Beware of Past Perfect!

Past perfect tense needs to be handled with care. It is most useful in the narrative genre and is seldom needed in Task 2 writing.

However, Task 1 essays occasionally present an opportunity to use past perfect.

Let's try an exercise! Follow my instructions carefully and attempt the tasks before reading the sample texts.

Look at the following graph and describe it in two short paragraphs. The first paragraph will focus on general trends and will begin:

In general..

The second paragraph will describe details and will begin:

In detail..

When you're happy with your writing, you can read my sample text.

Finished writing? OK now take a look at the sample text and analysis.