IELTSVegaIELTS Writing · 2026
Two tasks, sixty minutes, four marked criteria.
IELTS Writing is scored on Task Achievement/Response, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range & Accuracy. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 toward your band. Pick a task below for the full, worked guide.
The four criteria, and what each one is really measuring
Both tasks are marked on four equally weighted criteria. Most candidates lose marks in the same two, and almost nobody is told which.
Task Achievement (Task 1) / Task Response (Task 2)
Whether you answered the question that was asked, completely, and held one position while doing it.
Where marks go: The most common cap in the whole test. In Task 1 it is a missing overview — no summary of the main trend, so the script cannot pass 6 no matter how well written. In Task 2 it is a position that drifts: agreeing in paragraph two and hedging in paragraph three reads as no position at all.
Coherence & Cohesion
Whether a reader can follow your argument without re-reading, and whether each paragraph carries one idea.
Where marks go: Over-signposting. A Firstly / Moreover / In conclusion scaffold on every sentence is the classic Band 6 signature: it looks organised and reads as memorised. Band 7 cohesion is largely invisible — ideas connect because they follow, not because a connector announces them.
Lexical Resource
Range and precision of vocabulary, including collocation and natural word choice.
Where marks go: Reaching for impressive words instead of right ones. An almost-correct collocation is penalised more than a plain, accurate one, so a thesaurus is the fastest way to lower this score. Range means being able to say a thing several ways, not knowing rare words.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
A mix of sentence structures, with the majority of sentences free of error.
Where marks go: Complex sentences carrying all the errors. Band 7 asks that most sentences be error-free, so three accurate complex sentences beat eight ambitious ones with mistakes. Articles, prepositions and plural agreement account for most of the residual errors at 6.5.
Writing on screen, and the Writing on Paper option
IELTS moved to computer-delivered as the standard during 2026, with the final paper-based date set at 27 June 2026 in most markets, and UKVI IELTS moving to computer-only earlier, on 22 March 2026. For Writing this is the change with the largest practical effect on your band, because it changes how you draft. A typed essay can be restructured in seconds, so the planning-then-revising approach that was expensive on paper is now the cheapest way to lift Coherence and Cohesion. The word counter is on screen, which removes the guesswork that used to cost people the under-length penalty.
If you genuinely think faster with a pen, a Writing on Paper option has launched in selected markets: Reading and Listening run on computer, and you handwrite the Writing component only. It is an option rather than the default and availability varies by test centre, so confirm locally before you book. Handwriting legibility is marked in practice on that route — an examiner cannot award marks for a word they cannot read.
Everything that changed in IELTS in 2026Where to spend your sixty minutes
Task 2 is worth twice Task 1 in the Writing band, which makes the standard time split a direct consequence of the marking, not a convention.
Task 1
20 minOne third of the Writing band · 150 words minimum
Two minutes reading the visual and grouping what it shows, fifteen writing, three checking. Academic candidates describe a chart, graph, table, process or map; General Training candidates write a letter. Both need an accurate opening line and, for Academic, an overview paragraph that states the main pattern without listing numbers.
Task 2
40 minTwo thirds of the Writing band · 250 words minimum
Five minutes planning, thirty writing, five checking. The five minutes of planning is the highest-value time in the whole exam: deciding your position and your two main ideas before you start is what prevents the drifting argument that caps Task Response.
Write Task 2 first if you tend to run out of time. Losing five minutes on Task 1 costs you a third of one task's marks; losing five minutes on Task 2 costs you two thirds of the whole Writing band. The arithmetic is not close.