5 Signs Your IELTS Writing Style is Wrong | Five Common Mistakes in IELTS

IELTS Writing Topics Five Signs Your IELTS Writing Style is Wrong

hi there do you think you might be losing points and knives writing because your writing style is wrong or simply inappropriate for IELTS today I will show you five common mistakes about students and you will have to find a CH mistake of course I will give you answers and I will show you how to correct each of them when writing examples for today's I've chosen a common IELTS topic which is education so hopefully, you will get some new ideas about it along the way

Common Mistakes in IELTS Writing

❌ adults who haven't gone to university mostly work in low-skilled jobs 

✅ adults who have not gone to university mostly work in low-skilled jobs 

❌ university education is still considered by many to be the best way to secure a fulfilling job & a decent salary 

✅ university education is still considered by many to be the best way to secure a fulfilling job and a decent salary 

❌ many male students apply for science degrees, e.g. engineering computer science, and mathematics.

✅ many male students apply for science degrees, for example, engineering, computer science, and mathematics.

❌ female students tend to choose social science subjects such as psychology international relations, etc.

✅ female students tend to choose social science subjects such as psychology and international relations.

❌ kids whose parents how a university degree are more likely going to go to university than those whose parents didn't receive high education 

✅ School Children whose parents how a university degree are more likely going to go to university than those whose parents didn't receive high education 

before we start I just want you to know that I have two other Post about improving your IELTS writing style these are 30 words you must avoid and how to improve your writing skills immediately if you haven't seen them yet links will be down below 

ok  let's get started I have our first example ready as far as IELTS examiners are concerned of this sentence contains a stylistic mistake the style is inappropriate can you spot it here is the sentence

❌ adults who haven't gone to university mostly work in low-skilled jobs 

✅ adults who have not gone to university mostly work in low-skilled jobs 

do you know where the mistake is that's the word haven't you should write have not haven't is contraction contractions are informal IELTS writing is a formal exam and you should stick to a more formal style that's a short explanation but saying that I must mention that there is one situation in Knights writing when you could and should use contractions that's  

if you're taking IELTS general training exam and you're writing your task one letter to a friend it would be natural to use contractions when writing a letter to a friend in all other situations avoid contractions here are some other common contractions if you want to see them in more detail please stop here

now I want you to pay attention to those two won't that's a shot for will not and can it is written in one word have not could not are all written separately but cannot is one word okay now let's move on can you see what's wrong here 

❌ some people think that university degrees are losing their value for two reasons high tuition fees lack of skilled jobs 

is it something you could write in your essay the answer is no because it's a list of points in English it's code bullet points bullets like what you haven't done and that's not appropriate for the IELTS exam so you must write four sentences here is how you could do it 

✅ some people think that university degrees are losing their value for two reasons firstly that's a linking word Yushan fees are so high that students often must take a loan to pay for their studies secondly many university graduates cannot find high-skilled jobs for which the degrees are actually required 

as you can see I've used linking words firstly secondly to connect all the sentences we still have two points but we have full sentences and that's good there is another way to do it the first sentence stays as it was but we'll remove words for two reasons we just say some people think that university degrees are losing their value then we use a linking word to introduce our first supporting argument

first of all tuition fees are so high that students often must take a loan to pay for their studies then we use another linking word to introduce another supporting argument moreover many university graduates cannot find high skilled jobs for which their degrees are actually required if you wish to read both examples in more detail please stop here now the main thing to remember here is no bullet points no notes only full sentences here is the next sentence with this tally Tech mistake 

❌ university education is still considered by many to be the best way to secure a fulfilling job & a decent salary 

✅ university education is still considered by many to be the best way to secure a fulfilling job and a decent salary 

can you see the mistake well this time it's quick this sign is the mistake do not use any science in your essays write a fulfilling job and a decent salary

now let's move on to this holistic mistake number four 

❌ many male students apply for science degrees, e.g. engineering computer science, and mathematics.

✅ many male students apply for science degrees, for example, engineering, computer science, and mathematics.

 what is incorrect the abbreviation eg is not appropriate here it means for example and if you're writing your task 2 essay most likely you will use those words but make sure you write them in full many male students apply for science degrees, don't forget commas, 

for example, engineering computer science, and mathematics here is another one 

❌ female students tend to choose social science subjects such as psychology international relations, etc.

✅ female students tend to choose social science subjects such as psychology and international relations.

what's incorrect here the abbreviation, etc that's a Latin word it means and so on and shows that your list is incomplete but that's an abbreviation so don't use it in your essay instead you could drive these female students to tend to choose social science subjects commas such as psychology and international relations that's it here is another one 

❌ kids whose parents how a university degree are more likely going to go to university than those whose parents didn't receive high education 

✅  children whose parents how a university degree are more likely going to go to university than those whose parents didn't receive high education 

what should we change here let's start with the first word kids it's informal it means children so use children in your essay in our example school children but that's not all there is another informal word here Donna Donna means going to and it's extremely informal and used in informal spoken English so never ever use it in your IELTS writing at all so here is how our sentence should be

✅ School Children whose parents how a university degree are more likely going to go to university than those whose parents didn't receive high education 

kids and Donna another the only informal words which are often used in IELTS writing by mistake 

if you want to learn more of them Check This  

if you want to improve your writing style further Check This 

don't ever use Warner in your IELTS writing essays either good luck with your preparation thank you so much

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