IELTS essay vocabulary

What is the most useful vocabulary for writing IELTS essays? I’d suggest that it is the vocabulary that you can use in any essay, no
matter what it is about. I this post I give you a useful list of vocabulary that you can down load and use in all sorts of essays. I also show
you a way of using this vocabulary to help structure your essays and make them more coherent.

IELTS essay vocabulary for download

IELTS essay vocabulary (89652)- a download of IELTS essay vocabulary list

Problem vocabulary – language to help you write about problems that need solving (download here: Problem vocabulary for IELTS essays
(45271))
Cautious vocabulary – language to make your writing more academic (down load here: Academic caution vocabulary (40541))

How to structure an IELTS essay using key vocabulary

I would suggest that one way you can use this type of vocabulary is to help structure your writing. This has two benefits:
1.it makes the writing process easier because a significant amount of the language you need is “structural” – if you learn to use this
vocabulary, almost half your essay is already written
2.it makes your writing more coherent by helping you to write essays with a clear structure

An example of an essay map

To show you what I mean, take a look at this outline of an essay. It contains 125 words: that is half of all the words you need for an
IELTS essay.
*One of the most controversial issues today relates to . ……………. In this essay, I am going to examine this question from
both points of view
*On one side of the argument there are people who argue that the benefits of considerably outweigh its disadvantages. The
main reason for believing this is that …………………. It is also possible to say that *…….One good illustration of this is
………….
*On the other hand, it is also possible to make the opposing case. It is often argued that in fact ……….. *People often have
this opinion because …………… A second point is that ………..A particularly good example here is…………..
*As we have seen, there are no easy answers to this question. On balance, however, I tend to believe that ……………..

Where else can you find this vocabulary?

1.A sensible way to find more similar vocabulary is by reading sample essays and noting down useful phrases. Look for phrases that
seem useful to you and note them down.
2.Another great resource is of course the Academic Word List which comprises the 560 words most used in academic writing of all kinds.
3.You will also find lots more vocabulary resources on my vocabulary page together with advice on how to use it.

Should you just learn these phrases?

That depends. If you are looking for a “quick fix” to get a result asap, it is one possible approach. However, that may not work. If your
general English is of a lower standard, the examiner is likely to realise that these are “learnt” phrases and you may not get credit for
them.
If you have more time to prepare, I have another suggestion. Adopt and adapt. This means:
*you choose a few of these phrases – not all of them
*you see how they work by trying them in your own essays
*you adapt them to your writing

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-essays/vocabulary-a-list/

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How to structure IELTS essays

This lesson shows you a simple way to structure IELTS essays. Below I show a very simple method (with a downloadable resource) I use
myself and also show my students in class.

Read and understand the question

One key to it is understand the question and to be clear about what you want to say in your response. Clear thinking leads to clear
writing.As ever, the first step is to read and understand the question. Here is the question today:

Despite advances in medicine there are concerns that certain diseases such as diabetes are increasing and some
people believe future generations will face greater problems with health and die younger than we do today.
What is your opinion?

This question asks you to:

1.give your opinion – this must be clear in the introduction and the conclusion
2.about whether health will be better in future – this means that you need to talk about the future and now – there must be some
comparison
3.about whether people will live longer – this needs to be mentioned to
All these things must be included.

Think about the examiner – make your opinion and structure clear – give your essay a backbone

IELTS essays get marked quickly. You don’t want to allow the examiner to make a mistake. So make life easy for him/her by showing
the structure of your essay as clearly as possible. There are 4 places you do this – what I think of as being the spine of the essay.
(your spine is your backbone – it’s what keeps you upright and gives you your structure).

1.the introduction – that’s the first thing they read and where you make your first impression and first impressions count
2.the first sentence of each paragraph (x2) – examiners are taught that each paragraph should have one main idea – show them what it
is in the first sentence
3.the conclusion – that’s the last thing they read and the first thing they remember!
The key is link these things together so that
the introduction matches the conclusion – the opinion/point of view is the same: you just need to change the language
the two body paragraphs link to the opinion/point view in the introduction
To do this try this simple essay structure plan. It may just look like 4 boxes on a blank piece of paper , but it might save your life!

Think clearly about your opinion/point of view

You want your point of view to be clear. My basic rule is that if you can’t say in 2 sentences, it’s too complex. So part of the planning
process may be deleting ideas that are too complex or that you can’t express clearly in English .

See my example

I’m going to go for a balanced type essay with an argument that it health and longevity (living for a long time) will get worse in the West
but better in developing nations. Before I start writing I make sure I can say this simply

I think health will get worse in the west but better in developing countries and this will affect how long people live.

Build the spine of your essay – see my example

All you need to do now is build the spine of the essay: the intro, first sentences and conclusion. I really do do this using my essay
structure plan above. I ended up with this. Take a look at it. See

how simple it is – that’s good, you do want a simple structure

how things repeat – that’s good too
I crossed out my idea about stress and mental health. It’s a good idea, but would make the essay too complex
(Go to next page)

Now get the words

This lesson wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t show you the “end-product”. Your plan is only good if it helps you write well. Take a look at
my opinions (in red/underlined) and the balance between developing countries (in green/bold) and the industrialised nations (in
blue/italics).

Introduction
There is no question that medicine has progressed dramatically over the last century, but this does not mean that all our medical
problems have been solved. Indeed, my belief is that the average life span in the Western world may actually fall in the 21st century.
This is in contrast to the situation in developing countries where I expect health provision to improve and longevity to increase.

Paragraph 1
The main reason why overall health may become worse in the industrialised nations of the West relates to modern lifestyles there.

Paragraph 2
The situation in the developing world is, however, quite different and overall health is likely to improve.

Conclusion
My conclusion is therefore a mixed one. While it is true that people may face greater problems with their health in the future, this only
applies to industrialised nations and not to the developing world where life expectancy may increase.
http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-essays/structure-ielts-essays/
Points to note in using the sample essays
Each essay follows the same basic 4 or 5 paragraph structure
How the introduction focuses on the question and introduces how the essay is going to be written
How each paragraph focuses on one main idea and expands it, using PEE (Point – Explain – Example)
How sentences within paragraphs are linked together using pronouns, linking words and repetition.
These essays are either argument based or opinion based

How to use the sample essays for vocabulary

One way to use these samples is to find vocabulary you can use for yourself. This vocabulary can be divided into:

topic vocabulary – specific vocabulary relating to the topic of the question

structural/organising vocabulary (eg “One point to note is..”)
academic vocabulary

How to use the sample essays for essay structure

Another way to use these essays is to see how an IELTS essay is structured:

*note how the introduction addresses the question and leads into the main body of the essay
*identify the main point of each topic paragraph
*note how the topic paragraphs link to each other (do they present similar or contrasting attitudes?)
*note the functions of the conclusion: to summarise and/or present the answer to the question

How to use the sample essays for paragraph structure

Note how each paragraph focuses on one main idea and how that idea is expanded by the use of examples and reasons. You will find
more about this under coherence.

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-essays/sample-ielts-essays/