IELTS Writing Task 1 : vocabulary and grammar.

This article will help you improve your score for IELTS Writing Task 1 vocabulary and grammar.
 

Firstly, you should know that the IELTS writing test marking scheme is divided into four parts:
 

• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
• Task Achievement
• Lexical Resource
• Coherence and Cohesion

Therefore, grammar accounts for 25% of the marks in your writing test.
 

You are assessed on two things:

1. Your ability to produce grammatically accurate sentences;
2. Your ability to use a wide range of grammar structures.

As a result, grammar is often the area that students struggle with the most, as it can easily bring a student’s scores down.
 

Accuracy of grammar

Examiners look for how many ‘error free’ sentences you have. Therefore, you need to make sure each sentence has no errors. Even a small mistake like an article in the wrong place or misplaced plural counts towards this.
 

As a result, it is vital that you check your work after you finish writing. Always try to leave yourself two minutes at the end to proofread your work. Simple errors, which could be fixed with a quick check, will really damage your marks in this area.
 

Range of grammar

A good answer will have a range of appropriate structures and tenses. Many students try to insert complex sentences and tenses into their answers. This is a poor strategy that will make your answers look unnatural and can result in you making mistakes.
 

A good answer uses complex sentences (such as conditional and relative clauses) that flow naturally. In other words, don’t insert complicated sentences or tenses just for the sake of it.
 

Below is some advice on certain grammar structures that will help boost your score in part one of the writing test, if used appropriately. I have only included advice for charts, such as pie charts, line graphs and bar charts, in this post. I discuss process diagrams in a separate post.