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October 04, 2017

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The first objection is that ...is a linking phrase.

The first objection is that

reasons why people might disapprove of

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.

@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

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

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

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.

"The first objection is that" was the linking phrase

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.

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