IELTS Academic Writing
Discover official preparation materials and support tools to help you prepare for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2.
What is IELTS Academic Writing?
You must be able to demonstrate a high level of English language proficiency if you want to work, live, or study in an English-speaking country. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is an English language test designed to help you study, migrate, or work in a country where English is the native language.
What is the IELTS Academic Writing Format?
Task 1
In Academic Writing Task 1, you are shown a visual representation of information; a graph, table, chart, process or map, and you are asked to summarise, describe, or explain the information you see. Make sure you organise your response into three main parts, the introduction, an overview, and the main features supported by figures from the diagram.
Task 2
In Academic Writing Task 2, you are presented with a point of view, argument, or problem. The topics can range from the environment to immigration, culture, and even technology. You might be asked to agree or disagree with a point of view or argument, discuss two opposing views, write about the advantages or disadvantages of a topic, explain a given problem, or the cause of a problem and offer a solution. Your response for Academic Writing Task 2 will need to be in an essay format.
IELTS Academic Writing Band Score
Examiners assign a band score for each of the four categories using the assessment criteria:
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Task Achievement (for Task 1), Task Response (for Task 2)
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Lexical Resource
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Coherence and Cohesion
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Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The average score for the task is calculated by measuring the criteria equally and the Writing band score is the average.
How can you prepare for IELTS Academic Writing?
With IELTS Prepare, you have access to a range of preparation materials at your fingertips: from practice tests, sample answers, videos and articles, all the way to expert assessments, online courses, webinars, and more.
IELTS - paper sample tests
Academic Writing (60 minutes)
The Academic Writing test consists of two writing tasks of 150 words and 250 words.
In Task 1, you are asked to describe some visual information (graph/table/chart/diagram). You need to write 150 words in about 20 minutes.
In Task 2 you are presented with a point of view or argument or problem. You need to write your response in 250 words in about 40 minutes.