Grammar Tips On How to Improve Your IELTS Writing Band Score
In IELTS Writing, you must note that IELTS Grammar plays a significant role in conveying your ideas clearly, accurately, and effectively.
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Vary your Sentence Length
Once you know the different types of sentences, you should practice using them. The most difficult one is the compound-complex sentence, but even if you don’t know that, you can still get a good score with a mix of simple, compound, and complex sentences. The key is varying the length and type of sentence so it sounds natural.
This is an IELTS Writing Task 1 example of an opinion essay. Look at how we are changing it:
- Firstly, children watch too much TV. It’s bad for their health. It can make them addicted. They will spend too much time indoors. This can make them fat.
The sentences are all short and could easily be mixed together into more interesting patterns:
- Firstly, children watch too much TV, which is bad for their health. This habit can cause them to become addicted, resulting in them spending too much time indoors and thus getting fat.
Remember Collocations
Students preparing for the IELTS exam always want to study lots of IELTS Vocabulary. This is understandable as vocabulary is important for your understanding and making yourself understood. However, knowing a word’s meaning is very different from being able to use it. Learn a word in context and you will be able to apply it more easily. When you are learning vocabulary, pay attention to what words commonly go together.
Below are a few IELTS Writing Task 1 & 2 examples on different collocations:
| Topic | Word/Phrase | Example |
| ‘Verb + thought’ | Spare a thought | Spare a thought for all those who are homeless on a cold night like this. |
| Hear one’s thought | Have you given the new proposal any thought yet? We are keen to hear your thoughts.
| |
| Your thoughts go out to somebody/something | Your thoughts go out to all those families who lost relatives in the disaster. | |
| The thought occurs to someone | The thought just occurred to me that it is mum’s birthday tomorrow and we haven’t got her a card.
| |
| Gather your thoughts | The President was taken aback by the question and took a minute to gather his thoughts. | |
| ‘Noun + preposition + thought’ | A great deal of thought | Shirley doesn’t devote a great deal of thought to her appearance. |
| freedom of thought | Some places don’t encourage freedom of thought. | |
| school of thought | One school of thought contends that modern man originated in Central Africa. | |
| train of thought | Sorry, where was I? I’ve lost my train of thought. |
Avoid using ‘Really, So, A lot, Very’
In Writing Task, you need to write an essay, using “academic” language. So your goal should be to be reasonably formal/academic. To do so, you should not use imprecise language like really, so, a lot, very, or etc
Do not use Contractions in Academic Writing
It’s better to write out the words like:
- Don’t > do not
- Can’t > cannot
- Mustn’t > must not
- Couldn’t > could not
- Wouldn’t > would not
- Isn’t > is not
- Haven’t > have not
- Hasn’t > has not
Avoid “There is/ There are”
When you write, try to write your ideas in a clear & concise way. There is/there are extra words that are not needed. So just leave them out to make your sentences stronger and straight to the point.
- Example:There are many issues that students have to face at university.
- Alternative:Students face a multitude of issues at university.
Know the Sentence Types
It’s really important that you know the difference between a simple sentence and a complex sentence. You don’t need to know the terminology, but it is important that you can form full sentences. Knowing the sentence types means being able to avoid these cardinal sins of writing:
Make sure, however, that you use the correct fix according to the sentence’s precise meaning as it will help you know how to improve grammar in IELTS writing.
Consistency is the key to improving your writing skills. As you practice regularly, you’ll be well-equipped to achieve your desired IELTS Writing band score. So, let’s take this journey together and get you started!
Enrol at the IELTS Preparation Centre in Sydney and learn how to achieve your IELTS grade with native speaking examiners as your teachers.
The IELTS Preparation Centre always highly recommends the Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary: Definitions & Meanings to best assist all our IELTS preparation students
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/
Other highly recommended links:
Cambridge Thesaurus | Synonyms, antonyms and examples
