Let's look at the 'band 7-9' vocabulary from last week's essay:
- video surveillance
- has become commonplace
- an invasion of privacy
- reasons why people might disapprove of
- The first objection is that
- we are constantly being watched by the authorities
- private security firms
- intrusive
- a form of state control
- curtails their individual freedom
- the proliferation of CCTV cameras
- police officers patrolling the streets
- to monitor public areas
- to deter criminals
- petty criminals like shoplifters and pickpockets
- less likely to operate in parts of cities
- video evidence to catch and prosecute offenders
- offer valuable support to police officers
- make cities safer for inhabitants, workers and visitors alike
- we gain more than we lose
- the enhanced security that CCTV cameras bring
Note:
Only one phrase in the list above is a linking / organising phrase. Can you see it? All of the other items on the list are what I call "topic vocabulary".
The first objection is that ...is a linking phrase.
Posted by: Phong | October 04, 2017 at 10:14
The first objection is that
Posted by: Mohammad Vicky | October 04, 2017 at 15:13
reasons why people might disapprove of
Posted by: My | October 05, 2017 at 02:05
Dear Simon,
I have a confused word choice and need your help. Last week, I sent one of my essays to a IELTS writing corrector agency and have just received feedback from them.
Firstly, in my essay, there is an error called "In appropriate word choice" for the phrase "at their own pace" in the sentence "One of the biggest advantages that online courses provide is the flexibility in learning. It means that students are able to stay at home or at any places they wish to study lessons provided in the courses at their own pace without going to class". However, I don't think that this phrase is inappropriate.
Secondly, I wonder which phrase is correct, "In recent years" or "In the recent years" ?? I see you use "in recent years" quite often, but the corrector marks my essay wrong at this point as well.
Thank you for your support and hope to receive answer for you soon.
Posted by: Huyen | October 06, 2017 at 04:06
@Huyen: According to the British National Corpus, "the recent years" were used twice, against 2000+ records of "recent years".
Also, I don't see any problem with your sentence
Posted by: MinhDang | October 06, 2017 at 06:35
Huyen
...provided in the courses, and work at their own pace without going to class.
"in the recent years" seems to come appear in books whose authors have non-English sounding names:
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=%22in+the+recent+years%22&lr=lang_en&dcr=0&gbv=1&tbs=lr:lang_1en&tbm=bks&ei=OxnXWYXLKYma8QWQirCYDw&start=20&sa=N
Posted by: Jude | October 06, 2017 at 06:54
intrusive:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=*+intrusive+government%2Cintrusive+government+*_NOUN%2Cintrusive+and+*_ADJ&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t2%3B%2C*%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Band%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ban%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bless%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bmore%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bof%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bfrom%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bthe%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bagainst%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Boverly%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bto%20intrusive%20government%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Cintrusive%20government%20*_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bintrusive%20government%20regulation_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20government%20regulations_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20government%20action_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20government%20intervention_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20government%20interference_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20government%20policies_NOUN%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Cintrusive%20and%20*_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20extrusive_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20volcanic_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20metamorphic_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20inappropriate_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20disruptive_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20effusive_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20restrictive_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20avoidant_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20repetitive_ADJ%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bintrusive%20and%20coercive_ADJ%3B%2Cc0
commonplace:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=commonplace+in+the+*%2Ca+commonplace+of+*%2Ca+mere+commonplace%2Ccommonplace+and+*&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t2%3B%2Ccommonplace%20in%20the%20%2A%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20United%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20history%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20literature%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20world%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20extreme%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20early%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20future%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20last%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20West%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20in%20the%20way%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Ca%20commonplace%20of%20%2A%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20the%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20criticism%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20history%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20modern%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20our%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20political%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20literary%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20psychology%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20all%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Ba%20commonplace%20of%20human%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ca%20mere%20commonplace%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Ccommonplace%20and%20%2A%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20the%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20uninteresting%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20vulgar%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20conventional%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20ordinary%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20familiar%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20trivial%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20prosaic%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20even%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bcommonplace%20and%20dull%3B%2Cc0
Posted by: m'ambo | October 07, 2017 at 00:26
FROM SIMON:
"The first objection is that..." was the linking phrase that I was thinking of.
However, "reasons why people might disapprove of" is also a phrase that could be used when writing about a range of different topics, so I suppose we would have to call this a linking or organising phrase too.
...
Huyen,
I would worry about the reliability of the correction service that you used!
"at their own pace" and "in recent years" are both normal and appropriate phrases.
Posted by: Simon | October 10, 2017 at 11:37
"The first objection is that" was the linking phrase
Posted by: Thuyen | October 10, 2017 at 15:40
Hello guys, I have a question. I read somewhere that any contractions should not be used in the writing 2 task, does it include topical vocabularies like "CCTV cameras" or only words like isn't, aren't, hasn't.
I would really appreciate if you could answer this, thank you in advance.
Posted by: Filipp Mozolevskiy | January 30, 2018 at 05:29