In Thursday's lesson I told you not to use words like soar, rocket, shoot up, creep up, dive and plummet in IELTS writing task 1.
But what's wrong with those words?
The problem with those words is that they are too figurative for writing task 1. Think about the normal use of these verbs (e.g. the bird soared into the air, the climber plummeted to his death). If you use these words to describe figures on a graph, it seems too sensational or exaggerated. This is why I prefer to stick with increase, decrease, rise and fall.
So can we ever use these words to describe figures?
If you're writing for a newspaper, yes you can! You'll often see phrases like this in newspapers: house prices soared, share prices plummeted, the price of petrol crept up. Newspapers and magazines love idiomatic and descriptive language, but this style does not suit academic graph descriptions.
Thank you Simon,by just reading your instruction,helps me assimilate how to use English better and proper bit by bit.I appreciate it.
Posted by: Oley | June 10, 2018 at 19:13
What is about the use of "plunge"? Is it the same?
Posted by: Olga | June 11, 2018 at 05:25
@Olga
Looking at "plunged" on google books, it is hard to find it being used in the context of a graph, or statistical results.
Compare this with the usage of "declined", where there is clear evidence of this type of usage:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22plunged%22&lr=lang_en&tbs=lr:lang_1en&tbm=bks&ei=bTYeW-a_EcvS8QX_jYL4CA&start=40&sa=N&biw=1216&bih=958&dpr=1
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22declined%22&tbm=bks&lr=lang_en
Posted by: Kandi | June 11, 2018 at 09:48
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fell+by%2Cdropped+by%2Cplunged+by%2Cdeclined+by%2Cdecreased+by%2Cdropped+off+by&year_start=1900&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cfell%20by%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdropped%20by%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cplunged%20by%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdeclined%20by%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdecreased%20by%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cdropped%20off%20by%3B%2Cc0
Posted by: Kandi | June 11, 2018 at 10:01
Examples of "plunged by" as used by native speakers in books about business. This is arguably a different genre to an academic report, which should be objective and non-emotive:
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=gdRWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA304&dq=%22plunged+by%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjahur9u8vbAhXKkZQKHXqJD-I4KBC7BQguMAE#v=onepage&q=%22plunged%20by%22&f=false
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=qqA4DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT134&dq=%22plunged+by%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK_7nlu8vbAhVDl5QKHXBGC2I4HhDoAQhKMAc#v=onepage&q=%22plunged%20by%22&f=false
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=TjZCfzng62IC&pg=PA151&dq=%22plunged+by%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMnq-fvMvbAhWLJZQKHVxOCfY4PBC7BQg_MAQ#v=onepage&q=%22plunged%20by%22&f=false
Posted by: Kandi | June 11, 2018 at 12:13
Kandi, thanks a lot for this full and detailed explanation!!
Posted by: Olga | June 11, 2018 at 14:16
Dear Simon,
you are truly amazing, I must say. I love the way you guide your students. May God reward you for this.
I am preparing for Academic module. I am interested in buying ebook for Academic task 2.
Thanks
Kind Regards
Sidra
Posted by: Sidra Abaid | June 12, 2018 at 16:38
Hi, Simon.
Can I use 'ascend' to describe the uptrend of figures?
Regards,
Thanks
Posted by: Teresa | June 13, 2018 at 02:29
@Teresa:
There are 3200 results on Google books for the phrase "figures increased by", so this looks like a normal phrase:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22figures%20increased%20by%22&tbm=bks&tbas=0
By comparison, there are only two instances of "figures ascended by" on google books, so it is probably better simply to avoid "ascended", as it is so seldom used in this type of context, and consequently the examiner might be left wondering why it was chosen when a more normal word would have sufficed:
https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22figures+ascended+by%22&num=10
Posted by: Gabi | June 13, 2018 at 18:17
@Teresa
IELTS writing is quite short and one needs to create the right impression. Using rare vocabulary without any good reason may give the impression that you are unaware of what is normal, so I would use the following first as they are much more common:
"reach"
"increase"
"rise"
"grow"
"peak".
Posted by: Gabi | June 13, 2018 at 18:26
@ Gabi
Thanks for detailed explanation!
Posted by: Teresa | June 16, 2018 at 09:36
Thanks Sidra!
Posted by: Simon | June 16, 2018 at 18:05
Simon, You are fantastic, I love your lessons. It's very detail and easy to understand. The best wishes for you. Thanks a lot!
Posted by: Selena | August 20, 2018 at 03:35