This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1547.
How can I write longer IELTS essays?
Welcome to the ielts energy podcast from all ears english, downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner trained ielts wiz, aubrey carter and lindsay mcmahon.
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Do you feel that writing an essay that is long enough might be daunting?
Examiners no longer count your words, but length does matter on the writing test.
Today.
Find out what does and doesn't need to be in your essay and learn how to resist one fatal temptation on IELTS writing.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hey, Aubrey.
I'm feeling pretty good today.
Glad to be on the microphone.
Aubrey, I got a question for you.
All right.
Let's hear it.
Have you ever had trouble writing essays that required a certain number of words?
Like in school, did you struggle with that?
Absolutely.
Right.
And you're intentionally adding extra words to hit that 500 word essay minimum.
I think we've all been there.
Yeah.
Like in college, right?
You know, it's 3 a.m. and the essay is due at 8 a.m.
And you're just like, what other words can I sneak in here, right?
Yes, I've been there.
And I know I have to get three full pages.
So I'm like going back and how can I make this a little wordier or add an extra idea?
I think teachers can sniff that out, though.
Probably, yes.
And that is not what you want to be doing on the IELTS exam, right?
It will actually pull down your scores if you're just adding words to try and hit a word count.
We got a great question about this.
I'm excited to dive in and give you guys these details.
Yeah, this question came from Khadijah during one of our Awesome IELTS webinars.
And Khadijah asked...
Hello, I'm writing to ask, how can I practice in writing?
It's very challenging for me to write an essay of 250 words.
I would love to know what I can do to improve my skills.
So she's very focused on the word count here.
Yeah.
So that's the first note.
You've likely heard this from us before, but if you're new to the podcast, you might not be aware of that.
There is no word count minimum for IELTS.
There used to be, but it has gone away.
Examiners don't count words Your Task 2 essay does not have to be 250 words.
What they're really looking at is for you to accomplish the task, to answer that question with details and support.
So, rather than stressing about hitting a certain word count, you want to be making sure that you are accomplishing the task.
Yeah, so we need some kind of strategy or set of systems to follow to make sure we're building out our essay properly.
Even though we don't need a certain number of words, we need a robust essay.
Absolutely.
So we are going to give you tips on what you need to do in order to write essays that are long enough, because you certainly can't accomplish that task in 100 words, right?
Yeah.
250 words is still about what it takes. to do that effectively.
But also stay to the end, because we are going to show you how to apply today's tips with a real IELTS Task 2 topic.
Nice.
I love it.
And guys, don't forget to hit the follow button right here on IELTS Energy so that you make sure you don't miss a single episode of the show.
We also do bonus episodes over here, so don't miss it.
All right.
Okay.
Our first tip to make sure that you can write a long enough essay is to make sure that you are brainstorming, that you're planning right.
Often the problem isn't in the writing, but it's in proper planning.
That makes total sense.
You know, this whole measure twice, cut once thing, right?
It makes sense.
We need a clear plan before we go and start writing.
Otherwise we just, it just won't, it won't come together.
Okay.
So you want to plan out your task one and task two.
But your test, too, you should take about five minutes to brainstorm before writing your essay.
The first thing you want to do is determine your opinion.
But ideally, this should be done ahead of time.
Right, Lindsay?
Right.
Right.
We want to make.
Yeah.
Well ahead of meaning before the exam, before we even walk into the test, you should know what you think.
Yeah.
Well, as part of your IELTS preparation, we talk about this a lot, that you should be investigating issues and thinking about your stance right.
If you have no idea what you think right now about the environment, about recycling, then you might need to take a few minutes on test day to decide what's my opinion, what's my stance.
You don't have that kind of time.
You wanna be thinking about all of these issues ahead of time, so that you already know what your opinion is.
Yeah, this is part of the process of consuming more information, more podcasts, maybe newspaper articles, Where we're naturally encouraged to just think oh, what do we agree with here?
With a critical thinking pattern, right?
We're not just taking in what the news is saying.
We're actually thinking, do I actually agree with what I just heard?
What could be some pitfalls of what I just heard, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a lot of what you can do ahead of time, right?
And then so the next thing you're going to do is generate the ideas that support either your opinion, if it's an opinion essay, or both sides of the issue for an argument essay, because the ideas you come up with will be different depending on the type of essay you're writing.
Yeah.
And the types of essays we could have are problem solution essays advantage, disadvantage essays and argument essays.
Any others?
That's a few of them.
They can be sometimes mixed.
Like sometimes it'll be problem and advantages, something strange like that, right?
But often you'll have two questions in your essay.
More and more we're seeing these mixed essays.
Okay.
And you're going to just want to answer each of those questions in its own body paragraph.
So what you'll be brainstorming is one solid idea for each of those questions, one solid answer.
Yeah.
So we're kind of building out the structure in a brainstorm format to know exactly more or less what we're going to be talking about in this essay, right?
Exactly.
Because once you've come up with those ideas, you're also going to brainstorm the supporting details and examples.
You're going to come up with this sort of outline before you ever start writing.
Yes, I love it.
And then we do get to get into writing.
We do eventually have to pick up our pencil or, you know, start typing.
So what do we need to know about this?
So our second tip is to stick to your plan while you write.
So a very common error is coming up with new ideas while you write.
And when that happens, it's so tempting to include those ideas, especially if you feel they are stronger than what you initially came up with in your brainstorm.
Yes.
And why not?
Why shouldn't we include those, Aubrey?
If we come up with great ideas, why not just throw it in?
Yeah.
If you had all the time in the world to write this essay, sure, change it, go back.
But you don't.
You don't have time.
The entire IELTS writing exam is one hour.
So you have 20 minutes for task one and only 40 minutes for task two.
So if you decide to support ideas that you come up with as you're writing, or if you change something and go back, you really won't have time to support them fully.
Yeah, and each idea has to be supported by details and examples right, aubry?
So yeah, this is not.
This is a trap, right?
Don't do it.
Don't fall for it.
And here's what's interesting.
It doesn't matter if the idea you brainstormed is the best one out there.
You might think of a better one while you're writing.
It doesn't matter.
The examiner doesn't care if you have the best idea For your score.
It only matters that it's well supported.
So, whatever idea you come up with as you're brainstorming, if you're able to support that with details and examples, stick to the first one you came up with.
If not, if you're brainstorming and you can't think of supporting details and examples, throw it out.
Come up with a new idea, because you have to be able to support it.
But once you've got that support, stick with it as you're writing.
Yeah, that's huge.
I mean, this really just comes back to the importance of practicing using a framework like ours.
We go into more detail in our three keys.
Out course, but practice practice practice, because the temptation to add an idea will come up in practice.
So when it comes up on test day, you'll know, Oh no, no, no.
I'm just going to set that aside.
I know how to get this done.
In the allotted amount of time, this is discipline, right?
Exactly, right?
Hone that skill.
Practice that discipline of letting that go.
You have your plan.
You know already what you're going to be writing when you start to write.
Love it.
Find out for free what you'd likely get on the IELTS exam and get our free resources to increase your score.
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Okay, Aubrey.
And of course, writing isn't the last step.
We're not going to just scribble our last sentence and then turn it in.
No.
Right.
You are also going to proofread your essay, right?
But our third tip here is to wait to proofread.
It's often really tempting to check grammar and vocabulary as you are writing.
Maybe you'll finish half the essay and want to read through it to check for grammar and vocabulary.
You need to resist this temptation as well.
How come, Lindsay?
There are traps everywhere because it's easier to manage your time if you finish the writing.
And that's why in our course, we do dedicate a specific amount of time.
We show you how much time you should spend on that proofreading.
It's just better to get that essay written and then go back.
Do it step by step.
You don't want to derail yourself.
Get in that writing zone.
Get all of your ideas out.
And then don't be stressed about changing things as you go.
Get everything down, your whole essay down.
And it's fine to then, when you're proofreading, cross out a word, spell it correctly above change something.
Your essay doesn't have to be neat and perfect.
It can have those corrections and it's a better as far as time management to proofread after you're done writing.
That's so good.
I think it would be really helpful for our listeners to see an example like, from beginning to end, Aubrey.
So what if we do a sample brainstorm?
What do you think?
Yes, let's do it.
So we're going to give a sample brainstorm here.
This is your IELTS Task 2 topic for this brainstorm.
Some people think that governments should invest more money in public services instead of arts and culture.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
So of course, your first step is to figure out what type of essay to write.
Well, there's a key word in the question, which is agree or disagree.
So that makes me think we might have an option of writing an opinion essay or maybe an argument essay.
I could see that being an argument too.
Exactly, right?
So you have the option.
You can write an opinion essay where each paragraph supports your opinion, or an argument essay where you provide support for both sides of the issue.
So that's what we're going to show you, a brainstorm for an argument essay.
So for this, you need an idea for each of your body paragraphs.
You're going to have an introduction and a conclusion, but you are brainstorming your body paragraphs.
Okay so, for an example, a first idea could be something like saying public services should be prioritized.
What do we think about that?
Yeah, perfect, right?
And if you come up with that idea and you're able to quickly think of supporting details and examples, stick with it.
Don't come up with lots of different ideas and then decide which one to support.
You don't have time for that, right?
So we've got a good idea.
We're going to stick with it and immediately start thinking of some supporting details.
Well, public services like healthcare, education, and transportation are essential.
And also governments have limited budgets, which should be used to prioritize basic needs, right?
Yeah.
So we have two supporting details here.
It's time to think of an example.
COVID would be perfect, right?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries with better funded public services managed the crisis more effectively.
And then you can use your own country here as an example of how it was handled well or poorly, or another country that you're aware of how COVID was handled.
Yeah.
Use examples on IELTS that are close to home for you that you know well, right?
There's nothing wrong with that.
And that makes a stronger essay because you'll have more vivid details.
Exactly.
Right.
So look how quick that was.
We have our first body paragraph brainstormed.
And that's going to be pretty quick to write that out.
So the next thing you do is brainstorm your next body paragraph which, for an argument essay, will be the other side of the issue.
Okay, now this is really the other side, right?
Because now we're going to say for the second idea is going to be arts and culture, improve the economy, right?
Yes.
And of course, there's never one correct idea.
You might immediately think of a bunch of ideas.
Imagine if your brain is like well, arts and culture, preserve heritage, build national identity, improve mental well-being and improve the economy.
You have to immediately choose one of those, right?
Because this will happen.
You'll be like, I have so many ideas, so many reasons.
So just choose one.
We're going to choose this one, that arts and culture improve a country's economy.
So choose the one that you can back up with a good example, right?
And so the example that we're going to share, for example, for example, here's the example.
The museums and historic sites of Paris attract millions of tourists every year, boosting the city's economy.
I mean, I would be really interested to find out what percentage of the French economy is tourism.
It's probably relatively large.
Yes.
And you could make up that statistic if you want, if you don't know it.
But you also need supporting details.
So, for example, tourists spend money on tickets, hotels and transportation, as well as local businesses such as cafes, restaurants and shops, and then employment opportunities as well.
Right, Lindsay?
Oh, for sure.
Right.
The local staff is, you know, residents of the country.
That is huge.
There's so much we could add here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you've got a lot of details and an example for the economy.
And then you just want to avoid that mistake that a lot of students will do as you are writing, to start adding details, other ideas right about mental health or heritage, because you likely know a lot of things that are beneficial about arts and culture, but you have to.
Every new idea has to be supported.
You don't have time to support a lot of ideas.
Yeah, less is more.
I can understand the temptation to want to throw in extra ideas, but it's going to water down your essay, the quality of your essay, so don't do it.
Focus on one strong idea with those details and examples.
Exactly.
Keep in mind that the scoring system is what's really important, and your task response score depends on any ideas in your essay being fully supported with details and examples.
And so you can't just have a list of interesting ideas.
You have to support those.
Assume that the examiner disagrees with everything you're saying.
You can't just state something as a fact or an idea because it really makes sense to you.
You have to support everything you say.
Yep.
Come back to the scoring system, because the scoring system is what ultimately determines your future right.
Whether or not you'll be able to go abroad, right?
I mean, that's huge.
That's huge.
Aubrey, what's a final takeaway for today?
Anything else we need to know?
These tips are so vital.
Like you said, Lindsay, you're going to need to practice this ahead of time.
This is difficult to do.
These temptations are difficult to resist if you haven't practiced.
So brainstorm every task to essay and stick to your plan while writing, and then wait and proofread once you have finished writing.
I love it.
And always make sure you have those supporting details and the examples for every idea.
If you don't have any good examples or details, throw out that idea.
It wasn't that great in the end.
Exactly right.
We need a new idea that we can support.
Absolutely.
All right, guys, if you love our show, we're going to help you get to that seven or higher.
Go ahead and hit the follow button right here on IELTS Energy.
All right.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
See you next time.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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