IELTS General Training writing tips for the letter and the essay

IELTS General Training Writing has two tasks you must both finish in 60 minutes: a letter of at least 150 words in about 20 minutes and an essay of at least 250 words in about 40 minutes. The test owners' advice comes down to answering what is asked, planning, keeping to the tone and checking your work.

Good writing advice is built on how the paper works. These are the facts from IELTS, with the page they come from.

IELTS also says what happens if you write too little, too much or off the point.

IDP Australia lists helpful features of the on-computer test.

Whichever way you sit it, the task is the same.

What the facts mean for you

Our own reading of the facts above, in six lines.

1. Both tasks must be done, so an unfinished essay hurts more than a letter that is a few words short of what you wanted.
2. The essay counts twice as much, so it is worth protecting its time, even if the letter is going well.
3. Notes and bullet points do not count as an answer, so every plan you make must be turned into whole sentences.
4. Over-writing is not rewarded. Finish when the task is done, not when you reach a number.
5. You will either type or handwrite your answer. Practise in the way you will sit the test.
6. Staying on the topic is a marking matter, not just good manners. A well-written answer to a different question loses marks.

Three owners publish advice for the General Training letter: IELTS, IDP and the British Council. They agree on the main points. IDP lists what examiners look for.

• Purpose of the letter is presented.
• Tone of the letter is appropriate.
• Bullet points are presented, highlighted and extended.
• Format is appropriate – letter format.

IDP also publishes a short article of four tips to avoid losing marks on the letter.

• Make sure your letter is the right length: you must write at least 150 words.
• Stay on the topic: write an answer that is wholly related to the topic of the question. Check that you are on track by re-reading what you have written regularly.
• Don’t use notes or bullet points: write a whole, connected piece of text with full sentences and paragraphs.
• Get the style of writing right for your audience: for example, write formally to a bank manager, and informally to your friend.

The British Council in Canada gives its own list, which includes timing, tone, planning and review.

Our reading: the most useful single word across all three sets of advice is simple. The letter is a short, clear message that covers three things. For the full guide to the task, see IELTS Writing Task 1 General Training.

IDP publishes a series on Task 2, and ielts.org has an article on agree and disagree essays. These are the lines that matter most for planning and writing.

Read the question.

Build paragraphs.

• Organise your essay into paragraphs - with one clear idea developed in each paragraph.
• Use one paragraph for each idea or topic area.
• A topic sentence contains the main idea or theme your paragraph is going to talk about.
• It is much better to continue the same idea throughout the paragraph instead of just making a list of arguments.
• Don’t leap to an example straight after your topic sentence and make sure it does not dominate your paragraph.

Plan before you write.

Use your own ideas and words.

• Use ideas and examples that you are familiar with, and that relate directly to the topic.
• Support your ideas with relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience (not made up statistics and research)
• Use a range of linking words and phrases, but don’t overuse them.

Finish cleanly.

A note on style. IDP says the General Training essay can be a little more personal than an Academic one. Separately, IDP's step-by-step Task 2 article lists things not to do in the essay.

• Mix up American and British spelling (You should use one or the other)
• Use imprecise words like ‘stuff/thing’.
• Use slang like ‘gonna’.
• Use idioms/clichés.
• Use contractions (can’t, doesn’t)

Compare that last list with the letter: IDP's letter article says an informal letter can include contractions and more direct speech. Contractions suit a letter to a friend. They do not suit the essay.

These twelve are ours. Each one follows from a fact or a piece of advice above. They are in the order you use them on test day, letter first.

1. Choose the tone before you write a word. Ask who the reader is and how well you know them. Then pick the greeting and closing to match.
2. Count the jobs in the three bullets. One bullet can hide two or three. A letter that handles every job is stronger than a polished one that misses a job.
3. Put the purpose in the first sentence of the letter. The reader should know why you are writing before they finish the line.
4. Extend each bullet once. Say it, then add one reason, detail or result. Then move on.
5. For the essay, find the subject and the aspect. Underline both. Your essay is about the aspect, not the whole subject.
6. Count the parts of the question and write them in your plan. If the plan does not show a place for every part, the essay will not either.
7. State your position in the introduction and repeat it in the conclusion. A reader should be able to find your position in under ten seconds.
8. Give each body paragraph one main idea. Start with a topic sentence, explain it, add one example from your own life or knowledge, and stop.
9. Use examples you could actually know. Local, personal and general examples are safe. Invented statistics are not.
10. Write your own sentences. A memorised paragraph can be spotted, and it rarely fits the question you actually got.
11. Use a few linking words well, not many badly. Vary where they sit in the sentence, and let pronouns and short repeated references carry some of the weight.
12. Keep a personal error list and read for it at the end. People tend to repeat the same few slips. Find yours and look for them every time.

Here is our own plan for the 60 minutes, based on the 20 and 40 minutes IELTS gives. The numbers are the clock times from the start of the Writing paper.

Two rules for the clock. First, if the letter is not finished at 20 minutes, finish the sentence you are on, write a closing line and stop. Second, if the essay is running out of time, write the shortest complete paragraphs you can rather than leaving the conclusion out.

People search for a writing checker. IDP says what a real mark involves.

The marking uses the same four criteria for both tasks. IELTS lists them.

• Task achievement/response.
• Coherence and cohesion.
• Lexical resource.
• Grammatical range and accuracy.

Our reading: a spelling or grammar app can catch some mistakes, but it cannot tell whether you answered every part of the question or covered every bullet, and those are the first criterion.

IDP's article on Task 2 questions, dated 16/03/2021, points to its official IELTS practice test, which it says gives ‘an indication of how well you are preparing’ and ‘expert marker feedback on your Writing performance’. The article shows no price, so check IDP's site for the current price and whether it is still offered.

The self-check

Our own check, one question for each criterion. Answer yes or no for each letter or essay you write. Any no is your next thing to fix.

Hunt for these errors

IDP's grammar article covers subject and verb agreement, conditionals, word order, commas and sentence fragments. The table below is ours, with our own examples, and its last two rows (missing endings, plurals) are not from IDP.

Both plans are ours. They assume you write on most days and can spare half an hour to an hour. Swap days around to fit your life, but keep the order.

One week

Four weeks

The owners publish free materials for the General Training paper. The British Council says what is on its page.

IELTS.org has the same sample tasks, with scripts and examiner comments.

For more of our own practice: a full General Training writing practice test, and letter and essay samples, which include a formal letter with marking notes. For topics to write about, see writing topics by theme. This page is not immigration advice, and the owner's page decides every rule.

Common questions