I have had the privilege of marking thousands of scripts both as an examiner and also as a tutor and I could say with all confidence that I have come to know why many candidates sitting for the IELTS may not go beyond band 6 except a miracle happens. I won’t be sharing the common writing criteria, but my own practical insights which I hope would be an eye-opener for everyone.

1.UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE- The structure I mean is the basic knowledge of how a writing is done. These things are really basic such as understanding what an introduction, body and conclusion looks like. How are the introduction, an individual paragraph and even the conclusion crafted? There is a pattern to this. One must understand that a piece of writing is made of many components and you don’t know this, it would be difficult to write an essay that would fetch you at least a band 7.

2. STILL ON STRUCTURE-Another dimension is that many have blindly copied a lot of online formats whose intricacy they don’t understand. Confusion could set in here, in the manner a question is approached. A lot of candidates have devised some level of difficulty in the manner they approach questions such that at times, I could not help shouting-‘Where is this implied in the question?’-Most questions are pretty straightforward and that is exactly what most questions mostly require.


2.UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF A SENTENCE- This is more or less the lowest basic ingredients you would need to write. It is like somebody attempting to build a house without blocks! You must understand what a simple sentence looks like. You must also understand what a complex sentence looks like. It is not just about writing whatever makes sense to you only, but for you to understand and know when you have written a structurally defective sentence. A common error in some essays is writing a subordinate clause and qualifying it as a full sentence. Many also write a long, convoluted sentence without knowing where to put the right punctuation. As a matter of rule, when a sentence is pretty too long, punctuation becomes difficult and ultimately the meaning is lost or confused.

3. THE WAY I HAVE BEEN DOING IT SYNDROME-I am not exaggerating ,but I have realized that it is far easier to teach somebody who had never written the exam before than someone who had written it a couple of times. The simple reason is that one has to spend a couple of days trying to make the candidate unlearn a lot of junks, apart from sessions of arguments on ‘oh, this is the way I have been doing’. Why is it like this? In addition, somebody who is coming fresh into the exam has a high boost of confidence which really helps in the exam hall. For those in the malaise of having written the exam many times, effort must be to first of all unclog your mind and approach the next exam with a new and fresh-mindset.


4.NOT GETTING INTO THE WRITING MODE- The reason many would perform better in Speaking module than in others is because it is an activity they do on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this is not the situation with Writing. Many have not written anything tangible since they wrote their university Long Essay. So what is the way forward? Ensure you write at least a paragraph everyday and show it so somebody to assess for you. If you want to be a better speaker, speak and if you want to be a better writer, write!

5. NOT HAVING A RESERVOIR OF CONTENT TO DRAW FROM- Content is key in passing your IELTS. Nobody writes out of nothing, so for you to be a good writer, you must be an average reader. If for instance you have a month or two to prepare, nothing stops you from reading materials from areas questions are to be asked. There is no rocket science about this. Questions are often drawn from current realities of our everyday life such as technology, education, environment, adjusting to the 21st century world etc. So, go online and get materials from these areas. Also make it a habit of reading this everyday!

6. OTHER LITTLE DETAILS-This makes a lot of difference. There are some basic rules of writing such as punctuation (especially comma, full-stop.), indication of paragraphing, appropriate format etc. All these can only be effectively applied when you have enough time to read over your work in the exam hall!

Kunle Abrahams
(08178333447)
Former IELTS Writing examiner lives in Lagos
For more: www.marklearn.com