The IELTS Writing Test – Word Count Tips

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019Leave a comment

Confused?

I meet a lot of students who are confused about the IELTS writing test. One problem students have is knowing how much to write. Another problem is worrying about time management in the test.

Read on for some advice that should help with both of these problems…

1. How much to Write in the Writing Test

In the IELTS test it is not a good idea to write too much, but it is also not a good idea to write too little.

In Task 1, you should write AT LEAST 150 words. This means you must write 150 words or more.

In Task 2, you should write AT LEAST 250 words. This means that you must write 250 words or more.

If you write fewer than 150 words in Task 1 or fewer than 250 words in Task 2, you will lose marks. So make sure you write more!

However, some students think that this means the more they write the higher their score will be. This is NOT TRUE.

As long as your writing is over the minimum number of words, the amount you write does not matter. In fact, if you write too much you may run out of time or you may have a lot of mistakes.

2. How to get it right

My advice for this is to:

1. Go to the IELTS official website and download the answer sheets for task 1 and task 2. (Or just click on these links.)

2. Print out the answer sheets (you may need more than one copy)

3. Find an example question for Task 1 (such as this one here ) and an example question for Task 2 (such as this one here).

4. Plan your answer to Task 1.

5. Write your answer to Task 1 on the answer sheet.

6. Count your words.

7. If you have more than 150 words, that’s great! If you have fewer than 150 words, you need to rewrite your answer to include more words.

8. When you have over 150 words, count how many lines on the answer sheet you used to get to 150 words. (For example, 150 words in my writing is about 20 lines on the IELTS answer sheet. What about yours?)

9. Do the same for Task 2 with 250 words.

10. Practise this again with some more practice questions at a later date.

11.When you finally do the IELTS writing test, you should therefore know how many lines of the answer sheet are filled with 150 words of your writing.

(For me, for example, I would write 22 or 23 lines for Task 1.)

This means that you will not need to count your words in the exam! Just your lines!

This is great as you do not have time to count your words on exam day! Counting lines is much quicker!

I hope you found this advice useful.

Please let me know if you did by wrting a reply below!

Good luck with your IELTS writing preparation!

If you need help with your IELTS writing, send me an email at charlottesenglishlessons@gmail.com with your questions and I will do my best to help you!

Have a great week!

Charlotte XX

How to Write a Recipe in English

February 18, 2019February 18, 2019Leave a comment

Pancake Day!

I don’t know if you know this already, but on Tuesday the 5th of March 2019 it will be Pancake Day in the UK.

We celebrate the day before Lent starts by eating pancakes – yum!

Lent is the 40 day period before Easter.

So, as Pancake Day will be here soon, here is a recipe so that you can start practising making pancakes the British way…

And below is the language you need to write your own recipe in English…

Pancake Recipe

First, you will need your ingredients.

A good way to remember your pancake ingredients is to remember 1, 2, 3!

Ingredients

1. 100g (grams) of plain flour

2. 2 large eggs

3. 300ml (millilitres) of milk

Plus

A little oil for frying

Some lemon wedges and caster sugar to serve

Method

1. Put the flour, eggs and milk into a large bowl and whisk until smooth.

2. Add a pinch of salt if you wish.

3. Leave the mixture to stand for about 30 minutes.

4. Grease a frying pan with the oil.

5. Heat the pan for about 1 minute.

6. Add the pancake mixture little by little until it makes a circle in the pan.

7. Fry for one minute.

8. Turn over the pancake.

9. Fry on the other side for one minute.

10. Keep going until you have made all the pancakes.

11. Serve with the lemon and sugar.

12. Eat and enjoy!!!

Language for writing a recipe

Ingredients = the food needed
Grams = a measurement for solid food
Millilitres = a measurement for liquids
Method = what you have to do
Whisk = stir fast
A pinch of = a little
Fry = cook in oil in a frying pan
Roast = cook in the oven
Bake = cook in the oven
Boil = cook (in) liquid on a high heat
Simmer = cook (in) liquid on a low heat

*Now you try: Write a recipe for something traditional from your country using some of the language above. If you like, you can send it to me at charlottesenglishlessons@gmail.com and I will send you some feedback on your writing!

I hope you try to make pancakes the British way this week, ready for Pancake Day!

Enjoy your cooking!

How to improve your writing skills in English

February 4, 2019February 3, 20191 Comment

I have written blog posts so far on improving our listening, reading and speaking skills and I have left until last the skill that most people seem to find the MOST DIFFICULT… writing! Eeeeeeek!

Do you think that your writing is terrible?

Most of my students say to me that they can’t write in English… this is not true! But a lot of students lack confidence in their writing.

So if this sounds like you, read on and I will try to help you with how you can feel more confident writing anything in English – emails, essays, reports – absolutely anything you need to write!

1. Read!

In my last blog post, I wrote about how the perfect way to improve your speaking is to speak to native speakers. This is because you are not only speaking to them, but listening to how they speak.

In the same way, to improve your writing you need to not only work on the writing itself, but also you need to read how people with English as their first language write.

If you need to write emails, read emails that have been written by native English speakers. If you need to write essays, read essays that have been written by native English speakers. This will show you the style and a lot of the language that you will need to write in this way.

Also, as I wrote in my blog post about improving your reading skills, try to read something every day to increase your vocabulary. The bigger your vocabulary, the easier writing will be for you.

2. Write a diary

This is something that I always tell my students to do if they are struggling with their writing. Writing a diary encourages you to write every day, which is really good practice.

Also, you will need to use a lot of language to write about yourself and your job/hobbies/daily life so you will learn vocabulary and phrases that will be useful for your speaking, too.

Bonus: Download my free ebook ‘5 Tips to Improve Your Listening Skills in English’ Click here to get it

3. Study grammar

Sorry, this probably isn’t what you want to hear! I know a lot of students find grammar boring and difficult, but to have good writing it is necessary to find your grammar mistakes and then learn from them.

A good way to do this is to ask a native speaker (or, even better, a teacher) to look at a piece of your writing for you. Ask them to show you all of your mistakes. Then, when you know what you are making mistakes with, you can look it up and practise that grammar point.

For example, if you are making mistakes with verb tenses – using past simple instead of present perfect, let’s say – then you can practise that and improve for next time.

If you would like me to look at your writing for you and send you back a report with your mistakes, I offer this as a service called a Level and Skills Check for Writing. Email me at charlottesenglishlessons@gmail.com or click here for more information!