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Writing

Task Response Errors Essays

Task Response Errors Essays

Errors with Task Response in IELTS Writing


Opinion essay
Both sides
Two question essay

If you write under 250 words in the exam you will get a -1 penalty in the exam. Before writing, make a plan for your essay to make sure you have enough to write about.

Your essay seems too long. The disadvantages of this are that will have less time to proofread it, and you might not be able to finish it in the required time.

Do not copy so many words from the task in the introduction because they will NOT be included in the word count. This also gives a bad first impression to the examiner.

Your introduction did not respond sufficiently to the part of the task that says ” “.
Your introduction did not accurately rephrase the topic.
You did not respond to all parts of the topic.
You changed the topic. I suggest you just rephrase the topic and not add anything extra.
The main points in the body paragraphs are quite similar. I suggest you brainstorm main
points that are more different.
You did not respond to all parts of the question.
You misunderstood the question.
You need to support your main ideas more by explaining them more or using an illustrative example.
You need to work on using examples that clearly and directly illustrate your key points.

It is better to not refer to any specific research. In an academic essay you need to provide the source or reference for research such as: author, year, title, publication. Since you don’t have these don’t refer to specific research. I would avoid the word completely. Understand that most examiners are academics, and academics do not like people referring to research without a proper reference.

DON’T refer to any specific figures from research. The examiner is likely to feel you have just made this up.

Opinion essay [argument essay]
You should state the extent you agree or disagree = how much.
You should give your opinion in the introduction of the essay.
You should give your opinion in the conclusion of the essay
You should state the extent you agree in the introduction, so your opinion is clear BEFORE
the examiner starts to read the body of the essay.
I get to the end of your essay and I feel unconvinced about your reason for disagreeing/ agreeing with the question
You contradicted your opinion in the conclusion.

Both sides and opinion essay [ balanced argument essay]
Try to get an even balance in the coverage of each side.
Ideally, you should have exactly two main points for each side.
You covered both sides of the argument well, but you needed to say more for your opinion as it is one of the three parts of the question.
You must make it clear in the last paragraph that it is YOUR opinion “In conclusion, in my opinion … ”.
Get your opinion in right at the start of the paragraph your opinion is one of the three requirements of the question, so you want to say more about it.
So where is YOUR opinion? If you don’t have this then you  get 5 here!

Give more of an opinion! You can say:
1. Both sides of the argument have their merits.
2. State which side you agree with more strongly and why.
You should justify your opinion by explaining the reason for it.

Two question essay
Try to get an even balance between each of the two questions.
Ideally, you should have exactly two main points for each question.
I suggest you only use first person if the question directly asks for it.

Example showing a contradiction of opinion
pdf version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkvnvLKxNUY&feature=youtu.be

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