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