Does your brain go blank when you are trying to come up with words in IELTS writing? It happens to most candidates in the exam. Knowing a lot of vocabulary means absolutely nothing. Yes, you read that correctly! What is important though, is being to access all that vocabulary that is in your brain without taking up too much time. When reading the writing of strong writers, you might find that you know all the vocabulary that they are using, but when you are writing yourself, non of that type of vocab comes to your mind.
When you have a weak area, sometimes it's more efficient to focus solely on it. It's not always about studying hard, sometimes you have to study smart in order to progress a lot quicker. Here is a technique that if practised will raise the variety of words you are able to use, and also save a lot of time in the brainstorming and writing phase.
Step 1: Gather as many writing questions as you can (task 1 or 2)
Step 2: Start to brainstorm as many synonyms as you can for the words in the questions.
Step 3: Look for full phrases that you could use to give the same meaning as one word or phrase, and write them down.
Step 4: List as many forms of the words as you can (verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs) for words in the question.
Step 5: Write the words in electronic dictionaries and write only the synonyms that you know and can be used in the same context. Avoid writing any word that you do not know because it might not be possible to use in the same context.
Step 6: Now that you have all the vocabulary and phrases,write an introduction for the question using all that you have written down. You can reword phrases by using different forms of the words.
Step 7: Challenge yourself to writing more introductions for the same question, each time using different vocabulary and grammatical structures
If you continue to practise this technique, you will notice that the more you do, the quicker you will be able to think of words, and the more vocabulary you will be able to come up with. If your weakness is Lexical Resources, there is no need to complete the essay; just focus on the brainstorming of the vocabulary phase, and practicing writing introductions.
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This article on boosting marks for lexical resource in the IELTS Writing test is incredibly insightful. The emphasis on diversifying vocabulary while maintaining accuracy is spot on. Many test-takers overlook the importance of using synonyms and varied sentence structures, often sticking to familiar words which can limit their scores. The examples provided are practical and can be easily incorporated into one’s writing practice.
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