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Writing tips

How to prepare for the IELTS Writing test, tips and techniques that help to raise your score

IELTS essay on Advertising to Children – ideas, vocabulary, grammar and model answer (video)

Have you ever heard of the writer’s block?

It is a condition that affects not only book authors but also many IELTS test takers. If you ever felt stuck trying to write an essay (IELTS Writing Task 2), you’ve experienced it, too!

And that is exactly the reason for this lesson. Adam, our experienced ex-IELTS examiner, has met so many people who had the vocabulary and grammar knowledge, but still couldn’t come up with enough ideas to write about. So, he wanted to help!

If you don’t have good ideas and examples, or you can’t come up with them quickly enough, it eats away at your time later on, and it also prevents you from demonstrating the vocabulary and grammar that you do have.

In this lesson Adam will focus on the process of creating ideas – but he will also give you some advanced grammar and vocabulary, so it’s a win-win for you!

Watch the lesson on YouTube, or below:

 

The essay topic in this lesson is:

These days a considerable amount of advertising is directed at children. Should it be banned because of the adverse effects?

When you write an essay on this topic, you should:

  • State your opinion clearly
  • Stay true to your opinion – don’t suddenly change your view in the middle of your essay!
  • Give reasons for your opinion and include your knowledge and experience to support your views.
  • Make sure your answer covers all parts of the task and your opinion.

    • So, watch the video for some great ideas on what to write about, how to best structure your essay, and what content belongs in the body paragraphs and in the conclusion.

    If Adam helped you learn something new today, like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a comment to tell us what you think!

    Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 – How to Describe Line Graphs

    When you don’t get Band 7 for your Academic writing, even though you have good grammar knowledge and a wide range of vocabulary, it is disappointing and seems very unfair. In the 10 years Adam worked as an IELTS examiner, he saw it happen too many times – all because people didn’t know how to write a correct Writing Task 1 response.

    In this video Adam shows you step by step how it is done. He gives you a way to analyse the line graph before you start writing, some tips how to reword the task prompt easily, and he also demonstrates how to write a great overview and how to compare and contrast.

    Watch the lesson on YouTube, or below:

     

    In the video

    1. What are you comparing?
    In this particular double line graph it is the length of stay of public and private hospital patients.

    2. How are you comparing?
    Here you need to look at the units used in the line graph. You want to note that the length of stay is measured in days, and that there are many age groups, each with its own length of stay.

    3. When are you comparing?
    For this graph it is last year, which means you will be using past tense to describe the graph. The period of time always affects your grammar, and you should be aware of that.

    4. Is there an overall trend?
    If both line graphs follow the same trend, even for some of the time, it will help you describe them.

    5. What are the similarities?
    Look at the two graphs to see where they declined or rose at the same time.

    And there is a lot more to learn, so do watch the entire video, because Adam explains everything in a very easy to understand way. It won’t take you long to start writing Band 7+ reports!

    Adam doesn’t give you a model response in this lesson, because he would like you to have a go and write your own. But if you’d like to see a Band 9 sample, check out our High Scorer’s Choice IELTS practice tests. This particular topic can be found in Package 2 and we also provide a model response for it, as well as all the other writing tasks.

    Enjoy the lesson!