Academic caution words: generalisations

Part of the skill in academic writing is being cautious. In this post I look at how you can make this work for you in IELTS by using vocabulary to generalise and then be specific. It’s a useful skill to learn as it will help to improve the range of grammar and vocabulary in your writing and speaking.

Take a look at these two examples to see how it works. 

A weak example
 

The major advantage of living in a house is the issue of privacy. There is more opportunity for peace and quiet if you live in a house. Other significant advantages are that houses are more spacious and have gardens. This is important so that the children have a safe environment to play in. If you live in a tower block, then the children have to play outside on the pavement.

A much better example
 

Perhaps the major advantage of living in a house is the issue of privacy. Typically, there is more opportunity for peace and quiet if you live in a house. This is particularly the case if it is a detached house. Other significant advantages are that houses are generally more spacious and on the whole have gardens. This is especially important if there is a family so that the children can have a safe environment to play in. If, however, you live in a tower block, then the children may have to play outside on the pavement.
 

What are the differences?
 

Let’s have a little think. The main differences are:

• adverbs: the second version contains many more “-ly” adverbs.
• modal verbs not the verb to be: the second version has “can” and “may”
• if clauses: the second version uses “if” much more

Why does this work?
 

There are 4 good reasons to adopt this approach:

• your writing automatically becomes more academic and that’s a good thing – even in general training IELTS – the second version just sounds more intelligent
• you use a much greater range of grammar and so increase your grammar band score
• you write more words: if you have problems getting to 250 words, you can learn from this
• it’s not that hard to do

How can you learn to do this?
 

One suggestion here is to take this approach:

• make a general statement
• say that it is a general statement

To do this, you need words like: “generally”, “on the whole” or “typically”. Then it should become an automatic process to say:

• why it is only a general statement and not always true
• give a example

Tip: be careful of using the verb “to be” too often. You are probably making too many general statements.
 

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