IELTS writing - the editing process

IELTS writing - the editing process
Sunday, June 14, 2009 Posted by Dominic Cole
Writing for IELTS is quite different from academic writing for at least one very good
reason: timing. In IELTS you only have 60 minutes to produce two pieces of writing, there
are no second chances and it isn't practical to draft and redraft. However, in IELTS you still
need to find time to check your writing and edit it for mistakes. Here are some very
practical suggestions on how to go about this process.
When to check
The first step is to decide when to check. You may think the obvious time is after you have
finished writing, but there are other options. None is necessarily correct: as ever I suggest
you need to try each approach and see which works for you as an individual.
1. Check at the end
The conventional advice is to leave 3-5 minutes at the end to review your writing. The
reason to do it this way is that you can see read the whole essay and check it for coherence
as well as grammatical problems. One problem with this approach is that sometimes you
run out of time and do not check. Another problem is that it is more difficult to find
mistakes when you check a longer piece of writing.
If you are a higher level candidate and you have few problems with grammar, this is
possibly the approach for you.
2. Check as you write
An alternative option is to check as you write: either at the end of each sentence or
paragraph. This idea may surprise you, but there is a very significant benefit to this
approach: you are much more likely to find grammatical errors if you look at a sentence of
15 words than an essay of 250 words.
If you know that you have consistent problems with grammar, you should certainly
consider this approach. It really is much easier to find mistakes this way.
3. Check as you write and at the end
This is probably the ideal choice as it allows you to find grammatical errors as you write
and problems with coherence after you have written. The one difficulty is that it probably
takes more time.
How to check

Here I have two very positive suggestion to make:
1. Check with a pen in hand so that you make sure you look at every word. It's very
easy to see what you think you have written and not what you actually wrote.
Reading with a pen is a good way of slowing yourself down and makeing sure you
read every word.
2. Read in complete sentences and not word by word. Very often mistakes happen
because all the parts of the sentence are correct, but those parts of a sentence do not
fit together.
What to check for
This is the big one. There are a number of different items you can check for and what
follows is a longish list and I suggest that in an exam it may not practical to check for all of
them. You need to make your own personal checklist before the exam: to do this you need
the assistance of a teacher to advise you of your mistakes. See this exam tip for more detail.
Grammar
The main point to note here is that not all mistakes are equal. You will be penalised more
heavily for basic mistakes than more complex ones, therefore you should check your basic
grammar most carefully.
1. Verb tenses: make sure they are consistent and in task 1 that your tenses match the
time frame in the graph
2. Articles: this is something for everyone to check for. Articles are the most common
words in English and often go wrong. To get band 7 or over most of your sentences
need to be correct: this means your articles need to be correct. See my post on
articles.
3. Subject-verb agreement: this means "he does" not "he do". Even to quite a high
level this is a relatively common mistake. The problem being that it is also a basic
mistake that examiners will penalise more heavily
4. Parts of speech: this is another relatively low level mistake that is also quite
common - particularly with Asian language speakers. Check that you use nouns,
verbs and adjectives when you need. This is particularly an issue in task 1 when
using trend language (a sharp rise, but to rise sharply).

5. Range of sentence structures: this one may surprise you, but it is important if you
want band 6 or above to vary your sentence structures. It is not enough always to
use simple but correct language.
Vocabulary
I suspect that this is something that few candidates bother to check. A mistake. Vocabulary
is as important as grammar and in a way it is easier to correct.
1. Repetition: under exam conditions looking for repetition is perhaps the area where a
candidate can most improve their writing. It is relatively easy for a candidate to see
that they have repeated words and to correct this mistake.
2. Repetition (2): check that you have not repeated whole phrases and sentences from
the question
3. Spelling: check that you get at least the basic words right
Coherence
Again, this is another area that sometimes does not get checked. You do need to think
about this as it accounts for a large part of your mark.
1. Topic sentences: each paragraph starts with a topic sentence that clearly relates to
the question
2. Paragraph development: each paragraph is developed with explanations and
examples of the topic sentence. In task 1 this includes having enough detailed
information and facts.
3. Connecting words:make sure that the connecting words you use are accurate. A
frequent mistake is to overuse connecting words.
Answering the question
If you don't answer the question, the examiner is likely to penalise you very heavily. Really
speaking, it is too late to check this at the end, this is something more for the planning
stage.
1. Introduction: check that your introduction addresses all parts of the question
2. Conclusion: check that your conclusion gives an answer to the question
What not to do
Whatever you do, don't count the words. That is a complete waste of exam time. If you are

worried, count how many words you write in one line and then count how many lines your
writing is. (Words like "a" and "an" still count as words).