Tips for Scoring Well on Lexical Resource
1. Practice Paraphrasing
As noted above, you must paraphrase the language from the visuals or question prompt as much as possible in your Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2 responses. Taking large chunks of language directly from the question and visual will definitely lower your score. Whenever you practice a Writing Task 1 or Task 2 response, make sure to study any example essays included in your practice materials. Take note of how the author paraphrases the language in the question prompt and compares it to your own paraphrases. By doing this, you can learn a lot of helpful words and phrases.
2. Avoid Redundancy
A second tip to boost your Lexical Resource score is to focus on avoiding redundancy in your writing. Redundancy happens when you use the same words or phrases over and over again; however, there will be some key terms that you can’t avoid. For example, in our example response found in our post on vocabulary for the IELTS graph essay, it was difficult to avoid the phrases “computer ownership” and “education level.” Other words are much easier to replace with synonyms. For instance, in Academic Task 1 responses, you will often write about numbers that “increase” or “decrease.” There are many synonyms for these words (be sure to check out the video for more vocabulary words):
Rise – Fall
Go up – Go down
Jump – Decline
Spike – Dip
Skyrocket – Plummet
If you notice that you’re using the same words again and again as you practice writing Academic Task 1 or Task 2 responses, work on building your knowledge of synonyms and paraphrases. A thesaurus is a handy tool.
However, if at all possible, try to get feedback about the new words you use from a native English speaker. Often, the synonyms you find will have a slightly different meaning or use from the word you’re trying to replace. As a general rule, you should always choose a word that you know to be correct over one that you don’t know well.
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