IELTS academic writing includes two questions, one each for writing task 1 and writing task 2. In IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 students would be provided with visual presentations like graphs, diagrams, pie charts, or tables based on a related topic.For writing task 1 academic students should not spend more than 20 minutes writing 150 words for the given question. In IELTS academic writing task 2, students need to write an essay based on a given topic.The test takers need to spend a maximum of 40 minutes in their IELTS writing task 2 and writing a minimum of 250 words essay.
IELTS General Writing Task 1 focuses on responding to a given situation in which students need to write a letter that requests the information or explaining the situation. IELTS General Writing task 2 requires students to write an essay based on a given topic within a minimum time duration of 40 minutes.
There is a wide variety of IELTS writing topics for Task 1 and Task 2 which are as follows:
Here are a few IELTS task 1 topics:
| Topics | Questions |
|---|---|
| Food |
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| Activities |
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| Business/Work/Employment |
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| Population |
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Here are a few IELTS task 2 topics:
| Animal | Energy | Independent and influential art | Reading |
| Art | Environment | Job | Relationship |
| Business | Entertainment | Language | Science |
| Communication | Exercise and fitness | Leadership | Society |
| Crime & Punishment | Family/Kids | Leisure | Space Exploration |
IELTS writing is assessed based on four specific criteria and each task is judged independently analyzing if the responses of the candidates meet those criteria. The criteria based on which IELTS writing task 1 and task 2 are assessed are the following:
Task achievement/response (25%): this assesses the accuracy of the language and relevance of the response of the candidates, identifying if it meets the requirements of using a minimum of 150/250 words.
Coherence and cohesion (25%): based on this criteria, the response of the candidates is assessed considering the clarity of the message and the fluency in language. It also assesses how the response is organized, ideas and information linked effectively to the given topic.
Lexical resource (25%): this criteria assesses the vocabulary used and the accuracy of the terms based on the task.
Grammatical range and accuracy (25%): this criteria assesses candidates ability in using accurate grammar manifested in the writing style of the candidate.
The IELTS Writing Band score is based on 9 to Zero which is focused on the following criteria as follows:
As it is mentioned that the writing task 2 weighs twice that writing task 1. So, if someone receives 8 in task 2 and 6.5 in task 1, the total IELTS Writing score will be 8.0*(2/3)+(6.5)*1/3=7.5.