IELTS Writing Task 2 Grammar: What Examiners Reward

Grammatical Range and Accuracy is one of four Task 2 criteria, worth 25% of the Task 2 band, alongside Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, and Lexical Resource. Examiners read the whole essay once for an overall impression, then check it against the specific band descriptor wording (range of structures and proportion of error-free sentences) rather than counting individual mistakes one by one.

This means a single dramatic error rarely sinks a script, but a consistent pattern (the same tense mistake, the same comma splice, the same missing article) does, because it shows up repeatedly across the 250-plus words and reads as a genuine gap rather than a one-off slip.

The introduction is often the first grammar an examiner reads closely, so it's worth planning deliberately. A paraphrased topic sentence benefits from a complex sentence that subordinates background information to your main claim: 'While automation has boosted productivity in many industries, it has also raised concerns about job security.' This single sentence shows a concession structure and a clear thesis in one breath.

Avoid opening with a memorised formula sentence that doesn't actually connect grammatically to your specific question; examiners notice template language quickly, and a slightly less polished but genuinely responsive sentence scores better on both Task Response and GRA.

Body paragraphs are where conditionals earn their keep. A first conditional projects a realistic consequence ('If this trend continues, urban infrastructure will struggle to keep pace with demand'), while a third conditional evaluates a past policy decision ('If governments had regulated emissions earlier, the damage would have been considerably smaller'). Both show the examiner you can reason beyond simple description.

Cause-and-effect subordinators (because, since, as a result of, given that) do similar work at a lower level of ambition and are worth mixing in so every sentence in a paragraph doesn't reach for the same conditional structure.

• If this trend continues, urban infrastructure will struggle to keep pace with demand.(first conditional projects a realistic future consequence)
• If governments had regulated emissions earlier, the damage would have been considerably smaller.(third conditional evaluates a past decision)

Task 2 essays frequently make claims about what 'people' or 'society' do in general, and the passive voice is the natural tool for stating those claims without an invented, unsupported agent: 'It is often argued that social media has weakened face-to-face communication' reads as more careful and formal than 'People argue that…', which sounds like a guess about who exactly is arguing.

Overusing the passive throughout an entire essay, however, produces flat, indirect prose; reserve it for genuine generalisations and process-like statements, and keep the active voice for your own opinion and specific examples, where a clear subject makes the writing more direct.

• It is often argued that social media has weakened face-to-face communication.(distancing passive for an unattributed general claim)

Three mistakes recur across scripts at every band. First, informal contractions (don't, it's, can't) slip in from speech habits but read as under-formal in an academic essay; spell them out. Second, comma splices appear most often exactly where a writer is making a cause-effect point without realising a subordinator is needed: 'Costs rose, fewer people could afford housing' needs 'so' or 'because'.

Third, tense drift (starting a paragraph in the present simple for a general claim and sliding into the past simple mid-paragraph without a reason) confuses the timeline the essay is arguing about. Decide the tense a paragraph needs before you start it, and keep every sentence in that paragraph consistent with it unless the meaning genuinely shifts to a different time.

• Costs rose, fewer people could afford housing.(comma splice hiding an unstated cause-effect link)
• Costs rose, so fewer people could afford housing.

Band 6: 'Many people think social media is bad for teenagers, it effects on their mental health.' This sentence has a comma splice, a word-form error (effects for affects), and only simple grammar throughout. Band 7: 'Many people believe that social media negatively affects teenagers' mental health, although the evidence remains mixed.' This version fixes the word form, resolves the splice with a subordinator, and adds a concession clause.

Band 8: 'While the evidence remains mixed, it is widely believed that social media negatively affects teenage mental health.' Reordering the concession to open the sentence and switching to a distancing passive ('it is widely believed') both signal the flexibility that separates Band 7 from Band 8; the underlying idea hasn't changed, only the grammar carrying it.

• Many people think social media is bad for teenagers, it effects on their mental health.(Band 6, comma splice plus a word-form error)
• Many people believe that social media negatively affects teenagers' mental health, although the evidence remains mixed.(Band 7, splice resolved, concession added)