How the examiner count the words of an essay: IELTS writing task 2
In the IELTS writing task 2 the minimum word limit is of 250 words to be completed in 40 minutes by the aspirant and if this counting decreased your writing band scores will also decrease. There are some occasions when the aspirant scores less because of not touching the word limit but the student says that he has stretched his content for 250 words. Than where is the problem, it’s in the counting strategies as examiner don’t count words as you do they have some specific criteria to do so. Today we will check how the examiner counts the words of an essay.
Tip 1: Contractions in the word count
Contractions in formal writing are considered a bad academic style and your essay should always be in academic style. Besides, the other problem with a contraction (it’s, don’t, can’t) is only counted as one word, so you will not reach the word limit if writing contractions. Always write the complete word or words. For example –
It’s believed that any one who has visited twenty five countries is likely to have more experience. (15 words)
If you write – It is believed that anyone who has visited twenty five countries is likely to have more experience. (16 words)
Tip 2: Separating words
There are words in English which are written as single word like someone/nobody/anyone etc. and you write it as some one or no body than it will be considered as one single word. Moreover, you will be penalized for misspelling the vocabulary. For example –
It is believed that anyone who has visited twenty five countries is likely to have more experience. (16 words)
Tip 3: Writing numbers as words
Many students write numbers in words to expand their word count for example instead of writing 100 he writes one hundred. Examiner count this as one word. However, this does not mean you should just write numbers – you can use both formats, just bear in mind that it will not influence the word count. The example sentence above could be changed to:
It is believed that anyone who has visited 25 countries is likely to have more experience. (16 words)
What if I write more than the minimum word count?
In IELTS Writing this is a frequently asked question. The answer for this is it’s not bad if you write more but be in limits as we recommend not writing more than 180 for Task 1 and 280 for Task 2. As more you write, more you will show the examiner your errors, thus reducing your overall result. You could also run out of time writing too much. Writing too much also indicates the sign of poor planning resulting deduction in band scores. For more tips for writing click here.
How do I keep an eye on words I have written?
During the IELTS practice tests you must be into the habit of handwriting your essays. You must have come to know that how hard it can be to write continuously for 60 minutes and complete at least 400 words, especially these days when you spend more time on a keyboard than using pen or pencil. By practicing, you’ll get an idea about the average number of lines you need to write to reach your goal of 150 and 250 words on an A4 piece of paper. The average number of words per line is between 8 and 11 depending on your handwriting, so divide your average number of words by 150 (for Task 1) or 250 (for Task 2) to have some idea of how many lines your essay needs to be. For example, if you write 8 words per line, that’s 250 / 8 = 31.25 (32 lines) for Task 2.
