Do you know what an IELTS Writing Band Score 4, 6 and 8 looks like?

ScottsEnglish · June 2016

Every student who sits the IELTS should have a good idea of what score a particular piece of writing should get - do you?

If you read a student's Task 2 answer, do you know, approximately, what their score would be?

Here are the descriptions of 3 band scores for Writing Task 2. Study them carefully.

Band 4

you use only ‘basic’ vocabulary which is often repeated
you use a limited range of grammar and make a lot of mistakes
you make frequent spelling mistakes
your mistakes make it hard to understand your meaning
your ideas are clear but there is lot of repetition of words

Band 6

you organised your information and ideas clearly
you used a good range of vocabulary
you used a mix of simple and complex sentences
you tried to use some ‘less common’ words but made some mistakes
your errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling did not stop the reader from understanding your meaning

Band 8

you used a wide range of vocabulary fluently and suitably
you accurately used a wide range of vocabulary
you only made a few grammar mistakes
you skilfully used uncommon vocabulary with only
occasional mistakes
you hardly made any spelling mistakes

Now, read the following three excerpts (paragraphs 1 & 2) from three different students and decide on their score - Band 4, 6, or 8.

The question was:

Shopping online has become more popular than shopping at a regular shopping centre.
Is this a positive or negative development?

Band Score?	Extract of Student Essay
1	Around the world, shopping online has become a normal activity for many people. Some feel that this tendency may seriously affect the local retail shops while others are enjoying the benefit of shopping from the comfort of their homes. I think shopping on the internet is a positive option – especially for those with an illness, disability and who are very busy normally working. Certainly, online sales have been competing with the traditional shops in a very unfair way. Because online shops can get better prices due the absence of infrastructure and the lower amount of employees needed to develop the enterprise. As a result many consumers choose this way of shopping without realising how badly are affecting the local community.
2	Nowadays, many people will be buying thing in online. For some people is convience, also might be cheaper than shopping centre. This essay will be dicuss the number of people shopping online today there’s advantages or disadvantages. Firstly, how often people will buy thing in online? I can tell you the true thing is a lot of people are buying thing nowadays, Such as clothes, shoes, caps and etc. Therefore, you’re not go to shopping centre to buy stuff. You can buy it in online whatever you want and the online shop payment is more easier to pay rather than you going to the mall, online shop just need your credit card that all.
3	Nowadays, the topic about online shopping are being discussed around the world. Some feel that it is the best way to buy products while others disagree. In my opinion online shopping has more benefits than negatives. It is true that there are some negative effects when we are shopping online such as we cannot personally check the item before we buy it. If there are some problems on the products that we buy we can’t give it back to the seller.

Excerpt 1: band score 8
Excerpt 2: band score 4
Excerpt 3: band score 6