Source: Adapted from publicly available articles on https://www.ieltsadvantage.com/ (Christopher Pell). This is an original, condensed summary — not a copy of their site. For full courses and personalised feedback, see the original site.
This page covers the sentence-level skills behind a strong Task 2 or Task 1 answer: linking ideas, building genuinely "complex" sentences, paraphrasing without breaking meaning, and the specific grammar mistakes that show up most often in real exam scripts.
Cohesive Devices: Less Is More
Cohesive devices are linking words — "however," "for example," "moreover," "in conclusion." They signal the relationship between ideas. Compare:
The new policy is unpopular and expensive to implement. The new policy is unpopular but effective at reducing emissions.
Same facts, different meaning — "but" tells the reader you're making a trade-off; "and" doesn't.
The mistake almost everyone makes: trying to use as many of these as possible. The official band descriptors actually penalise overuse at Band 5 just as much as they penalise absence. Band 8–9 answers use fewer of them than students expect — only when the sentence actually needs a signal, used with the correct meaning and correct grammar.
The rule that matters: it is better to use no linking word than to use the wrong one. Don't memorise a long list — in a 250-word essay you'll give 2–3 examples and write one conclusion, so you need one or two solid options for each function ("for example," "however," "in conclusion"), not ten synonyms for each. Learn a phrase's exact meaning and grammar before you use it in the exam.
Personal Pronouns: They're Fine
There's a persistent myth that Task 2 essays must avoid "I," "we," and "you" entirely. The official marking criteria say nothing about it either way — no formality requirement is stated for Task 2. The actual questions themselves often use "your own opinion" and "your own experience," which is hard to answer without any personal pronouns at all.
The practical guidance: it's fine to use personal pronouns when giving your opinion or a personal example. Just don't use them in every sentence throughout the essay — that reads as informal rather than instructive. If you'd rather avoid them entirely and write "This essay argues..." instead of "I think...", that's equally acceptable. Neither choice is a hidden mistake; don't spend exam time worrying about it.
What a "Complex" Sentence Actually Is
The biggest misunderstanding in IELTS writing: students think "complex" means "long, impressive, sophisticated." It doesn't. A complex sentence is simply two or more simple ideas joined together with the right grammar.
Trying to cram four ideas into one long sentence produces exactly the kind of confused, ungrammatical writing that loses marks:
❌ "In today's world, rapid urban growth is one of the most pressing issues creating numerous housing shortages and serious infrastructure strain resulting from its wide-reaching effects."
Broken into simple ideas and rejoined properly:
✅ "One of the most pressing issues facing modern cities is rapid urban growth, which creates severe housing shortages. This growth also places serious strain on infrastructure, with effects that reach far beyond the city centre."
When to use which: your topic sentence (the main point) can be simple. Use complex sentences when you expand on that point — explaining it or giving an example.
Four ways to build a complex sentence
1. Relative clauses — join two sentences using who/which/that:
Deforestation contributes to species loss. Deforestation is largely driven by agricultural expansion. → Deforestation, which is largely driven by agricultural expansion, contributes to species loss.
2. Subordinate clauses — connect an independent and dependent clause with because, while, although, when, if, until:
She cancelled the outdoor event because the forecast predicted heavy rain.
3. Conditional clauses — useful for examples and speculation:
| Type | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Zero | General truths | "When demand for housing rises, prices generally increase." |
| First | Real future possibility | "If more people work remotely, city-centre traffic will decrease." |
| Second | Unreal/hypothetical present | "If governments banned single-use plastics tomorrow, ocean pollution would still take decades to reverse." |
| Third | Past speculation/regret | "The factory closures would never have happened if the industry had modernised sooner." |
4. Compound sentences — two independent clauses joined with and, but, for: still counts as satisfying the "complex sentences" requirement — don't dismiss it as "too simple."
The one rule that matters more than any of this: only use a structure you're confident is grammatically correct. A memorised complex structure inserted incorrectly does more damage than a plain, error-free simple sentence.
Paraphrasing: Four Methods
Paraphrasing means rewriting a sentence with the same meaning but different words — essential for the opening line of every essay (paraphrase the question) and useful throughout Speaking too.
1. Synonyms — swap words for equivalents you're 100% sure about:
"The factory needs a new generator." → "The plant requires a new power source."
Be careful with near-synonyms: "teenagers" paraphrased as "young people" is too loose (young people could mean up to age 30); "adolescents" is tighter.
2. Change the word order — reorder clauses, or turn an adjective into a relative clause:
"Reducing single-use plastic is one of the simplest ways to cut household waste." → "One of the simplest ways to cut household waste is reducing single-use plastic."
3. Change the word form — noun ↔ verb ↔ adjective ↔ adverb, adjusting the surrounding grammar to match.
4. Active ↔ passive — common in academic writing, and useful when you want to state something without attributing it as your own opinion:
"Experts claim that rising sea levels threaten coastal cities." → "Coastal cities are said to be threatened by rising sea levels."
Combine two or three of these rather than relying on synonyms alone — but the 100% rule applies here too: don't change a word or the word order unless you're sure it's still grammatically correct.
Ten Grammar Mistakes That Show Up Constantly
These are the errors that recur across large numbers of real scripts. If you know which of these are your pattern, you can fix it specifically instead of studying grammar in general.
- "The" — used for one-of-a-kind things (the internet, the government, the ozone layer), superlatives (the best), ordinals (the first), and grouped place names (the UK, the Maldives). Dropped when speaking generally in the plural (dogs don't like cats, not the dogs) and with single country names (Ireland, not the Ireland).
- Uncountable nouns — advice, information, knowledge, money, traffic, research, equipment are always singular. No "an advice," no "many research," no "informations."
- Noun–verb agreement — plural noun needs a plural verb: "There are some eggs," not "there is."
- -ing vs. to + infinitive — want, decide, hope, afford, promise take to + verb; suggest, recommend, avoid, enjoy, finish take verb-ing.
- Articles before noun phrases — "a massive improvement," "an overall majority" — but "quite a few people," not "quite few a people."
- Commas around discourse markers — a comma follows an opening linking word ("However, rising fuel prices may also be a contributing factor") and surrounds one mid-sentence ("Overfishing is largely to blame; however, climate change plays a role too").
- Verb tenses — know exactly which tense fits which use (habit vs. one-off past action vs. ongoing state) rather than defaulting to one tense throughout.
- Prepositions after adjectives/nouns — good at, angry with (someone), angry about (something), rise/increase/fall in, difference between, advantage of. These are memorised, not guessed.
- Apostrophes — used for contractions (don't, I'll — avoid these in formal writing) and possession (John's book), never with possessive pronouns (its, theirs, ours — no apostrophe).
- Spelling — accommodation, government, environment, occurred, Wednesday, February are the words most commonly misspelled under exam pressure.
If more than half your sentences contain an error, you're capped at Band 6 for Grammatical Range and Accuracy — so identifying and drilling your own two or three recurring mistakes is worth more than reviewing all ten generally.
Related: for the essay skeletons these mechanics support, see Writing Task 2: Structures, Planning, and Band Differences.