WRITING TASK 1 CHARTS CHECKLIST

When looking at an IELTS writing task 1 chart question, you should ask yourself 10 quick questions before you write your answer.

HOW MANY WORDS SHOUD I WRITE

This is one of the most common questions my students ask me and it is always interesting to hear how many different opinions there are.

Unfortunately, there is some really bad advice and misconceptions surrounding this question. The two worst pieces of advice I’ve heard are ‘You don’t have to write 250 words in writing part 2, 10% below this is OK.’ and ‘You should write as much as possible to get a good mark.’ These two statements are simply wrong and will lead to lost marks.

HOW TO WRITE A COMPLEX SENTENCE

One of the biggest mistakes students make in IELTS writing is to try and show off and be overly ambitious with their grammar. This is because many students think that all of their sentences need to be ‘complex’ (they don’t!) and them not understanding what a ‘complex’ sentence is. Trying to write overly complicated sentences leads to grammar mistakes and this will lead to lost marks in many different areas.

PARAPHRASING

Paraphrasing is an essential IELTS skill. This post will show you how to paraphrase effectively.

Paraphrasing is simply re-writing a phrase or sentence so that it has the same meaning, but with different words. 

Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn before doing your IELTS test. It is most important for writing and speaking, but will also help you in the reading and listening tests. In other words, if you know how to paraphrase you are more likely to get the score you need.

HOW TO WRITE AN OVERVIEW

The overview is probably the most important paragraph in the whole essay. In fact, as we will see later in this post, it is very difficult to score 7 or over without a good one.

An overview is simply a summary of the main or most important points in a graph, chart, process or map. It is normally 2-3 sentences long and should be the second paragraph you write in your essay. As we will see below, it also influences what you write in the rest of your essay. Learn how to write a good one and you are much more likely to get a high score.

TASK 1 WRITING SKILLS

Do you know how the examiner marks your writing paper? The key to success in IELTS writing task 1 is to give the examiner exactly what they want and nothing else.

Below are links to all the resources you will need on this site to do well in IELTS writing task 1.