Kristin Espinar - IELTS Writing and Speaking Skills - Get A 7+ Band Score (Activate Your IELTS Book 1) - Kristin Espinar (2019)

IELTS
WRITING AND SPEAKING

SKILLS
Get a 7+ Band Score

Written By
Kristin Espinar
COPYRIGHT © ACTIVATE YOUR IELTS, 2019.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
IELTS Writing and Speaking Skills by Kristin Espinar

Copyright © 2019 Kristin Espinar
www.activateyourielts.com
All rights reserved, including resale rights. No portion of this book

may be reproduced in any form without permission from the
publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For
permissions contact:
activateyourielts@gmail.com
Cover by Kristin Espinar
ISBN-13: 978-0-578-50112-3
DEDICATION
To my two darling boys, Oliver and Sebastian,
May you one day realize that you can achieve everything you always
wanted to.
Love,
Mama
A SPECIAL THANK YOU
I would like to acknowledge the following people who have chosen to

support me in my launch and success of this book. Firstly, to my
husband for helping me find the time to write this book and giving me
his expert design advice. Secondly, for the group of family and
friends that helped me spread the word about this book and
supported me with all the activities surrounding it.
Pablo Espinar, Clemencia Plitt, Antonio Espinar, Veronica Miranda,

Carlota Gil, Edwin Betancour, Romulo Delgado, Monika Lopez,
Karina Norton, Christina Brzustoski, Nadia Allouh, Latisha Castillo,
Lisa Play, Karolina Wyrzykowska, Marcia Sousa, Miguel Pazos
Thank you to Natalie Jennings of @jenningsphoto on IG for the

beautiful headshots.
A Special Shout Out

I want to give a special thanks to three of my superstar students who
either follow my podcast, join my events, take classes with me, or all
three! Thanks for your enthusiastic support of my project and I’m so
excited to have you on my team!!
Jijo Joseph
Muslimbek Yuldoshev
Indranil Saha
A SPECIAL GIFT FOR YOU
Firstly, I wanted to say thank you for purchasing this book. I hope
that it serves as a helpful source of information, a convenient
reference for you, and helps to give you insight on how to prepare for
the IELTS exam. One thing that you will need for this book is
something called the IELTS Vocabulary Notebook. This is something
that I created in order to help all my students build a strong
vocabulary and have a resource they can use for doing IELTS writing
and speaking tasks. You can download the resource with the link
below.
IELTS VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
If you are unable to access it, please send me an email at:

activateyourielts@gmail.com. I would like to hear from you anyway!
If you do decide to write please tell me a little bit about yourself. You
can tell me how long you have been studying English if you have
taken the IELTS exam before, when you are planning to take it, and
what particular struggles you are having. I may be able to point out a
few more resources for you. Anyway thank you again and I look
forward to hearing from you!
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book was designed directly from my IELTS Writing and

Speaking Video Course. The chapters and the organization of the
book follow the course structure, but it also has added tips and
advice. I decided to add these extra bits of information because I
saw so many of my students making the same mistakes with their
writing, speaking, and grammar, that I wanted to put everything in
one place to use as a reference.
So this book was written as a guide to developing your IELTS writing

and speaking skills as well as a reference resource for common
mistakes in those areas as well.
Throughout the book you will see there are writing and speaking
tasks that you can use to practice and develop your skills. You will
also see buttons like the button below. You can click these buttons
and they will take you to extra resources for the course.
In addition to this book, I also wrote a workbook that goes in

conjunction with this book. The workbook includes 10 essential
IELTS vocabulary lists, vocabulary lists related to other types of
vocabulary like transition words, academic vocabulary, verbs to use
with gerunds and infinitives, etc. It also contains worksheets,
grammar checklists, writing prompts, speaking prompts, and IELTS
speaking samples, IELTS writing samples.
This workbook serves as a fantastic companion to this ebook if you

want a more practical resource for practicing your IELTS writing and
speaking skills. You can read more about it and how to get it with the
link below.
Lastly, I want to say good luck! This is something you can do.
Students often feel frustrated or lost, but I am here to help. I created
this book with you in mind, and I wanted to create a guide to help
you get through this preparation process so that you would not feel
alone and so that you would get the clear process that you need in
order to get the IELTS 7+ band score that you want and deserve.
Now let’s get started!
IELTS WORKBOOK
About the Author
Hello! My name is Kristin Espinar. I train IELTS students who
struggle to develop the IELTS writing and IELTS speaking skills they
need to get a 7+ band score. I help them get higher band scores
while making it feel easy and fun.
I’ve got a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics, 13 years of ESL

and exam preparation experience, I am a certified IELTS instructor,
and now a published author! I also run a weekly podcast called
Activate Your IELTS: Be Determined and I regularly serve over 9000
people with tips and advice for preparing for the IELTS exam.
When I’m not writing, teaching, and creating online IELTS courses, I
like to spend time with my family going to parks and natural areas in
Florida. I also love traveling around the world, some of my favorite
countries have been Indonesia and Colombia.
If you are dying to know more, here are a few things you don’t know
about me.
Fun Fact 1. I’ve eaten frog legs.

Fun Fact 2. I’ve travelled to 23 different countries.
Fun Fact 3: I lived abroad for 7 years.
Find out more here!
FACEBOOK PODCAST YOUTUBE
WWW.ACTIVATEYOURIELTS.COM
Contents
01
INTRODUCTION AND IELTS PRODUCTIVE SKILLS
An essential introduction to this book.
02
THE IELTS PREPARATION PROCESS
How to get started preparing for the IELTS exam
03
UNDERSTANDING IELTS MARKING CRITERIA
In order to be successful on the exam, you need to fully understand
how you will be assessed.
04
IELTS VOCABULARY
Having a strong basis in IELTS vocabulary is essential to getting the
score you want on the IELTS exam.
05
OVERVIEW OF IELTS SPEAKING TASKS
Let’s look at the how, what and why of the speaking tasks
06
SPEAKING TASK 1
Review tips and tactics for speaking task 1
07
SPEAKING TASK 2
Learn essential organization tips for speaking task 2
08
SPEAKING TASK 3
Review critical thinking skills for speaking task 3
09
COMMON AREAS OF DIFFICULTY IN SPEAKING
A review of common areas that students struggle with when they are
attempting speaking tasks.
10
ALL ABOUT WRITING TASK : ESSAY
A quick overview of IELTS writing task 2
11
BRAINSTORMING AND OUTLINING: THE BASIS FOR YOUR
ESSAY
Brainstorming and organizing your ideas creates the groundwork for
an effective essay
12
MAIN IDEAS AND DETAILS: WHAT EXAMINERS WANT TO SEE
Let me show you how to ensure that your ideas are well-developed
13
WRITING AN AMAZING INTRODUCTION
Catch the examiner’s attention immediately
14
HOW TO WRITE A CONCLUSION WITH IMPACT
Wrap up your essay in concise and impactful way
15
DIFFERENT TYPES OF ESSAY PROMPTS
Get to know the various types of essay prompts you may encounter
16
A FEW THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT WRITING
Take note of these areas that students don’t usually consider when it
comes to writing essays
17
THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR IN WRITING AND SPEAKING
Let’s examine the importance of grammar in our IELTS writing
18
GERUNDS AND INFINITIVES
Here is a key grammar point that can help you to write at a more
advanced level
19
PARALLELISM IN WRITING
Use this grammatical structure to make your writing more complex,
balanced, and beautiful.
20
COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN STUDENT WRITING
These are the grammatical mistakes that I always see students
making in their writing
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Speaking and

Writing as Productive Skills
Many students struggle with these areas of the exam for a variety of
reasons: lack of feedback, lack of practice time, lack of knowledge
about what to do or how to do it.
One of the reasons that I originally designed my IELTS writing and

speaking lvideo course is that I saw students were having the most
problems in developing their productive skills. Productive skills are
writing and speaking skills and I call them productive skills because
you actually need to produce something.
When taking an official English exam, it is certainly difficult to do the

listening and reading part but the benefit is that you don’t have to
produce anything. In my opinion, it makes these parts of the exam a
little bit easier to prepare for.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
-Abraham Lincoln
When trying to prepare for language that you actually have to
produce in an academic and structured way, I find that students
really can feel a bit lost. Not only do they not know what they need to
do or how to do it, but they aren’t able to practice in an authentic way
or get corrective feedback which is useful for them.
If they are able to access it, it can sometimes be a struggle to find

the right qualified professional to help them at a price they can
afford. This is the reason I really wanted to create a book that helps
students develop these skills either on their own or in conjunction
with a course or a private tutor.
I find myself uniquely qualified to help students with these skills.
I’ve spent over 13 years working with ESL students, helping them
build their general English level as well as prepare for official English
exams or prepare to be successful in academic settings. During this
time, I’ve had the opportunity to observe students, their habits, and
practices in learning a second language and I’ve been able to see
what works and what doesn’t work on a first-hand basis.
Furthermore, I completed a master’s degree focused on Applied

Linguistics with a special concentration in second language
acquisition for English language learners. So in the middle of my
practical teaching experience, I also gained the theoretical
knowledge and research which supported what I was seeing and
experiencing on a daily basis with my students.
In addition to all of this, I also had a real passion for helping students
actually use the language they were learning. In the past and in my
current practice, my first goal is to always get students actually using
the language through authentic communication. I want students to
immediately begin speaking and writing and in my live classes, I love
to take a workshop approach where we do speaking and writing
practice together in class. We work in small groups and in pairs and
we actually go through the process of writing together. That way we
can move through the struggles together, get active and live
instruction and feedback, and utilize the information in each other’s
brains. I try to make my classes dynamic and actionable so that
students leave having accomplished something.
It was with this spirit that I decided to also write this book. I wanted to
show students, and to show you, how you are able to structure you
responses, apply key vocabulary and techniques in a way that will
help you get the band score that they need as well as show you
everything that you can do to maximize your practice of these
productive skills at home. The goal of this book is to help you see
that you can actively prepare for the speaking and writing part of the
exam at home and that you can learn and apply techniques that will
help you improve. But as a student, you need to remember that you
must be dedicated and you must be hardworking. Without hard work
and a concerted effort, you won’t improve. I always like to say that
students will improve exactly the amount of effort that they put in. So
that is my challenge to you. I want you to think about your approach,
the tools you are going to use, the time that you are going to
dedicate to your preparation. Most of all I want you to think about the
following question.
Be stubborn about your goals and flexible about
your methods.
-Unknown
How can you take the tips and advice from this book and put it into
action in your life and your IELTS exam preparation? I wish you the
best of luck and now it’s time to get started!
CHAPTER TWO
The IELTS Preparation Process
The IELTS preparation process can be a pretty easy or a difficult

task, depending on your English level and your ability to use English
in an academic way. I have seen students who are fairly strong in
English, not take much time to prepare and get the scores that they
need for their particular goals. But in general, most students need to
spend quite a bit of time on their preparation. The IELTS exam is not
an easy exam, it’s used as a vetting process to ensure that people
who are applying for an immigration process, to demonstrate their
level of English for work, or who are attempting to study abroad,
really are able to use English in a proficient way. In my experience,
most students are not really prepared for the IELTS exam, either in
terms of English level, academic ability in English, or knowledge of
exam strategy. The standards of this exam are high and that makes
it difficult to get the scores you need consistently across the skills.
Next, you will find some considerations you should review as you
begin your IELTS preparation process.
TIME TO PREPARE
In general, a good amount of time to prepare for the exam is 3-6
months. Most people don’t give themselves this long to prepare and
they really struggle to build their English level and learn exam
strategy in a short period of time. In fact, many students give
themselves only a few weeks to prepare and they end up scrambling
desperately to get the skills they need in a short period of time, often
unsuccessfully.
Not giving yourself enough time to prepare often results in having to

take the exam several times. Don’t put yourself in the situation of
having to pay for the exam several times and never giving yourself
enough time to develop your English level or exam strategy skills. If
you find yourself failing time and time again, you really need to stop
and review what you are doing and perhaps get a qualified instructor
to help you diagnose your weaknesses and help identify the areas
you need to improve.
APPROACH
The first thing that you need to do is buy yourself an IELTS exam
practice book. These are available everywhere and I have a few that
I recommend on my website under recommended resources.
After you purchase your exam practice book you should take one full
complete test. Make sure to use a timer to time yourself. You will
need to stop when your time is up and go on to the next section so
that you get an idea of what you can do in the time allotted. You
need to give yourself an accurate idea of where you are and what
you can do. After you have completed this, you will be able to see
what areas you are stronger in and what areas you are weaker in.
This will help you to create a preparation plan wherein you prioritize
your weaknesses.
So, for example, if you are strong in reading and weaker in listening,
you can focus your efforts more on listening.
If you are not sure where you stand with speaking and writing, you
should contact a qualified instructor to do a review of your skills and
give you a band score. That way you will know where you are
starting in those skills and where you need to go. If you decide to do
this, you should ask your instructor what particular areas you need to
improve in those skills and what grammar points are you making
mistakes with.
After you have established a baseline

for your abilities, you can then start
doing exam preparation and grammar
on a regular basis.
This of course depends on how much time you have. I recommend

trying to do one exam section per day as practice and studying a few
grammar points per week. Even if you decide to take an IELTS
course with an instructor, you should be doing this exam practice on
your own.
This includes doing regular exam practice with your speaking and
writing skills.
Try to write one or two essays per week and try to do practice
speaking prompts. Use the information, advice, and tips from this
book to help you do that. You will also find practice speaking and
writing prompts at the back of this book. Practice is an essential step
and is something you need to put into your schedule on a regular
basis.
STRATEGY
Exam strategy is something that you might not have thought of
before but is something that will help you immensely. Exam
strategies are tactics and approaches which help you do an IELTS
task more efficiently, more quickly, and more accurately. If you pay
attention to most exam practice books, you will find that they have a
strategy section at the beginning of each section. TOEFL books are
actually great for this and can help you out with strategy as well. If
you are using an IELTS coursebook (as opposed to an exam
practice book), you will see that they have strategy tips scattered
throughout the book.
I think that most students skip over these when they are using IELTS
books. I believe that they just skip right to the tests or write to the
course content but miss the strategic tips or even dismiss them as
nonsense, but the truth is that these are the tips and keys that you
have been searching for all along. Developing these strategies will
definitely help you get the answer in a quicker more efficient and
accurate way.
READING STRATEGY
Reading strategy includes practicing the skills like previewing,

skimming, scanning, identifying main ideas and details,
summarizing, paraphrasing and understanding vocabulary in
context. You can refer to the IELTS workbook rto access strategy
checklists to help you study these strategies more easily.
LISTENING STRATEGY
Listening strategy includes practicing the skills like previewing,

predicting, identifying synonyms, identifying main ideas and details,
recognizing signposting language.
WRITING TRATEGY
Writing strategy includes practicing skills like brainstorming

effectively, organizing your ideas, using an academic essay
structure, building your IELTS vocabulary, understanding how to
write main ideas and details, being able to write a thesis statement,
and understanding how to use topic sentences.
SPEAKING STRATEGY
Speaking strategy includes practicing of skills like using key

vocabulary, using academic vocabulary, being able to discuss a
variety of topics, being able to give your opinion on current issues,
applying a variety of grammatical structures, and learning how to
organize an extend your responses.
ENGLISH LEVEL
One key area to work on is knowing whether or not you have the
English level for the exam. You shouldn’t begin to prepare for the
exam unless you have about an intermediate level of English and
ideally an upper-intermediate level of English. If you are closer to an
intermediate level of English, you should budget extra time to work
on your general English skills, specifically grammar. Even if you do
have a higher level of English, you should still be building your skills
as you do your preparation. This includes grammar study but also
the use of authentic texts.
GRAMMAR
If grammar is an area that you struggle with, you are going to have to
do a lot of extra work in your preparation. Not having a good level of
grammar is going to contribute to a lot of mistakes in your speaking
and writing skills and you will not likely pass with a 7+ band score.
Review the grammar points from levels A1-B2. You should revise a
grammar point or two and then try to use it in your writing and
speaking tasks. After you do a practice task you should revise it and
check your grammar skills to make sure you are following the
grammatical rule correctly.
GRAMMAR POINTS FOR STUDY
I have created an exhaustive list of the grammatical structures you

should know and be studying in your preparation. You can find the
list in the IELTS writing and speaking workbook.
INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES
There are a lot of resources that are devoted to English instruction

and IELTS preparation. Many of these are free and others are paid.
You should take advantage of all of them. For free resources, you
can find a lot of information online just by searching and you can use
YouTube. There are a lot of great instructional videos, just make sure
you are following a qualified instructor. You can also follow podcasts.
I recommend listening to my podcast for

lots of free advice: Activate Your
IELTS: Be Determined.
Utilize IELTS exam practice books, IELTS course books, general

English books, and IELTS vocabulary books as well. Books that give
advice or tips about IELTS preparation are also helpful.
Take advantage of exam practice websites and English language

websites for developing your grammar.
AUTHENTIC TEXTS
Finally, you should be using authentic texts on a daily basis. You

might be wondering what authentic texts are, and they are basically
anything that uses English in a natural way. Think articles, websites,
books, videos, music, podcasts. But the difference is, is that these
are texts that are just using English in a natural and authentic way,
they are not dedicated to exam preparation or English development.
These are things like watching your favorite movie in English, or
reading a news article a day in English or listening to a podcast on a
topic that interests you.
Using English in an authentic way each day is going to build your
vocabulary, improve your reading comprehension, and help you
strengthen your listening skills. Additionally, it is going to help you be
prepared to discuss or write about topical and current issues which
often arise on the IELTS exam. Using authentic texts on a daily basis
is essential to your IELTS preparation and English language
development.
Definition: Authentic Texts

Real life English examples: Articles, newspapers,
books, podcasts, commercials, movies, TV series,
etc.
Essentially, the IELTS preparation process includes an approach
where you take into account the time that you have to prepare, you
combine exam practice tests with the study of exam strategy, while
at the same time building your English level through grammar study
and the use of authentic texts. Easy right? Let me help you get
started.
Do something that your future self will thank you

for.
-Sean Patrick Flanery

Chapter Recap
Here are the key points highlighted in this chapter
1. Give yourself time to prepare (3-6 months)
2. Do regular exam practice
3. Get familiar with exam strategy
4. Review grammar points
5. Use authentic texts on a daily basis

CHAPTER 3
Understanding IELTS Marking

Criteria
In order to be successful on the exam, you need to fully
understand how you will be assessed. The means getting a clear
and intimate understanding of the IELTS marking criteria and
knowing where you would fall in those categories.
Many students plunge right into their IELTS exam preparation

without fully understanding how they will be assessed in the
speaking and writing areas. This is key to your success, because it
will help you prepare better and help you improve your English.
When students aren’t aware of exactly what examiners are scoring
them on they are not able to identify which areas are their
weaknesses and which areas they are strong in.
Students often feel a bit lost and helpless and sometimes might even
feel like the examiners or the IELTS exam itself is out to get them.
Trust me it’s not, but it is a difficult exam that is meant to ensure you
have the capabilities in English to succeed in what you are setting
out to do.
So if you are taking the IELTS exam to enter into a university, the
exam results are meant to show that you are capable of taking high-
level courses in English and that you will be able to succeed in them.
Think about it, this means that you really do need to be good at
English, not just have enough English to pass the exam. So that’s
why it’s important to understand each area of the marking criteria. If
you don’t get a 7 or above in each of those areas it’s unlikely you will
get the score that you need to reach your goals..
In your preparation, you will need to focus on improving your IELTS

task responses and improving your general English level in each
area of the marking criteria to help ensure that you are able to get
the band score that you want and need.
The only way to really do this effectively, is to have a clear

understanding of the marking criteria. You need to understand each
descriptor for your desired level and get an extensive amount of
practice using it to assess your own writing and speaking.
IELTS scoring in detail. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ielts.org/ielts-for-

organisations/ielts-scoring-in-detail
iELTS SPEAKING MARKING CRITERIA
Let’s look first at the IELTS speaking criteria. There are four areas to
consider when you are beginning to learn how you are assessed on
the speaking exam. The first area is fluency and coherence, the
second area is lexical resource, the third area is grammatical range
and accuracy and the fourth area is pronunciation.
Each of these areas is divided into 9 different band scores. Most
students need to get a 7 band score or higher and most students
that I meet fall in the area of 5 - 6.5 level band scores. Sometimes I
see students that may have a 7 in one area of the marking criteria
but score lower in the other areas.
This is actually pretty common and this is your actual challenge. How
can you improve your English in all areas of the marking criteria so
that each area scores above a band 7? Your first step will be that
you will need to review the IELTS marking criteria band scores of 7
and above to ensure that you are meeting the criteria. Let’s take a
quick look at the requirements of a band score 7 in the different
areas of marking criteria.
FLUENCY AND COHERENCE
This area ensures that you are able to deliver a fluid response which
is easy to understand for the listener. In order to get a 7 or above
you need to be able to speak for long periods of time without
repetition, loss of coherence, slow speech or too much self-
correction. (IELTS in Detail)
You are able to show a little bit of hesitation but not so much that it
impedes listener comprehension or in other words makes it difficult
for the listener to follow what you are saying. You should also make
sure that your responses are well-organized and well-developed.
You don’t want your responses to stray off topic or for you to forget
what you are saying. All of this describes the 7-band in the area of
fluency and coherence.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
Lexical resources is a fancy way of saying vocabulary. But the truth

is, is that it refers to having a strong vocabulary in a variety of
different types of vocabulary. You need to have a strong basis in
IELTS vocabulary (topical/thematic vocabulary), academic
vocabulary, collocative vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions, and
then also the ability to use some actual idioms in English.
The 7 band descriptor for this area requires that you are able to use
vocabulary on a variety of topics and that you are able to use lesson
common and idiomatic vocabulary precisely. (IELTS in Detail) So you
need to have a high level of vocabulary and use it correctly in terms
of meaning, use, and word formation. You also need to be able to
summarize or paraphrase if the opportunity arises.
GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY
Grammatical range and accuracy is an area that can make or break

a student. If you are preparing to take the IELTS exam but you don’t
have a strong basis in grammar, this is the area that will break you.
You need to have a pretty good understanding of grammar from
levels Beginner to Upper-Intermediate (A1-B2) if you want to do well
on the exam. If you don’t have a strong basis and by strong basis, I
mean that you are able to use the grammatical tenses pretty well
without too many major errors, then you definitely need to be doing
grammar study in addition to your IELTS preparation. You should use
the grammar curriculum suggestions in this book and study a new
grammar point each day or each week and make sure to apply it to
your exam practice. The band descriptor for 7 in this area requires
that you are able to use a variety of simple and complex grammatical
structures that are relatively error free. (IELTS in Detail)
The errors you make should be with the more complex tenses. If you
are making errors with simpler tenses and you are making repetitive
errors or more than a few that will keep you from getting a band
score 7+.
EXAMPLES
Let’s take an example. A student who makes one or two errors using
conditional sentences or gerunds and infinitives might still be able to
get a 7+ band score while a student who is making repetitive
mistakes with articles or non-count nouns is unlikely to. Why?
Because the second student is making mistakes with simple
structures, they may be structures that are difficult for you due to
your native language but you still need to fix these mistakes if you
want to get a good score in this area.
PRONUNCIATION
The area of pronunciation is a little less developed in the band

descriptors here. But basically what you need to know is that you are
pronouncing English well enough that the listener doesn’t have any
major issues in understanding you. You should definitely pay
attention to things like sentence stress or word stress but you can
also start looking up lists of pronunciation points which are common
areas of difficulty for your first language. For example, most people
struggle with the short i /ɪ/ sound in English. There are plenty of lists
online that show errors typically made in a variety of first languages.
I recommend starting there and working on each area of difficulty.
You can always get a teacher for a short period of time to help you
and assess you in this area if you are not sure how your
pronunciation is.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
Overall, this is something you should be reviewing after each

speaking practice preparation that you do. You can and should be
recording yourself doing speaking tasks and then listening and
assessing yourself. You can ask yourself, “How is my vocabulary?
What vocabulary can I add?” or “How many hesitations and pauses
did I have? Am I stuttering or mispronouncing anything?”
Take the time to evaluate yourself because the more that you do
that, the more you become aware of your own abilities and what you
need to do to improve it. As a result, on test day you will be making
sure that you meet all of these areas of criteria so that you are able
to nail the speaking part of the exam.
To save myself I must face myself, which may be
the hardest of all things to face.
-Craig D. Lounsbrough
IELTS WRITING MARKING CRITERIA
IELTS marking criteria is a little bit different than the speaking

marking criteria so it’s worth having a look at it here. Grammatical
range and accuracy and lexical resource remain the same but there
are two additional areas called cohesion and coherence and task
achievement. Let’s look at them a little bit more in depth.
TASK ACHIEVEMENT
Task achievement refers to how well you respond to the prompt and
how well-developed your ideas are. This is actually something pretty
difficult to do and it’s a key area of focus for me in my IELTS courses
and in this book. Over the years I’ve seen students really struggle
with learning how to structure their responses in a way that meetings
academic guidelines and is also well-developed and supports your
response. So that’s what this criteria is about.
It ensures that you are able to respond fully to the task and that you
are able to present a clear position that is fully developed and
supported. In order to get a band 7 in this area, you need to answer
all parts of the prompt fully, present a clear claim throughout the
response, and use details and examples to develop and support
your ideas. (IELTS in Detail)
One thing to pay attention to is the different types of essays you may
be asked to write. If the essay asks for advantages and
disadvantages, you must discuss both areas or you won’t meet task
achievement. If the essay prompt is a two-part question, you must
answer both questions.
COHESION AND COHERENCE
This part begins to look at your actual argument. It wants to see that
you are developing your main ideas well. You should utilize a typical
main idea and supporting detail format and you should be using
cohesive devices like transition words. You also need to be using
them skillfully which goes much further than just using them in your
concluding paragraph. This also takes quite a bit of practice and this
book focuses on helping you develop that skill as well.
LEXICAL RESOURCE
As a recap, the 7 band descriptor for this area requires that you are
able to use vocabulary on a variety of topics and that you are able to
use lesson common and idiomatic vocabulary precisely. So you need
to have a high level of vocabulary and use it correctly in terms of
meaning, use, and word formation. You also need to be able to
summarize or paraphrase if the opportunity arises.
GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY
To quickly summarize, the band descriptor for 7 in this area requires

that you are able to use a variety of simple and complex grammatical
structures that are relatively error free. (IELTS in Detail) The errors
you make should be with the more complex tenses. If you are
making errors with simpler tenses and you are making repetitive
errors or more than a few that will keep you from getting a band
score 7+ in IELTS writing and in this area.
Chapter Recap
Review the key points from this chapter:
1. You need to be familiar with IELTS writing and speaking marking

criteria
2. You need to understand the band descriptors for the band score
you want
3. You need to practice self-assessment across these areas

CHAPTER FOUR
IELTS Vocabulary
I always love to start my courses with a strong understanding of

IELTS vocabulary. You may be wondering exactly what IELTS
vocabulary is so let me explain. IELTS vocabulary is a vocabulary
based around common topics or themes that appear on the IELTS
exam. Some examples of this are vocabulary around the theme of
the environment or technology. The IELTS exam is based on several
of these themes, probably between 10 and 20. It’s important to have
a strong understanding of these themes both in vocabulary and in
issues related to these themes. I call this understanding and this
basis the IELTS Vocabulary Approach. Using the IELTS Vocabulary
Approach will help you to build a strong basis of academic and
thematic vocabulary as well as help to become familiar with common
issues that turn up in the exam, both in the form of reading and
listening texts as well as IELTS writing and speaking questions. Not
only do you need to have an opinion on these topics but you need to
have the vocabulary to discuss them.
Definition: IELTS Vocabulary

Vocabulary related to typical topics on the IELTS
exam.
Topics like: Education, Health, Technology,
Globalization, Travel, Work/Studies,
Transportation, Media
So how do you do this? I recommend making this one of your first

focuses in your preparation for the IELTS exam. You should take one
IELTS topic per week and spend your time looking for key
vocabulary related to the topic, watching videos, listening to
podcasts, and reading articles about the topic. When you find new
vocabulary that you think is key you can add it to your vocabulary
notebook.
All students should keep a vocabulary

notebook simply as a place to collect
that key information but also as a tool
to use when you prepare your IELTS
writing and speaking tasks.
In your preparation practice, you should be using this collected

vocabulary to plan out your responses to your writing and speaking
tasks. During preparation, you have the time to organize your ideas
and apply vocabulary and you can take your time doing it.
Preparation is the time to experiment, practice, organize, brainstorm,
plan, make mistakes and improve. Doing this on a frequent basis will
help you get better at the skill of speaking and help you to deliver
well-organized responses using key IELTS vocabulary. The practice
is where you get perfect.
To help my students I have created an IELTS Vocabulary Notebook.
VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK
Once you download this document you can use it to record and
collect all the vocabulary that you think will help you to answer the
different questions that may come up on the exam. Make sure that
you note the word, the definition, the part of speech, and add an
example sentence.
Try to do all of this in your own words as it will help you to internalize
and remember the vocabulary. Being aware of the part of speech is
important too as students often make mistakes with parts of speech
when they try to use the vocabulary.
The vocabulary notebook is organized into 14 different IELTS

themes that are likely to turn upon the exam. I recommend recording
a minimum of 10 words for each section. These should be words that
you find in authentic texts and that are really unique and help to
boost your vocabulary. Don’t simply add 10 words on the topic. Try to
find 10 words or phrases that really push your vocabulary to the next
level. Additionally, I recommend learning more than this, but 10
words is a good start.
Let’s look at an example. This example was made together with a

student in my live online IELTS writing and speaking class. The
student and I first went over vocabulary related to health and diet
and then she chose a new word that she wanted to record in her
notebook.
You will see below that she marked the part of speech, wrote a
meaning in her own words, created her own example sentence and
then thought of and look for similar and related vocabulary. This is a
fantastic example of a vocabulary notebook entry.
Word: Alleviate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: To relieve pain
Example: Some painkillers alleviate pain very well
Related expressions: take the edge off

Synonyms: relieve, relax, release, decrease, ease
Building vocabulary in this way is a thoughtful process that helps you

to learn the words rather than just memorize them. The next step is
to apply them to the writing and speaking tasks as you prepare for
the IELTS exam as you will learn how to do as we continue.
Chapter Recap
Review the key points from this chapter:
1. You need to be build a strong level of vocabulary across typical

IELTS vocabulary topics
2. You need to know more than just the word but also: part of
speech, meaning, examples, synonyms
3. You should use the vocabulary notebook to collect your IELTS

vocabulary so you can apply it to tasks.
CHAPTER 5
Overview of IELTS Speaking

Tasks
Vocabulary is the building blocks to the IELTS exam. Without the
right vocabulary you won’t achieve your goal.
After you begin to get a sense of what you need to do to get a

strong basis in IELTS vocabulary, you can begin to think about how
you will apply it. It is absolutely essential to know how to apply to it
the productive IELTS tasks (writing and speaking). Let’s quickly do
an overview of the IELTS speaking tasks to get a better
understanding of this part of the exam.
IELTS SPEAKING TASKS
The speaking part of the exam consists of 3 tasks. These tasks test
different aspects of your abilities in English starting with simpler
questions about your daily life and building up to more difficult
discussion questions which reflect higher-order critical thinking skills.
It is crucial for you to know how to respond to each of these question
sets and to have the vocabulary to do so. The speaking exam takes
between 14-15 minutes.
SPEAKING TASK 1
Task one, the Personal Interview, focuses on questions you might
ask and answer when you first meet someone. You can imagine
these are the types of questions you might ask someone at a party
or simple discussion questions on the first day of English class.
These tend to focus on your daily life and work or studies.
As you prepare for this part of the exam you should build your
vocabulary in the following areas: Health and Diet, Work and
Studies, Entertainment, Sports and Leisure, Weather, Travel and
Holidays, and Family and Friends. Expect to speak about 4 minutes
on this part of the exam.
SPEAKING TASK 2
This task is called the Individual Long Turn task. This task takes
about 3-4 minutes in total and you prepare a short 1-2 minute talk on
a prompt. You will have about 1-2 minutes to prepare for this talk and
it is strongly recommended that you take notes and organize a
response in the 1-2 minutes of preparation time that you have. I will
be showing you how to do this in detail as we get to the chapter on
Speaking Task 2.
The topics of this are usually topics related to your own personal
experience and are something that you can spend more time
explaining. They could range from questions like describing an
important possession that you have to talk about your favorite mode
of transportation.
Change is the end result of all true learning.”
-Leo Buscaglia
SPEAKING TASK 3
This task is a Two-Way Discussion that you have with the examiner.
It will take about 4-5 minutes and you will expand upon the topic you
discussed in task 2. These questions are usually representative of
more critical thinking skills type questions and you need to be able to
discuss and give your opinion on a variety of issues within a certain
topic. They might be questions related to a more in-depth discussion
about healthcare and government responsibilities or discussing the
possible reasons for changes in eating habits in your country over
the past 50 years.
Chapter Recap
In this chapter, we did a quick overview of the IELTS speaking tasks.
Speaking Task 1: Personal interview
Speaking Task 2: Long Turn
Speaking Task 3: Two-Way Discussion

CHAPTER SIX
Speaking Task 1
In my opinion, speaking task 1 is the easiest task to prepare for.

You need to first have your vocabulary in place and you can begin
practicing these questions at home. Again, make sure to build a
strong vocabulary on the following topics: Health and Diet, Work and
Studies, Entertainment, Sports and Leisure, Weather, Travel and
Holidays, and Family and Friends. After that begin answering
questions. You can record yourself asking and answering questions
and listen to your responses to try to improve them. If you want to
skip ahead to the end of the book, you will find a reference section
where you can practice IELTS speaking prompts.
BRAINSTORMING
One fun activity that you can do is begin to practice your

brainstorming skills. You can think about typical topics that you might
encounter on the IELTS exam and brainstorm them. Use the
diagrams below to help you think of different topics and then
brainstorm as many questions as you can for each topic. Practice
asking and answering alone or with an IELTS speaking partner. If
you would like to find an IELTS speaking partner, but don’t know
where to start, try listening to my podcast episode on the topic.
PODCAST EPISODE
Where are you from?
What do you do for work or studies?
How long have you been studying English?
Do you think keeping healthy is important?
Is it easy to keep fit where you live?
What types of technology do you use on a daily basis?
Tell me about your family
What do you like to do with your friends in your free time?

Tell me about the last book that you read.
What is the transportation system like in your city?
Review some example questions for Speaking Task 1 above. Notice

how these are questions that you would typically ask someone when
you are getting to know them. I believe the point of this stage of the
exam is to ask you some basic questions that you are comfortable
responding to so that you relax a little and and ease you into the
speaking task.
EXTENDING YOUR RESPONSES
Another area to work on is being able to extend your responses.

Many students respond to questions with answers that are too short.
You need to be able to give a lot of information and details to all of
your responses, even in task 1. Let’s look at an example of a
response that is too short.
Examiner:
Candidate:
Yes it is
When you respond to an IELTS task question, try to give as much

information as possible. Think about all the details that you can add:
who, what, when, where, why, how? Say as much as you can about
each topic without going overboard. Give extra information but keep
it relevant and organized. Let’s look at an example response.
Examiner:
Candidate:
Yes it is, I am lucky to have a walking trail directly outside

my house. It circles a small golf course and is 3 miles
long. I like to go walking on it two or three times a week
and the rest of the time I go swimming in my building or
go to the gym. People in Miami love to keep fit, so it is
part of the lifestyle here.
When you respond to an IELTS task question, try to give as much

information as possible. Think about all the details that you can add:
who, what, when, where, why, how? Say as much as you can about
each topic without going overboard. Give extra information but keep
it relevant and organized.
HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

One handy tool I like to use with my students is using a little
extension chart. This is a great activity to do in preparing your
speaking responses for all tasks (1, 2, and 3). This is something you
can do in the preparation stage and it will ensure that you organize
your ideas, add enough details, and add key IELTS vocabulary. You
can then use the chart to practice asking and answering questions. If
you practice this frequently enough you will be able to do it quickly
and naturally on the day of the exam.
Let’s look at an example. You can see from the below that I’ve
created a small chart which includes the question, short answer, long
answer, and IELTS vocabulary. You can find a bigger version of this
in the IELTS workbook. This will help you organize your response.
The key trick that you need to do is introduction your response with
the short answer or by rephrasing the question as a sentence. Then
you can go into your details.
QUESTION
SHORT ANSWER
Yes, it is.
DETAILS
Walking path, 3 miles, golf course, 2-3 times per week,
swimming pool, gym
IELTS VOCABULARY
Keep fit, go swimming, go to the gym, ease stress, have
more energy, fluctuations in mood and energy
When you organize your responses like this you are able to clearly
see how to respond. Taking notes rather than writing responses out
ensures that you will be able to practice speaking naturally.
KEY VOCABULARY
Highlighting key vocabulary will help you remember it as you

respond and it is more likely that you will be able to recall that
vocabulary on the IELTS exam. You can also see above that I’ve
added more key vocabulary in my response. Let’s add it in and look
at an even more complete response.
Examiner:
Candidate:
Yes it is, I am lucky to have a walking trail directly outside

my house. It circles a small golf course and is 3 miles
long. I like to go walking on it two or three times a week
as it helps me to ease stress and relax. I notice I have
more energy when I walk often. and the rest of the time I
go swimming in my building or go to the gym. It’s
important for me to keep fit because it helps me avoid
fluctuations in mood and energy. People in Miami love to
keep fit, so it is part of the lifestyle here.
You can see that this response is much more detailed and uses a
higher level of vocabulary. This would represent a band score 8
response due to the precise vocabulary and extended response.
IDIOMS
Most languages are full of idioms, which is a set phrase or fixed

expression which has a different or second meaning than the words
in the phrase. An example would be, it’s raining cats and dogs. In
this case, it is not literally raining cats and dogs, it’s simply an idiom
that means it’s raining in a very strong way. The use of idioms is also
something that can help to improve your vocabulary skills when
applied to the speaking tasks on the IELTS speaking part of the
exam.
Idiomatic phrases are common phrases that native speaker use on a

daily basis and the skillful placement of idioms in your speech and
your task responses can help to demonstrate that you are a fluent
speaker of English who is able to demonstrate a precise knowledge
of English vocabulary and is able to use them correctly.
CORRECT USAGE OF IDIOMS
Now the key here is the ability to use idioms correctly and this is both
in meaning as well as grammatical structures. When students first
begin to use idioms they make a few common mistakes. The first
mistake being that use outdated idioms.
Phrases like it’s raining cats and dogs are ok but nowadays people
don’t really use this type of idiom on a regular basis. When you go to
use an idiom you want to use something that native speakers really
use in their daily lives.
A second mistake that students make is that they don’t really

understand the meaning of the idiom or they use it in the wrong
context. I recommend learning only a few idioms at a time and then
trying to apply them to your daily life.
One recommendation is to learn them topically. So if you are

studying vocabulary related to health, try to add a few idioms related
to health as well. Then try to find an opportunity to use them in your
daily life or make sure to apply them to your next speaking practice.
This is a key concept, you need to be putting this new vocabulary
into action.
Definition: Idiom
A set phrase or fixed expression which has a
different or second meaning than the words in the
phrase. Example: it’s raining cats and dogs.
You should be taking the time to do speaking task practice on your
own and as you do it you need to consider which idioms you can use
to respond to your task practice. Then make sure to use one or two
in each practice. This helps to commit them to memory and makes it
more likely that you are able to use them when you need them on
the exam.
The final mistake that students make is they don’t use the idiom in
the correct grammatical structure. For example, if we look at the
idiom it’s raining cats and dogs, we see that it is used in the present
continuous tense. You can’t use it in a simple tense but you can
change the time frame. You can use this tense in the present, past,
or even the future but it needs to be in a continuous tense. For
example you could say, “It’s raining cats and dogs right now, we can’t
go outside to play soccer,” or, “Last night it was raining cats and
dogs and we had to stay in,” or even, “I hope it’s not raining cats and
dogs when we arrive.”
If you use this in a simple tense it will immediately signal that you are
not using the idiom correctly and are therefore not a proficient user
of English.
Now, don’t worry, if in general your grammatical structures are good

and you use a variety of them this won’t affect your score too much.
Some errors are allowed. But if you are making errors with your
grammatical structures as well as vocabulary and word formation
this is something that will bring your score down.
Let’s look at a few key idioms that a native speaker would use.
EXAMPLES OF KEY IDIOMS
Push someone’s button:

Frustrate or annoy someone
Run like a well-oiled machine:

Work together efficiently (a team or company)
Light years ahead:

Very advanced, usually technologically
Pull the plug:

Stop doing something, usually in an immediate and
sudden fashion
It’s not rocket science:

It’s not difficult, it’s something very easy to do
Click with somebody or something:

Connect with a person, notice that you get on well with
someone, or understand something very well to a very
high degree
Run out of steam:
Lose your energy for a project, or a project might dwindle
or falter due to not having enough people invested in it
IDIOMS SPEAKING PRACTICE
Use a few of the idioms (or any others you know) to answer this
speaking prompt
What technological devices do you use

on a regular basis?
SPEAKING TASK 1 PRACTICE
Practice these speaking task questions on the topic of health.
What ways do you try to stay healthy?

What do you think is most important,
eating healthily or doing exercise?
Have you ever had any unhealthy

habits?
Do you think about your health now

more than when you were young?
Do you usually make a new health

resolution for the New Year? If so, what
is it?
By failing to prepare, you are

preparing to fail.
- Benjamin Franklin
Chapter Recap
In this chapter we reviewed:
1. Practicing typical questions for Speaking task 1
2. Extending your responses
3. Using idiomatic language

CHAPTER SEVEN
Speaking Task 2
We have already done an overview of speaking task 2 and in this

chapter, we are going to look at what it takes in order to do well on
speaking task 2. In short, you need to be able to brainstorm skillfully,
organize your ideas, use high-level vocabulary, and express your
ideas in an effective and well-constructed manner. In this speaking
task, you are asked to talk more in-depth about a topic. This could
be any typical topic on the IELTS exam. For example, if the topic is
money and possessions you may be asked to discuss an important
possession in your life. You will receive a task card that will always
follow the same format. There will always be an initial question with
subsequent prompts for you to speak about. These prompts are
extremely useful as they give you a structure for organizing your
ideas.
IELTS SPEAKING TASK 2 EXAMPLE PROMPT
Describe a possession you couldn’t live without. You

should say:
What the object is

Where you got the object
What you use it for
Why it is meaningful to you
For this part of the exam, you have 1-2 minutes to prepare. This is a
unique aspect to this task as you don’t have this time on the rest of
the speaking exam. This is something that you really ought to take
advantage of.
If you want to do this well on this task, you need to be adept

at brainstorming and organizing your ideas quickly.
In order to do this, you actually need to develop this skill, which

means you need to practice. You can’t expect to gloss over this
material and be able to do it well in a short period of time. That
actually isn’t preparing for the exam, it’s just reviewing for the exam.
Preparing for the exam means taking the time to do the work and
practice the prompt time and time again. In order to master this skill,
you need to practice it, regularly. I suggest doing a couple of tasks
per week or a task per day if you don’t have much time to prepare for
the exam. You can use the Activate Your IELTS Extension Activity
(below) or just organize it in your own way. Here is an example on
the next page.
You can use the speaking task templates in the IELTS workbook, or
simply take notes on paper to help you organize your ideas. Make
sure to identify the initial question and the subsequent questions and
separate them. This will help ensure that you address all parts of the
task which focuses on the task achievement part of the marking
criteria.
Once you have done this you can quickly brainstorm your ideas in
the form of keywords or notes. Make sure not to write your ideas out
fully.
You need to be able to speak naturally from your notes and ideas
and you don’t have much time to take notes in your preparation.
Taking good notes is a key area of importance for doing well not only
on the speaking part of the exam but on the writing part of the exam.
Let’s look at an example.
Task 2 Prompt: Describe an object you couldn’t live

without
What the object is: a necklace gold, rose-colored,

delicate, grandmother, never wear it not high-end, family
heirloom
Where you got the object: grandmother after she passed

away, keepsake, remembrance A treasure
What you use it for: decoration don’t wear, jewelry box,

afraid to lose, precious
Why it is meaningful to you: favorite grandparent, very

close, spend quality time, only thing I have, valuable
Looking at the previous example we can see that I have all the
elements of giving a quality response. Using this format not only
ensures that I will discuss all parts of the task but it helps me to do in
an organized way. The only thing I am missing is some high-level
vocabulary.
HIGH LEVEL VOCABULARY
If you want to make sure that you get a 7+ band score or even an 8+
band score you need to be using a variety of high-level vocabulary.
As you prepare for the exam, always take time to review your
vocabulary notebook and see what vocabulary you can add to your
notes. Adding key vocabulary will help you to use it naturally and
boost the lexical resource score in the marking criteria.
Task 2 Prompt: Describe an object you couldn’t live
without
What the object is: a necklace gold, rose-colored,

delicate, grandmother, never wear it not high-end, family
heirloom
Where you got the object: grandmother after she passed

away, keepsake, remembrance A treasure
What you use it for: decoration don’t wear, jewelry box,

afraid to lose, precious
Why it is meaningful to you: favorite grandparent, very

close, spend quality time, only thing I have, valuable
In the previous examp,e, you can see that I added some vocabulary
related to possessions in bold. This not only helps me improve my
vocabulary but it also helps me to expand my responses and gives
me something more thoughtful to say in response to each question.
This meaningful expansion is also something that contributes to a
difference between a 6 band score and a 7+ band score. Let’s look
at the example response below.
I’d like to talk about one particular object that is important

to me and that is a necklace. This isn’t just any necklace,
it’s one that I received from my grandmother. Actually, it
was given to me after she died. It is gold and rose-
colored and extremely delicate. It’s not something high-
end but I consider it to be a family heirloom, it isn’t
something that I ever wear.
I use this more as a keepsake. I got it after she died and
it’s the only thing I have of her. It’s actually a bit of a
treasure for me and I take good care of it. This isn’t
something that I use for more than decoration. I keep it in
my jewelry box as I’m afraid to lose it. It’s very precious,
both in meaning and design.
This necklace is meaningful for me because my

grandmother was very important to me. She was my
favorite grandparent and we were very close. We spent a
lot of quality time together and it’s very valuable to be
because it’s the only thing that I have of hers.
“Look around you … There! Yes, there!! There’s
what you need to succeed.”
-Nick Thaddeus
In this response, I’d like to point out a few things. Firstly, we can see
that it is well-organized and it answers all the questions in the
prompt. You can see that I’ve added the key vocabulary and it helps
to expand the response, giving it more content and a higher lexical
level. But I would also like to point out how I transformed the
questions into statements and then used them to transition to each
question.
This is a trick that I recommend for keeping your responses

organized. This transformed question then begins to function as a
topic sentence and helps lead the listener through your speech and
ensure you will deliver a speech high in cohesion and coherence.
Overall, we can see a well-developed speech that would score high
across all areas of the marking criteria.
DELIVERY
One area that students often struggle with here is delivery. Students
may get so caught up in their notes and ideas that they start to
stumble over what they are trying to say. Taking time to prepare your
responses in your practice will help you improve this skill, but you
also need to practice speaking from notes. I recommend doing this
activity several times and recording yourself.
This will help you to assess all the key areas and make sure that you
have the vocabulary integrated, that it is well organized, that you
have addressed each part of the task as well as help you check your
grammar, your pronunciation and any hesitations in your speech.
You might consider getting a tutor for some feedback or a few

lessons if you are really struggling in this area, but it is also
something that you can do on your own.
Now that you have learned how to organize your ideas, take time to
practice this prompt.
Describe a possession you couldn’t live
without. You should say:
What the object is
Where you got the object
What you use it for
Why it is meaningful to you

Chapter Recap
1. How to brainstorm and organize your response
2. How to add details and examples to your response
3. Factors that may affect your delivery

CHAPTER EIGHT
Speaking Task 3
Speaking task 3 is the final task of the speaking part of the IELTS
exam. This is a two-way discussion between you and the examiner
and takes about 4-5 minutes. This is meant to be an in-depth
discussion expanding on the topic that you had in speaking task 2. It
is expected that you demonstrate high-level critical thinking skills and
are able to discuss a variety of topic in detail. This is one reason I
recommend spending so much time developing your IELTS
vocabulary but you also need to spend time thinking about,
discussing, and writing about critical issues related to those topics.
So for example, it is not enough to simply know vocabulary related to

the theme of the environment. You must also be able to give your
opinion on topics connected to the environment, like climate change
or the role of governments in our approach to climate change. It
helps if you have already worked with some of these ideas, either in
discussion or in writing, and so that you are able to quickly and
easily give an opinion that you are able to extend with details as well
as use key vocabulary.
IELTS SPEAKING TASK 3: The Environment
1. Do you believe that climate change is something we

need to worry about?
2. Do you think that children get enough education about
the environment?
3. What more could governments do to promote

education about environmental protection?
4. Do you think that large companies have a responsibility

to regulate their own carbon footprint?
5. What do you think the world will be like in 20 years?
Look at the above table to see some examples of IELTS speaking

task 3 questions.
Remember, the best way to prepare for these questions is to practice

developing your response, adding key vocabulary as well as adding
details and examples.
This is actually good practice for your writing tasks as you will need
to do the same process with them. The extension activity below
represents the progression of ideas as well as idea development
which is one thing that you are assessed on with the IELTS marking
criteria. Examiners are looking to see that you are able to develop
your ideas completely and that they demonstrate logical progression.
Doing the extension activities outlined in this book will help you to
learn how to do that so that you can demonstrate an effective
response in your IELTS tasks.

-Your opinion:
-Details:
-Examples:
-IELTS Vocabulary:
2. Do you think that children get enough education about

the environment?
-Your opinion:
-Details:
-Examples:
-IELTS Vocabulary:
3. What more could governments do to promote

education about environmental protection?
-Your opinion:
-Details:
-Examples:
-IELTS Vocabulary:
4. Do you think that large companies have a responsibility

to regulate their own carbon footprint?
-Your opinion:
-Details:
-Examples:
-IELTS Vocabulary
5. What do you think the world will be like in 20 years?

-Your opinion:
-Details:
-Examples:
-IELTS Vocabulary
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Being able to answer questions like the type of questions you will
encounter in speaking task 3 often involves being able to use critical
thinking skills.
Critical thinking skills are higher-order thinking skills which allow you
to discuss current affairs and complex topics easily and naturally.
You need to be able to state your opinion and support it with clear
points, details, and examples.
Look at the example brainstorm and then example response below

to see how the speaker was able to give a clear opinion, extend their
response, add details and examples, and use IELTS vocabulary.

-Your opinion: Yes
-Details: Water pollution, deforestation, temps
-Examples: Whale with plastic in belly, Amazon,
Miami/hurricanes
-IELTS Vocabulary: loss of habitat, ozone layer
depletion, eco-friendly, species, rainforest, regulate,
preserve
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Being able to answer questions like the type of questions you will
encounter in speaking task 3 often involves being able to use critical
thinking skills.
Critical thinking skills are higher-order thinking skills which allow you
to discuss current affairs and complex topics easily and naturally.
You need to be able to state your opinion and support it with clear
points, details, and examples.
Look at the example brainstorm and then example response below

to see how the speaker was able to give a clear opinion, extend their
response, add details and examples, and use IELTS vocabulary.

Yes. I do believe that climate change is something we
need to worry about. There are a few things in particular
that I am worried about including water pollution,
deforestation, and rising temperatures around the world.
There is so much plastic in our oceans now that many
species are suffering a loss of habit. There are many
instances of whales being found with tons of plastic in
their bellies also, which shows how much we are polluting
our oceans.
Deforestation is a major problem as well. This will lead to

land degradation as well as loss of rare species that are
potential sources of medicinal cures. Everyone knows the
Amazon is a prime example of this.
Finally, the rising temps around the world are concerning

and seem to be leading to unpredictale and disastrous
weather. I live in Miami and we now have more frequent
and more intense hurricanes.
ANALYSIS
We can see in the example response above that the speaker
demonstrates higher-order thinking skills and that they are able to
discuss critical and current topics easily and fluently. The speaker
presents an organized response which includes ample high-level
IELTS vocabulary and the entire response is well-organized and
developed. The speaker extends each idea with details and an
example.
The ability to explain an idea and then extend it with details and
examples is essential to both writing and speaking tasks on the
IELTS exam. You won’t get a 7+ band score without having this skills
mastered.
Now that you have learned how to organize your ideas, take time to
practice this prompt.
1. Do you believe that climate change is
something we need to worry about?
2. Do you think that children get enough

education about the environment?
3. What more could governments do to

promote education about environmental
protection?
4. Do you think that large companies

have a responsibility to regulate their
own carbon footprint?
5. What do you think the world will be

like in 20 years?
Chapter Recap
1. How to add details and examples to your response
2. How to use critical thinking skills in your response
3. Example responses and analysis

CHAPTER NINE
Common Areas of Difficulty in

Speaking
In the several years of experience that I have teaching English and

in working with students in exam preparation, I have noticed that
each student has their own unique set of challenges when it comes
to the productive skills of speaking and writing. Each student has
their own personal set of strengths and weaknesses and they each
have their individual experience in learning a language. Perhaps
some have had a pretty linear and systematic approach to language
learning, while others have learned it in chunks at different periods of
time being placed in different levels of classes or perhaps not ever
taking a class at all.
This personality + experience equation leads to a variety of personal

challenges when it comes to English and especially when it comes to
speaking and writing skills. Despite this, there are often a few
challenges that I see in particular with students which are important
to address when it comes to preparing for the IELTS exam. Often
there are techniques or tips that students can utilize in order to
improve these areas of weakness so they are better prepared for the
IELTS exam.
Don’t let mental blocks control you. Set yourself
free. Confront your fear and turn the mental
blocks into building blocks.
- Dr. Roopleen
FLUENCY
One major area of difficulty that some students have with speaking is
the delivery of their speech.
This can often be referred to as fluency and can take the form of
things like stuttering, hesitations, long pauses in their speech, or
using fillers like er, um, eh, frequently. All of these are problematic
because they cause difficulty for the listener to follow what is being
said and even impair the listener’s comprehension of actual words,
phrases or sentences.
This difficulty in listener comprehension leads to a lower score on the

IELTS exam because the listener is your examiner. If the examiner
can’t discern the structure of your response, or if they get so
distracted by your frequent pauses and fillers that they can’t follow
what you are saying, then that isn’t a good thing. Sometimes
students have slower speech which causes a similar problem. Long
gaps in speech mean that your response is having fundamental
problems in structure and content and will affect your fluency and
coherence score. So what can you do? Well, I have a few
suggestions and solutions for you.
ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE FLUENCY
If you are struggling with delivery, then the first thing you need to do
is become aware of what you are doing. A lot of students aren’t
aware that they have long pauses, speak slowly, or use a lot of fillers
in their speech. Let’s review a few activities below that you can do to
practice and improve your fluency.
SPEAKING GAMES
One of the best things you can do is practice speaking in a natural
way through English speaking board games. These are the exact
activities that English teachers will be using in class to get you to
practice certain targeted grammar points. So if a teacher wants you
to practice past tenses he or she will put together a speaking game
for you to practice these tenses. One thing that you can do is simply
look online to find speaking games that you can use to practice on
your own. If you have a partner, either in real life or online, it’s even
better because you can play the games together. This will help you
talk about different topics in a natural way and will be a fun way to
practice with a partner. In my podcast, I did an entire episode on
speaking games. I highly recommend that you review it. You can
access it below.
PODCAST EPISODE
PRACTICE PROMPTS
Another task that you should be doing every day is doing practice
speaking prompts. There are practice speaking prompts in this book
you can use and you can also find tons of prompts online.
Depending on how much time you have, you should do one prompt
per day or per week. Take care to structure your response, take
notes, add keywords and then spend time practicing. You can
practice in front of the mirror or even in the car on the way home
from work. Make sure that you don’t read and that you simply note
down your ideas.
Learning another language is like becoming

another person. –Haruki Murakami
If you struggle with knowing what to say, this will serve as a guide to
keep you going. If you struggle with knowing when to stop, this will
help you organize your ideas and stay structured. If you struggle with
academic or IELTS vocabulary, this will ensure you know how to add
key vocabulary.
RECORDING YOURSELF
One fantastic activity that you can do is to record yourself. You

should spend time preparing for a prompt response and then record
yourself. As you play it back you will want to review all the areas of
the marking criteria. You should be asking yourself if the response is
structured, if your ideas are well-developed, if you are using key
vocabulary, and what type of grammar are you using. Try to notice if
you are using both simple and complex tenses and what types of
errors you are making. You can also listen for your own delivery, are
there a lot of pauses and hesitations? You can even count them.
How many times do you say, er, um eh? How long is it taking you to
complete the prompt? How long are your pauses? How is your
intonation? What kinds of pronunciation errors are you making? I
know this might sound a little difficult, but just taking the time to
actually listen to and analyze yourself is going to help you improve
and make you more aware of the types of errors you are making the
different ways that you need to improve.
PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation is another common area of difficulty in speaking for

students. One reason this is problematic is that students may not
realize they are mispronouncing words in English. They may simply
not know or they may not actually hear the differences in English
pronunciation. An example of the would be the /b/ phoneme and the
/v/ phoneme for Spanish speakers in Spain.
Where I lived in Spain, many students struggled with these two

sounds because they only had one sound for it in Spanish. The
sound was actually like a combination of the two together, whereas
in English we have two distinct sounds. In English, we pronounce the
/b/ as a bilabial sound meaning we use both of our lips. Our lips
come together and we breathe out, or aspirate, the sound /b/. The
/v/ sound is not bilabial in English.
In fact, we kind of bite our lower lip as

we say and we tend to use a stronger
aspiration or breathe so that it vibrates
more when we say it.
So, we can see that the difference is clear to an English speaker, but
to many Spanish speakers, it is a struggle to even hear the
difference much less use it accurately when speaking. So this is a
perfect example of two sounds that are difficult for the second
language speaker to identify and to use, and this shows us how
pronunciation can be a real struggle for learners. Not to mention the
fact that even if you do identify your areas of difficulty, you now have
to learn how to change the movements of your mouth, tongue, teeth,
and even throat with certain sounds and then apply it to actual
speech. This can be very difficult.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PRONUNCIATION
So what can you do to improve this area of difficulty for you? The
first thing to do is to get a good idea of what you may be struggling
with and to get a more objective view of typical errors that people in
your language have when they speak English. There are a lot of
resources on the internet that can help you with this. You should do
a quick google search for, “Pronunciation errors for Spanish (your
language) speakers of English.”
From that search, you should get a plethora of different resources to
help you out. There are actually quite a few lists that identify typical
errors in a variety of first languages. A list like this will get you started
and you can then review each point carefully and do exercises to try
to improve them.
MINIMAL PAIRS
One typical teacher trick is to use minimal pairs in helping you to

improve your pronunciation. Minimal pairs are the identification of
two phonemes that are troublesome for many speakers, like the /b/
and /v/ phonemes above.
Minimal pairs typically have a variety of exercises that help you to

practice saying these sounds in different words or phrases and are
designed to target typical areas of difficulty with those sounds.
It’s really a great linguistic exercise that you can do to help you pay
attention to those sounds and their uses. A minimal pair exercise
might look like this:
/b/ /v/
Bale Vale
Berry Very
Bow Vow
You can see how you can practice the different sounds with similar
words which allows you to really target the differences in the sound
and practice using them. Books that use minimal pairs often have a
variety of listening and speaking exercises with them. I have some
helpful pronunciation books that can help you with this on my
Recommended Resources page on my website.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
TONGUE TWISTERS
Tongue twisters are a super fun way to practice tricky sounds for you
in English. You can usually find a tongue twister based on the
minimal pairs you are struggling with as well. For example, I
searched, “tongue twisters to practice /b/ /v/ sounds,” and came up
with quite a few. If you don’t know what a tongue twister is, this is a
funny sentence or phrase which doesn’t usually make any sense but
plays on tricky sounds of a language. I’m sure there are lots of fun
ones in your language as well. A one that English speakers play with
is:
Sally sells seashells by the seashore
Try saying that one a really fast a few times. The /s/ and /sh/ sound
combinations are also tricky for a native speaker. But you don’t
actually have to practice saying them quickly at first, the objective for
you is to simply practice saying them. You can speed it up as soon
as you get good at it, but I want you to practice identifying the
sounds and saying them in a sentence. Here is one that I made up to
practice the /b/ /v/ sounds in English.
Billy and Vinny got in their VW and vroomed all over town,
buying vile bugs to bother their brother with. Above all, they
had to improve their very bad basketball skills by viewing
videos before bed.
You can see that it doesn’t make sense but it is a great sentence to
practice those sounds if they are difficult for you. There are a lot of
free resources online including websites and YouTube videos where
you can hear the sounds and find tongue twisters for practicing
them.
READING ALOUD
Another tactic I like to do with my own pronunciation practice in my

second language is simply reading out loud. Whether you are
reading a book, song lyrics, or a news article, this is a great style of
practice. This will help you become fluent as you read but it will also
force you to get used to saying sounds and adjusting to different
combinations and arrangements of sounds.
You may say things a certain way when you use English, but it may
surprise you to hear and practice a native style of speaking or using
words. You will find combinations, phrases, and sentence structures
that you may not ever have put together on your own and you will
find that they may be difficult to say as you put them together. This is
a fantastic practice for paying attention to the sounds as you make
them and practicing them in a variety of ways.
SINGING SONGS
Singing songs is probably the most fun way of practicing your

pronunciation. I recommend finding a few favorite songs in English
and then spend time breaking down the lyrics. This will help with
your listening comprehension and your grammar as well as you will
learn more colloquial language that you might not have heard of
before. Take the time to review the lyrics, look for new words or
phrases, and then practice saying them.
When you are ready you can try to sing along, and you will end up
feeling amazing because you will start to feel that you are really
learning a second language. I always sing along in my car and
imagine that anyone passing by can or will hear me and think how
great I am for knowing a second language. I know it’s funny and silly
but it’s true, you are going to feel pretty awesome doing it, so go for
it!
Chapter Recap
1. How to improve your fluency: speaking games
2. How to improve your pronunciation: tongue twisters and minimal

pairs
3. EOther useful techniques

CHAPTER 10
Overview of IELTS Writing Task

2: The Academic Essay
Writing task 2 is important for everyone who is taking the IELTS
exam, whether you are taking general training or academic
training.
We can now move on to writing task 2, the academic essay. This

is one of my favorite areas to work on with students. It’s a difficult
skill to learn but with a few tips and strategies, students can easily
transform their writing. The first thing that you need to be aware of is
that this is a formal essay. That means you need to follow the 5-
paragraph formal essay format that we use for academic essays in
English. In reality, your essay can be as few as 4 paragraphs but you
still need to follow the standard structure which includes an
introduction, two or three main body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
One mistake that I see frequently, is that students don’t create
separate paragraphs or they are missing elements of this structure.
This will automatically lead to a score of less than 6.5 on the IELTS
exam, so it’s important that you understand this structure. The goal
of this book is to show you how to effectively utilize this structure.
PARAGRAPHS
Another area that I see students struggle with, is how to create a

paragraph in English. Paragraphs should be between 5 and 7
sentences and introduction and conclusion paragraphs can be a bit
less, I would recommend about 4 sentences for those paragraphs.
Never do less than these guidelines, and there typically isn’t a
reason to do too much more either.
Less than this shows that your paragraph and your ideas are not
well-developed. Considerably more than these numbers show that
your ideas are also likely to be disorganized and more a collection of
ideas that don’t connect to each other. Paragraphs also need to have
a topic sentence, supporting sentences and some type of concluding
sentence, but we will get into those details later.
The writing process is a useful process that many students do not

take advantage of. In my experience, I have the general feeling that
students just look at a prompt and sit down and write but do little to
no preparation before they write.
This is a mistake that will result in a disorganized and ineffective

essay which is not likely to get the band score that you are hoping
for.
Students need to understand the writing process and use it in their
preparation so that they are able to swiftly and effectively write an
essay, within the time constraints, on exam day. The writing process
steps include: brainstorming, outlining, writing the first draft, revising,
and writing the final draft. All of these steps are essential in your
preparation, however on exam day you will do only
brainstorming/outlining, writing, and revision as you work. If you have
practiced these separate steps enough you will be able to do them
within the time limits of the exam. But do not expect to be able to do
this without practice and preparation.
Chapter Recap
1. Paragraph structure
2. The writing process

CHAPTER 11
Brainstorming and Outlining

An essential step to a well-developed essay
Brainstorming is the first step to the writing process and in my

opinion the most essential step. This sets the stage for having clear
and well-developed ideas that are supported with details and show
clear and logical progression. The idea of brainstorming is that you
take about 4-5 minutes, not more and not too much less than that
and spend time generating ideas related to the prompt.
Organizing is what you do before you do

something, so that when you do it, it is not all
mixed up.
-A.A. Milne
You must ensure that you address all parts of the prompt and as you
generate ideas you should write them down and take notes. You will
have access to paper and you should bring your own pens or
pencils. Make sure to spend that time writing down 3-4 ideas that
you could write about in the essay. After you have your three or four
ideas you should also try to extend them with details and examples.
After you finish you can look at the results and choose the two ideas
that you are able to support the most. For each idea, you should
have a few supporting details and at least one clear example. If you
are able to do this then you have just set the stage for writing a clear,
well-organized, and coherent essay. Don’t skimp on this step, if you
don’t do it, it is likely you will forget what you are writing about and
you will not have the details and examples to write it readily.
Many students are afraid of wasting time on this step but in fact,
when you do it well, it will help you to actually save time on the
exam. I have used this technique myself at university and was
always able to write a quick and effective essay that got high marks.
Let’s look at an example to understand the brainstorming process

more clearly. Let’s use the prompt below and then brainstorm some
ideas related to that prompt.
Writing Task 2 Example Prompt
Humans have had a negative impact

on the environment. Do you agree or
disagree?
Support your response with details

and examples
You can see in the next example that responded to the prompt by
brainstorming ideas. Note that I generated a minimum of two ideas
that I could talk about. In this case, the negative impact on oceans
and the negative impact on the air. I keep these separate and then
add supporting details and examples for each one. These serve to
support my ideas and ground them for the reader. They make the
reader believe what I am trying to say. I then use a clear example in
order to help illustrate the idea and make it more clear for the reader.
I also try to note any key vocabulary that I can use to write my essay
with.
BRAINSTORM OUTLINE EXTENSION ACTIVITY

OUTLINING
Outlining is an essential skill to doing well on the IELTS writing part

of the exam. This is something that you should do in preparation
only, you won’t have time on the actual exam day to do it. But doing
it during your preparation periods is going to help you understand the
structure needed to organize your ideas effectively and to ensure
that you apply all parts of the prompt into your essay response.
THE WRITING PROCESS STEP 2
This is the second step in the writing process and should be done
after you have generated your ideas in brainstorming. You will need
to first organize your brainstorm into main ideas and details and
complete it in the outline chart. The outline consists of three parts.
The Introduction
Main Body Paragraphs (2)
The Conclusion
What you first need to focus on is translating the ideas you

generated from your brainstorm into your main body paragraphs.
From there you can work out your introduction and conclusion.
Repeating this process several times is going to help you learn how
to do the process quickly on exam day. Take a look at the example
on the next page of a typical essay outline for IELTS.
After you brainstorm you should then begin to move your ideas onto
a template like the one above. This will help you organize your ideas
and make sure that you have all the essential parts needed for a
really great essay.
ESSAY OUTLINE
Chapter Recap
In this chapter we reviewed these concepts:
1. The importance of brainstorming as a means of generating ideas

and setting yourself up for a well-developed essay.
2. Outlining can help you organize your ideas.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Main Ideas and Details
Now that you know how to complete an outline for an IELTS essay
and you are beginning to get a strong understanding of how the
structure needs to be for an academic essay, we can begin to talk
about how to fill in the parts of the outline. The outline is meant to be
a guide that you can use to plug in your ideas from your brainstorm.
It will start to add structure and from the outline, you can easily write
your essay. This will cut down on the time needed to write the essay
and ensure that you will complete the essay within the 40 allotted
minutes. On the actual exam day, you should already be so good at
this that you are able to brainstorm your ideas directly into an outline
format and then you won’t waste time working on the outline. But for
now, in your preparation, you need to master this process so I highly
encourage taking the time to do so.
MAIN IDEAS
The main ideas are the two ideas you completed with your
brainstorm. Each one represents a different paragraph and will
constitute the topic of each paragraph. It’s important to make sure to
keep these ideas organized and in separate paragraphs so that you
are able to present a well-organized essay that isn’t messy or
confusing. Confirm that you are keeping each main idea separate
from the other one.
TOPIC SENTENCE
You will need a topic sentence to represent each idea. A topic
sentence is simply a general statement sentence which introduces
the idea of your topic. It’s going to be a statement that introduces
your topic for this paragraph and later will help you to write your
thesis statement. Let’s look at the first idea we brainstormed earlier
and see what type of topic sentence we can write for it. Review the
example below.
TOPIC SENTENCE EXAMPLES
Let’s look at an example of a topic sentence below. Notice that it is a

general statement that introduces the idea of the topic. In the first
idea of our brainstorm we are talking about the impact to oceans. So
we need a general statement that introduces us to the idea of the
negative impact that humans have had on oceans.
To begin with, human actions have had an extremely

negative impact on our oceans. Not only do people make
frequent and catastrophic mistakes like oil spills but they
also throw trash in the ocean which pollutes it at a highly
accelerated rate.
Here I actually have two topic sentences. The first one is just fine on
its own. The second one expands it and adds an overview of my
main points for this paragraph. I could combine them and simplify
them to make one topic sentence. It might look like the following.

negative impact on our oceans making frequent and
catastrophic mistakes like oil spills and throwing trash in
the ocean.
DETAILS
When it comes to details we need to remember that these are

specific as opposed to the general statement in the topic sentence.
We always go from general to specific in English. So we have a
general topic sentence and then go into the more specific details.
These sentences follow the topic sentence and they are specific and
detailed. They give clear information which supports the topic
sentence and it is a good idea to ground it with an example that
illustrates what you are saying. Let’s look at a completed example
paragraph for the first idea above.

also throw trash in the ocean which pollutes it at a highly
accelerated rate. Oil spills release fossil fuels into our
water and threaten the marine environment by acidifying
the waters which can make it toxic for the animals that
live there. Trash in the ocean often accumulates because
it doesn’t biodegrade. Single-use plastic is a disastrous
example of typical trash in the ocean. Not only will it
never break down, but marine life gets caught or tangled
up in it, causing unnecessary suffering and death. One
particular example of this is trash island, which is an
island of accumulated trash, the size of France, in the
middle of the ocean. It’s evident and urgent that humans
recognize their impact on our oceans.
We can see that the above example has all the elements we have
discussed. It includes a topic sentence, clear supporting detail
sentences, an example sentence and even a concluding sentence
which signals the end of the paragraph. Look at the example below
to see the highlighted areas.
(Topic Sentence) To begin with, human actions have had

an extremely negative impact on our oceans. Not only do
people make frequent and catastrophic mistakes like oil
spills but they also throw trash in the ocean which
pollutes it at a highly accelerated rate.
(Supporting Detail 1) Oil spills release fossil fuels into our

it doesn’t biodegrade.
(Supporting Detail 2) Single-use plastic is a disastrous

up in it, causing unnecessary suffering and death.
(Example) One particular example of this is trash island,

which is an island of accumulated trash, the size of
France, in the middle of the ocean.
(Concluding Sentence) It’s evident and urgent that
humans recognize their impact on our oceans.
This is the pattern that you should follow for your main body
paragraphs. Note that the paragraph is several sentences long and
is never less than 5 sentences. It should have a topic sentence, a
minimum of two supporting details, one example, and a concluding
sentence.
VOCABULARY REVIEW
Take a minute to review the paragraph below with special reference

to vocabulary and the different types of vocabulary we can see in the
paragraph. I’ve highlighted transition vocabulary in pink, academic
vocabulary in black, and IELTS vocabulary in purple.
also throw trash in the ocean which pollute it at a highly
accelerated rate. Oil spills release fossil fuels into our
it doesn’t biodegrade. Single-use plastic is a disastrous
up in it, causing unnecessary suffering and death. One
particular example of this is trash island, which is an
island of accumulated trash, the size of France, in the
middle of the ocean. It’s evident and urgent that humans
recognize their impact on our oceans.
MAIN IDEA & DETAIL PRACTICE
Choose one of the brainstorm main ideas from this chapter and write
a practice main idea paragraph. Include a topic sentence, supporting
details, an example, and a concluding sentence.
Chapter Recap
1. Main ideas and details contribute to an effective essay.
2. Writing a topic sentence introduces your main points.
3. You need to follow a general-specific pattern in writing your main

body paragraphs
4. You need to include a main idea, supporting details and an

example
5. Remember to add key vocabulary as you write

CHAPTER 13
Writing and Amazing

Introduction
Write the introduction after you know what you want it to say,
make it memorable and make it grab the attention of the
examiner
Writing an effective introductions is really an essential step to

getting a 7+ IELTS band score in writing. Many students don’t even
include an introduction when they are writing and this is a sure way
to get below a 7+ band score. You need to make sure that you have
an appropriate structure and this should follow the 5-paragraph
academic essay format that we have discussed already in our
chapter on outlining. An introduction will have 3 main parts: a hook,
background information, and a thesis statement.
THESIS STATEMENT
Thesis statements are a key way to organize your ideas for the
reader and to give them a sense of how your essay will be
organized. This is composed of a topic + a claim. The topic refers to
the topic of the essay prompt and the claim refers to what exactly
you want to say about it, what your essay is going to set out to
prove.
If we use the essay prompt, “Humans have had a negative impact on
the environment,” we have said that we agree with this topic and we
will now set out to prove it. So our topic is “humans have had a
negative impact on the environment” and our claim is that “they have
impacted the ocean and our air.” Remember that our main body
paragraphs will then support our claim with evidence and details.
That’s why it’s so essential that we develop those well. Let’s look at
an example of a thesis statement.
EXAMPLE
THESIS: In my opinion, humans have gravely impacted

the planet, principally affecting both our ocean and our air
environments.
HOOKS
After we have identified our thesis statement we can create our

hook. This will actually be the first part of the introductory paragraph,
followed by background information, and finally the thesis. A hook is
a way to get your reader interested and engaged in the content.
There are many different types of hooks that you can use including
interesting questions, statistics, quotes, a short story, or a special
insight into the topic.
Remember for the exam you don’t really need to give actual facts
and statistics if you can’t remember anything you can just make up
some numerical statistic. What is important is that it is directly
connected to your thesis. This should lead into your thesis and
shouldn’t be on another topic. Students often make the mistake of
adding a random quote on the same topic without looking to see if it
is directly connected with the content of the thesis. Verify that
everything is related to each other. Here are a few examples of
hooks.
A QUESTION
Have you every calculated your carbon footprint?
A FACT
100,000 marine creatures die per year due to plastic

entanglement.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This is the final stage of the introduction paragraph although it is the

middle sentence directly after the hook. This services to fill in the
gaps between the hook and thesis and gives extra information that
the reader needs in order to understand the topic more. This is
general information and doesn’t add any new information. Different
types of background information are: a definition, a history, time or
place, or any other information that you think is essential to
understanding the topic. Let’s look at two examples.
OTHER
HOOK: 100,000 marine creatures die per year due to

plastic entanglement.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The impact of ocean
pollution can last decades as it takes that long to break
down.
A SHORT HISTORY
HOOK: Did you know that American companies use

enough paper to circle the Earth 3 times?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: It was originally

invented as a tool for communication.
COMPLETED INTRODUCTION
After we have created these three parts we can put them together
into an effective introduction. We are likely to have to adapt the
phrasing a bit so make sure to revise your work as you prepare.
Remember the order is: hook, background information, and the
thesis. Here is an example of a completed introduction.
A SHORT HISTORY
HOOK: Did you know that American companies use

enough paper to circle the Earth 3 times?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: It was originally

invented as a tool for communication.
THESIS: I agree that humans have gravely impacted our
Earth for several hundreds of years, and this essay will
demonstrate how people have polluted both our air and
our oceans over time.
COMPLETED INTRODUCTION
Let’s look at an example of the paragraph written out. You can see
how I have expanded each part and added details to make it more
developed and easier for the reader to understand. Essentially, I’ve
filed it out to explain it a bit more.
Did you know that American companies use enough

paper to circle the Earth 3 times? It was initially invented
as a tool for communication, but has contributed to
deforestation. The companies that process this paper
release toxic fumes and emissions into our environment. I
agree that humans have gravely impacted our planet for
several hundreds of years, and this essay will
demonstrate how people have polluted both our air and
our oceans over time.
INTRODUCTION PRACTICE
Practice writing an introduction for the prompt we have been working

with. Include a hook, background information and a thesis statement.
on the environment.
Do you agree or disagree? Support

your response with details and
examples
Chapter Recap
1. Writing a thesis statement includes knowing your topic and your

claim.
2. You need to include a hook, background information and a thesis

statement.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
How to Write a Conclusion with

Impact
Conclusions do just what they say they do, they conclude our
arguments and wrap them up nicely so that we feel there is finality to
what we have read and there are no loose or open ideas or ends. In
order to do this effectively, we must also have three parts: a
restatement of the thesis, an overview of the main points, and a final
thought. A conclusion can be as short as 3 sentences or as long as 5
sentences. What is certain is that you must have a conclusion in
order to get a 7+ band score.
RESTATEMENT OF THESIS
In order to do this well, you have to be really good at paraphrasing.

That means you need to understand how to use synonyms and how
to say the same idea in a different way. You’ll need to look at your
thesis and use different words to say the same thing that you said
before.
SUMMARIZE MAIN POINTS
Next, you will need to use your paraphrasing skills to summarize

your main ideas. Here you will need to review your main points and
say them again in a slightly different way. The key here is to use
different words but say the same thing. It needs to not be repetitive
but it should be simple,
FINAL THOUGHT
You should end with a final thought. This could be a: call to action, a
prediction, a suggestion, or a hope or a wish. Let’s look at an
example of a final thought below.
CALL TO ACTION
We could dramatically improve the climate if everyone

took a minute to calculate their own carbon footprint and
make changes accordingling
COMPLETED CONCLUSION
You can then put all the parts together to make an effective
conclusion. Remember, the key to doing this well is paraphrasing.
Don’t just repeat the thesis and the main points with exactly the
same words as the rest of your essay. That would be too repetitive.
Your challenge here, is to write the same ideas in a different way and
with different vocabulary. You can see how I have managed to do
that below. I express all the same ideas, but in a slightly different
way.
THESIS: The effect that humans have had on our

environment is dire.
MAIN POINTS: Not only have we fundamentally changed

the health of our oceans, but we may have irreversibly
damaged our air quality.
FINAL THOUGHT: If our approach doesn’t change in the

next ten. years, we will have irreparable damage to our
Earth.
COMPLETED CONCLUSION
The effect that humans have had on our environment is

dire. Not only have we fundamentally changed the health
of our oceans, but we may have irreversibly damaged our
air quality. If our approach doesn’t change in the next ten.
years, we will have irreparable damage to our Earth.
CONCLUSION PRACTICE
Practice writing an conclusion for the prompt we have been working

with. Include a restatement of your thesis, main ideas and add a final
thought.

on the environment.

examples
ESSAY 1 PRACTICE
Write a complete essay for the prompt below.

on the environment.

examples
Chapter Recap
1. Develop a key final thought
2. You need to learn how to paraphrase your ideas.
3. Restate your thesis, main points, and a final thought.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Different Types of Essay Prompts
In this book, I’ve shown you how to write an opinion essay,

otherwise known as an essay that answers the agree/disagree
prompt. I’ve chosen to do this because it is an easy way to become
familiar with the model for writing an essay. But, it is important to be
aware of the other prompts you might encounter on the IELTS exam
in Writing Task 2. You need to be aware of what the prompt it and
how you will need to answer it. So let’s review the different prompt
types below.
This is the prompt type we’ve discussed thoroughly in this book. You
will need to choose one side and defend your position, supporting it
with details and examples. I don’t recommend taking both sides and
giving your opinion at the end. I think that would be taking a risk in
achieving the score you want in task achievement. You need to
choose one side and give reasons that are clear and well-supported
so that the reader can understand your perspective and perhaps
believe your stance. You should use the following structure.
Introduction
Main point 1
Main point 2
Main point 3 (optional)
Conclusion
SAMPLE PROMPT
Many people claim that people who control the media,

also control the way news is covered. This affects how
information is given and what attitudes and opinions are
expressed.
Support your ideas with details and examples.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
This is the prompt that you should respond to by taking a careful look
at both sides. As you brainstorm, think about the different
advantages you can discuss and the different disadvantages. Then
organize them in separate paragraphs as you can see below.
Introduction
Advantages
Disadvantages
Personal Opinion (optional)
Conclusion
SAMPLE PROMPT
Many people believe they would like to be famous,

without considering the consequences. What do you think
would be the advantages and disadvantages of being a
celebrity? Support your ideas with details and examples.

PROBLEM AND SOLUTION
This type of prompt is similar to the last prompt in that you need to
clearly organize your ideas into two distinct areas. First, you will
need to brainstorm problems and next you will need to brainstorm
solutions. Then you organize your response like the outline below.
Introduction
Problem
Solution
Second Solution (optional)
Conclusion
SAMPLE PROMPT
Currently the topic of, “fake news,” is controversial. What

do you think has contributed to the problem of fake news,
and what do you think the solution would be?
TWO PART QUESTION
This is similar to the previous prompt styles in that you also need to
divide your response into two distinct categories. This one is
essential to consider carefully and make sure that you address both
parts of the prompt. If you don’t, you will not qualify for a band score
of 7+. This is easily overlooked as students tend to blend the two
questions, but treat them as separate aspects and brainstorm each
part carefully. Brainstorm question 1 and brainstorm question 2 then
organize as below.
Introduction
Question 1
Question 2
Additional details (optional)
Conclusion
SAMPLE PROMPT
Advertising often affects our decision to buy a product.

Do you think that we buy too many things that we don’t
need? Does advertising have a negative or positive effect
on our lives?
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; Show me the

glint of light on broken glass.
-Anton Chekhov
A NOTE ABOUT ESSAY STRUCTURE
Many students want to know if they should write a 4 paragraph

essay or a 5 paragraph essay. The 5 paragraph essay format is the
most popular academic essay format for universities and educational
settings. But on the IELTS exam, you run the risk of running out of
time and writing more than you need if you write a 5 paragraph
essay. Due to this reason, you can see that the third main body
paragraph in the examples above show that they are optional. If you
are able to do is concisely in the time given, go for it. But, if you are
worried about time, or losing cohesion of your thoughts, just skip it.
ESSAY 2 PRACTICE
Choose one of the essay prompts from this chapter and write a
practice essay. (Advantage/Disadvantage, Problem/Solution, Two-
Part Discussion)
Chapter Recap
1. You need to understand how to do different essay prompts.
2. Advantage/Disadvantage, Problem-Solution Essay, Opinion

Essay, 2 Part Question Essay
CHAPTER 16
A Few Important Notes About

Writing
In my experience, these are some points that students neglect
when they are writing. It’s worth getting these right.
I wanted to take the time to point out some key areas that I see
students making errors with on a regular basis in my classes. I see
these errors so frequently, that it made sense to discuss them all in
one place so that students could use this as a guide or a reference.
It’s difficult and time-consuming to always be looking for links and
information about these topics, so I wanted to address them here for
you.
CAPITALIZATION
Capitalization is an interesting topic in writing. Ok, it may not be that

interesting to you but it is to me. This is because capitalization rules
vary across languages, so when I assess student writing I often see
patterns of errors. Errors seem to come from a combination of first
language influence as well as the level of experience and time in
studying English. So in other words, how you capitalize in your first
Language affects how you capitalize in your second language unless
you have really reviewed the rules in English class before.
This actually true to some extent to all errors that students make.
Errors often come from a combination of first language influence,
time spent studying English and time spent practicing. But to me,
errors with capitalization really stand out and this is because if you
are making errors with capitalization, these errors really seem to
scream off the page and it immediately makes the reader feel that it
has been written by something with little experience in English. So,
in one sense it really affects your IELTS band score, you can’t have
too many capitalization errors and still get a 7+ band score. It’s worth
spending the time to review the uses and practice using them in your
writing. Let’s have a look at the rules.
THE RULES
Review the rules below and compare them with your first language.
How are they similar? How are they different? What will you
specifically need to remember as you write?
The First Word of a Sentence

This is an easy one to remember, when you start a new sentence
you will always need to capitalize the first letter.
The water was very clear
Titles
You will need to capitalize when you are referring to the title of
something. This could be a movie, a TV series, a book, songs,
events, or a course.
The IELTS Writing and Speaking Course (course)

The Shape of Water (movie)
Wild Horses (song)
Names and Proper Nouns

Students often make this mistake. I see students forgetting to
capitalize I, or the name of a city or country, planet, or the name of a
person.
I
New York
Mars
Sharon
Time Periods and Events

We also have to remember to capitalize on time periods and events.
Think of them as like official moments in history.
The Cold War

The Middle Ages
The Industrial Revolution
Geographical Regions
Geographical regions are important to consider with capitalization as
well. You need to capitalize cities, countries, states, regions, seas,
oceans, mountains, lakes, mountain ranges, etc.
London
England
Florida
South East Asia
The Mediterranean Sea
The Indian Ocean
Mount Ranier
Lake Victoria
The Rocky Mountains
Nationalities and Languages

This is connected to countries as well. We need to capitalize both
nationalities and languages. Pay attention to this, as this is an
example of one rule that is not followed in every language.
American
Singaporean
Indonesian
Italian
English
Malay
Spanish
Italian
Religions
You also need to capitalize religions.
Islam
Judaism
Christianity
Buddhism
Hinduism
Animism
Months, Days of the Week, Holidays

Don’t forget about months, days of the week and holidays.
April
June
July
Monday
Tuesday
Christmas
Ramadan
We Don’t Capitalize
Be careful as we don’t capitalize after colons, and we don’t capitalize
seasons (unless it is part of a title)
She studied for a long time to move abroad: she moved to Russia.
winter, spring, fall
CAPITALIZATION PRACTICE
Practice using these structures with the writing task below. Write a
complete paragraph responding to the prompt.
Prompt:
Do you think people spend too much

money on technology, why or why not?
COMMAS
I’ve noticed that commas can be really tricky for students. Like
capitalization, this is a frequent error that I associate especially with
certain first languages. Remember, the comma rules in your first
language might not be the same in your second language, so it’s
worth spending the time to review the rules and then assess your
own writing to see if you are using commas correctly.
The Rules
In order to understand how to use commas, you need to have an
understanding of dependent and independent clauses. Independent
clauses are sentence fragments that can stand alone, they don’t
need anything else. An example would be, “the cat likes her food.” A
dependent clause would be a sentence fragment that doesn’t stand
alone, it needs more to be a complete sentence. An example would
be, “crying for it every morning.” That second sentence isn’t a
complete sentence without the first clause, together they make a
complete sentence. “The cat likes her food, crying for it every
morning.”
Dependent and Independent Clauses

Just like we saw in the example above, we can use a comma to
separate dependent and independent clauses. Look at another
example below.
If we put food outside, the birds will come.
Two Independent Clauses
We can use a comma to separate two independent clauses but you

also need to use a conjunction like and, but, so, when, etc. I love
going to the movies, but I can’t stand watching horror films.
In the example above, both of those sentence fragments can stand

alone, so we need to separate them with a comma and use a
conjunction word.
Relative Clauses
We use commas with relative clauses. We can use them to add extra
information or to clarify something. When we use it to add extra
information, we separate this fragment with two commas.
The girl, who was Russian, started class in June.

The girl who is sitting at the table is Russian.
Quotations
We use commas to separate quotations and indicate that they are
approaching.
After school, I talked to Brenda and she said, “I think the test will be
really hard.”
Series or Lists
Use commas to separate a series of items or a list of things, this will
be used with more than two words.
I need to go to the store to get apples, oranges, and bananas.
Cities, States, Countries

Think of this in relation to addresses. You should use commas to
separate the city from the state/province or the state/province from
the country.
Madrid, Spain
Dates, Titles, Number

We use them with dates, to separate titles as well as with numbers.
July 15, 1998

Janet Rodrigues, MD.
3,400
340,000
COMMA PRACTICE
Practice using commas with the writing task below. Write a complete
paragraph responding to the prompt.
Prompt:
Do you think that modern lifestyles are

healthy? Why or why not?
WORD FORMATION
Word formation is one of my favorite areas to teach and it’s one of

the most common areas where students get stuck with vocabulary.
Students often misguidedly think that they the only thing they need to
do is learn new vocabulary. But learning a new set of words is just
the first step to being able to use it accurately on the exam.
Remember, an examiner is looking for you to be able to use
uncommon lexical items in a precise way. So you need to have a
strong vocabulary on a variety of topics and you need to understand
the meaning of a word and how to use it in a variety of sentence
types.
MEANING
After you learn a new keyword, you need to make sure you
understand the meaning. This can be a little tricky as you may
understand the meaning but you may not understand that it’s not a
commonly used word in English, or that a different word with a more
precise meaning would be better for a sentence you are
constructing.
This happens with students all the time, in that they try to use a new
word but it just feels off to the reader because it’s not used in the
right context or with the right meaning. I saw this recently with a
student’s writing where they used a word, which indeed was easy to
find online, but which was better suited to a medical context rather
than an academic context. While it was a health-related word, it was
a word that doctors use in technical medical reports, not a word that
would be used on the IELTS exam. So what is the solution to this?
The only thing I can say is to get as familiar with English as you can.
If you aren’t sure, just try to find the word in actual context, like in an
article or two. See how it’s used and when to use it. Doing this is the
type of activity that will also build your English level, so it’s no time
lost.
PARTS OF SPEECH
Sometimes students don’t understand how a word moves through

the parts of speech. This in itself is what is known as word formation.
You need to understand when you should use the adjective form of a
word versus the noun form, and you should be familiar with those
forms. I actually recommend going through these forms every time
that you learn a new group of words. It might seem tedious, but it’s
well worth your time to ask yourself, “what is the noun form of this
word?” or “how would I use this word as an adjective?”
VERBS
Verbs are the action of a sentence. They are the basis for all our
grammatical tenses and you really need to know how to use them in
a variety of tenses. When I review word formation charts I like to
start with the infinitive form of a verb, like in the example below.
To achieve
Nouns
The noun form is the person, place, or thing form of the word.
Sometimes nouns have a couple of different forms for a word so it’s
worth reviewing them carefully. You could have the person form of
the noun as well as the thing form as a noun, or even a negative
form of the noun. Look at a few examples below.
Achievement
Politician/Politics
Habitat/inhabitant
Adjectives
Adjectives are used to describe nouns. Remember that, adjectives
go with nouns. You will use the adjective to describe what a noun is
like, for example, “pretty cat.” Adjectives can have a lot of different
forms and you should consider possible prefixes that might indicate if
the adjective is positive or negative or connoting something else.
Two important adjective form are the -ing and -ed endings. The first
form (ed) represents how you feel about something, whereas (ing)
represents what makes you feel that way.
Achievable/achieved
Inspired/Inspiring (You feel inspired because the speech was
inspiring)
Political/anti-political
Adverbs
Adverbs describe verbs. So just like adjectives describe nouns,
adverbs are used to describe verbs or actions. You can actually see
the word “verb” in the name and that might help you remember this.
Many people, even native speakers, use adverbs wrong, but it’s well
worth your time to learn how to use them correctly. Many times you
can simply take the adjective form of the word and add -ly, or -lly.
Commonly/uncommonly
Politically
Determinedly
CHARTING WORD FORMATION
I always recommend that students periodically work with academic

word charts. I like to do this in my vocabulary classes where
students really need to learn how to use academic vocabulary
quickly and to use it correctly. I suggest making a chart similar to the
one below. As you review it, you’ll note how a word can change as it
moves through a word formation chart. You’ll also note that I like to
take note of any key expressions as well.
WORD FORMATION PRACTICE
Choose ten word from your vocabulary notebook and create a word
formation chart. Use the chart to write a response to the question
below.
Prompt:
In light of recent research on climate

change, how do you think
transportation infrastructures will
change in the next ten years?
Chapter Recap
1. You need to review the rules of capitalization and make sure you
are using them correctly
2. How to use commas
3. The important components of word formation
4. How to use word formation charts

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Role of Grammar in Writing

and Speaking
One important part of the marking criteria for both speaking and
writing tasks is the role of grammar. This is identified and assessed
by the part of the marking criteria called Grammatical Range and
Accuracy. This refers to the type of grammatical structures that you
use and if you are able to use them with minimal errors. In order to
get a 7+ Band score on the IELTS exam, you need to be able to
demonstrate that you can use a mix of simple and complex
grammatical structures and that they are relatively error free. So the
task often is, for students, how are they able to improve this in their
own speaking and writing practice?
In order to use grammar effectively, you first have to learn the

structural components and the context in which you use it. This takes
a bit of study which can be repetitive or even boring. But without
doing this you won’t nail the structure and how to use it which will set
you up for failure on this area of the IELTS marking criteria.
Grammar is one of the hardest areas to fix especially at the last
moment so it pays to learn it correctly the first time. So the first stage
is sitting down to learn the structures, learning when to use it, and
then doing practice exercises. After you have the structure down you
should then start to apply it to your speaking and writing practice.
When thinking about this application component, you may be able to
find some fun games online to practice your speaking skills. When it
comes to the IELTS exam you should practice doing tasks and
applying these structures. You should use the planning stage that
we’ve been discussing through this book and take the time to choose
some grammatical structures that you think you can use in the task.
If it’s a hypothetical question you can think about using conditional
sentences, if it’s a past situation you can review narrative tenses,
etc.
In this book, we are going to review gerunds and infinitives and

parallelism and look at how they can transform your ability to write.
These are fairly advanced structures that will take your writing to
another level and help you demonstrate your strengths and
proficiency in English in a written way. Continue to reading to learn
more about these structures.
“The greater part of the world’s troubles are due

to questions of grammar.”
- Michel de Montaigne
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Gerunds and Infinitives
Gerunds and infinitives are my favorite grammatical structure to

work with. In case you are wondering a gerund is the ing form of a
word. An example would be eating, laughing, or enabling. An
infinitive is the to form of a word. Examples would be to eat, to laugh,
and to enable. We have a few different rules related to how we use
these structures and they are sure to improve your writing when you
learn how to use them well.
GERUNDS
Look below at the three sentences that are using the gerund form.
We use gerunds in three different ways. We use them after
prepositions and phrasal verbs, we use them as the subject of a
sentence and we use them after certain verbs.
Example 1: Mankind needs to get better at preventing this type of

pollution in the first place.
Rule 1: Gerunds after prepositions. You can see above that we are
using the gerund form directly after the preposition at
Example 2: Eliminating pollution is not the only solution.
Rule 2: Gerunds as the subject of a sentence

Example 3: I recommend revamping the educational system to add
environmental awareness modules.
Rule 3: Gerunds after certain verbs. Above we have the structure

recommend + gerund.
You may be wondering what verbs do you use after a gerund? There
is a very large list, you can find a reference to it in this ebook as well
as in the IELTS workbook. The important thing to remember is that
you need to memorize these and apply them to your tasks. The best
way to memorize them is to think: recommend doing. If you
memorize the verb + the word doing, it will come naturally to you to
use the gerund form in your actual speech and writing.
IELTS WORKBOOK
VERBS THAT FOLLOW GERUNDS
acknowledge, admit, advise, allow, anticipate, appreciate,

avoid, be worth, confess, consider, defend, delay, detest,
discontinue, discuss, dislike, dispute, dread, endure,
escape, evade, explain, fear, finish, forgive, mention,
miss, necessitate, omit, permit, picture, postpone,
practice, recall, recollect, recommend, report, resent,
resist, resume, risk, shirk, suggest, support, understand,
warrant
Let’s review a few more example sentences:
1. He acknowledges using the money to go to Vegas.

2. She detests doing the laundry
3. The government resisted putting the law into action.
The vocabulary list above represents an academic vocabulary list

and knowing how to use it properly is the first step to improving your
writing using gerunds and infinitives. Let’s turn to the structures for
the infinitives.
GERUNDS PRACTICE
Practice using the gerund structures with the speaking task below.
Record yourself responding and then analyze your response.
Prompt:
Do you think that today’s education

system prepares you for life after
university? Why or why not?
INFINITIVES
Look below at the three sentences that are using the infinitive form.
We also use infinitives in three different ways. We use infinitives after
some adjectives, to show a reason or purpose and after some verbs.
In the first case, we can see that we simply use adjective + infinitive.
In the second case we use the infinitive form to show a reason or a
purpose, here we are showing the reason why we need to add
environmental education (to adapt the mindset of an entire
generation). This basically answers the question, why? Finally, just
like gerunds, we use infinitives after some verbs.
Example 1: This is not a solution that would be easy to implement
Rule 1: Infinitives after adjectives
Example 2: We need to adapt our approach to climate change
Rule 2: Infinitives to show reason or purpose
Example 3: Governments that refuse to make changes are part of

the problem.
Rule 3: Infinitives after some verbs
VERBS THAT FOLLOW INFINITIVES
Review the verb list that we use with infinitives, you can also find this
in the reference section at the IELTS Writing and Speaking
Workbook.
Agree, appear, arrange, ask, attempt, beg, care, chance,

choose, claim, come, consent, dare, decide, demand,
deserve, determine, elect, endeavor, fail, get, guarantee,
hesitate, hope, hurry, incline, learn, manage, need,
neglect, offer, pay, plan, prepare, pretend, profess,
promise, refuse, remain, request, resolve, say, seek,
seem, strive, struggle, tend, threaten, urge, volunteer,
wait, want, yearn
Let’s review a few more example sentences:
1. He appeared to agree with the testimony.
2. The school decided to accept 50 more students.
3. She resolved to write the novel she had always wanted to write.
IELTS WORKBOOK
INFINITIVES PRACTICE
Practice using the infinitives structures with the speaking task below.
Record yourself responding and then analyze your response.
Prompt:
How do you think technology has

impacted the world of work over the
last 15 years?
VERB + PREPOSITION + GERUND

Review the verb list that we use with infinitives, you can also find this
in the reference section at the IELTS Writing and Speaking
Workbook.
THE STRUCTURE
We can use verb + preposition + gerund with a whole list of words.

These words are generally already academic words and so it sets
you up for being able to use a complex structure, using academic
language, in a way that will showcase your knowledge of English.
Sounds good, right? So let’s look at the list of verbs that we can use.
Adapt to (doing something), adjust to, agree on, aim at,

apologise for, approve of, argue about, argue against, ask
about, believe in, blame for, boast about, care about,
complain about, consist of, cope with, count on, decide
on, decide against, delight in, depend on, disapprove of,
dream about, engage in, excel at, feel like, forgive, get on
with, get used to, help with, in charge of, inquire about,
insist on, intend on, interested in, interfere with, laugh
about, object to, participate in, persist in, plan on, prepare
for, profit from, prohibit from, refrain from, rejoice at, rely
on, resort to, result in, specialize in, succeed in, talk
about, take part in, warn about, won’t stand for, worry
about
IELTS WORKBOOK
This is a pretty big list, so I recommend taking a chunk of language

that you want to learn and adding it to your vocabulary notebook and
then trying to use it in your writing or speaking task preparation. Let’s
look at some examples of how you can use it.
Marine animals have to adapt to having a large amount of plastic in

their immediate environment.
She feels it is important to argue against homeschooling students

instead of sending them to public school. (Notice the next verb also
needs to use the gerund form)
The online students participated in doing writing activities as a group.
The president boasted about achieving high levels of accolades.
VERB + PREP + GER. PRACTICE
Prompt:
What are the benefits of learning a

second language in today’s world?
VERB + PRONOUN + INFINITIVE
There is another structure, using the infinitive, that you can also use
to achieve the same results as you can with the last structure. This
structure is verb + pronoun + infinitive and again you can use it to
make your writing more complex and more academic by simply
applying the structure. I’d like you to review the vocabulary list below,
the examples, and then try the exercise. Remember that you have to
apply what you are learning in order to make it stick. In addition to
these exercises, spend time doing extra writing practice using these
structures. It will make it easier to use during the speaking exam as
well, as it will come more easily to your mind.
THE STRUCTURE
In this case, it is important to note that we are using pronouns

instead of prepositions and the infinitive instead of the gerund. You
simply need to follow the verb + pronoun + infinitive using verbs from
the list below
advise (somebody to do something), allow, ask,

authorize, beg, bring, build, buy, cause, challenge,
choose, command, consent, convince, dare, direct,
embolden, empower, enable, encourage, entitle, expect,
forbid, force, get, help, hire, influence, instruct, inspire,
intend, invite, lead, let, motivate, need, order, pay, permit,
persuade, prepare, press, prompt, provoke, push,
recommend, remind, require, request, send, spur, steer,
summon, teach, tell, tempt, train, trigger, trouble, urge,
want, warn, would like
EXAMPLES
Let’s review a few examples.
The doctor advised him to keep his weight off his leg.
Encouraging people to take the moral path always has positive

results.
By this time tomorrow, she will already have reminded him to finish
his report.
One thing to note is that the initial verb can be used in any tense.
The same goes for the verb + preposition + gerund structure. If you
look at the examples above, you can see that the first example uses
the verb advise in the past simple tense. The second example shows
the verb encourage being used as a gerund form, and the final
example shows the verb remind being used in the future perfect
tense. Don’t get confused about that. The first verb can be used with
any tense or structure, it’s the final verb that needs to use the
infinitive form (or the gerund form in the previous structure.)
Chapter Recap
1. Rules for using gerunds
2. Rules for using infinitives
3. Verb + Preposition + Gerund structure
4. Verb + Pronoun + Infinitive structure

CHAPTER 19
Parallelism in Writing
How to write sentences that are beautiful, balanced, and complex.
Parallelism is a really fantastic technique for improving your writing

in an immediate way. This is a special technique which is meant to
build a sense of balance and simplicity into a complex sentence. So,
while it creates a complexity in your writing, it is something that is
easy to do and actually makes it easier for the reader to understand
without simplifying the language.
WHAT IS PARALLELISM?
Parallelism is using a structure in a repeated and intentional way to

reiterate a point. Parallelism uses structures like gerunds, adjectives,
verbs, and nouns in a repeated way that bring about a sense of
balance and build upon each other to create a more complex
sentence structure. In order to examine this idea further let’s look at
an example writing prompt below on the topic of transportation.
PROMPT:
In many big cities, private cars are banned from city

centers in order to reduce congestion. Do you agree or
disagree with this practice?
Everything in life … has to have balance.

- Donna Karan
In our response to this prompt, we will need to utilize a variety of
simple and complex grammatical structures. We can use parallelism
to demonstrate that we are able to respond with complex structures
and that we are able to use them well. Let’s look at an example
sentence.
Citizens will be able to spend time walking through the city center,
shopping at local stores, and relaxing in corner cafes.
In the example above we can see that the writer is giving reasons to
why he or she agrees with the practice in the prompt. We also notice
that the sentence has a repeated structure which gives a sense of
balance to the sentence. Notice how the structures repeat below.
We can see that in this sentence the gerund form is repeated to
show a variety of activities that can be done in a city center without
cars. Many students try to utilize structures like this but they make a
mistake in not realizing that the grammar needs to be parallel. I often
see mistakes like the ones below.
Citizens will be able to spend the time to walk through the city center,
shopping at local stores, and relax in corner cafes.
We can see in the above example that the writer is not using parallel
structures and possibly isn’t aware of when they need to be using
gerunds or even how to use them. This would represent writing that
would receive lower than a band score of 7+.
So what you need to understand when using these structures is first

having a strong command of grammatical structures in general and
then being able to apply them in a parallel format. Let’s look at
different ways that we can use parallelism in our writing.
GERUNDS AND INFINITIVES IN PARALLELISM
The reality is that you can use parallelism with almost any structure.
But these are good examples of times that you can use parallelism in
a way that is easy to identify. We saw in the example above that we
can use parallelism with gerunds and you can do the same with
infinitives. But let’s take a closer look at the previous example.
You can see that I’ve also highlighted the prepositions here which
represent an added layer of parallelism as well as a necessary point
to the correct usage of these verbs. Prepositions can be tricky and
you need to be able to demonstrate that you are able to use them
correctly. In this case, you need to show that you know that you need
to walk through the city center, shop at a store, and relax in a corner
cafe.
Once you understand which preposition to use you can then play
with it a bit with the sentence and use the gerund structure or even
the infinitive structure. We can change it slightly to use the base form
structure.
Citizens will be able to walk through the city center, shop at local
stores, and relax in corner cafes.
In the above example, I simply took out spending time and left the
phrase be able to, which meant that we needed to use the base form
of the verb. I had to make sure that I used the base form with all the
verbs in the sentence to ensure that it had a balanced parallel form.
ADJECTIVES IN PARALLELISM
Adjectives are another simple way that we can use parallelism. We

can repeat a structure using adjectives to achieve a sense of
balance and reinforce our main point. Let’s look at the example
sentence below.
City center liveability would increase and become more convenient,

more satisfying, and more relaxing.
Here you can see that I am reinforcing the point that life would be
better without cars in the city. I reinforce it by showing a variety of
adjectives which describe how life would be positively affected.
Notice how I made sure to use more + adjective in each set. In
writing it I had to make sure that I was using adjectives that required
more in the comparative form rather than adding the -er or -ier
ending. This would have taken away from the parallelism and feeling
of balance. Let’s look below and compare the two sentences.

more satisfying, and more relaxing.
prettier, and more relaxing.
The first example is more effective because I increased the sense of

parallelism by repeating as many structures as possible. I remember
when I wrote this I specifically strove to find adjectives that needed
the word more before them to ensure that the parallelism was
effective.
VERBS IN PARALLELISM
Let’s look at an example of using verbs in a parallel form.
People would have to use alternative forms of transportation, adjust

to a changed route of transportation, and plan for more time before
using transportation.
You can see above that I used verbs to repeat a structure. I could
strive to make this even better by looking for a verb to substitute use.
I would need to use a verb that utilized a preposition as you can see
the verbs following it use a preposition (adjust to, plan for). In order
to add an even deeper sense of parallelism, I could try to use the
verb look for.
People would have to look for alternative forms of transportation,

adjust to a changed route of transportation, and plan for more time
before using transportation.
I see a picture right now that’s not parallel, so I’m

going to go straighten it. Things must be in order.
-
Katherine Johnson
NOUNS IN PARALLELISM
Nouns are another simple way that we can use parallelism to

improve our writing skills. Look at the example below and note which
nouns are being repeated.
Levels of safety would increase, levels of congestion would reduce,

and levels of resident satisfaction would expand.
You can see above that we are using nouns as a repeated structure.
But if you look further you can see different layers of parallelism.

In this example, I am repeating the structure levels of + noun for

each example. So here we have a repeated structure which is
adding points upon points and achieving a sense of balance. If you
look further you can see that I’ve added another layer of parallelism
by repeating the hypothetical would + base form.
In using the multi-layered parallelism effect I am able to demonstrate

complexity in writing by using parallelism using nouns and
parallelism using hypothetical structures which also demonstrates
that I am able to flexibly use hypothetical structures and complex
grammar, in general, resulting in a type of sentence that would get a
7+ band score in writing.

FAMOUS EXAMPLES
Still not convinced? Here is an example from President Obama’s
inaugural speech where he is using parallelism.
“My fellow citizens: I stand today humbled by the task before us,
grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices
borne by our ancestors.”
-Barack Obama
Let’s break it down a little bit. First, we see parallelism with

adjectives.
We notice that he is using appropriate prepositions after each

adjective so he is using parallelism with the adjective + preposition
form.
Finally, we can see that he is adding a noun as well to add to the

parallelism. So the actual structure is adjective + preposition + noun.
This is a beautiful and graceful example of parallelism which is

simple yet complex.
PARALLELISM PRACTICE
Prompt:
Do you believe that cities should ban

cars from city centers? Why or why
not?
Chapter Recap
1. The structure of parallelism
2. How to use parallelism with a variety of structure

CHAPTER TWENTY
Common Grammatical Mistakes
Just ike the common mistakes in writing that students make, I

wanted to point out some common errors in grammar that students
frequently make. Students of all levels seem to struggle with these
types of errors and these are the exact type of errors that are
keeping students from getting the 7+ band score that they need. I
suggest you review the grammar structures below and then do the
practice exercises to make sure that you pay attention to these
points as you are writing or speaking. The key thing that you need to
do is pay attention. You need to pay attention to mistakes and pay
attention to how you are using them, and then pay attention to them
as you revise. This is attention is what you need to help you stop
making these mistakes.
One grammatical structure that I see students struggle with on a
daily basis is articles and indefinite articles. I see this from students
of all language levels as well as from a variety of countries and who
speak many different first languages. I think this is an area of
struggle for many people different languages use articles differently
and some languages don’t even use articles at all. So some students
have to learn how to use articles while others have to learn different
rules for using them. I decided to add this section as an easy
reference for my students because I so often see this problem in
their writing and this is not a problem that you want to have in your
writing. This would be considered making mistakes with simple
tenses and is sure to contribute to keeping you from getting a band
score of 7+ on the writing part of the exam.
Your grammar is a reflection of your image. Good

or bad, you have made an impression. And like all
impressions, you are in total control.
– Jeffrey Gitomer
INDEFINITE ARTICLES (A, AN)
Let’s look first at indefinite articles. We use indefinite articles (a, an)
with countable nouns and we use them the first time that we talk
about something. It’s important to remember that we don’t use
articles at all with uncountable nouns (music, water) and this is one
of the areas that students make mistakes with articles in. If you need
a refresher you should look at the chapter on countable and noun
countable nouns. Another thing to note is that we use the article a for
most nouns and we use an for nouns that begin with a vowel. Let’s
look at some examples below.
Rule 1: We use articles with countable nouns

Example 1: That is a product which helps us to recycle more.
Rule 2: We don’t use indefinite articles with uncountable nouns

Example 2: She puts sugar into the dish. (Not she puts a
sugar into the dish)
Rule 3: We use a with most nouns and we use an with nouns that
begin with a vowel.
Example 3:We need a banana also.
Example 4: We need an orange to complete the
arrangement.
NO ARTICLES
There are also times that we don’t use any articles. We don’t use
them with uncountable nouns, with plurals, with and with set
phrases.
Rule 1: Uncountable nouns

Example 1: Music is a great way to relax
Rule 2: Plural nouns

Example 2: Many animals are going extinct
Rule 3: Set Phrases

Example 3: At night we sit out and watch the stars before we
go to bed.
Example 4: We always go home right after school
Example 5: We use the definite article the in a few different
situations.
SPECIAL SITUATION
There are also a lot of special situations that have a special use of
articles. It’s important to revise these and make sure that you know
how to use them.
INSTITUTIONS
We don’t use articles with institutions when we want to talk about the
activity that is done there. But we do use articles if we want to talk
about the actual building and if we are talking about it in a way that
doesn’t include their typical use.
Institutions: Churches, hospitals, schools, prisons
1. He always goes to school on time (no article)
2. His mother went to the school to bring him his homework (article,
for a reason other than studying)
3. Every Sunday, they go to church for regular services (no article)
4. She went to the church to bring a pie to the pastor (article, for a
reason other than prayer or services)
It’s important to note that British English and American English vary
a little bit when talking about hospitals. When you are actually in the
hospital because you are sick, Americans use an article.
5. He is in the hospital with pneumonia

However, in British English you would not use an article
6. He’s in hospital with pneumonia
GEOGRAPHY
One area that is really tricky for using articles is the area of
geography. We use articles in different ways for different
geographical features. This can be important on the IELTS exam if
you are discussing the environment so it’s important to take note of
the different uses.
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES WITH NO ARTICLES
Countries, continents, regions (Angola, Africa, South East Asia)

Exceptions (the UK, the United States, the Netherlands)
Roads, streets, parks, bridges, stores, and restaurants
Mountains and lakes (Lake Como, Lake Victoria, Mount Everest)
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES WITH ARTICLES
Mountain ranges, rivers, oceans, seas, canals, deserts, peninsulas,

and islands (The Cascades, the Yellowstone River, the Indian
Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Panama Canal, the Sahara
Desert, the Canary Islands, the Iberian Peninsula)
Points on the globe (The North Pole)
Groups of Lakes (the Great Lakes)
Theaters, hotels, museums, galleries, buildings, monuments (The

Met Gallery, The Eiffel tower)
ARTICLE PRACTICE
Prompt:
Describe the geographical features of

your city or country. Which are the
most popular or attract the most
amount of tourists?
Grammar is a piano that I play by ear. All I know
about grammar is its power.
-Joan Didion
COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Another area that I see students struggling with frequently is how to

use countable and uncountable nouns in English. This is an
important mistake because it represents one of the simpler tenses
and is sure to bring your score down in the grammatical range area
below a 7 band score if you make repeated mistakes with them.
Let’s review them quickly.
The first thing that you need to understand is that there are two types
of nouns in English, countable and uncountable nouns. You can
think countable nouns as things that you can count. So things like
cats, bananas, criticisms, reflections, ideas, etc. Uncountable nouns
(or non-count nouns) are things that are not so easy to count.
Things like liquids (milk, wine, water) or certain foods (sugar) or

more esoteric ideas like (music, freedom, fun). If we want to “count”
or quantify these types of nouns we need to use quantifiers. So while
we can’t easily count “sugar” we could count “cups of sugar,” or we
could say “types of music” if we want to refer to several different
genres of music. So the first step is identifying what is a countable
noun and what is an uncountable noun in English, and in academic
essays, both of these types of essays come up frequently.
If you are keeping a vocabulary notebook you should try to identify

whether a word is countable or uncountable each time you add it to
the notebook. Then try to write a sentence making sure to use it
correctly. This will help put it in your mind so that later if you need to
use the word you are likely to remember how to use it. One good
trick is to think about if you are able to add the letter “s” to the end of
the word. If you can, then you have identified a countable noun.
Another important point to remember is that uncountable nouns are

generally used in the singular form. This is where a lot of students
struggle, they may treat it as a plural noun but they need to treat it as
a singular noun. For example:
The wine they chose for the party is delicious.
Freedom is one of the main values of this country.
This is an area that you may be able to improve in and you can do it
by revising your work during the preparation process. Each time after
you write an essay, you should take the time to stop and revise it.
Look for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and
specifically stop and revise any problematic grammar tenses for you.
If you struggle with uncountable nouns, stop and revise your nouns
and try to identify which are countable and which are uncountable
and then check to make sure that they have subject-verb agreement.
UNCOUNTABLE PRACTICE
Practice using these structures with the speakng task below.
Prompt:
Do you believe that social media has a

positive or negative impact on our
relationships?
Subject/verb agreement is an issue that I see a lot in writing. This
simply means that the subject must agree with the verb. An example
would be, “The pineapple is sweet.” The word “pineapple” is a
singular noun and therefore we need to use the third person form of
the verb, ‘to be.” So this seems easy, right? Simple? Something so
simple and basic you should know it naturally, right? Well, it is
considered a basic structure, but it can be tricky to use in more
complex sentences. I would say this is actually one of the most
frequent and common mistakes that I see in my student’s academic
writing.
THE MISTAKES
The basic rule is that a singular noun takes a singular verb and a
plural noun takes a plural verb.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Prepositional phrases cannot be the subject of a sentence. So when
you see a phrase with “of” you know that it cannot be the subject,
there will be a subject before it.
An array of school supplies lies on the floor. (An array/lies)
School supplies is not the subject because it is a prepositional

phrase (comes after of) so the actual subject is “an array” and we
need to use the singular form.
TWO SINGULAR SUBJECTS
When we have two singular subjects that are connected by phrases

like either.... or/neither.... nor/not only.... but also, the verb agrees
with the closer subject. In the example below, you can see how the
verb changes as we reverse the subjects.
Neither my dogs nor my cat likes to stay indoors.

Neither my cat nor my dogs like to stay indoors.
SUBJECT SEPARATED FROM THE VERB
This is an error that I see a lot in writing as well as in comprehension

for the reading parts of the IELTS exam. When the subject is
separated from the verb, the writer needs to make sure that they
continue to use the correct subject/verb agreement.
The husband, along with his wife, are arriving now. (husband and
wife/are arriving)
The transportation system, which has been being further developed

over the past 10 years, has recently implemented a new pay
program for travelers. (The transportation system/has recently)
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
These are a little tricky as we use collective nouns to talk about

many people or things but we always use them with a singular verb.
Examples of collective nouns are words like family, team, board,
committee, jury, and panel.
The team is willing to travel tonight. (The team/is)
The panel gives a talk at 8:00 pm. (The panel/gives)

HERE AND THERE
When using there is and there are, along with here is and here are,
it’s important to look for the subject of the sentence.
Here are four books that you can use to study. (are/books)
Here is one book that you can use to study. (is/book)
COMPOUND SUBJECTS
When we have two subjects that are connected with and, they will
always take a plural verb. Look at the examples below.
The pineapple and the banana are both sweet. (pineapple and
banana/are)
The subway and the light-rail contribute to a reduction in toxic

emissions. (subway and light rail/contribute)
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
Indefinite pronouns are words like one, each, everyone, somebody,

and nobody. Will always use a singular verb with indefinite nouns.
Can everyone go to school now? (everyone/go)
INVERTED WORD ORDER
This is something you are unlikely to use, but you may find on the
reading part of the exam. Sometimes, in more formal writing, we use
an inverted structure like the following.
In the morning, behind the tree, was a baby deer.

Although we would normally expect to see “baby deer” first, this still
follows the standard subject/verb order with “baby deer” as a
singular noun and so we need “was” as the singular verb.
As always, if this is something you want to improve you will need to

review the rules above and then practice them in your writing. After
you do a practice essay, try to review for subject agreement. Review
each structure and identify the subject and then make sure that you
are using the correct verb with it. You can also do this with your
reading skills and it will help improve your accuracy in correct
responses on the reading part of the IELTS exam.
SUBJECT/VERB PRACTICE
Prompt:
Discuss a serious environmental
challenge in the area that you live. Say
why it’s a problem, and what solutions
there are to it.
SECOND CONDITIONAL
The second conditional is a key complex grammar structure that you

should be ready to use. Any time that there is an opportunity to
discuss a hypothetical situation, you will be able to use this structure.
This could be during any part of the speaking exam, or you might get
a writing prompt that lends itself well to using hypothetical language.
Review this structure and try to do writing tasks and speaking tasks
about hypothetical situations.
THE STRUCTURE
Let’s review the structure first.
If + past simple + would + base verb
This structure is essentially divided into two parts. If + past simple/

would + base verb. We separate those two clauses with a comma
and you can actually switch them around and still have the same
meaning. Let’s look at the examples below.
If I had enough money, I would buy a house in Spain.

I would buy a house in Spain, if I had enough money.
That’s it! Easy enough. You can make it a little more complex by
adding on ideas. If I had enough money, I would buy a house in
Spain and I would purchase a large amount of land.
SECOND CONDITIONAL
You can see that I added another clause to make it a little more
complex and I continued to use the would structure to express my
hypothetical ideas. If you are using this structure in an essay you can
introduce an idea using the second conditional and then in the
following sentences you can simply use the would structure to
discuss different aspects of the hypothetical situation. Let’s look at
the example below. You can see that I responded initially with the
second conditional and then continued to add ideas with the
hypothetical would.
Short Response:
If city governments banned cars from the city center, it would

improve the quality of life for inhabitants by integrating a pedestrian
space into the city. It may take a slight adjustment but this pedestrian
space would be beneficial as it would encourage a more walkable
lifestyle. It would be more enjoyable for citizens to spend time in the
city center and would increase revenue as people would be able to
go shopping, eat at cafes and enjoy their city more.
USING A VARIETY OF COMPLEX GRAMMATICAL

STRUCTURES
I wanted to give you an example of how to use a variety of

grammatical structures in your writing or speaking tasks. This is due
to the fact that you are assessed on grammatical range and
accuracy on both the writing and speaking parts of the exam, which
means that you really need to have a strong command of grammar.
You especially need to be able to

demonstrate that you are able to use a
variety of complex sentences.
If you are new to IELTS preparation, or just a little confused about it,
you might not know what that means. But, using a variety of complex
grammar tenses means that you are able to showcase several
different grammar tenses with appropriate meaning in a response.
So you aren’t simply responding with present tense or present

continuous, for example, you are also showing present perfect and a
strong command of gerunds and infinitives.
NARRATIVE TENSES
Narrative tenses are a great way to show how to use a variety of

grammatical structures in a response. You might get a speaking task
that asks you to discuss something about your past. Perhaps a
favorite memory, a favorite pastime when you were growing up, or
an unhealthy habit that you gave up. This is a perfect opportunity to
show that you know how to discuss events in the past by using more
than the past simple.
You can see that I added another clause to make it a little more
complex and I If you brainstorm all the tenses that you can use in the
past, you might get a little stuck after past simple and past
continuous, but there are actually a lot. Look at the list below.
Past Simple
Past Continuous
Past Perfect
Used to
Third conditional (regrets in the past)
You could extend it further by adding all the past passive tenses or
even reported speech, but I don’t recommend using too much of the
passive on the IELTS exam except in writing task 1 of academic
training.
So firstly, you should ensure that you know and understand the basic
structure of each of these tenses. If you don’t, stop right now and
review. Actually, you should stop and review even if you do know
them. After you have reviewed, think about how you u could use
them in a response. Just for fun, try responding to the following
responses.
PRACTICE
Talk about a time that you had an embarrassing moment
Example response:
This one time, when I was a teenager, I had a terribly embarrassing

moment. Back then I was a cheerleader, and I had just gotten my
first opportunity to cheer for a game. On game days we used to have
to wear our cheerleading uniforms, so on that day, I was wearing my
uniform. Well, for one of our classes, we had to join with two other
classes and meet in the auditorium for some sort of activity. In total,
there were about 90 students working together. We were sitting on
chairs that were placed on a set of risers, and I was at the top.
Something had happened before I sat on the chair, and it had been
moved so that it wasn’t stable and one of the legs was slightly off of
the riser. As soon as I sat down, the chair fell back all the way down
the steps and I landed at the bottom with my cheerleading skirt all
over my head and the whole room started laughing at me. I still
remember it to this day.
Notice the variety of tenses I used. You can see that I used past
simple, past perfect, past continuous, past simple passive, past
perfect passive, and used to respond to this task, demonstrating that
I am able to use a variety of simple and complex tenses in my
response.
This one time, when I was a teenager, I had a terribly embarrassing

moment. Back then I was a cheerleader, and I had just gotten my
first opportunity to cheer for a game. On game days we used to have
to wear our cheerleading uniforms, so on that day, I was wearing my
uniform. Well, for one of our classes, we had to join wIth two other
classes and meet in the auditorium for some sort of activity. In total,
there were about 90 students working together. We were sitting on
chairs that were placed on a set of risers, and I was at the top.
Something had happened before I sat on the chair, and it had been
moved so that it wasn’t stable and one of the legs was slightly off of
the riser. As soon as I sat down, the chair fell back all the way down
the steps and I landed at the bottom with my cheerleading skirt all
over my head and the whole room started laughing at me. I still
remember it to this day.
NARRATIVE PRACTICE 1
Answer the prompt below as a writing response. Make sure you use
a variety of past tenses.
Prompt:
Have you or anyone you know ever

cheated on an exam or in a competition?
What happened?
NARRATIVE PRACTICE 2
Answer the prompt below with as a speaking response. Make sure
you use a variety of past tenses.
Prompt:
Talk about an exciting sports event you

went to.
UNCOUNTABLE PRACTICE
Practice using these structures with the speakng task below.
Prompt:
Do you believe that social media has a

positive or negative impact on our
relationships?
Chapter Recap
In this chapter we reviewed the following concepts:
1. Definite and indefinite articles
2. Countable and uncountable nouns
3. Subject-verb agreement
4. 2nd Conditional
5. Using a variety of complex tenses (with a narrative tense

example)
Final Words
Wow, I can’t believe we’ve made it to the end of this book together!
This was an exciting process for me and my goal was to be able to
share with you the knowledge and expertise that I have from my
many years of official exam preparation, my background in Applied
Linguistics, and my experience as a language teacher and language
learner. The truth is that I live and breathe language every day of my
life and I hoped to share my tips and advice with you.
If you would like personalized feedback on IELTS writing and

speaking tasks, please join my IELTS Writing and Speaking Video
Course. In the course I explain these concepts in video format and
give you weekly IELTS tasks, discussions, quizzes and assignments
so that you can get actual speaking and writing practice with me as
your guide.
Each week, I will give you individualized feedback on the errors you
are making, give you suggestions for areas of improvement, and I
will give you an IELTS band score for each task and tell you why you
received that score.
You will also get access to weekly live Q&A’s with me in a private
facebook group. I look forward to seeing you there!.
IELTS VIDEO COURSE

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IELTS

WRITING AND SPEAKING

Get a 7+ Band Score

IELTS Writing and Speaking Skills by Kristin Espinar

All rights reserved, including resale rights. No portion of this book

Cover by Kristin Espinar

To my two darling boys, Oliver and Sebastian,

I would like to acknowledge the following people who have chosen to

Pablo Espinar, Clemencia Plitt, Antonio Espinar, Veronica Miranda,

Thank you to Natalie Jennings of @jenningsphoto on IG for the

A Special Shout Out

IELTS VOCABULARY NOTEBOOK

If you are unable to access it, please send me an email at:

This book was designed directly from my IELTS Writing and

So this book was written as a guide to developing your IELTS writing

In addition to this book, I also wrote a workbook that goes in

This workbook serves as a fantastic companion to this ebook if you

I’ve got a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics, 13 years of ESL

Fun Fact 1. I’ve eaten frog legs.

FACEBOOK PODCAST YOUTUBE

Introduction: Speaking and

One of the reasons that I originally designed my IELTS writing and

When taking an official English exam, it is certainly difficult to do the

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

If they are able to access it, it can sometimes be a struggle to find

I find myself uniquely qualified to help students with these skills.

Furthermore, I completed a master’s degree focused on Applied

The IELTS Preparation Process

The IELTS preparation process can be a pretty easy or a difficult

Not giving yourself enough time to prepare often results in having to

After you have established a baseline

This of course depends on how much time you have. I recommend

Reading strategy includes practicing the skills like previewing,

Listening strategy includes practicing the skills like previewing,

Writing strategy includes practicing skills like brainstorming

Speaking strategy includes practicing of skills like using key

GRAMMAR POINTS FOR STUDY

I have created an exhaustive list of the grammatical structures you

There are a lot of resources that are devoted to English instruction

I recommend listening to my podcast for

Utilize IELTS exam practice books, IELTS course books, general

Take advantage of exam practice websites and English language

Finally, you should be using authentic texts on a daily basis. You

Definition: Authentic Texts

Do something that your future self will thank you

-Sean Patrick Flanery

1. Give yourself time to prepare (3-6 months)

2. Do regular exam practice

3. Get familiar with exam strategy

4. Review grammar points

5. Use authentic texts on a daily basis

Understanding IELTS Marking

Many students plunge right into their IELTS exam preparation

In your preparation, you will need to focus on improving your IELTS

The only way to really do this effectively, is to have a clear

IELTS scoring in detail. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ielts.org/ielts-for-

iELTS SPEAKING MARKING CRITERIA

FLUENCY AND COHERENCE

Lexical resources is a fancy way of saying vocabulary. But the truth

GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY

Grammatical range and accuracy is an area that can make or break

The area of pronunciation is a little less developed in the band

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF