These days a lot of people like to use smartphones and tablets. Those are popular because they can connect to the Internet.
OK so our writer is using those as a substitute for smartphones and tablets. However, it would have been better to use these: Continue reading
It has been argued that expenditure needed for applying a circular economy tends to be high (Kirchher et al., 2017). However, their claim is easy to counter given the many economic benefits offered by a circular economy.
This writer has used their as a substitute for a source – Kircher et al. However, since the source is in brackets and has not yet appeared in the body of the text, we have to assume that the reader has not yet seen it! Only use a pronoun as a substitute if the noun you are substituting has already been mentioned in the body of the text: Continue reading
A good way to avoid repetition in writing, and at the same time to cement (= stick) sentences together so that ideas flow smoothly, is to use what’s called referencing and substitution (many examples of referencing and substitution in previous posts).
In this post we focus again on using it and this as substitutes for themes and rhemes. If you’re not sure what is meant by theme and rheme, please read this before trying the activity below. Continue reading
In the first place is over-grazing, which caused 35% of land degradation.
Not a terrible error – we know what you mean! But still, it’s important to understand the distinction between ‘in first place’ and ‘in the first place’.
In IELTS Task 1 writing we often find ourselves ranking items as follows:
But what if you’re listing rather than ranking? Let’s say, for example, that you’re listing supports for an argument. In this case you need ‘in the first place’, ‘in the second place’, etc.:
In this case ‘in the first place‘ means ‘as the first consideration‘. It’s often used to introduce reasons that should be obvious but may need to be emphasised, as in the above example. Notice that it is unusual to continue ‘in the second place‘, ‘in the third place‘, etc. Better to switch to ‘secondly‘, ‘thirdly‘, and so on.
To sum up..
Me describing the information in my IELTS test..
In detail, sleeping was of hobbies preferred by Indonesians. said that they enjoy sleeping. was other hobbies, which were liked by about half of respondents, and reading only caught the interest of around 5% of those surveyed.
Me chatting to my friend later about the information..
I’m not at all surprised about the lack of interest in reading. books are expensive in Indonesia, and reading is a solitary activity and as we know, Indonesians prefer doing things together with other people. And the result for sleeping doesn’t surprise me either! it’s very hot and humid in Indonesia and this can make you very sleepy. And Indonesians need to concentrate hard on the road – to avoid death – and this, too, can be exhausting!
TIP! If you’re doing this in IELTS Speaking, it can sometimes help you to structure an argument if you count off items using your fingers, perhaps under the table!
PS. See also my earlier post dealing with ‘in second place’ instead of ‘second winner’ (which does NOT mean ‘in second place’!).
In Australia I will need a lot of money to pay my basic needs.
This is obviously a translation problem.
Indonesian has different word forms to communicate different meanings – bayar, bayar kepada, bayari, and bayarkan. English, on the other hand, only has ‘pay’ and ‘pay for’:
bayar kepada) bayar) bayari) bayarkan)In the first picture (below), a man is paying a woman for some vegetables:
In the next illustration, a man is paying some fruit and vegetables. He’s giving money to the fruit and vegetables:
Americans rose steadily, while Indonesians fell dramatically.
Well, maybe. Something like this?
With a sentence like the one above you are unlikely to communicate anything meaningful about a graph, table or chart. If there was a rise or a fall, then you need to state precisely what it was that rose and what it was that fell – What is the subject?
For example:
Here there are 2 subjects:
Some of you will complain about the repetition in this sentence (‘the divorce rate‘). However, it’s better to repeat words and phrases and communicate something meaningful than to avoid repetition and communicate nothing.
Actually in this example repetition can be avoided:
* Many thanks to Diro, Nando and Ari for the ‘falling Indonesians’ photo – You guys rock! 🙂
Studying abroad needs high cost!
This one does not translate directly from Indonesian. In fact the meaning changes dramatically!
In English if you say something ‘needs high cost‘ then you are saying: Continue reading
The price of natural pearls is more expensive than the price of man made pearls.
This is an Indonesian student translating ‘harganya mahal‘!
We see what you mean. But in IELTS Continue reading
In general, all the lines show that there is an increasing trend of people with bronchitis.
When students are preparing for IELTS Task 1 writing they learn the importance of describing ‘trends’ in graphs, tables and charts. Not surprisingly, they go ahead and use the word ‘trend’ to describe these trends. But native speakers almost never do that.
In the opening example a trend is described, but the word ‘trend’ is redundant. It is enough to write:
This kind of statement stands out as ‘a trend’ because it says something general about a change over time without mentioning data.
So here’s your checklist for a trend:
Understand also, that a trend is often ‘hidden’ in data that is highly irregular. In the following graph grammatical accuracy goes up and down erratically over time, but the general trend (shown by the straight line) is downward.
The ‘trend’ in this graph can be described:
The more frequently the word ‘trend’ is used, the less accurate the writing.
Famous people are followed everywhere by the press. Their families sometimes feel they have to hide from reporters, and the children of famous people may feel that they are living behind the bar.
Here, again, we have a breakdown in communication caused by inaccurate use of articles.
Remember that for any noun there are 3 possible meanings:
I think the writer of the opening example meant to describe the bars in a prison, and was trying to use the idiom ‘behind bars‘ (grammar = some of many).
I’m pretty sure the writer meant something like this:
Now the text carries two correct meanings:
Be careful with your meanings and choose articles (or ‘s‘) with care!