The Big Writing Mistakes

In this post I will cover what I think are some of the major mistakes that IELTS candidates make when it comes to writing tasks one and two. There are some things that candidates do again and again and I can only assume that there is some IELTS preparation school somewhere that is giving out bad advice that they think will benefit candidates.

1 Memorising Chunks of English

The first problem I will cover is the memorising of “chunks” of English that a candidate just inserts into their writing. It is very obvious to spot this kind of behaviour. Either the English will be far too general (that it could be used in any essay) or it will stand out as it will be grammatically perfect and this will not match the accuracy of grammar used in the rest of the essay. I know that certain IELTS tutorial schools teach candidates to rote learn an introduction or conclusion BUT if the examiner thinks that this has been done (and a section memorised) then you can lose marks.

Here is one example of a memorised chunk used as an introduction:

While some people think that overall this is an innovative solution to the problem, others have the opposite contention. I would have to conclude therefore that for all the reasons outlined above, the issue is still in a state of flux and that there is as of yet, still no simple answer that is readily available and applicable to all people and to suit all circumstances.

Here is another example which is slightly better (in that the candidate can at least put in the topics of the essay where required) but you can still see that it is a memorised paragraph and this would be very obvious if the rest of the essay was just not written to the same standard (and would have lots of very basic grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes!

Issues related to university education produce many advantages for everyone and have been continuously debated in many sections of modern society. Society is split on this topic, some prefer to see the inherently positive aspects of university education while others focus on the drawbacks. It might be possible here to elucidate some of the positives and negatives in this essay

TIP – do not memorise huge chunks of English to add into your essay. You can however learn some grammatical patterns to use e.g. Not only ….. but also…..

You can learn some quotations to add to your essay from famous people that might add support to your arguments and are particularly useful in introductions and conclusions.

Remember that memorising a paragraph is obvious and will negatively effect your score.

Solution: Make sure you write in your own words and if you must memorise, memorise patterns or short quotes NOT whole paragraphs.

2 Copying from the Question

Let’s have a look at a very general education related question:

Lots of students are choosing to study abroad either at school or at university. Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of overseas studies.

What happens (sometimes) is that candidates will copy from the question and say something like the following in their introduction (or conclusion):

I think that Lots of students are choosing to study abroad either at school or at university and there are many benefits and disadvantages of overseas studies.

Let’s look at that sentence again and highlight the bits that are copied directly from the question

I think that Lots of students are choosing to study abroad either at school or at university and there are many benefits and disadvantages of overseas studies.

Candidates sometimes also tend to copy parts of questions into their topic sentences:

Example Question 1: Choosing to study abroad either at school or at university has many benefits.

Again, let’s highlight the copied parts:

Choosing to study abroad either at school or at university has many benefits.

Example Question 2: On the other hand, choosing to study abroad either at school or at university has a lot of disadvantages.

We can again highlight the copied parts:

On the other hand, choosing to study abroad either at school or at university has a lot of disadvantages.

Candidates need to be able to paraphrase (write in their own words) or be able to use different synonyms (word that have the same or a similar meaning) to make their work different. Candidates can lose a lot of marks from copying from the questions!

Solution: learn how to paraphrase for example by leaning to turn active into passive (or vice versa). You can also broaden your vocabulary so that you don’t repeat yourself by using the same words all the time and this will make it a lot easier to paraphrase any question you may be asked

3 Not Writing enough

Task 1 requires candidates to write 150 words and task 2 requires 250 words. This is a minimum and will affect your score if you do not write enough. Candidates will be heavily penalised if they do not write enough and this could push what would otherwise be a good essay (and a good score) down one or two bands.

Solution: practice writing under timed conditions so that you can easily write the minimum in the time allowed.  You can also know how many words you write for each line and then you can very easily count how many words you have written quickly. Remember that phrases you have copied from the question will not be counted in your word count!

4 Not Answering the Question

This can happen in a number of ways and can take a few different forms. Sometimes it might be due to a misunderstanding of the question or it may be due to the candidate not having enough time to answer all the different parts of the question.

Some questions can have quite a few things to write about. For example, questions that require  you to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of something AND give your opinion; in this type of question you need to highlight three different things in your answer! If a candidate misses out just one thing, they will lose marks as though they had only answered half the question.

Sometimes candidates do read the question and go off on a tangent; they answer their own question which barely relates to the topic. Being able to answer the question as it is set if a vital academic skill and candidates should not try to answer their own question.

Solution: Read the question and make a plan before you start writing and you should be able to stay fully on topic.

5 Using the Wrong Structure

The final type of mistake is where the essay does not have the three parts that are required. All essays need an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. There are also heavy penalties for not using paragraphs or for writing ideas out using bullet points or other inappropriate ways (lists for example).

Solution: Practice being able to write in full paragraphs using topic sentences and support sentences. Make sure you leave a one line space between paragraphs so the examiner can easily see where each paragraph starts and finishes.