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By David Park

Avoiding penalties on

IELTS essaysA IELTS student sent me this query about IELTS

(International English Language Testing System):

Whats the maximum score an IELTS essay can lose if a

test taker develops an essay in a way thats different from

what the examiner expects? This is my reply:

Im not exactly sure what you mean by your question. Areyou asking whether theres a marking penalty if the

overall view given by the candidate is very different from

the personal view of the examiner? If you are, then the

answer is that it makes absolutely no difference at all.

Task 2 of the IELTS writing test requires candidates to

develop a clear position in response to a question orstatement given in the essay question. Here, the word

position means a point of view or attitude on a certain

question.

Candidates are assessed on their ability to present their

overall position clearly, and on how well that position is

explained through supporting ideas and examples. Based

on the examiners assessment, the candidates essay is

given a score from 1 to 9 for Task Response (one of the

four areas the examiner assesses).

Assessment processTo decide the score for Task Response, the examinerconsiders how fully and appropriately the candidate has

answered the essay question. In particular, the examiner

considers:

How clear and conclusive the candidates overallposition is.

For example, the essay question might ask the testtaker to say whether the sale of cigarettes should be

made illegal or not. The candidate might simply

conclude the essay with the statement that there are

advantages and disadvantages to making the sale of

cigarettes illegal. A low score would be given for

Task Response as the candidate has not given a clear

conclusion as to whether cigarette sales should be

prohibited.

How well the candidate has developed and supportedthe ideas given in the essay.

Candidates need to make sure they have enough

ideas to support their overall position. Those ideas

should be specific and clearly explained, which

means that there should be sufficient examples to

illustrate the main points.

How relevant the candidates ideas are to the essayquestion.

A high score is given if all of the candidates ideas are

relevant to the essay question. Conversely, a low score

is given if the ideas are only partly relevant, or even

totally unrelated, to the question.

Its certainly possible for a candidate to get the highest

band score of 9 for Task Response even if the examiner

holds an opposing view.

For instance, the candidate might write an essay that

argues that cigarette sales should not be prohibited.

However, the examiner might strongly believe cigarettes

should be banned. This difference in views will have no

effect on the score given to the essay. Instead, its the waythat the test taker has presented and justified his or heroverall position that is important.

In other words, the test taker can have a position that is

not the same as the examiners personal position on the

matter being discussed in the essay.

Scoring lossesLets consider now the scoring penalties an IELTS essaycan get. Theres a range of penalties, and they depend on

the type of error that is involved.

Here are some penalties Ive selected from the public

version of the essay-scoring scheme:

Band 5 (for Task Response): the essay only partiallyaddresses the task.

For example, the question might ask the candidate to

not only say whether cigarettes should be banned, but

also suggest some other ways to reduce the problems

caused by smoking.

An essay would be penalised if it answers the firstpart of the question (i.e., should the sale of cigarettes

be banned) but doesnt offer any other solutions.

Band 5 (for Coherence and Cohesion): the essaydoesnt use paragraphs, or paragraphing is inadequate.

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This means that the answer isnt written in the style

of an essay, with an introduction, two or three body

paragraphs, and a closing paragraph.

Band 4 (for Task Response): the answer is tangential.Here, the word tangential means of little

relevance. This means that the answer presents an

argument thats only slightly related to the essayquestion.

As an example, a candidate might start writing about

the problems caused by smoking cigarettes, but then

go on to write about the problems caused by alcohol

and illegal drugs.

Band 3 (for Task Response): the essay has fewideas, or the ideas are largely undeveloped or

irrelevant.

To illustrate, the answer might give very few, or very

weak, reasons for banning cigarettes, such as it will

reduce air pollution in cities. (Urban air pollution iscaused by the emissions from vehicles and factories,

but not cigarette smoking.)

Band 1 (for Task Response): the answer is totallyunrelated to the essay question.

This score might be given if the candidate writesabout the need to increase the salaries of doctors and

nurses at government hospitals, rather than about the

banning of cigarettes.

Other factorsOther factors can affect the final score. For example:

Candidates are assessed on how well their ideas areorganised as well as the accuracy of the language

(i.e., their grammar and vocabulary) they use.

Candidates are expected to write at least 250 words,and shorter answers are penalised.

Although essays arent penalised if theyre longer,

candidates who write a very long answer may not

have enough time left to check their writing.

As well, because they need to write faster, they may

make careless errors, or some ideas may not be

relevant to the question.

Test takers should not copy phrasing given in thequestion paper as copied phrasing is not assessed.

Candidates should paraphrase the question paperwording to avoid a penalty for being underlength.

Clearly, to achieve a good score, test takers need to

understand the scoring scheme. Thats why I encourage

test takers to do IELTS preparation courses before taking

the exam. Courses run by teachers who are experts in the

IELTS exam are obviously the best choice.

Visit http://tinyurl.com/4uddkz to see the public version of

the essay scoring scheme.

David Park designs & teaches IELTS courses for individuals & groups.

He was contracted by the British Council to provide this article.

IELTS is owned by the British Council (known in China as the Cultural and Education Section

of the British Embassy/Consulates-General), Cambridge ESOL & IDP: IELTS Australia.

To register for IELTS in China, contact http://IELTS.etest.net.cn/