30 days to a better IELTS writing

30 DAYS TO A BETTER
IELTS WRITING

MIRACEL JUANTA


30 DAYS TO A BETTER IELTS WRITING

MIRACEL JUANTA


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Contents
THE 10 BEST BOOKS IN IELTS EVER

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RESOURCES FOR IELTS TAKERS

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY INEFFECTIVE IELTS TAKERS

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IELTS WRITING MAKEOVER #1

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IELTS WRITING MAKEOVER #2

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THE 10 BEST BOOKS IN IELTS EVER
What are the best books for IELTS? I have summarized some of the
books that I use in teaching IELTS. Amazon has great deals on both
new and used IELTS books. Go now and avail of discounts.
1.Barron's IELTS with Audio CD: International English Language
Testing System
2.Kaplan IELTS 2009
3.Target Band 7: How to Maximize Your Score (IELTS Academic

Module)
4.Cambridge IELTS 7 Student's Book with Answers: Examination
Papers from University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
(Cambridge Books for Cambridge Exams)
5.Cambridge IELTS 6 Student's Book with answers: Examination
papers from University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations
(Cambridge Books for Cambridge Exams)
6.Common Mistakes at IELTS Advanced: And How to Avoid Them
7.Cambridge Grammar for IELTS Student's Book with Answers and
Audio CD (Cambridge Grammar for First Certificate, IELTS, PET)
8.Check Your English Vocabulary for IELTS: All you need to pass
your exams (Vocabulary Workbook)

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9.Cambridge Vocabulary for IELTS with answers and Audio CD
(Cambridge Vocabulary for Exams)
10.New Insight into IELTS Student's Book with Answers

Surf Amazon now and get your target IELTS band score! :) If you
have other recommendations, feel free to post your comments.

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RESOURCES FOR IELTS TAKERS
If you are planning to take the IELTS and looking for more
information about IELTS, here are some posts that I have written
about it.

1. Best Books for IELTS
- a summary of effective books in IELTS that can be used in testing
and teaching
2. TOEFL or IELTS
- a comparison of IELTS and TOEFL, guides the test taker on what
test to take
3. 7 Deadly Sins in Speaking
- highlights the common mistakes people make in the IELTS
Speaking test

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7 HABITS OF HIGHLY INEFFECTIVE IELTS TAKERS
Why do people fail the IELTS? There are tell-tale signs that they will
fail the IELTS. However, these mistakes can be avoided so that
they will achieve their target IELTS band score.
1. Not having a study plan
Some people can get really complacent about the IELTS. It’s not
just about luck. You gotta have a plan. IELTS is all about discipline.
It takes consistent practice to reach a high band score. Even if
you’re too busy, you should map out your strategy. Devote at least
one hour a day to study.
2. Not following directions
IELTS takers fail the IELTS not because they’re incompetent. They
think all directions are the same and so they go right in to answer
the questions. Not! The golden rule in IELTS is: Follow All
Directions. The most common error that they make is in the
Yes/No/Not Given type. They answer True/False instead. Another
usual mistake is they answer the complete word when only a letter

is necessary. So, don’t forget to read the instructions at all times.
3. Lack of time management
In the IELTS, time is your greatest enemy. A lot of IELTS
candidates are unable to finish the four modules. Task completion is
essential to getting a high band score. That is why it’s important to
budget your time well. Quick thinking is a skill that you should
develop. You have to listen, read, write and speak fast.
4. Panicking

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This happens a lot to IELTS takers especially in the Speaking
component. When they’re stumped with a difficult question, their
mind goes blank (crickets chirping). What to do? Good preparation
is the key. When you’re prepared, you focus more easily. Have a
bag of tricks where you can pull out any expression for every
question.
5. Not reading
No input, no output. Like food, you gotta feed your mind. In the 7
Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, one habit that
is essential is sharpening the saw. In the same way, you have to
sharpen the saw in IELTS through reading magazines, newspapers
and journals. Read Time, Newsweek and Reader’s Digest because
these are the kinds of material you will encounter in the reading text.
Read the editorial section of newspapers like Inquirer and Star
which will improve your argumentation skills that you can use in
writing and speaking.
6. Committing the same blunders again and again
It’s ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. Constant

practice is useless if you keep on repeating the same errors. This is
extremely crucial in writing like spelling and grammar errors. The
most common mistakes that people make are the subject-verb
agreement, tense consistency and prepositions. Analyze your
mistakes and review them.
7. Thinking negative thoughts
If you think you will fail the IELTS, then you will fail the exam.
Worrying about the test will get you nowhere. The IELTS exam is

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not that difficult if you know how to approach it. So be confident and
always think positively.
If you have other questions about the IELTS, feel free to make
comments or email me. If you want more tips about English, please
subscribe via email. ■

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IELTS WRITING MAKEOVER #1
Last week, I launched the IELTS Writing Makeover Series. Here's
the first essay from Yaoq that I did a makeover.
Some people believe that visitors to other countries should
follow local customs and behavior. Others disagree and think
that the host country should welcome cultural differences.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Tourism is welcomed in most of the countries. It brings not only the
benefit to the country's economic, but also the culture exchanging.

Admittedly, culture differences are still widely spread though our
lifes. Some of the differences reside deeply because of historical,
regional, and climate reasons, which could still reflect the wisdom
from our ancestors. These can not be vannished and have to be
respected and protected.
For the visitors, to experience these differences could also be one
of the attractions for their journey. Some westen visitors could
always learn a few Chinese greeting words like "Nihao" after their
travel from China. Then when they have a chance to meet their
Chinese friends or bussiness partaners in their countries, using
these words would definately show a warm welcome, and could
help instantly remove the distance from each other. On the other
hand, some places are even characterized by its strong and
indigous local customs which may have hundreds of year’s history.
To follow these customs may even help to expand the
understanding of this country and bring new idears to our present

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life, the examples here are not scarce, taking a glance at fashion,
you may find some exotic elements across different cultures.
Overall, every country has its own culture, when visitors find out the
culture differences, try and feel it. This might inspire the creativity for
their own lives, and the happiness from this might be worthy of
memorizing for ever.
4-POINT CRITIQUE
TASK ACHIEVEMENT
You were able to cite good reasons and specific examples about
the Chinese culture. The main points have substantial supporting

details. The introduction should be made longer. Your word count is
242 which is short of the 250 word limit.
COHESION AND COHERENCE
It’s good that you have an introduction and conclusion. You also
have made effective use of transition words such as on the other
hand and overall. Improve your introduction by having a minimum of
three sentences. Your introduction should include a thesis
statement which gives your point of view. Your paragraph structure
needs improvement. They should be equal in length. Some
paragraphs are long and the fourth paragraph has two main points
which you can discuss in a new paragraph. You can further improve
your organization by using the famous 5-paragraph essay. Have
two main points discussing the advantages and one point
discussing the disadvantage.

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LEXICAL RESOURCE
You have a good variety of words but there were some words that
were used inappropriately. Economic should be economy. Culture
exchanging should be replaced with cultural exchange. Though
should be changed to through. Vanished should be replaced with
taken away. Memorizing is more appropriate with lessons. The
better term is remembering. The phase “try and feel it” should be
parallel and be changed to “they should try and feel it”.
GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY
There are a lot of misspelled words such as lifes, vannished,
bussiness, partaners, definately, idears, indigous, year’s, westen,
for ever. Make sure you proofread your work. You can use the Auto

Correct function of MS Word. There are minimal grammar errors
and you were able to use the correct tense and subject-verb
agreement.
----Do you want to join the next makeover? Read more about the
IELTS Writing Makeover.

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IELTS WRITING MAKEOVER #2
I got another essay for the IELTS Writing Makeover from my
mailbox. This was submitted by Bahar from Turkey and here is her
Task 2 essay:
Studying the English language in an English-speaking country is the
best but not the only one way to learn the language.
Learning a foreign language is a good qualification for people in
today's world. Knowing a foreign language has always been a
distinguishing feature either at school or at work. Because it is the
most widespread spoken language through the world, English is the
most demanded language in today's world. Every people have their
own ways to learn English. Some of them start learning it at school,
some of them try to learn it by taking tutorials, some of them go to
English courses while some prefer to learn it in an English-speaking
country. No matter what the learning method is, I completely agree
with the idea that studying English in an English speaking country is
the best but not the only way to learn the language.

First of all, in order for us to learn English, we have to learn the
grammer first. Schools or courses always teach grammer first. In
order to speak English, grammer should be learned to some extent.

Like any other subject, of course, a teacher can teach a subject to
some extent. The rest depends on the student's own efforts,
studiousness and enthusiasm in learning English. After having a
grammer background, the learner may build up his/her vocabulary
skills by reading books, papers and magazines in English. Similarly,

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listening the news in English or watching movies in English will
highly likely improve one's listening skills considerably. I remember
from my own experiences that I improved my reading and listening
skills by reading and listening in English.

The best way to learn English has always been to learn it in an
English-speaking country. The reason is that when an English
learner goes to an English-speaking country, he/she will be exposed
to English converstaions every time. This exposure will surely
resulted in improving English skills especially listening and speaking
skills significantly. Another advantage of learning English in an
English-speaking country is that the learner can practise a lot in a
shorter time. To give an example, I learned English in my home
country, Turkey. I managed to learn it in a long time. However, my
best friend preferred to learn English in England. Both of us know
English now, however, she learned it more quickly and correctly
than me.

Eventually, there are many ways to learn English but the best way is
to learn it in an English-speaking country.

4-POINT CRITIQUE

TASK ACHIEVEMENT

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You were able to give good arguments about studying the English
language. You were able to elaborate with concrete examples. Your
total word count is 392 words. Now that's a very big number. The
ideal number is from 250-265. If you write too much, you may
commit more mistakes and you might run out of time. You should
spend a maximum of 40 minutes for this task.
COHESION AND COHERENCE
You used a couple of transition words such as first of all, similarly,
however, etc. The introduction was done very well but the
conclusion should be made longer with at least 3 sentences
summarizing the main points of the essay. Improve the organization
of your essay with the 5-paragraph essay format: Introduction,
Advantage 1, Advantage 2, Advantage 3, Conclusion.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
You have made some good word choices but there are some words
that are off. Demanded should be in demand. Change the phrase
"every people have their own ways" to "every person has his/her
own ways". Studiousness sounds awkward. I think you mean
conscientiousness. There were too many adverbs in the phrase
"highly likely improve one's listening skills considerably." Eventually
should be replaced with other transitions words such as "to sum up,
in conclusion, to conclude."

GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY

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There were minimal grammar errors noted. Revise the following
misspelled words: grammer and conversations. Remove the "ed" in
the phrase "will surely resulted". In the expression "she learned it
more quickly and correctly than me", it should be "than I".

If you want your essay to be the next project, check out the details
of the IELTS Writing Makeover.
Tags: IELTS, writing

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IELTS WRITING MAKEOVER #3
The next IELTS Writing Makeover is from Elif. Here's the rest of
his essay.

TOPIC: Successful sports professionals can earn a great deal
more money than people in other important professions. Some
people think this is fully justified while others think it is unfair.

In the last two decades, some sports professionals have been
granted lots of Money because of their unique talents. However,
some people think high amount of Money should be given these
professionals due to wonderful impacts in the world, others believe
it is not necessary to give a great deal money for just kicking the

ball.

As well as I mentioned above, sports market has a great impact on
people from all over the world. For instance, football, according to
Americans it means socker is been watching by lots of people.
There is a big commercial market, that's why it is so common that
professionals earn good Money. They can sell t-shirts and some
tools about the team. Furthermore; it is a speacial talent which
everyone can not be born with. Especially, Brazilian footballers are
more popular than others. Eventually, lots of young people lead
these famous professionals and try tol ive as them. Even if the
reason is being popular, it is a good exercise for their health.

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On the contrary, many people do not want them to get a high
amount of Money. Fistly, not only sports are precious in daily life,
but alos science has a high value. We need inventions which cure
our illness' or simply our life. Therefore, it is obviously seen that
scientists have to be supported more than sports professionals.
Secondly, they make people lazy. This system provides the
importance of money and popularism, and also shows people how
they can make Money easily. But the world is not simple as they
display us. Lastly, I deeply beleive people need inventions more
than sports and sports programmes. Governments do not allow
public to think deeply about politics and our entire life problems,
such as crime, economics. ■t is not fair to give a lot of Money for
just some special sports in case they bring high advertisement
revenue.

In conclusion, ther might be different opinions. But the important
thing is at least giving the same value for other extremely important
professionals like doctors, scientists and academicians because of
the role in our future.

4-POINT CRITIQUE

TASK ACHIEVEMENT

You gave a balanced perspective of the different views about sports
professionals. The body contains concrete examples. The

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introduction could be improved by placing the word "however"
between the two clauses.

COHESION AND COHERENCE

A number of transition words were found to show relationships
between sentences and paragraphs. They are utilized effectively to
show sequence, opposing views and summary of main points.

LEXICAL RESOURCE

Vocabulary is varied, however, there are some words that need to
be modified. Drop "as well" in the phrase "as well as I mentioned
above". "lead" should be replaced with "follow". "popularism" should

be changed to "popularity".

GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY

Your tenses are consistent and correct subject-verb agreement was
used. There are a couple of spelling errors: socker, speacial, tol live,
fistly, alos, beleive, ther. It's unnecessary to capitalize money.
"sports" takes a singular verb. Add an article "the" before the word
"public". Remove the apostrophe in "illness".

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-------Do you want to take the IELTS Writing Challenge? Find out more
about the IELTS Writing Makeover here.

Tags: IELTS, writing

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