"IELTS Writing test lasts only for an hour."

This statement may be relieving for some whereas intimidating for other IELTS aspirants. Whichever is the case, you are required to manage time allotted to you while justifying your English writing skills at the same time.

In task 2 of IELTS General Training and Academic Writing tests, you will be asked to write an essay in at least 250 words. You have to complete this task within the stipulated time. Usually, it is recommended that you spend 40 minutes on essay writing out of 1 hour provided to you for the entire writing module.

"The more mistakes you commit, the lower will be your IELTS band score."

This is true for your IELTS Essay Writing task. Thus, it is essential to know how to proofread an essay to increase the IELTS Writing score and ensure error-proof writing.

However, your essay is assessed based on the following four criteria:

• Task Response
• Coherence & Cohesion
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range & Accuracy

Each criterion contributes 25% to your IELTS Writing Score. Mistakes made in any of the assessment criterion will directly reduce your score. Thus, it is important that you proofread your essay before submitting so as to avoid mistakes.

But, what would you consider while proofreading an IELTS Writing essay? For that, you first need to know what main points an examiner take into consideration for marking your essay.

Look at Key Points before the IELTS Essay proofreader assesses your Essay

Well, there are three main aspects that are taken into consideration.

Content

'Content' refers to determining if you have answered the question correctly, if your essay is written with enough details and whether it contains relevant examples & evidences that justify your essay.

Organisation

'Organisation' refers to checking if your essay is logically structured, if it is written in an appropriate format and whether the paragraphs are linked with each other to maintain the flow of content in your essay.

Language

'Language' refers to assessing the appropriate use of Vocabulary and Grammar in your essay. The examiner looks to it if you have a wide range of Vocabulary and whether you have used it effectively. Your Grammar level is determined by seeing if you have used correct form of tenses and sentence structures or not.

Now that you are aware of the significant factors that an examiner looks for in your essay, it is crucial that you keep a check on them while proofreading your essay.

The Checklist to Follow For IETLS Essay Proofreading

• Read the question carefully and answer it correctly
• Determine the type of essay the question demands you to write - an essay with your opinion, an essay in which you have to discuss your views, an essay that provides solution to the given problem or a simple essay on a given topic.
• Check if the Introduction paragraph make sense i.e. it is written in relevance to the given question
• See to it if your essay ends with a proper Conclusion or not and determine whether the conclusion includes the summary of your entire essay
• Examine whether your essay is structured in a proper format, your ideas are represented logically and the paragraphs are linked using appropriate cohesive devices i.e. connectors like 'firstly', 'secondly' and more.
• Have you provided examples that clearly support your ideas and views written in your essay? If yes, see to it that you have clearly demonstrated these illustrations using words like 'for example', 'for instance' and more.
• Check if you can add new points in your essay. Take care that you do not write under or over the word count.
• Have you added any alternative point of view in your essay? If yes, ensure that you have provided appropriate examples to support your views.
• Check if your essay is on topic. Writing off-topic will lower your score.
• Have you checked the spellings, grammar and sentence structure properly? If not, read your essay thoroughly.
• Examine if the articles (a, an, the) and prepositions are used at appropriate place
• Take proper care of Capitalization. Ensure that you have capitalized the correct words.

Three to four minutes of careful essay checking helps you to eradicate grammar, spelling, punctuation and capitalization mistakes. This practise can be of great use to significantly boost your grade.

Make sure that you build your time into your IELTS Exam to proofread. Thorough proofreading of IELTS Essay Writing Task can raise your overall writing band score by at least Band 1 or at times even more. So, learning to proofread your essay is an essential skill to develop before you sit for the actual test.