Proven Strategies for IELTS Academic Writing.

In this lecture we look at the types of questions that you can expect in task one. I will show you some examples and identify the main skills needed to answer these types of questions.

In this lecture you will learn how your score is calculated. This information is vital to your success. By understanding the scoring system, you will become aware of the exact skills that you need to develop.

This lesson is about ups & downs! An important part of describing line graphs, bar charts and pie charts is writing about what is going up and what is going down. In this lecture you get all of this!

Remember that there are also factsheets to understand the lecture in more detail.

There is also a worksheet, where you can practice writing trend sentences. Go For It!

Firstly please note that there are TWO VIDEOS in this lecture. The second video is available in the resources section.

This lecture is all about variables. You can find out what this means in the lecture, but please note that being able to write out the variable accurately is most important when you describe any type of graph. Let's understand this micro skill properly!

Remember that there are also worksheets for more practice in writing variables in the resources section.

This is a short but useful lecture. Since the word 'respectively' comes up a lot when you need to identify data points in a graph, I thought you should get some coaching in the use of this word. Please enjoy this lecture.

Comparisons are another micro skill that is essential to master if you want to write a strong task 1 answer. In this lecture you will learn three useful systems for making comparisons. If you describe a graph, it is almost certain you need to make a comparison, so let's work on this area!

There is also a factsheet to clarify the systems outlined here.

You can get more practice writing comparisons by downloading the worksheet. It's all in the resources section.

Prepositions are another area that causes problems. In task 1 you need to pay attention to detail. This means mastering prepositions. This lesson shows you how 'by', 'to' and 'at' are used when you are describing data points. This is worth paying attention to.

Lectures #4 through #8 have concentrated on micro skills - specific areas of language that you need to master in order to write a high score in task 1.

In this lecture we go to the big picture. You will learn how to tackle the answer as a whole. You will understand about the concept of the overview and how to write one. You will also learn how to organise your answer in paragraphs.

This lecture is very important for your success - please don't skip it!

This lecture is a companion lecture to lecture #9. Part of your main strategy is to organise your description in paragraphs. Topic sentences are used to clearly identify which section of the graph you are writing about. They are so useful that I have created a separate lecture on this topic.

All the other lectures have been concentrated on describing graphs - line graphs, pie charts, bar charts and tables. However, let's not forget about the map question!

In this lecture you will learn how to answer a question where you have to describe maps. Useful language and vocabulary is provided and we look at a sample map.

You have now learned all of the key strategies for success in task one! Well Done!

This lecture puts everything together. You will be taken through an example question and how to answer it. This helps you to apply all of the strategies shown in the other lectures.

Well done! You have completed the Task 1 Section!

In this lecture you can access some task 1 questions for practice writing. For each question there is a separate file:

The question alone.

A practice exercise on the question.

A sample answer for the question.

Please see the video for more details.

An important question for the writing module is which task to start with? Do I start to write task 1, or do I write task 2 first? This explainer video will help you decide.

In this lecture we look at what types of question you can expect from task 2 of the writing section.

The essay framework is the fundamental key to success in writing a great essay. In this lecture you will learn this simple framework.

It is a short and easy lecture to understand, so please do not miss it!

The first step in writing an essay is to brainstorm your idea. If you have no ideas, then you have no essay! In this essay you will get more confidence in generating main ideas and supporting points.

Start your essay strongly! In this lecture you will learn more about the two key components of the introduction. This lecture uses examples to make the strategies easy to follow and apply.

Here we go! This is the most content packed lectures in your course! This is because the main paragraphs make up 80% of the task 2 answer and there is a lot to cover.

In this lecture you will learn about how to write topic sentences, how to structure the supporting points, and how to provide examples and explanations for the supporting points.

This lecture is full of lots of examples to help you understand exactly how everything works. Please go through it step by step!

The conclusion includes your opinion and a suggestion. This lecture looks at how you can express these clearly.

You have learned about each of the key components of the essay framework. In this lecture you can see how a complete answer is written.

Are you ready for some essay writing practice?

This lecture includes task 2 questions for you to write. You can also check your answers alongside feedback.

Increasing your vocabulary is a powerful way to increase your score in IELTS. It also makes you smarter in every part of your life! I hope this vocabulary notebook is a useful tool.