GuruEAP

Academic English not only for Indonesians

Fallacies Browser

Fallacies are fake or deceptive arguments. Although they seem to make sense, they can be shown to be false. Fallacies are not always deliberate, but a good scholar’s purpose is always to identify and unmask them. (more…)

argument, logic, logical fallacies, speaking, writing

Meanwhile, ‘On the contrary’

Restaurant sales peaked on Friday. On the contrary, the restaurant gained its lowest earnings on Sunday.

If you are contrasting two things that are both true, do not use on the contrary (more…)

compare contrast, contrast, IELTS, signals, speaking, vocabulary, writing

The next topic is that of ‘that of’

Thanks to GuruEAP follower Devina who has requested an explanation of the use of that of. (more…)

comparatives, comparing, IELTS, speaking, statistics, Task 1, vocabulary, writing

IELTS Task 1 – Essay structure #2

In a previous post we saw a demonstration of the ideal IELTS Task 1 essay structure, and here’s another example. (more…)

cloze, coherence and cohesion, IELTS, practice, structure, Task 1, text reconstruction, writing

IELTS Task 1 – Essay structure

A good way to structure your IELTS Task 1 essay is to divide it into three sections, as follows: (more…)

coherence and cohesion, IELTS, practice, structure, Task 1, text reconstruction, writing

IELTS Task 2 – body paragraph reconstruction

In this activity we see two body paragraphs taken from an IELTS Task 2 essay discussing space exploration. (more…)

argument, claims and supports, coherence and cohesion, cohesive devices, discussion, IELTS, Task 2, task response, writing

Percent of what?

In this post we think about how a writer describes percentages so that the reader is always able to answer the question ‘percent of what?’. (more…)

IELTS, numbers, percentages, statistics, Task 1, writing

Songs censored by the BBC

For some reason I posted this as a page some time back, but here it is again as a post so that it shows up more easily in searches. Enjoy! (more…)

annotated text, collocation, IELTS, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Windows to the soul

Another post highlighting and analysing cohesive devices in academic writing, this time a summary of research looking into the facial expressions of animals. (more…)

coherence, coherence and cohesion, cohesion, cohesive devices, IELTS, referencing, substitution, vocabulary, writing

Cohesion in the news

In this post we look at some cohesive devices used in a recent news report covering the unrest in Hong Kong. (more…)

coherence, coherence and cohesion, cohesion, cohesive devices, IELTS, interactive, writing