Michael Business Law
Professional TeacherHow to upgrade an IELTS writing task 2 in one sentence
Having reviewed hundreds of IELTS task 2s (and written dozens of my own), I have noticed that candidates who write a strong topic sentence in their last (usually, the second) body paragraph consistently produce better answers. I will give you two examples:
“Nevertheless, I take the view that the advantages of … are greater than the drawbacks for two main reasons. Firstly,….”
“However, I take the view that, overall, … is beneficial to society. The main reason for this is….”
Why could these sentences be good?
1. They can help to make the writer’s position very clear in the middle of the essay. One requirement of band 7 is “a clear position throughout”.
2. They start with a clear contrast expression (however, nevertheless), which is an “appropriate cohesive device”
3. They “present a clear central topic” for the paragraph.
4. They help the writer to “logically organise” his or her ideas with a “clear progression throughout” the essay.
5. They include grammatically “complex structures” (subordinate clause, comparison).
The words in “” above are from the official IELTS examination criteria. A topic sentence, like in these examples, can be good evidence of band 7 level writing for an examiner - in all four criteria.
May 23, 2019 1:13 PM
Michael Business Law
Language Skills
Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish
Learning Language
German, Russian
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