Academic Tone in IELTS Writing: Words and Habits to Avoid
Kavya from Mysuru’s essay began, “Let’s be honest — kids today have it way easier, right?” The ideas were good; the tone wasn’t.
IELTS describes the expected style in Task 2 essays and Academic Task 1 reports as academic or semi-formal/neutral. Replace contractions, informal words, rhetorical questions and text-speak with plain formal language; formal does not mean complicated.
Where Tone Matters in the Writing Test
General Training Task 1 is a letter, and IELTS says it may be personal, semi-formal or formal in style, depending on who you are writing to. Our guide to General Training letter tone covers that choice, so this post focuses on essays and reports.
Style appears in the Lexical Resource descriptors. At Band 7, an awareness of style and collocation is evident, though inappropriacies occur.
The IELTS examiner video explains that an inappropriacy can be an informal word where a formal word would suit the situation better, or a word that does not sound natural.
Ten Informal Habits to Replace
These are style choices for a neutral, formal essay, not IELTS rules.
| ❌ Informal | ✅ Formal |
|---|---|
| don’t, can’t, won’t | do not, cannot, will not |
| lots of jobs, lots of money | many jobs, a great deal of money |
| kids | children |
| get better | improve |
| cars, buses, etc. | vehicles such as cars and buses |
| stuff | specific nouns: goods, materials, items |
| Isn’t this unfair? | This policy is unfair. |
| I think… (repeated in each paragraph) | In my view…; I believe…; It seems that… |
| really big increase | substantial increase |
| ok | acceptable |
For more on choosing words, see our lesson on register and style in formal writing.
Formal Writing Does Not Mean Fancy Language
A formal tone does not call for obscure thesaurus words or very long sentences. A forced rare word can be a problem too, because a word that suits the situation poorly or does not sound natural counts as an inappropriacy.
The descriptors ask for precision. The Band 7 Task Response descriptor also mentions a tendency to over-generalise, and cautious wording such as “may” or “tends to” helps you avoid it. See our lesson on hedging language.
Incorrect: “Kids these days are glued to their phones!”
Correct: “Many children now spend several hours a day on their phones.”
The ✅ version names the group and makes a measurable claim instead of using slang.
The band descriptors do not mention contractions, but they belong to informal style, so write full forms in essays and reports. In a personal letter, contractions are natural.
Comparing Spoken and Academic Paragraphs
Compare how the same argument about arts funding sounds in speech and in writing.
Informal version (too informal for IELTS)
Why should governments spend money on art galleries? Lots of people don’t care about paintings at all. Honestly, it’s totally unfair to waste taxpayers’ money on stuff like that when hospitals need funding. We should sort out basic services first.
Formal version (illustrative Band 7)
Public money should not be spent on art galleries while hospitals need funding. Many citizens have little interest in paintings, and using taxpayers’ money for this purpose seems unfair when basic services are underfunded. Governments should therefore address essential services before cultural projects.
Why it works:
- Lexical Resource: “lots of”, “stuff like that” and “sort out” become “many”, “this purpose” and “address”, which suit a formal register.
- Tone and grammar: the rhetorical question becomes a passive statement (“should not be spent”), and there are no contractions.
Tip
Search your last practice essay for apostrophes, then check whether each one is a contraction or a genuine possessive.
Key Takeaways
- IELTS describes the Academic and Task 2 style as academic or semi-formal/neutral.
- Band 7 Lexical Resource mentions an awareness of style and collocation.
- Replace contractions, rhetorical questions and slang in essays and reports.
- Formal does not mean fancy: precise, natural words suit the descriptors.
- A personal General Training letter can be informal; match the tone to the reader.
The bottom line: Kavya’s ideas were good, and plain, neutral language is what lets an examiner see them.