Why can’t I score band 7 in IELTS writing? (1/10)
One-line answer: Because you don’t know what the examiner is looking for!
As an IELTS trainer, who has been teaching IELTS for more than 7 years, I have come to understand that a band 7 in the writing test is the real brass ring for those who sit for the IELTS exam. “I don’t know what to do! I’m just stuck fast at band 6 (6.5).” I can’t remember, to be honest, how may times I have heard this or something along this sorry line. Forget about the cliched tips! Do this! Do that! If you can’t clinch it after a few trials, you either are one of those people who obsess over vocabulary and grammar to the point of madness and forget about the rest 50% i.e. TR and CC or you don’t know what the examiner is looking for in your writing. In this series, I will introduce 10 bloodsucking leeches that latch on to your essay and suck the 7 out of it! Ladies and gentlemen! We have some leeches to do away with. Let’s get down to it.
⚠️ Lack of Progression!
well, this is something widely overlooked. Read the paragraph below and try to make out what’s bad about it:
However, the downside to having too many toys is that it is easy for children to become bored and restless with so many choices that they have. Children who have many toys often grow uninterested with their toys easily. For example, recent research shows that 75% of children who have an unnecessarily high number of toys become bored and tense easily. This clearly shows that having too many toys is bad for children.
Vocabulary is fine. Grammar is good. The question is addressed. Where is the problem then? Here’s why this paragraph is terrible and a load of pants!
Read the first sentence of the paragraph again. What it tells us is that having a lot of toys is not a good thing because it makes kids bored and restless. So far so goo! Now, read the rest of the paragraph again. Does it say anything new at all? Or does it add anything new to the argument in the first sentence? The answer is a big fat NO! The rest of the paragraph is simply a play of words and reiterates the topic sentence with other words. Put differently, this paragraph is doing a stationary jogging and this means lack of progression in the paragraph. Remember! When you’re writing a paragraph, you need to make sure that each sentence adds something new to your argument or moves towards its justification. Before writing the next sentence after your topic statement, just ask yourself: Is this sentences adding a new angle to my argument or is it a mere reiteration? Think of another sentence if you think it’s only reiterating the previous sentence with other words.
We disposed of the first leech, but we still have nine to go. Keep up with the rest of this murder series to get that 7.
