Making Your IELTS Essay Sound Formal (Part 2)
In the first part, we looked at some features of formal language and ways to ensure that your IELTS essay has an academic tone throughout.
Picking up where we left off, here are three things to avoid if your IELTS essay needs to be appropriately formal.
3. Avoid slang words
Choice of vocabulary is arguably the key to controlling the level of formality of your written work. Naturally, it goes without saying that informal words or expressions that are commonly found in spoken language have no place in your IELTS essay. For instance, do not replace the word ‘children’ with an informal expression such as ‘kids’, as this would be inappropriate.
4. Do not use contracted forms
Contracted forms, also referred to as short forms, are words or phrases that have been shortened by dropping one or more letters. Here are some examples:
- I’m (short form of I am)
- they’re (short form of they are)
- I’ve (short form of I have)
- she’d (short form of she would and she had)
- we’ll (short form of we will)
When forming a contraction, an apostrophe is used in place of a missing letter, or missing letters. Although contracted forms are very common in English, especially in everyday speech, they are considered inappropriate in formal writing. In IELTS Writing, the only time you can confidently use contractions is when you have been asked to write an informal letter in the IELTS General Training test.
5. Avoid clichés
A cliché is a stale phrase or proverb that has been overused and has, therefore, lost its charm. When you use a cliché like ‘all that glitters is not gold’ in your essay, you end up making your writing dull and unimaginative. A far better approach is to convey this idea in your own words – for example, something that is superficially attractive may not always be valuable or true.
Remember, clichés tend to be inherent in our everyday communication, so they may creep into your writing unnoticed. For this reason, do keep an eye out for clichéd expressions when your proofread your essay. And should you find any, paraphrase without any hesitation.
You can find more information on academic English in the final part in this series.