EFFECTIVE SENTENCE STRUCTURES TO GET AN 8.0+
1. Position statement:
·
The price of gas
stood at
$2.75 per gallon.
·
In 2005, the sugar export
accounted for
about 10% of total exports.
2. Movement statements
·
There was
a decrease
in the price of gas/ gas prices.
·
There was
an increase
in the sugar export/ export of sugar/ exported sugar.
·
Gas prices/ the price of gas
decreased
.
·
The export of sugar/ the sugar export/ the exported sugar
increased
.
·
Gas prices/ the price of gas
experienced a decrease
.
·
The export of sugar/ the sugar export/ the exported sugar
witnessed an increase
.
3. Time phrases
·
From 1990 to 1995
·
Between 1990 and 1995
·
During/throughout the period from 1995 to 2005
·
During a period of 10 years
·
Over the (three-month) period (between April and June)
·
In 1990
·
By 1995
·
For 5 years
4. Grammar variations
Connecting sentences together
makes your writing more interesting
and can help to improve your band score
- but you should aim to vary the way you link sentences
. Here are a couple options to try instead of just using “then”
:
·
CD sales
increased steadily
from 2005 until 2010,
then
fell slightly
in the following year.
·
CD sales
increased steadily
from 2005 until 2010,
before
falling slightly
in the following year.
·
After
increasing steadily
from 2005 until 2010,
CD sales
fell slightly
in the following year.
5. Vocabulary variations
Again, these variations increase the range of language you use, which can make your writing more interesting
and benefit your band score
.
·
There was
a slight fall in
CD sales
in 2010
.
·
(The year) 2010
saw
a slight fall
in
CD sales
.
·
CD sales
experienced
a slight fall
in 2010
.
6. Giving evidence (data)
When you describe the key information
in a diagram, it's extremely important to include evidence to support your idea
. This means you add data
: specific numbers, percentages, etc
.
For example:
·
CD sales increased slightly
from 52
(million)
to 70
million units between 2009 and 2010.
·
CD sales increased slightly
from 52
million units in 2010
to 70
million the following year.
·
CD sales increased
by eight
million units from 2009 to 2010.
·
During the period from 1990 to 1995, there was a decrease in gas prices
from
$2.70 to
$2.75
per gallon.
·
There was an increase in the sugar export between May and August
from about 10% to over 20%.
·
Between 1990 and 1995, the price of gas decreased
from $2.75 to $2.70
per gallon.
·
The sugar export increased
from approximately 10% to more than 20%
between May and August.
·
From 1990 to 1995, the price of gas experienced a decrease
from $2.75 to $2.70
per gallon.
·
The sugar export witnessed an increase between May and August
from around 10% to over 20%
.
Vocabulary note
Note the way we use prepositions with numbers and dates:
·
In 2000 the number fell
to
20%.
·
In 2000 the number fell
by
25%.
·
The number fell/dropped
from
45%
in 1998
to
20%
in 2010.
·
The number fell/dropped
from
45%
to
20% between 1995 and 1997.
You can use a combination of verb + adverb
, or adjective + noun
, to avoid repeating the same phrases and to add extra meaning
:
·
There was
a significant increase/rise
in the number of X.
·
The number of X
increased/rose significantly
.
Notice that you need a preposition
when you use the noun form
:
·
There was an increase
in
house prices;
·
There was a drop
of
10% in the number of male students who studied abroad.
Those above are all about the unique things when it comes to your task 1 description. This is a suitable range. So, when it comes to the sentence structures, pay attention to these, and pay attention to the parts of these structures because that is what you will be doing when it comes to describing. Understand that the grammar
never changes
, the
verbs
never change
. They stay the same. You are dealing with a limited number of words, a limited number of structures
. The only thing that changes
is
what you are talking about
. We might be talking about the purchase of Honda
, or we might talk about the number of members at a club
or we might talk about the dollars earned
or the kilometers travelled
or the number of books sold
. It doesn’t matter. That is the only thing that changes. It is very mathematical
When it comes to task 1, you need to use certain kinds of language:
1.
COMPARISON AND SUPERLATIVE LANGUAGE:
The language we should use in task 1 writing is the language of
comparison
and
superlative
.
We can compare X and Y by using superlatives.
For example:
Honda was
the most
popular
motorbike.
(Superlative language)
Or: Honda produced
the most
sold motorbikes.
·
Honda
was
more
popular
than
any other motorbike.
(Comparison language)
·
More
males
than
females
chose Honda.
·
Fewer
females
than
males
chose Honda.
·
Honda
was
more
popular
among
males
than
females
.
·
Honda
was
less
popular
among
females
than
males.
·
The most popular
means of transport
was Honda.
·
Honda
was
more
popular
than
any other means of transport.
·
Honda
was
the most popular
means of transport.
·
Honda
was chosen by
more
males
than
females.
·
A higher percentage of
males
chose Honda
than
males.
·
Compared to/with
the number of females, the number of males
were considerably higher
.
·
The number of males
were considerably higher
compared to/with
the number of females.
2.
TREND LANGUAGE:
If we have 2 time points
(that could be days/weeks/months/years/decades
), we need to use trend language
. We need to talk about “increase”, “decrease”
.
We could talk about 1990 and 2000
, or we could talk about January and June
, or we could talk about Monday and Friday
. It doesn’t matter.
Note:
if they give you a diagram with just
one year
, all we can do is just to compare
, we cannot
use trend language “increase”, “decrease”, “fluctuated”
. In other words, we cannot
talk about movement.
On the other hand, if they give you two years
,
three years
, or
four years
, they
still want
comparison
,
but now they
also want
trend language
. They also want you to talk about movement. These are really two basic groups of language that you need to use to describe diagrams: comparison
and trend language
.
Let’s build some vocabulary. Here is a list of verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns
that you need to use in task 1 writing.