The 4 most popular IELTS Writing books in the IELTS exam

Writing is always considered one of the more challenging skills in the IELTS exam. Currently, there are various types of IELTS Writing books available for students who want to deepen their writing skills. Today, PREP will recommend the 4 best IELTS Writing books for you to practice and achieve your desired band score!

I. Barron’s Writing For The IELTS

1. Overview

Barron's Writing For The IELTS is the best book for IELTS Writing that provides candidates with fundamental knowledge. Specifically, it includes:

• Detailed content of IELTS Writing Task 1 & Task 2.
• Guidance on solving different types of questions and prompts.
• Logical thinking, organizing and developing ideas to write relevant and coherent essays.
• Important sentence structures to achieve a good Writing score.

2. Suitable learners

This IELTS Writing book is suitable for students who already have a basic understanding of the English language. Especially for those at the IELTS level of 3.0 - 3.5, this IELTS Writing book will provide all the necessary content to become familiar with IELTS Writing.

3. Advantages

• Barron's Writing For The IELTS provides detailed instructions from the beginning, including formats and assessment criteria used by IELTS Writing examiners.
• It guides logical thinking and essay-writing methods to ensure coherence and relevance to the given task.
• It provides a specific learning path, helping learners avoid confusion when using this IELTS Writing book.
• It offers a variety of sentence structures and sample essays for reference.
• The exercises are divided into manageable sections, suitable for learners with limited time.

4. Disadvantages

• Barron's Writing For The IELTS is entirely written in English.
• This IELTS Writing book mainly focuses on teaching skills and does not cover specific topics in Task 2.

5. Study Guide

To make the most of this IELTS Writing book, you should follow these study guidelines while studying in a classroom or self-studying:

• Follow the plan outlined in thhis IELTS Writing book to achieve your desired band score within the designated timeframe. Specifically, in the Task Achievement/Task Response chapter, make sure to complete all three steps: planning, writing, and revising.
• Pay close attention to clear and coherent essay writing in chapters 2-5.
• Practice writing carefully in the Move Writing section and try to write within the time limit specified in the official IELTS Writing exam.

To fully benefit from the IELTS Writing books, it is advisable not only to take notes on the content but also to seek assistance from experienced teachers to improve your writing. At prepedu.com, you can have your writing essays thoroughly reviewed and graded by top-notch teachers. Follow these four steps to make the most of it:

• Step 1: Skim through the student's essay to check if the topic is relevant, if the essay is coherent and covers all the points.
• Step 2: Go into the details of the essay to review vocabulary, coherence, and grammar errors. If there are mistakes, provide thorough explanations for the student's understanding.
• Step 3: Assign a band score and provide specific feedback based on the Band Descriptors.
• Step 4: Provide an appropriate action plan based on the student's current score level.

II. IELTS Advantage Writing Skills

1. Overview

The IELTS Advantage Writing Skills book is divided into 9 units: the first 6 units provide strategies for dealing with essay tasks in Task 2, and the remaining 3 units analyze charts in Task 1. 

Each unit plays a different role in developing the learner's writing skills, such as: Unit 3 - IELTS Grammar exercises, Unit 4 - Academic vocabulary for writing, Unit 5 - Collocation and chunks, etc.

2. Suitable learners

This IELTS Writing book is suitable for candidates who are at a band score of 5.5+ and aim to achieve a band score of 6.5-7.0 or higher. If guided by a teacher, using this IELTS Writing book can be more effective.

3. Advantages

• This IELTS Writing book provides rich and diverse knowledge content and a wide range of exercises on various topics.
• It offers many sample essays with high band scores, along with vocabulary and structures to help learners learn.
• The evaluation and correction of sample essays in thhis IELTS Writing book are quite specific, allowing learners to derive necessary experience.

4. Disadvantages

• The table of contents is brief, only containing section headings without specific summaries of the content in each section.
• This IELTS Writing book does not provide guidance on how to write Two-part Questions in Task 2.

5. Study Guide

• To effectively use the IELTS Advantage Writing Skills book, firstly, learners should prepare a notebook to take notes on all grammar topics, structures, and vocabulary.
• Since the lesson content in this IELTS Writing book is arranged in a sequential manner, it is important to study from the first unit to the last unit. Additionally, it is recommended not to write the answers directly in this IELTS Writing book but to do them in a separate notebook for review purposes.
• Use a highlighter pen to underline important phrases, sentence structures, and expressions in the sample essays, and take notes in the notebook.
• It is important to regularly practice writing practice questions, ideally spending about 40 minutes each day.

III. IELTS Write Right

1. Overview

The IELTS Write Right book provides guidance on how to write essays with a standard and clear structure. Each section for Task 1 and Task 2 is instructed on how to write in a complete and effective manner. In particular, this IELTS Writing book also includes sample essays at different levels for comparison, ranging from band 5.0 to band 7+. This helps learners visualize ways to improve vocabulary usage and employ better grammar.

2. Suitable learners

This IELTS Writing book is intended for learners with a band score of 5.0 or higher. Furthermore, as the IELTS Write Right book is written in English, learners should have a basic knowledge of the language.

3. Advantages

• It includes a wide range of sample essays with specific vocabulary analysis. Moreover, the IELTS Write Right book lists high-band and low-band vocabulary, providing a more realistic perspective on vocabulary usage in IELTS Writing.
• Each essay is followed by exercises to practice the vocabulary learned from the sample essay.
• The sample essays in this IELTS Writing book also provide analysis of sentence structures, comparing them at different band levels for reference.

4. Disadvantages 

• This IELTS Writing book is written entirely in English, so there is no Vietnamese translation for the vocabulary.
• It lacks detailed explanations and analysis for learners to fully understand the differences between sample essays at different levels.

5. Study guide

• Read the overview section at the beginning of this IELTS Writing book before using it. The introduction helps learners understand the criteria and scoring methods used by examiners for the Writing section.
• Practice writing essays based on the prompts provided in the IELTS Write Right book. Initially, you may want to cover the sample essays and attempt to write a complete essay on your own to assess your current skills.
• Compare your essay with the sample essays after writing. Read both samples and analyze why one essay is at a band score of 5+ while another is at a band score of 9+. Then, reread your own essay to consider how you can incorporate the sentence structures and vocabulary from the band 9+ sample while avoiding the errors in the band 5+ sample.

IV. Academic Writing for IELTS by Sam McCarter

1. Overview

This IELTS Writing book not only provides writing exercises but also guides on how to write and describe each question type. This helps learners to write more focused and logical essays. The book, Academic Writing for IELTS, offers academic knowledge and vocabulary related to Writing skills. 

The structure of this IELTS Writing book is divided into 4 sections:

• Part 1 - IELTS Writing Task 1 Practice (20 exercises)
• Part 2 - IELTS Writing Task 2 Practice (25 exercises)
• Part 3 - Checking and editing (20 exercises)
• Part 4 - IELTS Writing Practice test (10 tests)
• Part 5 - Answer key for the exercises in Part 4

2. Suitable learners

This IELTS Writing book is suitable for learners at a Writing level of around 5.0 or an overall band score of 6.0+. By following the book's study plan, learners can achieve a band score of 6.5-7.0 in Writing.

3. Advantages

• This IELTS Writing book provides detailed guidance on how to write and express ideas for common question types in the Writing section.
• The exercises help learners understand how to write a complete Writing essay.

4. Disadvantages

• For Task 1, there is no specific instruction on how to analyze the information, and only a few sample essays are provided for Writing Task 1.
• For Task 2, this IELTS Writing book does not provide ideas for writing but focuses on expressing ideas.
• This IELTS Writing book does not list specific vocabulary for the sample essays.
• It does not cover basic grammar knowledge for IELTS Writing.

5. Study guide

• Since the current version of this IELTS Writing book is only available as a scanned copy, it might be a bit challenging to read. Therefore, try to take notes on exercises and knowledge in a separate notebook for study.
• Prepare a vocabulary notebook to organize vocabulary and analyze the essay structures provided in the IELTS Writing book for regular review.
• Apply the learned vocabulary and essay structures to write complete essays based on the prompts in this IELTS Writing book. Note that regular essay practice is essential to master the Writing skill and easily handle all question types in IELTS Writing.

The above are the top 4 recommended IELTS Writing books that are extremely useful in helping you quickly and easily achieve your desired band score. Let’s start your preparation right away!