Essay For IELTS (A Collections)

IELTS Writing Task 2: Evaluation Criteria

IELTS Writing Tests are evaluated across 4 dimensions:

1. Task achievement - To what extent does the examinee address all parts of the task with a fully developed position, inclusive of fully extended and well-supported ideas?

2. Coherence and Cohesion - Does the examinee logically organise the information and ideas? Is the entire essay cohesive?

3. Lexical Resource - To what extent does the examinee use a wide range of vocabulary with accuracy? Do they demonstrate sophistication regarding the use of lexical items?

4. Grammatical Range and Accuracy - Does the examinee use a range of grammatical structures accurately?

According to the IELTS Writing Band Descriptors, an essay is Band  for Task Achievement if it:

- Fully addresses all parts of the task

- Presents a fully developed position in answer to the question with relevant, fully extended and well supported ideas.

In order to score well on Task Achievement, the most important thing is to make sure you respond to what is being asked of you. Is the prompt asking for an opinion, a discussion of a problem, or some combination of these? If you provide an opinion and not a solution when you're being asked for a solution, you're not going to score well in this area. Read the question carefully!

Coherence and Cohesion

Think of this as "How well does the essay flow? Is it easy to follow and does it all tie together?" The exact characteristics for a Band 9 C&C score are that an essay:

- Uses cohesion in such a way that it attracts no attention

- Skilfully manages paragraphing

Note the specific wording "it attracts no atention". The goal here is for things to sound natural and not forced. How do you connect your ideas (ensure cohesion) without it sounding forced? I think there are 2 possible ways:

1. Explain your ideas in a logical order so that you don't need many linking words. This is probably what you do when writing in your own language.

2. Use easy linking words like and, but, also, firstly, secondly, finally, for example. These are so common that they attract almost no attention.

Lexical Resouce

Scoring well in the Lexical Resource dimension is all about (correctly) showing off your vocabulary. The description for a Band 9 here is:

- Uses a wide range of vocabulary and sophisticated control of lexical features, rare minor errors occur only as 'slips'

Collocations, topic specific vocabulary and phrasal verbs are the name of the game here. To score well, an examinee needs to show that they have a wide-ranging vocabulary and they know how to use it.

Note: it is highly likely that you will need to refer to people/children in your IELTS Writing task 2, so make sure that you have lots of different words to use to refer to them. IELTS examiners do not like to see the words "people", "children" over and over again! The same goes for the word "important" - make sure you have plenty of alternative phrases. 

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

The final scoring dimension is related to grammar and grammatical structures - do you know them and can you correctly use them?

The Band 9 description GR&A:

- Uses a wide range of structures with full flexibility and accuracy; rare minor errors occur only as slips

Note that there is nothing in the scoring criteria about including specific tenses or sentence constructions. Your main objective should be to reduce the number of mistakes that you make. An essay that contains no mistakes is likely to get a 9 for grammar, regardless of the types of sentence that it may or may not contain.

If there is a nice mix of long and short sentences in your essay, you'll meet the grammar requirements. Remember, as soon as you write a "long" sentence you are naturally going to use connectives (linking words), which will make the sentence 'compound' or 'complex'. So don't think too much about the grammar - just aim to reduce the number of mistakes that you make, and try to include a few longer sentences.

Source: ieltspodcast.com/ielts-writing-task/ielts-band-9-sample-essay-no-9/