The key reason for low scores in IELTS Writing is the way IELTS Writing is assessed. It is not unfair or random, but it is strict.

IELTS examiners evaluate not only your English language proficiency, including your vocabulary and grammar, but also your writing abilities. In order to achieve a high score, your essay must provide clear, well-written responses that cover all necessary aspects, present sufficient arguments, avoid irrelevant details, and meet other IELTS Writing requirements.

In this article, we will focus on Task 2 major mistakes that anyone can make, and I will show you how to correct them to get a higher band score.

Unnecessary details

Here’s the first task. Our IELTS Writing Task 2 topic is about whether children should read books for entertainment or not.

•  Some parents insist that reading books for entertainment is a waste of time. Children of such parents, therefore, would be deprived of reading books that many of their friends discuss., such as The Three Musketeers, Robinson Crusoe, The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter.

The idea is clear without the list of books, and you won’t get any extra points for knowing the names of books, games or anything else.

Here’s another example.

• Professor John Smith from the psychology department at the University of Oxford is convinced that reading fiction increases people’s empathy and compassion.

Unnecessary details, in this case, are the name and position of the researcher. Using imaginable research doesn’t add any credibility to your arguments. If you want to refer to some fact you know, just say “research suggests” or “research shows”.

•  Research suggests that reading fiction increases people’s empathy and compassion.

Overgeneralizations 

Here are two sample sentences showing overgeneralisations.

• Schoolchildren dislike mathematics from an early age.
• Employers prefer hands-on work experience over a university degree.

They say that something is true all the time when it’s only true sometimes. Not all schoolchildren dislike Maths and not all employers prefer experience.

Try to soften your language by adding elements of probability.

• Some schoolchildren may dislike mathematics from an early age.

Not all of them, just some. “May” also means that they may dislike it, or not.

• For some kinds of jobs, employers prefer hands-on work experience over a university degree.

Adding this clarification makes the argument stronger because it is more factual that employers’ preference depends on the kind of job.

Long background statements

This is an introduction to an essay about the best ways to prevent crimes.

• Crime is an indispensable part of society. As long as there are rules, there are also people who will break them. Today, the main way of punishing people for their misdeeds is sending them to prison. Prisons exist in every country on Earth and most of them are notoriously overcrowded. How can people be deterred from committing crimes? Some consider stricter sentences to be the preferred way to prevent crimes, while others disagree. In this essay, I will discuss both views and offer my own position.

This introduction is too long. All we need in an introduction is to present the topic, task and our position. I call it the TTP formula, which you can learn more about in my previous blog about writing better IELTS introductions. 

In our case, we can simply remove the four sentences:

• Crime is an indispensable part of society. As long as there are rules, there are also people who will break them. Today, the main way of punishing people for their misdeeds is sending them to prison. Prisons exist in every country on Earth and most of them are notoriously overcrowded. How can people be deterred from committing crimes? Some consider stricter sentences to be the preferred way to prevent crimes, while others disagree. In this essay, I will discuss both views and offer my own position.    

Repeating the essay question

• How can people be deterred from committing crimes? Some consider stricter sentences to be the preferred way to prevent crimes, while others disagree. In this essay, I will discuss both views and offer my own position.

The task is “to discuss both views and give your own opinion”. Have a look at the last sentence of the introduction; it seemly repeats the task, which your examiner already knows. Instead, it’s better to give your opinion.

• How can people be deterred from committing crimes? Some consider stricter sentences to be the preferred way to prevent crimes, while others disagree. In this essay, I will discuss both views and offer my own position. I think that criminals are often victims of circumstances and helping them find their way in life would be more effective than threatening them with years behind bars.

Informal English

The next topic is about introducing a tax on unhealthy foods, and this is part of a body paragraph:

• Without beating around the bush, I agree that the tax option can help to reduce the consumption of potentially harmful foods. For example, the so-called “sugar tax” imposed in the UK on soft drinks with a high sugar content has scored some points with those who support healthy eating.

In your essay, you should use formal English. Avoid informal phrases, slang, idioms and colloquialisms in your essay. Actually, we have two informal phrases here. At the very beginning, “to beat around the bush” is an idiom and it’s informal. A formal linker we could use is “on the one hand”.

“To score points” is also informal. It’s better to say that “the sugar tax has had some positive effects”.    

• Without beating around the bush On the one hand, I agree that the tax option can help to reduce the consumption of potentially harmful foods. For example, the so-called “sugar tax” imposed in the UK on soft drinks with a high sugar content has scored some points with those who support healthy eating. has had some positive effects.

Mechanical linking words

Now, we have a topic about the advantages and disadvantages of working from home rather than from an office. Let’s have a look at the paragraph about the advantages of working from home.        

• First, working from home eliminates the need for a commute in rush hour, which can be stressful and time-consuming. Secondly, remote work allows for more flexible work arrangements. Finally, employees can be more productive because they attend fewer meetings and generally experience fewer interruptions which normally occur in the office environment.

First, secondly, thirdly… the structure is quite repetitive. The use of linking words is mechanical. Try to make your transitions less noticeable.

• First, it eliminates the need for a commute in rush hour, which can be stressful and time-consuming. Secondly, Instead, people can have a longer sleep or start working earlier, as remote work easily allows for more flexible work arrangements. Finally, Another advantage of staying away from the office is that employees can be more productive because they attend fewer meetings and generally experience fewer interruptions which normally occur in the office environment.

Although the ideas are the same, in the second version they are better connected. But there’s still one thing missing.

No topic sentence

If this is our whole paragraph about the advantages, there should be a topic sentence, which should tell the reader what the paragraph is about. It can be simple:

• Working from home has a number of benefits. First, it eliminates the need for a commute in rush hour, which can be stressful and time-consuming. Instead, people can have a longer sleep or start working earlier, as remote work easily allows for more flexible work arrangements. Another advantage of staying away from the office is that employees can be more productive because they attend fewer meetings and generally experience fewer interruptions which normally occur in the office environment.

Ideally, at the end of the paragraph, you should wrap it up and transition to the next. In my courses, you can learn how to develop ideas in your body paragraphs and how to connect all your sentences – something that’s very important for your score.

Unclear opinion  

The topic is still the same. Now, we need to answer the following question: “Do the advantages of working from home outweigh the disadvantages?”

Have a look at this conclusion:

• In conclusion, working from home has numerous benefits for both companies and employees. However, it also has serious downsides which cannot be ignored.

The task question requires to say if the advantages or the disadvantages are greater, but this conclusion fails to do that. Make your opinion very clear:

• In conclusion, although working from home has certain downsides, I believe its advantages are greater by far.

Things to remember:

• Don’t be afraid to express your opinion. You won’t lose marks for giving your opinion in any task.
• Don’t contradict yourself. Don’t say that you agree and disagree with the same statement. Make sure that your opinion is crystal clear.

Incomplete answer

Here’s a sample topic.

In many countries, people do not recycle waste materials, such as bottles and newspapers. What are the reasons for this? What could be done to solve this problem?

This conclusion doesn’t provide a complete answer:

• To conclude, it is the lack of awareness about the benefits of recycling and reluctance for people to sort their refuse, that prevents them from engaging with this useful practice.

In your conclusion, you should answer all the essay questions. In the sample topic we have two, reasons and solutions. However, the sample conclusion above only gives us the reasons. Here’s what we should add:   

• To conclude, it is the lack of awareness about the benefits of recycling and reluctance for people to sort their refuse, that prevents them from engaging with this useful practice. When they fully understand its advantages and can recycle their rubbish at home and outside easily and quickly, I believe that many will choose to do the right thing.

These are our solutions. I actually have a full sample answer to this question, which you can download below.

Truly understanding what is required in IELTS Writing is key to passing this exam. In my courses, you can learn how to meet each requirement, what to write about in each body paragraph and in each type of task, where to express your opinion, how to do it, and how to write your answers more quickly to finish in 60 minutes. The links are below.

Here is the full essay on the last topic we discussed (problem and solutions) which you can download on our Telegram channel: