10 practical tips for writing better exam essays
The key words in the title are practical and exam.
标题中的关键词是“实用”和“考试”

01
Read – write – read – write – read – write – read – write – read – write – read
读 — 写 — 读 — 写— 读 — 写 — 读 — 写 — 读 — 写 — 读
What does this mean? It means that you should go back and read the paragraph you have just written before you start the next one. You may think that this is a waste of time. If so, you’d be wrong.
这是什么意思呢？意思是在你开始写下一段的时候，应该回去读一读你刚写下的段落。你可能会认为这实在浪费时间。如果是这样，你就想错了。
1. It’s important to link your paragraphs together – what more practical way to do that than just read what you have written?
1.把你的段落链接在一起很重要——还有什么方法是比回去读一读更实用的呢？
2. It helps you with words for the next paragraph – it is good to repeat some words as this improves your coherence.
2.这会帮助你写下一段—重复某些单词会提高你整篇文章的一致性。

02
Don’t be smart, be clear – select your best idea
别耍小聪明，要明确中心——选出你的观点
This advice is particularly important for candidates who come from an academic background where they are used to being graded on quality and quantity of ideas. IELTS is different: it is quite possible to write a 9.0 essay and not include some key “academic” ideas, let alone all the ideas.
这条建议对于有学术背景的考生特别重要，他们习惯于根据学术观点的数量和质量来评分。雅思考试不一样：9分的作文看我能问你个没有很多学术观点，更别说所有的观点了。
The practical advice here is to select your best idea and write about that. That means not writing everything you know – leave some ideas out. Don’t worry if it is not your best explanation, worry about whether it is your clearest explanation.
这条实用的建议是帮助你选择的观点来写作。这就意味着不是写下你所有的知识——丢掉一些观点。不要担心选择的不是你的解释，担心那是不是你最清晰的观点。

03
Examples are easier to write than explanations
例子比解释更容易写
In an exam you are under pressure. You want to make things as easy for yourself as possible. One practical idea to achieve this is to focus as much on examples as explanations when you write. Why?
考试中你是承受压力的。你想把一切看的尽可能简单。一个实用的方法就是在写作过程中在例子和解释上同样集中。为什么？
It’s simply harder if you only think “because”. Some of the ideas may be very complex and, under pressure, it can be difficult to explain these with reasons. What may happen is that your sentences become too long and the ideas confused.
如果你想着“因为”就是会难一点。有些观点可能很复杂，而且你是在压力之下的，说理会变得很难。那么你就很可能写出观点不明的长句子。
The practical bit is to concentrate as much on examples. This is a good idea as examples tend to be easier to write as you are simply describing situations. All you need to do is make sure that your examples are relevant to the main idea.
实用的做法就是也要集中在例子上，因为写例子往往会比描述简单。你只需要确保你的例子和主观点是有相关的。

04
Don’t write too much – the examiner is paid by the minute
不要写太多——阅卷老师是按工作时间领工资的
There is no upper word limit I know of, but it really isn’t a good idea to write 350 words or more. Here’s why:
据我所知是没有词数上限的，但是写350词以上就不是个好主意了。原因如下：
1. Examiners will only spend so much time looking at any essay. Write too much and they will read what you wrote “less carefully”. It is easier to read/grade a 300 word essay than a 400 word essay!
阅卷老师看每篇文章的时间是固定的。写太多他们就不会特别认真地看你的文章。阅读/批改一篇300词的文章总比400词容易。
2. The more you write, the more likely you are to make language mistakes.
你写的越多，就越容易犯语法错误。
3. The more you write, the more likely you are to go off topic.
写的越多越容易走题
4.  If you write less, you give yourself more time to choose the best words – and that’s what you are being graded on.
如果你写少一点，就给你自己更多时间来选择更好的词汇——这也是一个评分点。
5. If you write less, you give yourself more time to go back and check what you have written.
如果你写的少一点，就有更多时间回头检查你已经写的部分。

05
Writer – know yourself  了解你自己
The idea is that you should check for your mistakes when you write. The practical part here is that you shouldn’t check for mistakes generally – that’s too hard and probably a waste of time in the exam. What isn’t a waste of time though is to look for mistakes you know you can correct – the ones you normally make!
检查自己写作时容易犯的错误。
实用的部分是你不应该检查大体上的错误——那很困难而且会浪费考试中的时间。为了不浪费时间，你应该找你知道自己可以纠正的错误——就是自己常犯的错误。

06
See the whole essay in your head before you start writing
开始写作前在脑子里构思整篇文章
It’s very important that your essay is a whole – that all the bits fit together. If you don’t do that, you may lose significant marks for  coherence.
你的文章是一个整体，这是很重要的一点——所有的部分都要组合在一起。如果你不这么做，你就会丢掉一致性的分数
This means planning of course. Planning bothers some people and bores others. There are different ways to do this, but at the very least have a map of your essay in your head.
这当然就代表着要有计划。计划对于有的人来说是困扰，对有些人是无聊。有不同的方法来计划，但是最起码脑子里要有对文章结构的规划。

07
Don’t just practice whole essays
不要只练习整篇文章
The best way to learn to write essays is to write essays? True or false? My answer is a bit of both.
学习写文章的方法就是下笔写文章？对不对？我的答案是对也不对。
Yes, you do need to practise writing complete essays, but it may be a mistake to do only that. The different part of essays require slightly different skills.
是的，你需要练习整篇文章，但是这那么做就是不对的了。文章的不同的部分需要不同的技巧。
The practical suggestion is to practise writing introductions, body paragraphs and conclusions separately.
实用的建议就是分开联系写开头、主题和结论。