IELTS Writing Task 1 General Write a Band 9 Answer

hi this is Olly at Oxford online English

welcome to the lesson in this class

you’re going to learn about how to write

an answer for task one of the general

IELTS exam now task 1 of general IELTS

is generally writing a letter I think

it’s probably the easiest IELTS writing

task it’s certainly the one which

students have the fewest problems with

however you still need to prepare for it

and practice for it and even if it’s

easy that just means it’s a chance for

you to get a really good score and

perhaps pull up your score if you find

the essay more difficult which many

IELTS students do you’ve got a chance to

boost your score by writing a really

good task one answer so let’s look in

this lesson I’m going to write an answer

to a task one question in real-time I’m

going to do everything like in the exam

you can see you can see how I write it

and I’m also going to talk to you at the

same time so you can see what I’m

thinking about and see what you should

be thinking about when you answer task 1

IELTS questions ok so I’m going to do

this with a timer with a time limit like

in the exam I’ve got my timer here 20

minutes let’s start so let’s read the

question a close friend is coming to

visit you he or she has asked you for

advice for things to do in your hometown

and the surrounding area write a letter

to your friend in your letter ask for

more details about your friends plans

suggest some places to visit and things

to do in your hometown and tell your

friend about food or drink he or she

should try during his or her stay all

right everything below that you do not

need to read all of this stuff is the

same for every task one question so we

don’t need to read it let’s start first

before you write ever anything you

should make a basic plan in your head

now all task 1 questions are the same

they all have these three bullet points

this I think makes planning quite easy

because you can write three paragraphs

one paragraph for each bullet point and

maybe you have some basic stuff at the

beginning or the end to say hello or a

basic introduction but basically your

plan should be three paragraphs there

are two two things you should think

about here before you start writing one

is you need to write an equal amount for

each paragraph and for each bullet point

it’s important that your answer is

balanced and that you cover all of the

points equally so think about that as

you plan or as you write the second

thing is that it’s important to write

your letter in the correct tone so think

about the situation what I mean by tone

is should your letter be formal or

informal should it be more professional

or more conversational this matters in

other eltz writing tasks things like

tone and formality aren’t really

directly assessed but in task one of the

general IELTS writing exam tone matters

it counts for your score and it’s a very

common mistake probably the most common

mistake I see in task one is students

using language which is way too formal

so in think about this task for example

it’s a letter to a friend who’s coming

to visit you that suggests that you

should use a more informal and

conversational time okay I should shut

up and start writing so otherwise I’m

going to run out of time I’m gonna not

use bold text so you can see the

difference okay shut up Olli right okay

so let’s start with just a sort of basic

introduction saying hello kind of thing

okay now one thing if you’re writing for

task one in the general IELTS exam and

especially if it’s something more

informal like this where you’re writing

to a friend you do have to make an

effort to use a variety of vocabulary

and grammar usually I think students

focus a little bit too much on trying to

use lots of academic vocabulary or

trying to use lots of very complex

grammar and actually for most IELTS

tasks I don’t think you need to because

for example in the essay the tasks

themselves are complex enough if you

write a good answer with good ideas you

will automatically use a good range of

vocabulary and grammar but for a letter

like this where it’s more informal it

would be easy to write something that’s

quite simple that doesn’t use a such a

good range of vocabulary and grammar so

there’s something to think about and

words like I don’t know show you around

which is a more conversational phrasal

verb that’s the kind of thing that would

that can help you here and boost your

vocabulary score okay so I need to ask

for more details about my friends plans

so I need to think of two questions

let’s start with this then what else I

need to ask about one more thing hmm how

about this I hope my keyboard isn’t too

annoying I have a mechanical keyboard

which is noisy so alright so I need a

little bit more because my paragraphs

remember my paragraphs need to be

balanced I can’t stop there it’s

okay I think that’s probably enough for

one bullet point for one paragraph so I

think this this looks good because

you’ve got things like also or by the

way so those are good that’s good use of

linking words and connecting ideas

together also again thinking about

vocabulary in particular using something

like this crash on my sofa a crash it’s

a more idiomatic or slangy word meaning

to stay with a friend at their house

overnight and something like that is a

way to use less common vocabulary while

still writing in a an informal and

conversational tone okay now I need to

suggest some places to visit and things

to do in my hometown so I live in Athens

so I’ll talk about that okay one thing

I’m going to have to be careful of as

well is just to make sure I don’t start

too many sentences with you should or

you can it would be very easy to do that

in a letter like this where you’re

giving advice you could have a lot of

sentences you should do this you should

do that you could do this so I need to

be careful of that and make sure I don’t

over use the same structure too many

times all right again

you need to focus on writing so I don’t

run out of time okay what else can I

talk about the Acropolis obviously in

Athens is a very famous site personally

if I was actually writing to a friend

I wouldn’t recommend going to the

Acropolis everyone’s kind of

underwhelmed when they go there but

whatever this is for IELTS so it doesn’t

need to be true the original Olympic

Stadium is called the original Olympic

Stadium that is quite good actually

that’s worth going to and it’s called

the plan of the Nayak’s stadium that’s

its name but I’m not confident of

spelling that correctly without looking

it up so I’m just going to say Olympic

Stadium okay

right what else I need a bit more no

don’t say you need variety okay feel

like mmm okay that’s good that’s good

[Music]

this should have an accent on the e

cafes but I can’t I’m not gonna do that

because my my video recording software

is in the way of my my word menu thing

I’m just going to leave that okay so

this I think you’ve got places to visit

and things to do so we’ve covered all of

the points in the task that’s good again

I’m I’m focusing more here on vocabulary

and just trying to use a range of stuff

because like I said it would be very

easy to to complete this task

using very simple language but we’ve got

some good things in here like dotted

around wander around set aside and main

sights that’s a good one for vocabulary

in terms of grammar I’ve got I’ve got

pretty good variety because I’ve got a

shorter sentence and then a longer more

complex sentence here in the middle

which has different parts and then

another short sentence at the end so

that’s a good mix I do feel like okay

you’ve got you should you can you can so

despite the fact that I mentioned there

and I said I was going to be careful of

it I still fallen into that trap but

that’s easy to fix

that’s easy to fix okay right that’s

good so now I need a final main

paragraph I need to tell my friend about

food or drink so that’s pretty easy

Greek food is good okay the problem

again that’s going to be if I’m thinking

of things to recommend a lot of the

words of Greek and I’m not sure how to

spell a lot of those words in English

I’m not 100% sure because they’re

they’re Greek words and my Greek

spelling is awful so well seafood that’s

that’s a possibility

okay again I’m again I’m starting a

sentence you should I’m starting a

clause with you should and okay let’s

change that Somu so car two essays 1k

that looks right

what other classic dishes can I spell

it’s not a question of which classic

dishes do I like it’s which can I spell

you Betsy

I think it’s spelled like that pretty

sure if you’re wondering what these are

moussaka moussaka is quite famous it’s

something like a lasagna but very heavy

with grilled vegetables and meat it’s

very nice and you’ve Etsy is like a beef

skew with something like pasta it’s not

exactly pasta it’s similar to pasta

let’s say that it’s good it’s very tasty

okay so that’s food I also need to talk

about drink to cover cover the task so

what do you think of when you think of

Greece why and I guess let’s talk about

wine I don’t really drink much wine but

again it’s IELTS it doesn’t have to be

real okay okay

that’s good I think let’s do a word

count check so not counting the deer

Andrew that’s 160 so that’s that’s

pretty good obviously you need to write

at least 150 words as it says you yeah I

mean I there’s no maximum but you don’t

want to write more than about 200

because then you’re you’re wasting time

that you could be spending on tusks too

and I’m sure as you know you need all

the time you can get for tasks too so

if you can finish task one quickly that

that’s a real bonus don’t try to write

too much okay so now I need some kind of

some kind of finishing line then just

put my name okay so how am i doing for

time Wow okay

in in other videos where I’ve tried to

do this it’s been very tight for time

but here I actually have quite a lot of

time left so we can look through it and

just maybe see if we can improve the

grammar or the vocabulary anywhere now

we’ve been thinking about or we’ve been

thinking about grammar and vocabulary as

as we’ve been writing this and I’ve

shown you a few things already and I

think in this last paragraph also I was

very I was choosing my words carefully

let’s say that and making sure that I

use a good good range of stuff so mmm

yeah something like something like this

it would be easy to say they’re

generally pretty cheap if you use a word

like affordable that fits the tone of

this letter it’s not too formal or too

academic for a letter to a friend but

it’s also a less common words than cheap

so that’s that’s a good fit

also remember that vocabulary is not

just about words it’s also about using

collocations and combinations so

something like classic dishes the

examiner will notice things like this

tasty wines seems simple but it counts

yeah okay in terms of grammar so here in

this paragraph again I’ve got a short

sentence at the beginning second short

sentence then then I’ve got this longer

more complex sentence in the middle

we’re yeah and then again a different

kind of

structure at the end I started this

sentence with you can but I don’t think

that’s a problem I’ve got one one two

three three three sentences starting you

can or you should that’s okay that’s not

too many not a problem at all

so I’m looking through this but I think

this is pretty much good to go I’ll

double-check the word count 171 words

that’s that’s really good length that’s

what you should be aiming for in task

one and I think I think we’re finished

there so let’s just review the most

important points for task one number one

decide the tone that you’re going to

write in are you writing something

formal are you writing something

informal think about that before you

start writing and make sure your tone is

consistent from the beginning to the end

don’t mix very formal and informal

language in your answer because that

will have quite a large effect on your

score number two plan your paragraphs

have one paragraph for each bullet point

and make sure that your paragraphs are

more or less equal in length it’s a

problem if you have one paragraph which

is much much longer than the others

number three think about vocabulary and

grammar as you write ideally think about

using a range of different words try to

use a range of different sentences mix

longer and shorter sentences to get some

variety and just make sure that you’re

not using the same words or the same

structures again and again and in that

way it should be possible even if your

English is say intermediate or high

intermediate meaning band six or band

seven level it should be possible to get

a very good score for task one it should

be very realistic to get a score of

seven point five or eight I think if you

if you can do everything we talked about

here all right so let’s finish that you

can see the full text of this model

answer on our website

oxfordonlineenglish.com there is a link

in the video description if you’re

watching on YouTube but that’s also

thank you very much for watching and

listening and I’ll see you next time