Hình 1: Table of Contents
Table of Contents
About this Book ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. iii
About the IELTS Writing Test …………………………………………………………………………………………. vii
About IELTS Writing Task Two ……………………………………………………………………………………….. x
The IELTS Band Descriptors ………………………………………………………………………………………… xii
Fundamental Tips
Tip 1 How Much to Write
Exercise 1 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2
Tip 2 Which Task to Do First ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
Tip 3 Read the Question/
Fulfill the Task (I)
Exercise2, 3 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
Tip 4 Identify Essay Type
Exercise 4 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11
Tip 5 The ‘Exam Attack’ Approach
Exercise 5, 6 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13
Tip 6 Planning and Organising
Exercise 7, 8, 9, 10 …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
Tip 7 Write in Formal Style
Exercise 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 …………………………………………………………………………………. 26
Tip 8 Essay Coherence: Keep on Course
Exercise 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 ………………………………………………………………………………………. 37
Tip 9 Essay Coherence: Balance
Exercise 22, 23, 24, 25 …………………………………………………………………………………………… 51
Tip 10 Cut the Fluff
Exercise 26 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 64
Hình 2: (Tiếp theo)
Varying the Words & Grammar
Tip 11 The Essay Introduction
Exercise 27, 28, 29 ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 70
Tip 12 The Essay Body
Exercise 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 ……………………………………………………………………………. 84
Tip 13 The Essay Conclusion
Exercise 37, 38, 39 …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 93
Further Tips
Tip 14 When to Be Certain
Exercise 40, 41, 42 ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 104
Tip 15 Organise Your Paragraphs
Exercise 43, 44, 45, 46 ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 110
Tip 16 Include Specific Support
Exercise 47 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 118
Tip 17 Read the Question/
Fulfil the Task (II)
Exercise 48, 49 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 123
Tip 18 When Not to Write Something
Exercise 50 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 128
Tip 19 ‘Danger’ Phrases
Exercise 50 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 131
Bringing It All Together
Summary of Tips …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 136
Tip 20 The Writing Task Two Procedure ………………………………………………………………………… 138
Summarising Exercise …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 141
IELTS Writing Task Two Practice I-IV …………………………………………………………………………… 152
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 154
Appendices ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 155
Answers to Word Learning Time ……………………………………………………………………………………. 219
Hình 3: About This Book
About This Book
So, you have Book Four of the Practical IELTS Strategies series. Let us first be sure we know the meaning of those two key words.
Practical = connected with real situations; right
or sensible; likely to be successful
Strategy = a plan that is intended to achieve a particular purpose;
the process of putting a plan into effect in a skilful way
This book—Book Four—is for Task Two of the Academic Module of the IELTS Writing Test. This is not a grammar book; not a practice book; not a vocabulary book, although all of those elements are here. Overall, this book is practical and strategic, exactly as those definitions tell us. The real situation is the IELTS test, and the particular purpose or plan is to give you the highest score that you can achieve.
My other ‘Practical IELTS Strategies’ books are:
Book 1: Reading
Book 2: Speaking
Book 3: Writing Task One [Academic Module]
Book 5: IELTS Test Practice Book
Now, it is very important at this stage for you to trust me, and for this to happen you need to know two facts. The first concerns my credentials. In order for you to trust someone who writes an IELTS preparation book, they must be fully qualified to do so. Please look at the back cover of this book, and read my credentials carefully. The second fact concerns why I wrote these books. Let me begin this by saying that students of English often come to me and ask, ‘How do I pass the IELTS test?’ This is the wrong question—you do not pass or fail the test; you just receive band scores. However, I know what the students mean. They mean how do they receive the band score they need—usually 6.5 or 7.0 overall.
So what do I say to these students? I usually say that there are no magic answers to obtaining higher band scores in the IELTS test. It is a test of English language ability, so, of course, you obtain higher scores by having higher ability. The best way to raise your ability is simply to practise your listening, reading, writing, and speaking. However, no matter how good your English may be, it is certainly possible for you to be unprepared, unpractised, and to try to do parts of the IELTS test in the wrong way, and thus to receive a lower (or far lower) than what your English ability deserves. This is why it is also important to prepare and practise, I say this, too, to my students. However, I know that they want a more definite answer.
This is why there is so much ‘IELTS Preparation’ material available, and my students often have read, and use some of it, but does this material always provide the best advice and practice? The answer is no. Students should know that there are no magic answers, and that practice and preparation are important to achieving a high IELTS band score, but they clearly want a need some practical and strategic approaches showing how, and they are too often relying on unsatisfactory material to find this.
So that is why I wrote these IELTS books. In short, these books are the answer to that question about how to ‘pass’ the IELTS test. The answer is to follow the tips in these books. In this one, there are twenty tips and over forty exercises. Each tip builds on the previous. Each tip is solid, proven, and supported. There are answers to all exercises. All the knowledge is summarised and demonstrated at the end to make a clear and achievable framework. This book is how you ‘pass’ the test. So, let us then begin on this road.
Some Words
To help you in understanding this book, let us first look at some of the more uncommon words that will be used.
A. Do you know the meaning of the following? If not, look them up in a dictionary.
- to be absolute
- to be cohesive
- guts
- to reduce
- an acronym
- a consequence
- to identify
- to refute
- an addition
- to convince
- to be lexical
- to be relevant
- alcohol
- to be cosmetic
- a link
- to remind
- to be appropriate
- to counter
- to be logical
- a signpost
- to avoid
- to distill
- to be mature
- to be specific
- to be awkward
- to be dull
- to memorise
- a structure
- to ban
- evidence
- obesity
- style
- a category
- a fact
- to oppose
- to be urban
- a chain
- to be flexible
- to organise
- to vary
- a climate
- to fulfill
- to persuade
- violence
- to be coherent
- fluff
- a quiz
- to warn
