IELTS Writing resources, links, apps, wordlists and podcasts
Please let me know in the comments if you find anything useful that you think I should add.
Writing Skills
An A-Z of Writing Skills (click on the areas you need to practise).
Improve Your Writing – Bristol University checklist with exercises
EAP Foundation takes you through different aspects of Academic Writing, like essay types, style and paraphrasing.
Writebetter – A chrome extension to help you write better!
British Council Learn English Teens has excellent Task 1 and 2 colour-coded models like this For/Against essay about the internet.
Write and Improve uses technology developed at the University of Cambridge to mark your writing. The first one is free.
Virtual Writing Tutor checks your writing for free.
The UEFAP site (Using English for Academic Purposes) looks old-fashioned, but it still provides basic and useful information e.g. how to use signal words and different types of cohesion.
Phraseum helps you with sentence structure – this example gives you lots of expressions for informal letter writing (General Training).
Ways to build your Vocabulary for Writing
The Academic Word List(AWL) – PDF version and sublists
Academic Word List – with all forms (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)
Compact version of the Academic Word List – easy to print off and carry around!
Academic Word List Quizzes – old-fashioned website but the quizzes work!
Road to Grammar also has a nice quiz using words from the AWL.
Academic Word List Practice Exercises – another good place to practice.
Academic Phrase Bank – from Manchester University.
Phrasal Verbs and Formal synonyms
A-Z of formal and informal synonyms – the Plain English Campaign
My own list of irregular academic word forms with practice exercises
Collocations
List of collocations – 42 pages of academic collocations in a PDF
50 Useful Academic collocations
Collocation Checker – Just the word
SKELL – helps you find words that go together and synonyms
Collocations practice with different topics
Find the word you need with Netspeak – read the instructions first!
English Club has a fantastic A – Z of collocations!
Spelling and Punctuation
A simple guide and ‘Brushing up’ workbook for spelling rules
Simple punctuation guide
Useful sites for getting ideas for Writing
Scientific American A useful podcast with 1-minute IELTS-style articles
Other useful apps and websites
- Check out Word Hippo – a kind of thesaurus an SO much more
- Ludwig guru – ‘a search engine that helps you write better English by giving you contextualised examples from reliable sources’.
- Lexico does something similar – it gives you lots of sentences with the word in context so you can see how it’s used (not just the meaning).
- IELTS Made Easier – my own podcast, specifically aimed at helping you develop your skills in all aspect of IELTS
Help with grammar
- The well-known coursebook, English File, has its own site with lots of graded grammar practice
- This German site gives clear examples and useful exercises (it’s not in German though, don’t worry!)
- Confusing words, common errors (and LOTS more) on the same German site!
- Road to Grammar – another well-organised site with lots of practice of different language items. Click here for IELTS-specific practice.
- English Club has a great grammar section with lots of quizzes.
