IELTS Writing Task 2 Essay - Paragraph Length — Transcript

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1. 0:01[music]
2. 0:14Hello, I'm Liz. In this lesson, we're
3. 0:17going to have a look at how long your
4. 0:19paragraph should be for your IELTS
5. 0:21writing task two essay. The length of
6. 0:25each paragraph does play an important
7. 0:27role in your band score and it's in the
8. 0:31marking criterion of task response which
9. 0:34counts for 25% of your marks that this
10. 0:36plays an important role. So we're going
11. 0:39to have a look at how long your
12. 0:41paragraph should be in terms of words
13. 0:44and sentences for a four paragraph
14. 0:48essay. Then for a five paragraph essay,
15. 0:52you are not going to have or you
16. 0:55shouldn't have an essay that is less
17. 0:58than four paragraphs or more than five.
18. 1:01And then we'll have a look at the
19. 1:02biggest mistake that people make when it
20. 1:04comes to the balance of those
21. 1:07paragraphs. And of course, I'll show you
22. 1:10where to find some model essays so that
23. 1:11you can review everything that we talk
24. 1:13about today. Randy, yes, this lesson is
25. 1:16suitable for people preparing for the
26. 1:19academic IELTS test and the general
27. 1:21training IELTS test. All my lessons for
28. 1:23writing task two are suitable for both.
29. 1:26Let's have a look at a four paragraph
30. 1:29essay. Now, you will have an
31. 1:31introduction, body paragraph 1, body
32. 1:33paragraph 2, and a conclusion. Now, most
33. 1:37essays will be between 270 and 290
34. 1:41words. It is not recommended to write
35. 1:44less because if you're aiming for a good
36. 1:46score, you do need to extend and develop
37. 1:49those ideas. So, you need more words.
38. 1:52But writing more than 290 is not
39. 1:56necessary if you're aiming for a high
40. 1:58score. More isn't necessarily better.
41. 2:02Now, even if you're aiming for a band
42. 2:04score nine, 290 words is still enough
43. 2:07for you to extend your ideas
44. 2:09sufficiently to get that high score.
45. 2:13Now, obviously, if you do write more,
46. 2:15it's not a problem. If your ideas are
47. 2:19extremely focused and relevant and you
48. 2:23do not produce many grammar or
49. 2:24vocabulary mistakes, then writing a
50. 2:27little bit more is okay, but generally
51. 2:29speaking, it isn't required. So on
52. 2:32average your essay will be about 280
53. 2:35words. Now the introduction, the
54. 2:38introduction will always have two
55. 2:40sentences. There'll be a background
56. 2:42statement and a thesis statement.
57. 2:44Writing more does not increase your
58. 2:48score. It's not required in IELTS.
59. 2:51And these essays are specific to IELTS.
60. 2:55They are not academic essays for college
61. 2:57or university. These are specifically
62. 3:01designed essays for IELTS and two
63. 3:04sentences is enough even for band score
64. 3:07nine.
65. 3:08Now the length of those sentences
66. 3:11depends. It really depends on how much
67. 3:13information you need to put into your
68. 3:14background statement and your thesis
69. 3:16statement. Now on average it will
70. 3:19probably come to about 50 words. So
71. 3:22that's about 25 words per sentence for
72. 3:25the background and thesis. But it's also
73. 3:28very possible that you will write more
74. 3:30maybe up to 60 or less about 40. So
75. 3:34let's put it at 50 for now.
76. 3:37Now we're going to jump to the
77. 3:38conclusion. [laughter]
78. 3:39Now the reason I'm jumping straight to
79. 3:41the conclusion is because the
80. 3:42introduction and the conclusion are both
81. 3:45very functional paragraphs. That means
82. 3:48they play a very vital role. But
83. 3:52extending them and focusing on them more
84. 3:55and developing them more doesn't
85. 3:57actually increase your band score. They
86. 4:00are functional. Once they have performed
87. 4:03their role, that's all you need to do
88. 4:05with them. So the conclusion is normally
89. 4:08just one sentence. That's actually all
90. 4:10you need. Now writing more, obviously
91. 4:13you might want to add another sentence,
92. 4:15but I will say it doesn't actually
93. 4:18increase your score to do so. Now,
94. 4:21normally again, we'll presume that
95. 4:23that's about 25 words in length, but
96. 4:26yes, it could go up to 30. It could go
97. 4:27even go up to 35. But please be careful
98. 4:31writing very long, complex sentences. If
99. 4:33your grammar is not strong, it would be
100. 4:34better to divide that into two
101. 4:36sentences. The more mistakes you make,
102. 4:39the lower your score goes. So, do be
103. 4:42careful with that. So, let's have a look
104. 4:44at those body paragraphs. As you can
105. 4:46see, you've got about 105 and 105 words
106. 4:49for each of the body paragraphs. This
107. 4:51means the focus of your writing is going
108. 4:53to be on those body paragraphs. Your aim
109. 4:56is to develop the main ideas that you're
110. 4:59presenting. So to develop and extend
111. 5:03them and that is what you are focusing
112. 5:05on for the body paragraphs. So they are
113. 5:09significantly longer than the
114. 5:12introduction or conclusion.
115. 5:14And on the whole, depending on the
116. 5:16length of your sentences, let's imagine
117. 5:18that the average sentence is about 20
118. 5:20words. Might be more, might be less, but
119. 5:23you're looking at about four to six
120. 5:25sentences for each of the body
121. 5:28paragraphs. So, when it comes to the
122. 5:30number of sentences, as you can see,
123. 5:33it's actually between 11 and 15
124. 5:36sentences. So, on average, we're looking
125. 5:38at about 13 sentences for your essay.
126. 5:42Now, that's not very long. Not at all.
127. 5:45It's actually quite a simple essay on
128. 5:48the whole. Now, let's have a look at
129. 5:50that five paragraph essay. The
130. 5:52introduction and the conclusion for the
131. 5:55five paragraph essay don't change. Their
132. 5:59function remains the same and their
133. 6:01length remains the same. So, the
134. 6:03difference will only be in those body
135. 6:06paragraphs.
136. 6:07Now the first body paragraph as you see
137. 6:10it's got 70 words and three to four
138. 6:13sentences. And if you look at the second
139. 6:15and the third body paragraph exactly the
140. 6:18same. So when it comes to the total
141. 6:20we're looking at let's say on average
142. 6:22about 13 to 15 sentences again.
143. 6:26So a very short essay. Now, let's have a
144. 6:30look at the biggest mistake that people
145. 6:31make with the balance of their
146. 6:33paragraphs and how that impacts your
147. 6:36score for task response. And this is the
148. 6:40type of mistake that I'm talking about.
149. 6:43Now, what the examiner notices here,
150. 6:46this is before he or she even reads one
151. 6:51word of your essay. The examiner will
152. 6:54notice immediately
153. 6:57that when it comes to the body
154. 6:58paragraphs which contain main points
155. 7:02that have been developed
156. 7:04that one of the main points is
157. 7:08underdeveloped.
158. 7:12These body paragraphs need to be the
159. 7:16same length so that each main point
160. 7:19inside that body paragraph is
161. 7:22welldeveloped.
162. 7:24Having a main point that is not
163. 7:28sufficiently developed
164. 7:30will limit your chances, almost prevent
165. 7:34your chances of getting a band score
166. 7:37seven in task response because the
167. 7:40actual marking criteria require you to
168. 7:44sufficiently develop each main point to
169. 7:49get a band score seven in task response.
170. 7:53So you can see that this candidate has
171. 7:55spent a lot of time and effort focusing
172. 7:59on their introduction which doesn't help
173. 8:02their band score and then not enough
174. 8:05time developing their main points
175. 8:07sufficiently which is necessary for a
176. 8:11good band score. So that is an immediate
177. 8:16problem and as I said you can see it
178. 8:19before you even look at any words.
179. 8:22So, you need to make sure that your
180. 8:25essay is properly balanced. So, here
181. 8:28we've got an example of how it should
182. 8:31look. You've got the introduction up at
183. 8:34the top, which is of limited length, but
184. 8:38it is longer than the conclusion,
185. 8:41and the introduction is shorter than the
186. 8:44body paragraphs.
187. 8:46And each body paragraph is sufficiently
188. 8:50developed.
189. 8:52And that is what your essay should look
190. 8:54like. That is what you need to be aiming
191. 8:56for. So let's see what the balance
192. 8:58should look like for a four paragraph
193. 9:00essay. I want you to fix the image in
194. 9:03your mind so that you're very clear
195. 9:04about this. It's a very easy mistake to
196. 9:07make and it does impact your band score.
197. 9:10So, as you see with the four paragraph
198. 9:13essay, when there are only two body
199. 9:15paragraphs, they're really quite
200. 9:17extended in comparison to the
201. 9:20introduction and conclusion, which still
202. 9:22remain quite short and functional. And I
203. 9:26hope you realize also that when it comes
204. 9:29to planning your essay,
205. 9:32you now realize where the focus of your
206. 9:34planning needs to be
207. 9:37because those supporting points that
208. 9:40will help you extend these body
209. 9:42paragraphs
210. 9:44need to be planned. Not just the main
211. 9:47point, but the supporting points as
212. 9:49well. And once you realize that, you
213. 9:51will find it much easier and you will
214. 9:54find yourself more focused and
215. 9:56clear-minded when it comes to actually
216. 9:58writing your essay. Now, for most of
217. 10:02you, this test is an investment, an
218. 10:06investment of your time and an
219. 10:07investment of your money or your future.
220. 10:11And it's very important that if you're
221. 10:12going to invest in something that you do
222. 10:14understand it fully. You do need to
223. 10:17understand the marking criteria and you
224. 10:19do need to understand the requirements
225. 10:20of each of the marking criteria for the
226. 10:23band score that you're aiming for. So
227. 10:27the fact that these body paragraphs need
228. 10:29to be sufficiently developed and equally
229. 10:32developed is something you ought to know
230. 10:34before you even book your test. And if
231. 10:37you're not sure about these details,
232. 10:40then you need to learn about them. Uh
233. 10:42now, of course, it's all free on my
234. 10:44website. I mean, I built IELTS Liz for
235. 10:47this purpose so that you could access
236. 10:49all this information for free. So I'll
237. 10:52put in a pinned comment uh below the
238. 10:54video on YouTube links uh to marking
239. 10:58criteria and how you can improve your
240. 11:01band score in relation to that and also
241. 11:04to model essays because now you
242. 11:07understand that when you look at model
243. 11:09essays there are many aspects that you
244. 11:11need to pay attention to and it includes
245. 11:13the length of the paragraphs. There are
246. 11:16all kinds of things that you should
247. 11:18notice when you review model essays so
248. 11:21that you can learn at home. Now, I know
249. 11:24there are many model essays online and
250. 11:27that's one of the reasons why it gets
251. 11:28confusing. A model essay is actually
252. 11:31there to learn from. It's there as a
253. 11:34guide for you. But that means it has to
254. 11:37be written with an understanding of the
255. 11:40marking criteria, with an understanding
256. 11:42of the requirements of the band score
257. 11:44and with the ability to actually teach
258. 11:46those things and illustrate them in a
259. 11:49model that is safe for everyone to use
260. 11:52even from band score six right the way
261. 11:54up to band score 9. Now I know what
262. 11:57you're going to ask me. You're going to
263. 11:58ask me whether the balance of paragraphs
264. 12:01is the same for IELTS writing task one.
265. 12:04Well, for the academic test, the task
266. 12:07one is going to be a report. And for the
267. 12:10general training test, it's a letter.
268. 12:13And I will tell you that the balance of
269. 12:15paragraphs is different. And actually,
270. 12:17it's much more flexible. There's quite a
271. 12:20variation in fact. So again, you now are
272. 12:23aware of this. And when you go to have a
273. 12:26look, again, you'll find all the model
274. 12:28answers on my website. When you go to
275. 12:30have a look, then pay attention to those
276. 12:33things. So, I hope you realize now it's
277. 12:37not a complicated essay really. It
278. 12:40isn't. It's actually one of the most
279. 12:42simple essays that you can write. You
280. 12:45are aiming for about 13 sentences.
281. 12:48That's all. Well, I hope you found this
282. 12:50short video useful and I will see you
283. 12:54again in the next video or over on
284. 12:56iels.com.
285. 12:57See you soon. Bye. [music]
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