Friday Feedback Takeaway Tips
Every week we learn something new.
This is where I put the quick takeaways from the live Writing Feedback session.
Describing a process – Maple Syrup Listening
This Part 4 Listening will also help with describing a process – how maple syrup is produced.
Agreement
When you start a sentence with a noun/ing form, you need a singular verb, no matter what comes after the noun.
such
‘such’ is a useful reference word in Writing, and it’s often used in Reading questions.
nationalities
You often need to transform countries to nationalities (nouns to adjectives e.g. France – French) in Academic Task 1 and Speaking.
twice as many/much as
‘Twice as many’ is a high-level structure but beware of these common mistakes.
the majority/minority
How to use ‘majority’ and minority’ in a sentence
How to tell a story
The skill of storytelling is important in different parts of the test. Here’s a summary of where to find practice.
Reference words: ‘that of’
‘That of’ and ‘Those of’ are great ways of avoiding repetition, especially in Task 1. Here are a few common mistakes.
How to qualify your statements
In this lesson you’ll learn how to use less common conditionals to qualify your statements.
The key to addressing, an approach to solving
What’s the difference between ‘a key to solving’ and ‘a key to solve’?
Collocation
Learn how to decrease your thinking time speed up your writing/speaking fluency by learning words that commonly go together.
Academic Task 1 – being specific
It is important to be clear about what exactly the graph is showing. Here are some examples.
Extra Reading Practice
Where can I get extra Reading practice?
which
‘Which’ can be misused and overused – here are some examples and how to fix them.
I’d better
‘The more..the more/less’ is a useful way of describing trends that happen at the same time.
The more…
‘The more..the more/less’ is a useful way of describing trends that happen at the same time.
Not only but also and inversion
‘Not only ..but also’ adds emphasis but it’s dangerous because it usually needs inversion – find out how to do this here.
little and few
There is a subtle but really important difference between ‘little’ and ‘a little’ and ‘few’ and ‘a few’. Here’s why IELTS loves to test you on this.
Gerund vs infinitive
Here are some patterns and rules that can help you decide when to use the gerund ‘ing’ or the infinitve form of the verb.
Present Participle
The present participle has so many uses that you might not even realise you’re using it. Here are the most useful examples for IELTS.