing.
4. Your opinion about TV causing weight problems should be given in the introduction and explained in body paragraph 1.
   1. A complete agreement with the statement would mean you agree that watching TV causes weight problems for children.
   2. A partial agreement would be that it does to some extent but there are other possible reasons or reason.
   3. It is always wise to address the fact that watching TV is not a problem in itself – it is the amount of time doing so that is the problem. This is an important aspect of the essay question that needs to be addressed if you are aiming for a high score. High band scores will require you to intelligently assess the issue or issues in the question.
   4. Your opinion which is about causes is body paragraph 1. You do not have a separate body paragraph with your opinion.
5. Expressing your Opinion
   1. The words “This essay will …” or “This essay agrees …” does NOT express your own personal opinion. If you have done that, you will have failed to follow the instructions which require a direct personal opinion from you. This will lower your score.
   2. To express your own personal opinion, you MUST use “I” or “My”.
6. If you have two causes and two solutions of childhood weight problems, you should make sure both causes and both solutions are easy to identify in the body paragraph. This means using linking words or signposts. Check my essay above and see how I do this. If you didn’t do this, you should consider more about your use of linking. This will be assessed by the IELTS examiner.
7. The solutions to the problem given will appear in the second body paragraph. 
8. You cannot have more than 3 body paragraphs in an IELTS essay. Each body paragraph should be of equal length (roughly). This is because each main point must be equally developed for a high score.
9.  Vocabulary
   1. You need to avoid inappropriate and informal language, such as the word “kids” which is informal. That word can be used in IELTS speaking, not in IELTS writing.
   2.  The words “children” and “child” will be repeated. It is 100% fine to repeat some words in the English language. Paraphrasing is not about changing all words, all the time. It is about choosing which words to change and which words NOT to change.
   3. Don’t use expression such as “I want to say that..”. This is too informal for an IELTS essay.
10. Choose the information you present in your essay carefully.
    1. If you want to write about meal times. Do not give a list of times (for example breakfast 7-9am). Instead, write that meal times should be at a scheduled time each day to provide routine. Think about what your point really is.
    2. Don’t write a list of junk food. If you use the word junk food, you do not need to give examples of it. The examiner knows the meaning of junk food. Examples are used to illustrate a point to make it clearer. The words “junk food” do not need explaining.
    3. Don’t give examples of video games or online gaming. The examiner does not need that information to understand your point.
    4. You do not have to start your examples with “A recent survey..”. The examiner does not care where your ideas or information come from.
11.  Conclusion
    1. If you miss the conclusion, you will automatically get a reduced score for Task Response which is 25% of your marks.
    2. Always start your conclusion with a useful linking device. It helps the examiner locate your vital conclusion.
12. Make sure you essay is below 300 words and between 260 and 290 words. My model above is 302 which is slightly over, but as I am a native speaker and highly experienced with IELTS I will not penalise myself for this 🙂

I hope you found this exercise useful. I hope the tips will help you develop your writing skills for IELTS.

Thank you for posting your essays. Some of the sentences and paragraphs you have written may be used in the new Grammar E-book I am compiling. Without your name or details mentioned of course.

All the best

Liz

Below are answers for yesterday’s reading passage: Death of the High Street Lesson

If you haven’t done the lesson, please complete it before looking at the answers. Click here: Reading Lesson Death of the High Street.

Answers

1. A = 3
2. B = 5
3. C = 1
4. D = 2
5. E = 4
6. triggered = spurred
7. combine = couple that
8. expendable = disposable
9. soar = shoot up
10. discouraging = deterring
11. imminent = looming
12. boost = injection

I hope you found this lesson useful 🙂

All the best

Liz

Hi guys,

I have posted some model background statements on the original page. I also added a list of tips to help you learn the correct way to write for IELTS.

Click here: Background Statement Model Answers.

Sorry for posting this late.

All the best

Liz

Hi guys,

I’ve posted a model answer for the Diagram about Sand Dune Formation on the original page. Click here: Sand Dune Diagram Model Answer & Tips

All the best

Liz

Hi,

There are a lot of people taking their test tomorrow, December 1st. I want to wish you all lots of luck in your test !!  Also good luck to anyone sitting their test today !!  🙂

See my “On the Day Tips” which cover basic tips and also tips for listening, reading, writing and speaking. Click here: IELTS On the Day Tips

Good luck! 🙂 I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you all 🙂

Liz