A comprehensive guide to ielts academic writing task

The IELTS writing exam is perhaps the part that candidates fear the most. While the other parts may seem predictable, the kind of material you have to write in the IELTS writing is extremely varied. Preparation seems daunting and it is impossible to adequately prepare without someone constantly giving feedback on your work. Add to this a difficult time limit and you have a very challenging test.

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An Overview

The IELTS writing exam will be different for students doing the academic or general test. In the general test you need to write letters, but in the academic exam you have to write essays. We will just focus on the academic exam today.

There are two tasks in the IELTS writing exam. The first is a “report” on a piece of visual data like a chart or a map, and the second is a more conventional essay. You are given one hour to complete both tasks. The first requires that you write 150 words, and the second one at least 250. It is recommended that you spend 20 minutes on task 1 and 40 minutes on task 2.

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You will be marked in four areas and given a band score:

task achievement/responsecoherence and cohesiongrammarlexis (that means vocabulary)

Let’s look at both parts of the exam in detail.

Task 1

This part of the writing test is called a “report” and candidates are required to write at least 150 words describing one of the following:

bar chartline graphtablepie chartflow chartdiagrammap

Although this is considered by many to be the easier of the two writing tasks, it can pose some problems. For one thing, you can only write about what you see. You should not add any extra information or give your opinion. For example, one of the frequently seen line graph types demonstrates unemployment rates. You should not say something like: “I think the unemployment rate dropped because…”

IELTS Academic Writing task 1

This part of the exam is the more predictable because there are only so many different types of data you could encounter. Line graphs and bar charts are by far the most common. Maps and flow charts are considered the most difficult because they require different vocabulary and grammar from the others. However, with the correct preparation, nothing in task 1 is particularly challenging. Some tutors recommend students spend less than the recommended 20 minutes on this task.

Preparing for Task 1

As line graphs and bar charts are the most common, you should spend the most time practicing these. Learn how to use the appropriate vocabulary and grammar, and how to analyze the data. We have some helpful articles on that:

You still need to prepare for the other, less common question types. We have articles on those, too.