Improving sentences for IELTS WRITING

Creating more complex sentences and reducing grammar errors can significantly boost your band score. There are many ways to improve your sentences in IELTS writing and no, it’s not just about writing longer sentences. There are other ways.

Using clauses and linkers to bind your ideas and show the logical flow of your thoughts is one of them but more importantly, what you can and should do is support your ideas by giving detailed information that improves the quality of sentences.

 

creating more complex sentences example

Here’s an example:

Many children are obese. They eat too much junk food. They should exercise more frequently.

Option 1. We can connect the facts and create a longer sentence, like this:

Many children are obese because they eat too much junk food and one way to tackle this is to encourage them to exercise more frequently.

This is fine, but have you impressed your examiner…? On the other hand, giving detailed information will significantly improve your writing and push your band score up.

Option 2. Have a look at the improved version of the same given facts:

An increasing number of children are struggling with obesity which can have a serious impact on their health. This is mainly due to the fact that they eat too much food which is high in unhealthy fats and sugars, as well as having a sedentary lifestyle lacking in sufficient exercise. To tackle this children must be given a balanced, controlled diet and encouraged to get exercise every day to burn the calories they consume as well as reduce blood sugar levels.

reducing sentence errors practice

 The more errors your sentence contain, the lower your score will be. It is better to write two sentences which are controlled in length and with no errors than one long sentence with errors.

The most common errors are in:

  • Articles
  • Plural nouns and countable nouns
  • Prepositions
  • Linking words
  • Clauses
  • Gerunds

Spot the errors in the sentences below:

  1. In my opinion, study history is extremely important in term of learning about culture and science development.
  2. On the one hand, history is subject that is rarely used in people’s lives. Thus it would be better to focus on science and technology, which is more relevant to the future.
  3. In other word, they should use the school time effectively because students are loosing the motivation to study subjects like history that is no importance role in day-to-day life
  4. For instance, most people memorizing dates, names, and facts when they study in history this information is not useful for future.
  5. Furthermore, valuable information can often be found in history how science and technology had developed over the years
  6. Although history has many information that is not useful in today’s world, studying history can help people learn about their background.
  1. In my opinion, studying history is extremely important in terms of learning about culture and science development.
  1. On the one hand, history is a subject that is rarely used in people’s lives. Thus, it would be better to focus on science and technology, which are more relevant to the future.

3. In other words, they should use the school time effectively because students are losing the motivation to study subjects like history that play no important role in day-to-day life.

4. For instance, most people memorise dates, names, and facts when they study history which is not considered useful information for their future.

5. Furthermore, valuable information can often be found in history relating to how science and technology have developed over the years.

6. Although history has a lot of information that is not useful in today’s world, studying it can help people learn about their background.