If you are reading this article, trust me you are one of the most sorted person who visit this blog. Normally people search to score band 9 regardless of their skillset and most importantly they fail to understand whether do they really need to score that much or not.

Band 6 is actually a satisfactory score where many educational institutes & Provinces accept this level for various applications.

Scoring Band 6 in IELTS Writing

There will be 2 tasks in this section :

• Letter (General Training) / Report Writing (Academic)
• Essay (Any topic)

IELTS have a well defined reference for assessing the test takers.

Criteria for Band 6 & How to achieve it

Source – IELTS Band Descriptors

Evaluation is based on four different parameters and to achieve maximum score, you have to excel in all aspects. Based on your response the examiner checks for the parameters as defined in their Band descriptors. Let us understand them with examples :

Assessment Parameter 1 : Task Achievement

Target :

All bullet points are covered and adequately highlighted. The purpose is generally clear. There may be minor inconsistencies in tone.

How to achieve :

For both Task 1 & Task 2, the questions structure consists of multiple statements. Meaning, whatever your topic is, you will see multiple key points making one complete question. You need to cover all the bullet points and address them in your task response with minor inconsistency in tone.

Example :

Essay Question : 

Doctors recommend that older people exercise regularly. However, many of them do not get enough exercise.

• What are the reasons?
• What can be done to encourage them to exercise more?

Effective Solution:

Here you see that query is not just one, but is mentioning different points. It states :

1. A Fact
2. Reasons
3. Solution.

In order to satisy the set criteria and score full marks for “Task Achievement“, you have to write points for all key points of the question. But as your target is band 6, you can try to write complete response but still if there is minor inconsistency that is acceptable. You will be able to achieve your desired band.

Allowed mistakes

You write more elaborated for one point and just mention very few details for the second point. This is acceptable for band 6.

Assessment Parameter 2 : Coherence & Cohesion

Target :

• Information and ideas are generally arranged coherently and there is a clear overall progression.
• Cohesive devices are used to some good effect but cohesion within and/or between sentences may be faulty or mechanical due to misuse, overuse, or omission.

How to achieve :

Essay and the letter have to be coherent and shoud use cohesive devices. Both of them need a slightly different approach for the structure but the main gist is same in order to achieve the target. Here is what you can do :

• Use Clear Topic Sentences – Whether you right introductory paragraph or the main one, you need to be clear so that the examiner understands that you are sticking to the topic. As you are targeting band 6, you can still accept overusing same phrase. Also, mechanical structure errors are acceptable
• Use Transitional Phrases – This is a very important point to add. Using phrases like “For example”, “In order to”, “therefore”, “In addition to” will definitely help you gain good marks.
• Maintain a Logical Flow of Content – Make sure your statements are in order and paragraphs are organised logically. You cannot write conclusion in second paragraph and give example in the next one.

Example : 

Your sentence can technically mean correct, but they are organised with mecahnical faults. Consider below statement.   

He is a troublesome human, and consequently, I do not associate with him. Furthermore, I have a disrespect hate to him.

How you can use transition and create logic flow to make it score higher :

He is a bad boy. He is not my friend. I hate him

The statement with the error uses the correct words but arranged in a weird manner. That can still let you achieve band 6 as the technical meaning is clear with the statement.

Here is one article that you can read to enhance your writing skills (Click Here)

Assessment Parameter 3 : Lexical Resource

• The resource is generally adequate and appropriate for the task.
• The meaning is generally clear in spite of a rather restricted range or a lack of precision in word choice.
• If the writer is a risk-taker, there will be a wider range of vocabulary used but higher degrees of inaccuracy or inappropriacy.

How to achieve : 

Use range of words and avoid repetition. Also as you are targeting band 6, your wrong choice of words is acceptable till it conveys the correct meaning.Let us consider this with example : 

Example :

Let us consider the same example as that of previous paragraph :

Statement that get you band 6 :He is a bad boy and that is why he is not my friend. Moreover, I hate him.

Allowed mistakes : 

Let me explain this with the same example. You may say naughty guy instead of bad boy. That is more informal but is technically correct.

Assessment Parameter 4 : Grammatical Range & Accuracy

• A mix of simple and complex sentence forms is used but flexibility is limited.
• Examples of more complex structures are not marked by the same level of accuracy as in simple structures.   
• Errors in grammar and punctuation occur, but rarely impede communication.

How to achieve : 

• Complex Sentence – Usage of complex sentences is very important. Complex sentences are 2 simple sentences that are dependent on each other for explaining the meaning.
  • I went to store because I was hungry. In this sentence 2 simple sentences are combined to give a meaningful statement. This is perfect usage of complex sentence.
• Appropriate usage of Comma – If you make sentences and include comma appropriately, you can achieve good score in Grammar.

Example : 

Although their house is over there, we decided to walk here.

The above sentence uses complex structure with appropriate placement of comma.

Allowed mistakes :

You can spell their / there incorrectly. Like you could say Although there house is over their. This is not correct but it clearly tells that you know what you mean. It is just you are confused while writing the spellings.

Final Thoughts

Band 6 in IELTS General Test Writing is pretty easy if you :

• Write for complete task request with minor thought deviations.
• Make organised structure of the content.
• Use moderate level vocabulary.
• Minor errors in grammar that will not change the meaning of the statements.

Also Read : Is it Good or bad to use slangs in your IELTS speaking ?