雅思寫作對于字數方面的要求還是非常嚴格的，小作文的話是必須150字的，而大作文的話是不少于250個字，作文的要求也就只是給了下限而已，很多考生都覺得寫多一些就可以了，那么到底寫多少呢

How many words do you need to write for IELTS? The short answer is 250 for the essay and 150 for the task 1 report. This is essential information because you can lose a whole band score if you do not write enough words. If you are concerned or new to IELTS, I suggest you read through the following points.

Repeating the question

If you repeat the wording of the question, the examiner may not include those words in the final word count. What this means is that you should not take whole sentences and phrases from the question. You can borrow single words: they may well be the right word to use and it would be pointless looking for another word that was not exactly correct.

　　重復問題的字數不算!因此千萬不要照抄整個題目~~ 除非原題中有一兩個無法找其他詞代替的，或者說是核心詞，那么可以保留。

Let’s look at a question to see what you can and can’t do: ”Some people argue that the government should give every unemployed person a mobile phone and should make sure they have access to the Internet. They believe this is the best way of using public money to reduce the problem of unemployment. To what extent do you agree or disagree?”

Here you could of course repeat the words “government” “unemployed” “the internet” and “mobile phone”: these are simply the correct terms to use. But what you should avoid is writing ” I agree that the government should give every unemployed person a mobile phone and should make sure they have access to the internet”. This is simple copying.

Repeating yourself

In the same way, if you repeat large bits of your essay, the examiner may not count those words. The key point to remember is that it is really quality and not quantity that counts – do not repeat yourself, just to get to the word limit.

　　請各位烤鴨注意：大量重復自己的話，也不算在字數內!這是變相地評質量分~~試想看一篇文章從頭到尾只是重復幾句話，肯定不會是好文章~

All words are words

Sometimes people ask what is a word. Small words like “a” and “is” are still words. A contracted word like “isn’t” is probably going to be counted as one word and not two. Generally speaking, however, you are not going to use contracted words in your IELTS writing – with the exception of a less formal letter in General IELTS.

　　所有詞都算數，但是雅思作文千萬要杜絕縮寫詞，那樣太不正式啦!一旦寫了必扣分!

Do not waste time counting words – count lines

Time is your enemy in IELTS writing. Whatever you do, do not waste time counting all the words you have written, there are far more important things to check. Rather what you should do is to count the number of words you normally write in a line and then multiply that by the number of lines you have written. So if you normally write 12 words to the line, you need to write 23/5 lines in your essay.

　　時間就是生命!別在考場上一個字一個字地數了，按行來計算!

Do not write too many words – spend more time planning and checking

Some candidates write 300 words or more in their essay. There is no deduction for this, but it is not a good idea unless you are a very high quality candidate. There are no prizes for quantity, only quality. The time you spent writing the extra 30/40 words would be much better spent either planning your essay or checking and improving its quality.

　　寫作并不是字數越多越好~如果你可以在規定時間內寫到300個字以上，除非你的英語相當好!不然的話還是花點時間來組織全文或者檢查錯誤吧!畢竟質量還是比數量重要~

A sensible target?

It’s quality not quantity that really counts. So my suggestion would be to aim for between 250-275 words in the essay and 150 – 170 words in the report. This means that you have some margin for error.

雅思作文字數：小作文150字到170字，大作文250字到275字。