Exam skills 1: Developing topic sent ences

When you write the main body of your essay, you need to explain your ideas fully.
Examiners are looking to see how you develop your topic sentences, and will give you a
better score if you do it well.

1 Read t his t o pic sent ence. W o rk w it h a p art ner and w r it e t w o m ore sen t ences t o
exp lain it .
One big problem in cities is the high cost of public transport.

2 St u d y t h ese sug g est io n s f o r d evelo p in g id eas. Did you use an y sim ilar
t ech n iq u es in Exercise 1?
• Linking phrases to explain the main idea: That is to s a y , ... /In oth er w ords, ...
One problem in cities is the cost of public transport. That is to say, in big capitals like
London, the price of using public transport such as the buses or tube, is extremely
high. As a result, many people end up spending a significant percentage of their
income on public transport, or they take their car instead.
• Giving reasons: This is becau se ... / The reason is ...
One issue is that a lot of young children don’t have a healthy diet. This is because
their parents don’t have time to cook, so they end up having takeaways and
processed food. As a consequence, the children get ill and put on weight.
• Describing facts:... m eans t h a t ...
One issue about living in a big city is the stress of getting from one place to another.
Living in a big city means that it takes at least at hour to get from your house to
where you want to go, which is very tiring and time consuming. For instance, if you
want to see a film, you have to leave an hour early if you live in a big city, whereas
people in small towns can get to the cinema in just a few minutes.
• Describing the result: As a result,... /As a con sequ en ce. ... / T herefore,...
One problem with working at home is that you don’t have contact with colleagues.
If you are at home, you don’t pick up new ideas from workmates. As a result, it is
difficult to improve your knowledge and skills. For instance, many teachers get good
ideas from other teachers in the staff room, but if they tutor people in their homes,
they don’t get any input from others.

3 Co m p let e t h e p arag rap hs b elo w w it h linking p hrases f rom t h e box.

A s a co n seq u en ce in o t h er w o r d s m ean s t h at Th e r easo n is

One cause of poor student behaviour at school is that many lessons are not very
interesting. In many cases, the subject material is presented by teachers in a dry and
uninspiring way. 1 ......................... that these teachers have not been trained to use the
most modern and dynamic teaching methods. 2 ........................... the pupils do not
concentrate on the lesson, and instead they behave badly in class.

One cause of stress in cities is the high cost of living. 3 ............................in today’s world,
the price of housing, transport, food and entertainment is rising all the time. For
instance, living in a big city 4 ......................... you have to spend a large proportion of
your salary on your rent or mortgage, which puts pressure on people to work harder
and harder to make ends meet.

4 Develo p t h ese t o p ic sen t ences using t h e id eas in Exercise 2. Have a lo ok in t h e

A n sw er key on p ag e 121 f o r so m e p o ssib ilit ies.
1 One problem in cities is the lack of green spaces.
2 One reason for crime is that many people are poor.

5 Problem and so lut io n 2: Cities