Proofreading in IELTS Writing
You only have an hour to complete two writing tasks in the IELTS Writing Section which a lot of candidates find challenging with two different tasks to analyze, plan and write. Additionally, you also need to think about the content, the language you will use, different vocabulary that will eventually help you organize your ideas logically. Writing Task 1 requires you to write a descriptive report based on a diagram and Writing Task 2 requires you to write an essay.
The four major criteria used to assess your writing include Task Response, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource and, Grammatical Range & Accuracy where each criterion comprises 25% of your writing score. A lot of times even when candidates are aware of these criterions and learn about what examiners are looking for, they fail to achieve the desired scores.
It is very likely that you will make various mistakes when writing your response but, it is very important that you make as few errors as possible as too many mistakes will directly reduce your scores. “The more mistakes you commit, the lower will be your IELTS band score.”
Proofreading is a highly recommended strategy to avoid a lot of mistakes in your writing. Spending a couple of minutes proofreading your text can help you avoid many errors in grammar including spelling and punctuation which will eventually help you to improve your grades.
Proofreading is all about reading and editing your text that involves looking for mistakes and fixing it. Proofreading however only helps you fix small errors and you will not be able to make major changes in the content or structure as you will not have enough time to do so.
When proofreading for IELTS, it is recommended that you focus on the content, organization and language. Content includes determining if you have addressed the task correctly, with accurate details in Task 1 and relevant evidences with examples to justify your opinion in Task 2. It is very important that you write on the given topic and not go off- topic.
Proofreading for organization includes determining if the text is logically organized with appropriate structure where ideas are linked and easy to follow.
Proofreading for language includes determining the use of accurate and appropriate grammar structures, verb tenses, articles, prepositions, uses of vocabulary, word choice, word order spelling etc. Punctuation is also equally important and you should carefully check and edit any punctuation errors.
It is very essential to check the word count to make sure you have written the minimum number of words required in each writing task. As you will not have enough time to count the words, you should learn to roughly estimate the number of words without counting it which is possible when you learn to count and estimate at the time of your practice.
With having so much to do in 60 minutes, it could be a challenging task to spare time for proofreading however, it is definitely worth trying as spending a couple of minutes could help you avoid a lot of errors which can eventually help you boost your writing scores. Sometimes, these last minute editing can help you achieve your desired scores!
And again, PRACTICE IS THE KEY!
