Writing tips for IELTS...

 Writing tips for IELTS...

Ielts is the most trickiest and hardest step once we talk about immigration. Many people face difficulty in writing because it needs practice and we can see lots of people who do well in other modules but are stuck in writing. Well! In my case English was my base subject and i would say it played its role well. I knew about basic grammar and types of sentences which are mandatory for performing well in ielts. Here are few things i did to improve my writing score in ielts.
1. Read as many essay samples as i could to help collect ideas and the type of structure to follow according to questions types e.g agree/disagree + advt./disadvt. + Problem/solution etc. As i kept reading i learnt a lot of novel vocabulary and as i kept reading essays i would always keep my app dictionary open to keep it handy and make it easy to search for unknown words. I used merriam webster. Its fantastic for searching for synonyms.
2. By reading paragraphs of reading in ielts Cambridge books it didn't only improved my reading but it also enabled me to know about different topics for e.g a text on climate change enabled me to learn about new figures and the types of changes recently happening in climate. I inculcated multitude of examples that i learnt from these paras. Note that i learned more things by studying and solving academic reading texts. It has rich vocabulary that u can use in your writing.
3. I downloaded an app by the name Dawn News. Where i read 1-2 articles a day. I learned a lot of technical words and some rarely used linking devices .
4 . As i previously mentioned i learned a lot by listening to ted talk. U should listen to one talk a day. its easily available on youtube.
5. I wrote less but read more .i won't suggest this but i would definitely say that you should read as much as u write.
6. When i started writing practice, I would answer a question by writing whatever came to my mind. I would say i wrote in simple english .once i finished the topic i would sit and search for all the common words in dictionary and i would think what other words i can use to express the same idea. This method polished my paraphrasing skills that is a key to good writing score. This way i internalized a lot of vocabulary which i enjoyed using.
7. I would always search for synonyms whatever the word. E.g "manage" replaced by " deal with" + example , illustration, for instance etc.
8. I also collected some topic related vocabulary to have some basic word bank to utilize it once i get related topic. Eg. Transportation topic . I should know words such as car-pool, commute, traffic congestion etc.
9. In one of my ielts test attempts, i got a topic related to cell-phones . So to avoid repetitiveness i used words such as smart phone, mobile phone, communication device, Android phone. I scored 7.5 in that attempt.

10. Trust me its not rocket science. You should just believe in yourself. It is hard for everyone so u r not alone . Keep on trying. Never giving up is the key. Good luck.