IELTS Writing Task 2: how to write faster

A student asked me for some tips about how to write task 2 essays faster. Here's my advice:

1. The first step is to write better, not faster. If you can't get the score you need when it takes you 2 hours to write an essay, you won't be able to write a good essay in 40 minutes.
2. Click here to read about a student who started slowly and got faster with practice.
3. The next step is to break the 40 minutes into smaller parts. For example, you could practise writing introductions in only 5 minutes. Don't work on full essays yet; just practise the parts according to my advice in this lesson.
4. Separate the 'thinking' from the 'writing'. I do all my thinking (planning or brainstorming) in the first 10 minutes. When I'm happy with my essay plan, I start writing. I try to stick to my plan so that I can focus on writing rather than more thinking.
5. Finally, remember that improvements happen gradually. You have to be prepared to do the hard work: practising lots of essays and parts of essays, preparing ideas and opinions for topics, building your vocabulary repertoire, and learning from mistakes. Do the work and you'll get better and faster!

Comments

[Duong]

Dear Simon,
Thank you very much for your advice. I help me a lot when I do not know how to write Ielts writing task 2 more better and faster.
Thank you so much once again!

[Mert]

Thank you all the teaching to us

This website is really wonderful

[sd]

Dear Simon,

Thanks for your always valuable advise. My question is How is it possible to learn from your own mistakes if there is no feedback at all once you have taken the test? I know you can use the band descriptors but, there are so many components there that at the end you are not quite sure what was the cause you failed or did not get the expected score on the test.

Cheers.

[Simon]

Hi sd,

I wasn't really talking about learning from mistakes you make in an exam - I agree that it's difficult to learn from these. I'm talking about learning from mistakes that you make when practising and preparing for the exam. If you don't get the score you need, do some more practice tests and find someone who can check and analyse them.

[[email protected]]

[email protected] <<<=== i can correct YOUR essays.

[Trupti]

Hi,

I completely agree with you. I started writing the essays from 3 and half hour but a good essay. Now I have good vocabulary to use and even I am able to write an essay within 1 hour and still trying to reduce it to 20 minutes.

Thank you,
Trupti

[Jenny]

Hello, Simon,
I wonder whether the use of subjunctive mood and the use of passive voice in IELTS will be a bonus. many teachers in China suggest that these devices can add to the variety of sentences. thanks a lot for our answer!
also, is it a big issue if we put a comma before "because", "due to the fact that", "in view of the fact that" in a sentence? will we lose mark in punctuation?

[Mathias]

hi everybody, my conclusion is mostly

Despite the above paragraphs I firmly believe that .......

[Ranbir]

Hi Simon
as per u suggest i start work on my paragraphs under ur guidelines .
i have been given a topic .
TOPIC:Tourist bring benefits to country but it also have some harmful effect .how can a country ensure
that tourist benefit the development .
First i will work on introduction .
INTRODUCTION :
It is tru that tourist bring benefits to any country ,but in contrast it may have some harmful effects to .
Good governance of country helps to bring constructive effects from tourist .Tourist can help both economically
and socially .
SUGGEST ME REQUIRE CORRECTIONS>

[paul]

hello,simon
With regard to writting task 2, our teacher told us that we should have background, outline, thesis in the introduction section. Furthermore. we need write topic sentence in each body part. Moreover, i, you ,we... can not be seen in essay. It is not academic style .
My teacher gave me feedback mentioned above after check my writting which i followed your tips to do.
Now i am confused by my teacher's comments. Can you help me clarify the difference between yours and my teacher's in terms of writting? thanks

[Simon]

Hi Jenny,

My advice is to focus on answering the question with good ideas. Don't focus on using 'difficult grammar' - that will distract you from answering the question well. Your use of commas won't affect your score.

...

Hi Paul,

There isn't a "best" way. You could get a high score by following your teacher's advice or by using my approach. In my opinion, your teacher is overcomplicating things a bit - I think you'll waste time if you try to include background, outline and thesis in your introduction. Also, there is nothing in the examiner's notes that says you MUST do those things. Read the lesson below about "I, you, we":

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2012/01/ielts-writing-task-2-using-the-word-i.html

Choose the approach that you find easiest. I can assure you that students have achieved band 9 using my approach, so you can trust it.

[dorir]

Hi Simon,

The IELTS Writing Task 2 question was "Nowadays, young people think that the mobile phone is the most important thing they own. Is the popularity of cell phone among teenagers a good thing or a bad thing?" Should this be answered as a "positive or negative development" or "benefit and drawback approach" ?

Thank you in advance.

Dorir

[Habiba]

Hi Simon,

I want to convey my heartfelt thanks to you.

Though indirectly, you have helped me achieve my score of Band 8 (Listening-9,Reading-8,Writing-7,speaking-7)

Because of implementing your suggestions in writing tasks, i could get band 7.

Thanks a ton!!

Your website is really worthy.

Regards,
Habiba

[Yeoh]

Hi Simon,

I have been told that there is a format for writing task 2 which we are supposed to follow in order to organize our essay and to achieve high band. Is there any template that we can use to guide us in this?

Thank you in advance.

Yes

[Martin]

Hi Yeoh,

There is no specific format that you need to follow in order to get a high score, but essay organization is important in the sense that it can let the examiners clearly and easily understand your ideas without being confused.

If you carefully analyze Simon's essays, you will see that he tends to follow this structure:
http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/10/ielts-writing-5-sentence-paragraphs.html

Hope this helps.

Best,
Martin

[vishnu]

can we ask for change of question in IELTS writing task2, if we do not have any idea about the question.