Understanding IELTS: Writing Course - British Council

Find out what you need to know about the IELTS Writing test and learn techniques and strategies to improve your test performance.

This course is part of the Understanding IELTS program, which will enable you to prepare for your IELTS test. Practise with other learners. Perfect your English.

Prepare for success in your IELTS Writing test

The four courses in the British Council’s Understanding IELTS ExpertTracks give you a complete guide to everything you need to know as you prepare for the IELTS test.

This 3-week course focuses on the Academic Writing test. You’ll explore the test format and develop strategies for each type of task.

Understanding the IELTS writing tasks

We will begin with an introduction to the IELTS Academic Writing test format, where you’ll receive tips on how to get the most out of this course. You’ll then discover how the assessments work.

You’ll gain an introduction to charts and data, where you’ll learn how to write about numbers and compare numerical data. This part of the course will also involve you learning the proper language to describe dynamic graphs and tables.

Improve your essay writing skills

Next, you’ll be tackling essay writing, which is an important part of task 2 of the writing exam. In order to answer the question at hand, you’ll learn to generate, develop and organise your ideas into a clear plan.

Using your plan, you’ll discover how to create an effective and organised essay, with a strong introduction and conclusion. Finally, we’ll discuss how to write in a more formal style, and go over how grammatical range and accuracy is assessed.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:

• Explore the IELTS Academic Writing test and develop strategies for each type of task.
• Investigate the language needed for a successful answer in Task One.
• Apply techniques to help you plan, write and check academic essays in Task Two.
• Develop confidence, learn how to improve your test performance and feel fully prepared on the day of the test.

Who will you learn with?

Neil McLaren

I live and work in Bratislava and have been teaching for more than twenty-five years. I’m the Social Community Manager in charge of the British Council’s global social media channels for learners.

Sally T

Hi - I'm from Britain but I live and work in Spain. I'm an English teacher, EFL materials writer and online courses coordinator.

Who developed the course?

British Council

The British Council is on the ground in six continents and over 100 countries connecting the best of UK culture with a global audience and providing high-quality English language courses.

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Notes

Visible learning is inspired by the work of John Hattie, to find out more, visit visible-learning.org.

The community support model comes from Diana Laurillard’s work on conversational frameworks for formal learning.

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To do

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Videos, audio and articles

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Comments in the margin

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Discussion

Every so often, you’ll come across a discussion step, where you’ll be given a topic to talk over with fellow learners. Talking about ideas is a really great way to learn and consolidate information, so give it a go, even if you find it daunting!

Activity

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Replies

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