IELTS writing Tasks 1 & 2: Do I need to write in 'difficult', complex academic language?

ScottsEnglish

I began teaching IELTS back in 1999.  During my years of teaching the IELTS, I have encountered many students who believe that their writing must contain fancy, highfalutin, 'difficult' language. This thinking is wrong.

Clear, easy-to-understand language will score much higher than answers that use complex sentences with 'difficult' words.

Consider this example, where the student is attempting to be overly descriptive:

Overall, in all the countries the women work for more hours than their counterparts.

Rather than impressing the examiner with the use of the word 'counterparts', this would reduce the test-taker's score. The reason is 'counterparts' does not fit in this context. Here is a better version of this sentence:

In all the countries shown, it is quite clear that women work longer hours than men.

Clear and easy-to-understand writing will 'win the day'. There is no need to use complex grammar and 'difficult' words to score high in the IELTS test. Our samples answers at www.scottsenglish.com and writing feedback service will help you to achieve the writing score you require.