IELTS Writing Improve Your Grammar Score
Hi, I’m Oli.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn how to improve
your grammar for the IELTS writing exam.
You’ll see exactly what resources you need
to improve your grammar score for IELTS writing.
You’ll also get a practical plan which you
can follow.
If you haven’t already seen our website,
then you should go and take a look!
We have free IELTS preparation lessons, and
you can also find a professional teacher who
can help you to prepare for your IELTS exam.
But now, you’re going to see a three-step
plan for working on your IELTS grammar.
First, we want you to understand two things.
One, do you know how IELTS grammar scores
work?
You can read the IELTS score scheme, which
is available online, but here’s a summary.
Your grammar score depends on two things:
range and accuracy.
‘Range’ means the variety of sentence
patterns which you use.
If you only write in short, simple sentences,
or if you repeat the same sentence patterns,
you’ll get a lower score.
To get a higher score, you need to use a wide
range of sentence patterns.
Accuracy includes the quantity of mistakes
you make, where you make them, and whether
your mistakes affect communication or not.
What does this mean for IELTS scores?
If you only use simple sentence structures,
or if you make a large number of mistakes,
then you’ll get band five or lower for grammar.
If you try to use more complex sentence structures,
and if your meaning is clear in spite of your
mistakes, then you’ll get band six.
To get band seven, you need both good range
and good accuracy.
You need to use a wide range of sentence patterns
without making many mistakes.
Above band seven, it’s a question of degree:
you need wider range and better accuracy.
Our second important point before you see
your three-step study plan: you need the right
resources to practise.
You need: a good reference book, a source
of IELTS writing tasks, an understanding of
how to learn grammar in context, a memorisation
tool, and a source of feedback.
Let’s look at these one by one.
You need a good grammar reference book.
The best is the most popular: English Grammar
in Use by Raymond Murphy.
This is the intermediate version, which has
a blue cover.
The elementary and advanced versions are also
useful.
You need a source of IELTS writing tasks.
Cambridge publish books with past exam papers;
you can also type ‘IELTS writing tasks’
into Google or another search engine, and
you’ll find plenty of results.
You need to know how to learn grammar in context.
This means you need to learn grammar by understanding
and producing full, meaningful sentences.
We explained how to do this in another video,
which you should watch now if you haven’t
already.
You need a memorisation tool.
Language learning partly depends on memorisation,
and memorisation is often slow and inefficient.
We’ve also talked about this in other videos,
but the best solution is a digital flashcard
app such as Anki.
Invest some time and learn how to use Anki
or a similar tool, because this will save
you time and frustration later.
Finally, you need a source of feedback.
This probably means you need a professional
teacher.
I know many of you want to study independently,
but it’s extremely difficult to improve
your grammatical accuracy without feedback.
To put it simply: if you don’t know when
you make a mistake, then there’s no way
to correct it.
You need someone who can show you where you’re
making mistakes, and explain the reasons why.
Once you have these four things, you’re
ready to start with our three-step plan.
Let’s look at step one!
The IELTS scoring system differentiates simple
and complex sentences.
Here, ‘simple’ means that a sentence only
has one clause, with one main verb.
For example, these are simple sentences: ‘Fruit
is good for you.’
‘I am writing to ask for three days off
work next month.’
‘People from different cultures and backgrounds
can have very different attitudes towards
the role of marriage in a society.’
Note that ‘simple’ relates to sentence
structure, not length.
‘Simple’ sentences can be shorter or longer.
The important point is that simple sentences
have one and only one main verb.
In your IELTS writing exam, the first step
is to learn to write simple sentences accurately.
If you can’t do this, your grammar score
will be limited to band six maximum.
So, how can you practise this skill?
Find an IELTS writing task; write your answer,
but you need to follow some rules.
One: you can’t use any conjunctions.
That includes simple words like ‘and’,
‘but’, ‘so’, as well as subordinating
conjunctions like ‘although’ or ‘because’.
No conjunctions!
Two: you can’t use commas.
That doesn’t mean that you need commas but
you don’t use them, it means that you never
need a comma.
Commas in the greeting of general task one
are OK.
Three: you can’t use the words ‘that’,
‘than’, ‘which’ or ‘if’.
What’s the point of these rules?
Can you work it out?
The idea is to write your answer using only
simple sentences.
A common problem for IELTS students is that
they try to use complex sentence structures,
but they can’t write simple sentences accurately.
If you can’t form simple sentences without
making mistakes, then you can’t form more
complex sentences without making mistakes.
So, write your answer, and get feedback, for
example from a teacher.
See how many mistakes you make, and where
they are.
What next?
You’ll probably find that you made more
mistakes than you expected.
That’s fine; don’t worry about it.
Think about what you can do next.
First, you need to learn and practise any
grammar points which you don’t understand
well.
Look through your mistakes, or ask your teacher,
and see if you repeat similar mistakes.
Use your grammar book to read and do exercises
on any topics which are weak.
Secondly, you need to practise again.
Find a new IELTS writing task and write your
answer.
As a first step, aim to get 50% of your sentences
error-free.
That means zero errors, including small mistakes.
Once you can do this, aim to get 75% of your
sentences error-free.
Next, work on the total number of errors.
If 75% of your sentences are correct, and
you make a total of ten errors in the remaining
sentences, try to write an IELTS answer which
only has five errors total.
The exact numbers are flexible.
What’s important is that you set yourself
a target which represents progress for you.
If you make 50 mistakes in your first attempt,
then making 30 mistakes would be progress.
It depends on you and where you’re starting.
This step might take you a long time.
Although we’re talking about ‘simple’
sentences, you need a lot of grammar knowledge
to get through this.
You need to be able to use all common verb
tenses, modal verbs, prepositions, articles,
and more.
However, don’t be impatient!
This step is the foundation of your preparation.
Remember: if you can’t write simple sentences
accurately, then you can’t do anything more
complex.
If your target score is seven or higher, you
need to work on this step until you can do
it consistently.
When you can write an IELTS answer using only
simple sentences and without making many mistakes,
you’re ready to move on to step two.
At step two, you’re going to do the same
things, but the rules are different.
Here are some suggested rules: for step two:
One: you can use any coordinating conjunctions.
That means ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’
and ‘or’.
Two: you can use two or three subordinating
conjunctions.
We suggest you start with ‘because’, ‘although’
and ‘in order to’.
Three: you can use ‘when’, ‘if’ and
‘than’.
Just with these simple rules, your range is
now much wider.
You can now connect simple sentences using
coordinating conjunctions.
For example: ‘Social media allows us to
connect with others more easily, but it can
also lead to feelings of loneliness and disconnection.’
You can form complex sentences with subordinate
conjunctions.
For example: ‘Although social media does
not normally cost money to use, its numerous
disadvantages mean that it should not be considered
‘free.’’
You can make conditional sentences with ‘if’;
for example: ‘If social media is used responsibly
and moderately, it can be a great tool for
meeting new people.’
You can also make comparatives, using ‘than’,
as in: ‘Some people argue that social media
has made face-to-face communication less important
than in the past, but I do not agree.’
So, you have more tools to use when writing.
However, your general task is the same: find
an IELTS writing task, write your answer,
and get feedback.
During this step, you need to make sure you’re
using ALL of the language in the rules.
We said in the rules that you can use these
things, but actually, you should try to use
every rule at least once.
That means that your answer should have at
least one sentence with a coordinating conjunction,
at least one sentence with a subordinating
conjunction, and at least one sentence with
‘when’, ‘if’ or ‘than’.
If you can do that, then set yourself a new
target: make two sentences for each rule,
then three sentences, and so on.
If you did the work on step one, then your
writing should be quite accurate.
However, you also need to think about accuracy.
Set yourself targets like you did in step
one; for example, aim to get over 75% of your
sentences error-free, or aim to make less
than ten errors in total.
The idea here is to start using more complex
sentence patterns, but in a controlled way.
There are still rules and limits, making it
easier to focus on accuracy.
However, your writing is hopefully now closer
to natural writing, with a wider range of
sentence forms.
During this step, you can be flexible with
the rules to make this easier or more difficult
for you.
If you find it difficult, then just use one
or two rules at the beginning.
If you find this step easy, then you can make
the rules more complex, for example by using
a wider range of conjunctions.
You can also add more rules.
When you start doing this, you’re ready
for step three.
Step three is similar to step two, but you
need to add more rules, so that you need to
use a wider range of structures in each piece
of writing.
Remember that the rules are not just what
you can use; you must use each rule at
least once.
Here are some possible rules you could add:
Use a relative clause with ‘which’ or
‘that’.
Use a passive sentence.
Use a second conditional sentence.
Use a comparative with ‘as…as…’
These are just suggestions; there are other
possibilities!
Continue practising as before: find a task,
write your answer, and get feedback.
If you can write your answer with a high level
of accuracy, add another rule.
If your accuracy gets worse, then practise
with the same rules until you can write an
accurate answer.
You may need to work on specific grammar points
if you have weaknesses.
That’s the system; follow these steps and
your grammar will get stronger, and this will
improve your IELTS writing score.
We imagine it would be useful for your speaking
score, too.
However, we imagine some of you have questions
or objections, like: ‘How long will all
of this take?’
‘This seems like too much work!
Do I need to do all this?’
‘Do I really need a teacher to get feedback?’
To answer these: it will take a long time.
The exact amount of time depends on you, but
expect to spend several months working on
this.
Do you need to do all of these things?
It depends on your score target, and how much
time you have.
Here’s the key fact: if you can’t use
a wide range of sentence patterns, and if
you can’t write simple sentences accurately,
then you’ll struggle to get more than six
for your grammar score.
This is the exact situation which many of
the IELTS students we meet find themselves
in.
Finally, you need feedback from somewhere;
it’s essential.
Feedback can come from a teacher or from elsewhere,
but it’s difficult to get from other sources.
If your IELTS result is important to you,
then we recommend finding the best teacher
you can.
Without a teacher, your potential progress
will be much slower.
Do you have any other tips for improving your
grammar for IELTS writing?
Please share your ideas in the comments!
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!