One of the criteria the Examiner assesses your writing on in the IELTS Writing Test is Coherence and Cohesion; that is the devices you use to put your writing together to make it flow as a piece of writing.
One of the ‘devices’ you can employ to improve your coherence and cohesion in your essays is to use certain key words and expressions. These key words and expressions, known as discourse markers, help show the direction of the argument and shape your writing.
In this post, I have given you a list of expressions you can use for different purposes in your IELTS Writing. These expressions, used correctly, help add variety and interest to your writing.
So how do I recommend you use these expressions? I suggest you write out the words from each group in a sentence so that you know how to use them in context use a good English-English dictionary / grammar book to help you with this)
Once you have a list of the words in context, I suggest you learn to use three / four expressions from each group. There is no need to use all of the expressions; you only have to know a few for each purpose so that they come to mind easily during the test.
Key Words and Expressions for IELTS Writing.
Stating Your Opinion
In my opinion,
I think
In my view,
I believe
From my point of view,
It seems to me that
I suppose
From my perspective
I understand
It appears that
I feel
To my way of thinking
I imagine
Giving Examples
For example,
For instance,
such as
In other words,
as
like
that is
namely
To illustrate
Comparing
Similar to
As…as
also
Either…or
In the same way,
Neither…nor
At the same time
Just as
Contrasting
However,
But
On the contrary,
On the other hand,
Nevertheless
Although
Though
Otherwise
Instead
Alternatively,
Even though
Generalising
Generally,
Generally speaking,
Overall,
On the whole,
In general,
All in all,
Basically,
Essentially,
As a rule,
All things considered
Expressing Certainty
Certainly,
Undoubtedly,
Doubtless,
No doubt,
Definitely,
Of course,
Expressing Partial Agreement
More or less,
To some extent,
Up to a point,
Almost,
In a way,
So to speak,
Showing cause (the reason why something happens)
Due to
Because
Because of
Owing to
Showing effect (the result of a situation)
Therefore,
As a result,
Consequently,
For this reason,
Thus,
So,
Hence,
The reason why
Marking time and the sequence of events
First,
Second,
Third,
Firstly,
Secondly,
Thirdly,
During
To begin with
Simultaneously
Since
Afterwards
When
Last
Lastly,
Then,
First of all,
Before
After
While
At the same time
After this / that
Meanwhile
Following this
As soon as
Adding Information
Furthermore
In addition
Also
And
Moreover
Similarly
Likewise
As well as
Besides
What’s more
Expressing condition
If
In case
Provided that
Whether
Unless
So that
Concluding
To summarise
To sum up
In conclusion
Lastly,
Finally,
To conclude with,
In short,
Becoming familiar with how to use some of these expressions in context will help improve your IELTS Writing.
Here’s to the best IELTS score possible!
I have learnt too much about the basic helping words of expression for the writing essay.i would like to request you,please send me more tips for writing essay.thanks
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