📈 IELTS Writing Task 1: what things can increase? 📉

Can chicken increase? Obviously, not. Yet, this is a mistake I see often. Bear with me. 

IELTS charts can have different nouns in them: meat, shops, energy production, people of different ages, you name it. 

Some of these things can increase, while others cannot. Meat cannot increase, but meat consumption or the amount of meat that is consumed can. Fuel can't increase, but fuel production or the amount of fuel that is produced can. People aged 15-65 can't increase, but population or the number of people can. See the logic?

But the mistake is usually more subtle than this.  More often than not, it looks like this: "Chicken was the most popular type of meat throughout the period. Starting at 100 grams, it increased dramatically to reach 250 by the end of the period."

See? The sentence doesn't directly say, "chicken increased." But if we track what "it" refers to, we get "chicken increased." 

For a higher score, you need to keep in mind a longer span of text than just one sentence. Do that. And make you write about things that can actually increase. 📈

📝 Overuse of "and." Sequel II. 📝

I have already written a couple of posts about it, but I feel compelled to write one more (and will probably keep writing them on a regular basis because it's what I see on a regular basis).

Look at the sentence below. It has four "and"s! That's too many.

🗒 Student's original sentence:

"The former determines our talents and looks, which play a significant role in our ability to experience success, in that talents permit us to hone the necessary skills easier and faster and good looks endear us to others and thus can smooth our interactions with them."

🗒 My re-write:

"The former determines our talents and looks, which play a significant role in our ability to experience success, in that talents permit us to hone the necessary skills faster, while good looks endear us to others, thus smoothing our interactions with them."

The problem with excessive use of "and" is not just that the result is an awkward and/or lengthy sentence. It's that the sentence is hard to process because there are simply too many elements in it (not to mention the lack of meaningful connections between them).

🗒 Do you have an alternative rewrite of the student's sentence above? Share in the comments.

📈 IELTS Writing Task 1: plummeting and skyrocketing 📉

For some reason, students like strong verbs like "soar," "skyrocket," or "plummet." The problem is they usually use them for insignificant changes. For example:

1. "It started at about 9 metric tonnes and then grew quickly to over 10 tonnes a decade later, plummeting to 7 tonnes in 1987."

Falling from 10 to 7 doesn't qualify as plummeting as the change is less than 50%.

2. "Starting at 35 quadrillion units, the figure is anticipated to skyrocket to almost 50 by 2030."

Again, rising from 35 to 50 is not really skyrocketing as the growth is not even twofold.

And then I get a sentence like this:

3. "The number of closures fluctuated between 6000 and 7000 shops in the first three years but showed an abrupt fall by 2015 to only 500. However, the figure then increased to slightly above 5000 stores ... "

Falling from 7,000 to 500 - that's plummeting! Rising from 500 to 5,000 - that's skyrocketing! This is a rare case when the verbs are actually begging to be used.

The bottom line is strong verbs like "skyrocket" or "plummet" express significant and rapid changes. So use the verbs wisely - to express what they really mean.

🔣 All because of a comma. An example of a good mistake with "which. 🔣

I like good mistakes. What's a good mistake? One that's subtle. One that helps us learn. One that gives me material for a post (jk).

I want to share an example of a good mistake.

So, we were doing the following in class: I gave my students the beginning of a sentence from my IELTS essay and asked them to finish it.

Look at the sentence. How would you finish it?

📄 "When young people invest time into shopping, it means they are not investing it into acquiring skills which ... "

📄 A student wrote:
"... which will prevent them from succeeding in their career path in the future."

This is a mistake. Clearly, the student meant "not investing time into acquiring skills will prevent young people from succeeding." But this is not possible. Why? All because of a comma. When we want to define the whole clause before "which," we need a comma.

For example,
- I didn't answer the question, which resulted in a low score. (Not answering resulted in a low, not the question.)
- I always highlight key words in essay topics, which helps me stay focused and nail Task Response. (Highlighting the key words helps, not the essay topics.)

Since we don't have a comma in my original sentence, we need to define skills.

📄 Here my original sentence: "When young people invest time into shopping, it means they are not investing it into acquiring skills which could later become their competitive advantage on the job market and other areas of life."

This concludes this portion of the "comma or no comma after which" grammar topic. Unfortunately, the comma does not always mean you are defining the whole clause before. A which clause with a comma can also define a noun. But this is a whole different story for another time. For today, the moral is "no comma necessarily means that you are defining a noun."

It was a good mistake, wasn't it?

📝 Items in a series: a common mistake 📝

Take a look at the sentence from a student's IELTS essay.

🗒 "While children need healthy food, books, toys, clothes, their parents might spend financial aid on expensive phones, electronics, cars."

It contains two examples of the same mistake - not separating the last item in a series. The last item in a series must be separated with "and" or "or."

🗒 "While children need healthy food, books, toys, and clothes, their parents might spend financial aid on expensive phones, electronics, or cars."

Now take a look at another sentence.

🗒 "Developed countries should provide non-financial help through organizing exchange programs for specialists, sharing technologies, establishing educational and health institutions."

The mistake is the same even though it might not look like one immediately - do not let the "and" confuse you. So what are the items that we have in a series? They are: organizing, sharing, establishing. So we must have "and" before establishing. And the "and" we have connects completely different items: "educational" and "health."

🗒 "Developed countries should provide non-financial help through organizing exchange programs for specialists, sharing technologies, and (or) establishing educational and health institutions."

What I am talking about now is standard academic writing. Curiously, in creative writing both underuse and overuse of conjunctions are valid stylistic devices. The former is called "asyndeton" and the latter is called "polysyndeton." Here are some examples:
- Asyndeton: "Children need playgrounds, toys, cartoons, ice-creams, sneakers."
- Polysyndeton: "Children need playgrounds and toys and cartoons and ice-creams and sneakers."

But asyndeton and polysyndeton belong in creative writing only. In essays, always separate the last item in a series with "and" or "or."

🐋 Taking a deep dive into cohesion in my "Writing with New Scientist" class 🐋

I don't normally bore my students with much theory. Instead, we look at examples and put patterns into practice.

So let's look at this example from the article we read: "If managed carefully, blue foods have a lot of room for sustainable growth."

You might think, "We'll what's so special here? What exactly are we looking at? It's a simple sentence."

OK. The first thing to look at is "If managed." This is a reduced form of "if they are managed." It's already beautiful, but the cherry on top is that the hidden "they" is a cataphoric reference to "blue foods." Now, isn't this the most beautiful thing you've seen today? 💙

Looking is not enough, though. We need to practice this beauty now. So finish one or both of the sentences below and type your answers in the comments:
1️⃣ If managed carefully, …
2️⃣ If done on a regular basis, …

🐋 And this is the kinds of things we do in my "Writing with New Scientist" classes. I have three groups. Join any time: https://vk.com/iralutse?w=product-47977221_5061302

🦩 IELTS writing: clarity and development 🦩

We work on different things in my IELTS writing groups. One key focus is clarity - the clarity of why and how the ideas support the main point. It's not as simple as it sounds and it's something I have to fight for.

Look at the student's paragraph below.

🗒 Topic: "Because some children do not seem to have a natural ability to learn another language, schools should not force those children to study a foreign language. Do you agree or disagree?"

🗒 Student's original paragraph (opinion: disagree):

"Second, students without a talent for foreign languages can anyway benefit from learning them. Even basic knowledge may give them more opportunities in life such as being more confident while travelling abroad or getting better job positions in their future careers. Thus, instead of focusing only on gifted ones, schools should oblige all students to study languages."

In terms of clarity of ideas, the paragraph is excellent. That fight I have won. But we now face a different challenge - development. The paragraph is very short. So what could be add to further develop the main idea? 🦩

We could expand on "even basic knowledge." We could say that in order to benefit, students don’t need to acquire the C2 level. So even if they can only achieve level B1 (due to their lack of innate ability), they can still benefit when they travel or read some information online. Having no innate talent for languages does not mean a person is completely unable to acquire any language at all, right?

I like such paragraphs. If the ideas are clear, we can build on them. When a paragraph is a bunch of disconnected sentences, it's much harder to fix it.

So I suggested one possible extension. What else could we write to expand the student's paragraph above?❓

🐝 Sarcasm in my C2 Proficiency Writing class 🐝

Is sarcasm an innate ability or a skill? I think it's the latter. And it's just one more tool for us to use in writing (if need be).

Today, I gave my students some techniques and asked them to write a sarcastic paragraph about an heirloom they inherited from a member of their family. What they produced is pure beauty.

1️⃣ Viktoria
"The best thing my mom passed down to me is my anxiety disorder. This definitely makes for a better heirloom than any rings or necklaces that other moms give to their daughters."

2️⃣ Olga
"Having an apartment of 40 m2, living there in a family of five and keeping an old gigantic sewing machine, one that nobody uses? That is so smart. Let’s hope one of my grandchildren will be a seamstress."

3️⃣ Darya
"People have always tried to pass down little items to be remembered by future generations. More often than not, these heirlooms are anxiety, eating disorders and a whole bouquet of insecurities (priceless things, aren’t they?) But on rare occasions you might end up with something of great value - an optimistic outlook."

4️⃣ Lena
"Who could have thought that eventually I'll end up with such an impressive heirloom. What was particularly impressive was its uselessness, and it left me with my mouth agape for what felt like an eternity. And here was I, posed with a dilemma - should I pass it down to the next generation, so they'll share my exact sentiment?"

See, sarcasm in writing is nothing but a bunch of techniques.

Disclaimer: While sarcasm is a valid writing tool as it can give your text a certain tone, use it sparingly and don't use it at all if it's not something you actually enjoy. While I can appreciate sarcasm in creative writing, I am one of those people who don't normally appreciate it in real life. 🐝

⚡️ TOEFL is changing! ⚡️

Starting July 26, 2023, TOEFL iBT® test takers will see several new enhancements. Here is a brief summary:
- streamlined instructions and navigation
- a shortened Reading section with only two reading passages and 10 questions each
- a more concise and modern Writing task which replaces the current Independent Writing task
- removal of all unscored test questions

The test will now take just under 2 hours to complete. This makes it the shortest of the three most popular English-language tests.

Click the link below to find out more.

https://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt-enhancements.html

📝 Coherence or me being meticulous with meanings in my "Writing with New Scientist" class 📝

To practice a certain grammar structure, I take a sentence from the article and create a sentence frame.

For example, here is a sentence I chose today: "By the early 2010s, primatologists had started to take a keen interest in the findings, with some devising a battery of tests to explore chimpanzee intelligence."

And here is a sentence frame I asked my students to complete to practice the structure in bold: "Writing is a mysterious and much-feared skill, with most people ... ing ... ."

Now look at three examples and identify one that does not work.

1️⃣ Writing is a mysterious and much-feared skill, with most people thinking it can only be mastered by higher beings…

2️⃣ Writing is a mysterious and much-feared skill, with most people spending hours and hours to master it.

3️⃣ Writing is a mysterious and much-feared skill, with most people postponing to get to grips with it.

The sentence that doesn't work is the second one. There is no logical connection, and thus no coherence, between "a mysterious and much-feared skill" and "spending hours and hours to master it." A more logical sentence would be: "Writing is a difficult skill, with most people spending hours and hours to master it."

And that's the way I treat writing. Writing is not about grammar or cohesion alone, in isolation. First and foremost, it's about meaning.

How would you finish, "Writing is a mysterious and much-feared skill, with most people ...ing ... "? Share in the comments. 📝

📅 IELTS Writing: Wednesday 14:00-15:30 MSK

One student with a proven IELTS Writing 7.5 is waiting for a group. Will you join her on the journey to IELTS Writing 8?

This is a question I asked in my VK community. And several people wanted to joined because the schedule worked. And because they have a C2 after all. And I didn't admit them.

This group is not about the level. This groups is about the needs. People who have never written any IELTS tasks simply have different needs from those who have already written a plethora thereof.

If you have already completed an IELTS writing course and/or are familiar with all the tasks, message me @iraluts.

If you are an IELTS newbie, wait for a full course in the new academic year or join one of these groups that started recently:

1️⃣ Thursday 16:00-17:30 MSK, 7.5+
Started one month ago. Starting "agree/disagree" essays this week.

2️⃣ Wednesday 16:00-17:30 MSK, 7.5+
Started two months ago. Starting the "pie charts, bar charts, table" module this week.

💌 @iraluts

🦋 IELTS Writing: paraphrasing the topic 🦋

It's a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon... and what is Irina doing? Checking IELTS essays, of course. Today I want to share one thing I noticed in my student's introductions.

📝 Topic: "Advertising can change people's priorities and have a negative impact on their lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

📝 Student's essay: "It is sometimes argued that advertising can alter people’s values and have a negative influence on their lives."

OK, technically, the student paraphrased the topic. But the paraphrase is very close to the original despite the fact that it contains different lexical items.

📝 My paraphrase: "There is an opinion that people can be affected by advertising to such an extent that the quality of their lives deteriorates significantly."

Let's try to zero in on what exactly makes my paraphrase different from the original? Well, lexical items for sure, but also the sentence structure.

One thing that allowed me to use a new sentence structure is using different subjects. For example, in the topic we had "advertising can change people's priorities" - then why don't we make "people" or "priorities" the subject of the sentence? Or, "have a negative impact on their lives" - why don't we make "lives" the subject?

Use this simple technique: try changing the subject of the sentence. Chances are the whole structure will be changed.

📝 And now, try to implement this simple technique and paraphrase this essay topic: "Some people think that rising prices on the fuel for cars and other vehicles can solve different environmental problems."

✈️ IELTS Writing Task 1: synonyms for "departures area" ✈️

Most words in Writing Task 1 don't really have synonyms. And they shouldn't because they denote very specific things.

Today, we were discussing the redevelopment plans for Southwest Airport (IELTS 16 Test 3). So you have "departures area." What else can you possible say? "Departures hall" and "Departures zone" - that's it.

Well, there is also "departure lounge," but it's different because it means "a seating area in an airport where passengers wait immediately prior to boarding" (so not the whole departures area of the airport).

But the more important question is why do you even need many synonyms in Writing Task 1?

You shouldn't need many. Avoiding repetitions should be achieved through words like "it" or "one" or "this part of the airport."

OK, here is a challenge for you. This week my students are writing a task that goes: "The plans below show two different layouts for the same training room." How would you avoid repeating "layout" and "training room"?

IELTS essays: What if I can't find a good example for my essay?

We were talking about examples in IELTS essays and, after we had looked at a bunch of bad examples, a student asked me, "What if I can't find a good example for my essay?" Here is my answer, which is twofold.

1️⃣ You don't always need an example. You need one when you want to illustrate a more abstract idea. But what if your ideas are very clear already and don't need an illustration? Then you don't need an example.

2️⃣ If you think you need an example, but can't think of one, you're in trouble - you are writing about something you don't know and can't convincingly argue. You shouldn't be writing that at all. Consider coming up with another argument.

What would be your answer to the student's question?❓

⛩ IELTS Task 1 maps: Is it an entrance or an exit? ⛩

Sometimes we have to discuss philosophical questions when we discuss Writing Task 1. Like, when you see a door on a map or a floor plan - is it an entrance or an exit? Aren't all (or most) entrances also exits at the same time? 🤨

So if you see a door which is not clearly labelled as "entrance" or "exit," what should you write?

To decide, think about the function of the door and the way the person experiences it. Let me exemplify.

This week, we were discussing the Southwest Airport task (IELTS 16 Test 3). So the departures areas will probably have an entrance, while the arrivals zone will probably have an exit (even though technically, of course, you can exit the departures zone and enter the arrivals zone).

If you have a hotel or a gym with a reception, it is better to say "near the entrance there is a reception" rather than "near the exit there is a reception." Because people typically see and need the reception when they enter the building (even though technically, of course, you might see or even need a reception when you leave).

I love IELTS Writing Task 1, do you? 💜

‼️ IELTS news: full assessment scales are now available on the official website. ‼️

"Full" means they are the exact ones used by examiners. But don't get your hopes up - they are very similar to the good old band denoscriptors. So nothing is really changing - we will keep working on developing ideas fully, using cohesion in a way that attracts no attention, et cetera, et cetera.

https://www.ielts.org/news/2023/ielts-writing-band-denoscriptors-and-key-assessment-criteria

‼️ Make sure to read both PDFs:

1️⃣
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/ielts-writing-key-assessment-criteria.ashx

2️⃣
https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/ielts-writing-band-denoscriptors.ashx

📚 OER: Open Educational Resources 📚

I first heard of this thing at TESOL 2023 in Portland (Oregon) because I attended a talk by two people who created an OER textbook on academic writing.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.

Here is the link to the OER textbook the speakers I listened to created. It's called "Reading, Writing, Research, and Reasoning: An Advanced ESL Text."

https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Languages/English_as_a_Second_Language/Reading_Writing_Research_and_Reasoning%3A_An_Advanced_ESL_Text

Have you heard of or even used OERs?❔

Hi everyone!

My passion for writing, creative writing in particular, is well-documented. I typically run my famous Creative Writing Club for a month two times a year. But this year, I am considering taking it one step further and launching a proper course that will be taught by an American specialist through a grant program (which means the course will be free for you!). In order to apply for a grant, I want to get a better understanding of your needs. Help me out by filling out this form.

Yours,
Irina Lutsenko

https://forms.gle/kNBxUJ9nWdpbvGvPA

🌊 IELTS writing task 1: unusual paraphrase of "people" (a bad one and a good one) 🌊

We were discussing generating electricity in a hydro-power station in one IELTS class today.

One student wrote this: "... water produces electricity, which is then supplied to citizens." The last word, "citizens" caught our eye. Does one have to be a citizen to get access to that electricity? Does anyone check their passport before supplying them with electricity? Of course not. Can we say residents then? Or simply people?

None of the above.

Electricity is not supplied directly to people. It's supplied to buildings. So the best things to say in this case is: "... produces electricity, which is then supplied to residential buildings / public facilities / industrial facilities." The ending will depend on the diagram you have.

So it's better not to think about paraphrasing per se.

It's better to think about meaning.

Sick and tired of writing for exams? Do you want to find your voice and share your message? Then this course - one of my favorite courses to teach - is exactly what you need. 🌻

"Write for real: Blogging in English" is a course for people who want to write for real readers and share real thoughts. To hell with writing for exams - it’s time to write for real!

🌻 What will you learn to do?
- hook your reader and keep them engaged;
- write an effective noscript;
- write an effective introduction and conclusion;
- write concisely and precisely;
- use stylistic devices;
- try out different types of posts (from listicles to travel stories to book reviews);
- format and punctuate.

🌻 What will you write?
Social media posts and stories, something like these ones
written by me:
- https://vk.com/iralutse?w=wall-47977221_10109
- https://vk.com/iralutse?w=wall-47977221_7735
- https://vk.com/iralutse?w=wall-47977221_10703

and by my students:
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/03/at-risk-of-incurring-curse-from.html
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2021/08/a-finger-licking-dinner-dish-no-unicorn.html
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2022/07/saying-no-to-human-zoos.html
- https://iraluts.blogspot.com/2022/09/knocked-down-by-beauty.html

🌻 Will you get feedback?
You bet! You will write one piece a week, which I will scrutinize and comment on.

Price: 6000 rub a month (4 sessions). Feedback included (one answer a week).
Course duration: 3 months (12 classes)
Class length: 90 minutes

📅 Summer 2023: Tuesday 14-15:30 am MSK

💌 Pm me to sign up @iraluts

And find out more at https://vk.com/market-47977221?screen=group&w=product-47977221_3696542%2Fquery

📝 IELTS Writing: "These are great!" says Irina never rarely. 📝

In my first IELTS class today, I put these two conclusions written by my students in front of the group's eyes and said, "Look. These are simply great. Let's identify why."

I rarely say that. But do do give credit when credit is due. The conclusions below are excellent. They just are. As you read, try to understand why.

1️⃣ "To conclude, although non-conventional medicine appeals to many people, I believe this is a negative trend due to the threat it poses to a sick individual’s health and due to additional expenditures it incurs."

2️⃣ "In conclusion, turning to alternative medicine is neither safe nor economiсal. The former is explained by the absence of trustworthy scientific research and evidence, while the latter is illustrated by the exorbitant prices for different treatments. Thus, both of these reasons make the trend negative."

Here is why:

1️⃣ Each conclusion summarizes the respective essay so well you don't even need to read the whole thing to understand what it is about.

2️⃣ The arguments are united into one beautiful, coherent whole with the help of parallelism and other cohesive devices (which ones? share in the comments).

Pure beauty, isn't it?