Strategies to overcome word count mistakes
The most harrowing task in IELTS writing is to meet up with your word requirement, page, word or a character limit. This can be more racking when there’s a time limit.
Doing simple writing is the best way to gain good scores by writing in clear and concise content. But good writing is a craft that cannot be mastered within a short window before a deadline.
Expunge “The”
You can easily omit the word “the” from your written content without any change in the meaning.
Example: Original: The clarity of your writing depends on both the content and the style.
(13 words, 70 characters)
Revised: The clarity of your writing depends on both content and style.
(11 words, 62 characters)
Strategies to overcome word count
Omit “that”
“That” word can also be erased. This is often used and can be easily deleted.
Example: Original: We found that cells that express the mutated protein migrate across the barrier faster than wild-type cells.
(17 words, 108 characters)
Revised: We found cells expressing the mutated protein migrated across the barrier faster than wild-type cells.
(15 words, 102 characters).
Strategies to overcome word count
Adverbs and Adjectives
Well, if we talk about adverbs, these adverbs modify the verbs and adjectives modify nouns. But better words don’t require modification.
Most of the time, it is seen that they weaken strong verbs and nouns, which further reduces the quality of writing.
You should erase unnecessary adverbs and adjectives from your content.
Example: Original: The entire treatment lasted for four days, and the drug greatly improved the health of patients.
(16 words, 96 characters)
Revised: The treatment lasted for four days, and the drug improved the health of patients.
(14 words, 81 characters)
Strategies to overcome word count
Short Word Usage
“Refuse to accept it and try to prevent it”. While you write your text, you must prefer shorter words rather than long as it will cover more places.
Instead of investigating, facilitating, or utilizing, simply use study, help, or use.
Example: Original: We investigated whether utilizing the drug would facilitate improvements in health.
(11 words, 83 characters)
Revised: We studied whether using the drug would help improve health.
(10 words, 60 characters)
Strategies to overcome word count
Trim Phrases
Bob out the clutter in writing. Scan for needless work and delete all those words. Along with this, make your sentences shorter.
Example: Original: During the course of the study, the majority of cells died in response to treatment with the drug.
(18 words, 98 characters)
Revised: During the study, most cells died after treatment with the drug.
(11 words, 64 characters)
Prefer Active Voice
Passive sentences include more words, but active, don’t. You should prefer to write active ones only. And an active voice makes your writing clearer and more compelling, helping you tell a powerful story.
Example Passive: The samples were collected by the researcher.
(7 words, 45 characters)
Active: The researcher collected the samples.
(5 words, 37 characters)
Strategies to overcome word count
Remove Conjunctions
Conjunctions are the words which join two independent clauses (e.g., and, or, but, however). Those sentences can often be rewritten as two separate sentences.
Example: Original: Patients treated with drug X had no symptoms after 3 days, and patients treated with drug Y had no symptoms after 7 days.
(23 words, 121 characters)
Revised: Patients treated with drug X had no symptoms after 3 days. Patients treated with drug Y had no symptoms after 7 days.
(22 words, 117 characters)
WORD COUNTING IN IELTS
Target Paragraphs for Widows and Orphans
When dealing with page limits, a great trick to gaining an entire line is attacking paragraphs with “dangling words,” also known as widows or orphans.
A widow is a lone word or short group of words that appears at the bottom of a paragraph, column, or page. An orphan is a similar unwanted word or short group of words that appears at the top of a page.
Look for paragraphs with just a few words at the end and focus on how you can shorten them to gain an extra line of space.
Example: Bottom Line: Cut the Clutter
One of the greatest challenges in writing is cutting words. But there is a simple rule you can follow: make sure the words you use add meaning. If you can remove words without losing the importance of the statement, delete them.
THANK YOU
Strategies to overcome word count
Strategies to overcome word count