The IELTS writing test marking scheme is divided into four parts:

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Task Achievement
Lexical Resource
Coherence and Cohesion
Grammar therefore accounts for 25% of the marks in your writing test.

You are assessed on two things:

Your ability to produce grammatically accurate sentences;

Your ability to use a wide range of grammar structures.
Grammar is often the area that students struggle with the most and it can easily bring a student’s
scores down.

Accuracy of grammar
Examiners look for how many ‘error free’ sentences you have. You therefore need to make sure
each sentence has no errors. Even a small mistake like an article in the wrong place or misplaced
plural counts towards this.

This is why it is so important to check your work after you finish writing. Always try to leave
yourself two minutes at the end to check your work. Simple errors, which could be fixed with a
quick check, will really bring your marks down in this area.

Range of grammar
A good answer will have a range of appropriate structures and tenses. Many students try to insert
complex sentences and tenses into their answers. This is not how to do it and will result in your
answers looking unnatural and you making mistakes.

If you write a good answer, complex sentences, such as conditional and relative clauses will flow
naturally.

Below is some advice on certain grammar structures that will help boost your mark in part one of
the writing test, if used appropriately. I have only included advice for charts, such as pie charts,
line graphs and bar charts, in this post. I will deal with process diagrams in a separate post.

Describing Trends

IELTS Task 1- Describing Trends over time | Create infographics

In IELTS writing task 1 you may have to describe trends. This may come up in a line graph, bar
chart or when comparing more than one chart.

There are two main grammatical structures we can use to describe trends.

There + be + adj. + noun + in + noun phrase

Example:

There was a gradual rise in the price of oil.

There has been a sharp drop in the price of oil.

Possible adjectives

gradual
moderate
modest
sharp
dramatic
slight
steep
steady
significant
considerable
rapid
Possible nouns:

variation
decline
decrease
dip
drop
fall
peak
fluctuation
growth
increase
rise
slump
Noun phrase + verb + adverb
Example:

The price of oil rose gradually.

The price of oil has risen dramatically.

Possible verbs:
rise
jump
grow
climb
increase
rocket
fall
drop
decline
decrease
go down
plummet
plunge
Possible adverbs:
gradually
moderately
modestly
sharply
dramatically
slightly
steeply
steadily
significantly
considerably
rapidly
slowly
Describing Increases and Decreases
When describing any of the charts in IELTS writing task 1, you might have to describe increases
and decreases. There are three main ways you can describe increases and decreases.

Noun phrase + verb + adverb

Example:
The price of property fell sharply

The percentage of homes dropped dramatically.

There + be + noun + in + noun phrase

Example:

There was a fall in literacy levels.

There has been an increase in the cost of coffee.

Using fractions
Example:

The price of oil halved in less than a year.

The price of oil has halved since July.

By July, the price of oil has halved.

Making Comparisons
IELTS writing task 1 will often require you to make comparisons between data sources, groups
and times. Here are five grammatical structures you can use to make comparisons.

More/few/less + noun + than

Example:

Overall, more people preferred public transport than taxis.

of one syllable -er + than

Example:

A higher number for people preferred public transport than taxis.

More/less + adj. of more than one syllable + than

Example:

Taxis were more popular than public transport.

of one syllable -est.

Example:

The highest % of commuters preferred taxis.

The most/least + adj. of more than one syllable.

Example:

The least popular mode of transport was buses.

Summarising
IELTS writing task 1 is essentially a summarising task. Your overview paragraph should contain
two or three sentences summarising the main features of the graph. In order to help you do this,
here are some short phrases.

To summarise, the most marked change is….

Overall it is clear….
Overall the majority/minority….
In sum, the most noticeable trend is….
Don’t say ‘to conclude’. This is only for discursive essays.

Tenses
Using the appropriate tenses in IELTS writing task 1 is essential if you want to get a high band
score.

The key is to look at the title of the chart and the information contained on both axes to establish
what time frame is used. This will help you establish what tense you should use.

Example:

If the time is one point in the past, for example January 1990, then we should use the past tense.
If it has projections for the future, for example 2045, we use future tenses.
It there is no time, we use present simple.
Below are a range of tenses that could be used in task 1. Remember, the tense you use will
depend on the information displayed in the graph. This is not a complete list of tenses and an
awareness of all the English tenses will help you achieve the IELTS score you need.

Present Perfect:
We use this tense generally to talk about an action that happened at an unspecified time before
now. The exact time period is not important.
In writing task 1, we use this tense to talk about changes in data that have happened over a period
of time.

Example

The price of oil has fallen by $5 a barrel every week since July.

Present Perfect Continuous

We use this tense to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now.

Example

Oil prices have been decreasing since July.

Future Perfect
We use this tense to state that something will be finished by a particular time in the future.

We often use it with ‘by’ or ‘in’.

Example

The price of oil will have reached $300 a barrel by 2020.

Past Simple
Use this tense to talk about an action that started and finished at a specific time in the past.

Example

The price of oil fell from $150 in Jan 2014 to $50 in Jan 2015.

Approximations, Percentages and Fractions

In many of the IELTS writing task 1 questions, you will have to deal with percentages. This is a
good opportunity to express these percentages in a different way and boost your score. A way of
varying this language is to express them as fractions or proportions.

Remember that you should vary your language as much as possible in order to score high in the
‘lexical resource’ part of the test.

It is also fine to use approximations, for example, 49% can be expressed as nearly a half.
Below are a range of expressions that can be used to express percentages.

Fractions
73%- nearly three quarters

51%- just over a half

49%- just under a half

32%- nearly a third

3%- a tiny fraction

50%- exactly a half

26%- roughly one quarter

49%- around a half

24%- almost a quarter

77%- approximately three quarters

Proportions
70%- a large proportion

71%- a significant majority

15% a small minority

3%- an insignificant minority

Introduction
One of the biggest mistakes students make in IELTS writing is to try and show off and be overly
ambitious with their grammar. This is because many students think that all of their sentences
need to be ‘complex’ (they don’t!) and them not understanding what a ‘complex’ sentence is.
Trying to write overly complicated sentences leads to grammar mistakes and this will lead to lost
marks in many different areas.

This post will look at:

• how many ‘complex’ sentences you actually need in each paragraph
• what a ‘complex’ sentence actually is
• how to make complex sentences
• examples to help us understand and transfer this knowledge to our own writing

What does the examiner expect?

If we look at the examiners’ marking scheme it states that in order to get a band 6 for grammar
we need to:

• use a mix of simple and complex sentences.

For band 7 it states:

• Use a variety of complex structures.

This obviously means that we should use complex sentences in our writing, but it does not mean
that we should try to make all of our sentences complex. All band 9 answers that I have seen use
a mixture of both simple and complex sentences. The key is to know when to use them and we
will look at this below. But first, we need to understand what a complex sentence actually is.

What is a complex sentence?

The main problem here seems to be the word ‘complex’. Complex, in this situation, does not
mean complicated, long or impressive. This is a common misconception and leads to students
writing very long and grammatically incorrect sentences that are very difficult to understand.

For example:

‘In the modern world, global warming is one of the most popular topics causing many
environmental difficulties and tough challenges arising from its serious consequences.’

This is a very typical sentence from an essay that is trying to be overly complex. This student has
tried to put four simple ideas into one paragraph and the result is an awkward and incoherent
sentence. They have lost control of the grammar and this affects the meaning. When meaning is
affected it stops the reading understanding what is being said and that is really bad for you
IELTS writing band scores.

‘Complex’ sentences are not actually very complex; they are just simple two or more simple
sentences put together. Putting them together makes the essay more coherent and cohesive.
Let’s look at the first example again. In the sentence above there are four simple ideas that we
can put in to simple sentences:

1. Global warming is a common topic these days.

2. Global warming causes environmental problems.
3. There are tough challenges associated with global warming.
4. Global warming has very serious consequences.

If we write all of our sentences in the IELTS exam like this we lose marks because they are too
simple. What we need to do is put them together to make complex sentences.

Complex Sentence Examples

For example:

One of the most common environmental issues is global warming which causes many serious
environmental problems. There are tough challenges associated with this issue and its effects
have very serious consequences.

I don’t think there is anything ‘complex’ about these sentences, just simple ideas, simply put
together.

‘Complex’ is just a label, not a description.

What I have done is take each of the four simple sentences and put them together in two complex
sentences. This result is a grammatically correct, easy to understand paragraph.

When should I use complex sentences?

In general, we should use simple sentences when making main points; normally at the beginning
of a paragraph. We should then use complex sentences when expanding on the main point, for
instance when giving a supporting example or explaining your main point.

Example:

This is a question about whether ‘fast food’ or ‘junk food’ should be taxed at a higher rate than
normal food.

‘Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food companies would pass on
these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices and this would lead to people not being
able to afford junk food. For instance, the cost of organic food has proven prohibitively
expensive for most people. Despite this, people in many developed countries, where the problem
is most acute, can afford price hikes and will continue to eat high-fat meals.’

The first sentence is the ‘topic sentence’ and makes the main point. It is therefore acceptable for
this to be a simple sentence.

The second sentence explains the main point and uses the word ‘and’ to link two simple
sentences together, to make one complex sentence.

The third sentence gives an example and uses the linking phrase ‘for instance’. The final
sentence makes a concession (shows the limitation of the argument) and is also a complex
sentence, linking more than one idea together.

This paragraph has a mix of simple and complex sentences and therefore satisfies the marking
criteria.

How do I make a complex sentence?

Remember that a complex sentence is just more than one simple sentence put together to make
one sentence. We therefore need to learn and become confident using the various grammatical
structures that allow us to do that. Below are a few ways we can link ideas together in a sentence.

To make a complex sentence we normally should have two things- a dependent clause and an
independent clause. A clause is a group of words with both a subject and a verb.

An example of a dependent clauses is ‘….because the weather was cold.’ This is a dependent
clause because it has a subject and a verb but it doesn’t make any sense on its own. To make
sense we need to add an independent clause.

As the name suggests, an independent clause can make sense on its own. For example, ‘I wore a
warm coat.’ If we combine these two clauses we get a complex sentence- ‘I wore a warm coat
because the weather was cold.’

As you can see, ‘complex’ sentences don’t have to be complicated. Let’s now look at other ways
we can make complex sentences.

1. Relative Clauses
You can use relative clauses to give essential or extra information about a person, place, or thing.
This makes our writing more fluent and more coherent. We do this by using relative pronouns
like who, which and that. For example, ‘He’s the kind of person who is always friendly.’
For example:

Air pollution can cause health problems. Air pollution is largely caused by motor vehicles.

We can convert these two simple sentences into one complex sentences by using the word
‘which’.

Air pollution, which is mostly caused by motor vehicles, can cause health problems.

For example:

There is evidence that some people are more likely to smoke. These people have parents and
friends who smoke.

We can link both of these sentences together by using the word ‘that’.

There is evidence that people who have parents and friends that smoke are more likely to smoke.

2. Subordinate Clauses
A subordinate clause can describe nouns and pronouns; describe verbs, adverbs, and adjectives;
or act as the subject or object of another clause. They are made by connecting an independent
clause with a dependent clause with words like as, because, while, until, even though, although,
when and if.

3. Conditional Clauses
Also known as ‘If clauses’, they are used to express that the action in the main clause can only
take place if a certain condition is met.

For example:

If I had a million dollars, I would quit my job.

I will be really happy, if I pass the IELTS test.

These clauses are good for giving examples in IELTS writing part 2.

For example:

‘Increasing taxes would raise prices and lower consumption. Fast food companies would pass on
these taxes to consumers in the form of higher prices and this would lead to people not being
able to afford junk food. If the cost of organic food proves prohibitively expensive for most
people, they will simply not buy it. Despite this, people in many developed countries, where the
problem is most acute, can afford price hikes and will continue to eat high-fat meals.’

They are also useful for talking about unreal situations or to speculate about results in the past or
present.

There are four different kinds of conditionals which I will outline below:

Zero Conditionals are used to talk about information that is true or facts. We can use if or when
to introduce the conditional.

Example: Nowadays when we travel long distances, we usually use air travel.

First conditionals are used to talk about things in the present or future.

Example: If the city’s population continues to grow, we will need to build more infrastructure.

Second Conditionals are used to talk about things that are impossible.

Example: If the sun didn’t come up tomorrow, we wouldn’t have any life on earth.

Third Conditionals are used to speculate about past events. It is often used when we regret
something or to imagine a past unreal situation.

Example: The Second World War would have never happened if Germany had been given a
fairer peace settlement in Word War One.

4. Compound Sentences
Compound sentences consist of two independent clauses linked together with a conjunction such
as ‘and’, ‘for’ or ‘but’.

Examples:

I really want to study, but I’m too tired.

She got to the test centre early, and she did really well on her IELTS test.

Some students think these sentences are too simple to count as complex but they are wrong.

Warning
The crucial thing is to understand and be able to use these grammar structures before your IELTS
test. Some students memorise lots of structures and try to insert them into their essays without
giving much thought to how they work or if they are accurate. This will only lead to unnatural
and incoherent sentences. Remember that your sentences need to also be error free so only use
structures you are confident using.

They key is to only use them appropriately. Concentrate on answering the question and if you
know how to use these structures they will flow naturally.

Next Steps

I hope this post has demonstrated that you can write your ideas down in a clear and simple way
and still satisfy the marking criteria for complex sentences.

When you are practicing IELTS writing questions try to think of what you want to say in simple
sentences and then think of how these might be linked into complex sentences. After enough
practice it will become a natural thing to do and your writing will really improve