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IELTS Academic Writing Task 2

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 involves writing a formal five-paragraph essay in 40 minutes responding to an abstract question. Task 2 counts for more of the writing score than Task 1 and requires a minimum 250-word response. Students should practice handwriting responses to learn pacing and become familiar with the required word count on the answer sheet without counting words. Effective time allocation includes 2-10 minutes for planning, 25-32 minutes for writing, and 5 minutes for editing. Responses should use an academic/formal writing style with complete sentences, paragraphs to organize ideas, avoidance of repetition and slang, and a thoughtful, neutral tone.

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1K views2 pages

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 involves writing a formal five-paragraph essay in 40 minutes responding to an abstract question. Task 2 counts for more of the writing score than Task 1 and requires a minimum 250-word response. Students should practice handwriting responses to learn pacing and become familiar with the required word count on the answer sheet without counting words. Effective time allocation includes 2-10 minutes for planning, 25-32 minutes for writing, and 5 minutes for editing. Responses should use an academic/formal writing style with complete sentences, paragraphs to organize ideas, avoidance of repetition and slang, and a thoughtful, neutral tone.

Uploaded by

Dan Nahum Estillore
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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IELTS Academic Writing Task 2: The Complete Guide

IELTS Academic Writing Task 2 involves composing a formal five-paragraph essay in 40 minutes. This is
the second of two writing tasks on the IELTS. The first sectionTask 1should take you only 20 minutes.
Why spend more time on IELTS Writing Task 2? This basic comparison offers a few reasons:

Points: Task 2 counts more towards your Writing band score


Task 1 = 1/3rd of your score
Task 2 = 2/3rds of your score
Word count minimums: Task 2 is longer
Task 1 = 150 word minimum
Task 2 = 250 word minimum
Planning your response: Task 2 questions require more thought
Task 1 = transfer of information from a visual into writing
Task 2 = answer an open/abstract question with no clear or correct answer

Handwritten Responses
The IELTS is a pencil and paper exam, so your responses will be handwritten. It is essential that you
handwrite (dont type!) your practice essays for Task 2. Writing by hand helps you develop a sense of
pacing. In other words, you will learn how quickly (or slowly!) you write with pencil and paper in English.
Importantly, as youre probably aware, precious points will be deducted if you do not meet the minimum
word requirements in the Writing section. But it is a huge waste of time to actually count your words on
exam day. If you take the additional step of using official IELTS Writing Task 2 response sheets, you can
see how many words you typically write on each page. You wont have to count because you will know
what that number of words looks like on the IELTS answer sheet.

Timing
Writing speed varies a lot from student to student. How you allocate time depends a lot on how fast you
can write. The more you practice Task 2 responses, the quicker you will become. Your goal should be to
allow enough time for these three things:

Essay planning 2 10 minutes


Writing 25 32 minutes
Editing 5 minutes (or more if possible)
As you practice, try very hard to cut down on the amount of time it takes to plan your responses before
writing. Some students can take up to 10 minutes to brainstorm and plan. For most people, however,
using 10 minutes at the beginning will take away too much time from writing and editing. I usually
recommend three to five minutes of planning as a reasonable target. The more practice questions you
answer, the faster you will become at generating ideas before you write.

Academic/Formal Writing
The IELTS expects you to use an academic/formal writing style. This means you should use the same kind
of language that you would when writing a report for work or an essay for school. Obviously, you would
avoid using slang words. You would also write in complete sentences and use proper punctuation. Here
are some additional features of academic/formal writing to keep in mind for Task 2:
Organize ideas into separate paragraphs: You will lose points if you do not divide your essay
into paragraphs. In the next section of this post, Ive included an IELTS Writing Task 2 response
template. The template includes the essential paragraphs you should include in your Task 2
response. Generally speaking, your essay must have an introduction paragraph, 2 3 body
paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Write in complete sentences: Make sure each sentence you write has an independent clause with
a subject and verb. When you write complex or compound sentences, use connectors
like coordinating conjunctions (and, but, so, etc) or subordinating conjunctions (when, although,
because, etc).
Avoid repetition of words and ideas: Your ideas should move from one to the next logically, and
you should show off your vocabulary by avoiding redundancy (dont repeat the same words over and
over).

Avoid slang: The English you hear in the movies or read on social media is often inappropriate for
formal writing. It is a big problem to use words like dude or spellings like U (for you) on the
IELTS.

Thoughtful and Neutral Tone: Academic/formal writing has a very careful and thoughtful tone. It
rarely sounds angry, excited, or overly certain about an idea. It is also best to avoid broad
generalizations in formal/academic compositions. Here are some examples to demonstrate:

NOT ACADEMIC: I hate this idea! (Too excited/angry)


ACADEMIC: This idea has some problems to consider.

NOT ACADEMIC: Everyone is distracted by cell phones these days.(Too broad)


ACADEMIC: Many people are distracted by cell phones these days.

NOT ACADEMIC: I have the best solution to the problem. (Too certain)
ACADEMIC: I would suggest this solution to the problem.

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