This lesson will help you conquer your fear of cycles! Watch my YouTube video to take you step by step through everything you need to know about writing a Band 7 IELTS Writing Task 1.
1. Use Present Tenses
Life begins as an egg.
The caterpillar hatches.
It eats the shell.
It looks for leaves.
It grows.
It finds a twig.
It makes a chrysalis.
It comes out.
It sits on the chrysalis.
It transforms.
A butterfly emerges.
The wings expand.
It reproduces.
The life cycle begins again.
2: Remember Third Person 's'
Look at all the examples above – they all need ‘s’ at the end of the verb (It grows, expands, hatches etc).
For variety, you could use ‘they’ – and then don’t put the ‘s’! (They grow, expand, hatch)
3: Use Present Simple Passive
There aren’t many examples here, but instead of saying:
‘The butterfly lays an egg’ (Active)
you could say
‘An egg is laid’ (Passive).
4: Use sequencer linking words
These are the simple ones:
- First of all
- Firstly
- Secondly
- After that
- Next
- Then
- Finally
5: Use more advanced cohesive techniques
Check out my blog and video about cohesion here.
Try to make things link together between sentences by using:
- it/they
- synonyms (the young caterpillars, the baby caterpillars)
- after which (links 2 sequence sentences)
- as/when (links 2 time sentences)
- if (links condition and result)
- ‘-ing’ participles (click to see my blog about this – it’s so important for IELTS Writing.
6. Add some description
This is a really useful way to make your writing more precise, advanced, complex and ‘less common’ (see the Band Descriptors Video)
and it helps increase your word count, which CAN be an issue in cycles.
Try to add a descriptive adjective wherever you can:
- a small egg,
- the baby caterpillar,
- milkweed leaves,
- the underside of a twig
I talk a lot about this in Describing changes to a plan.
7. Use synonyms
This is probably the most difficult part – finding synonyms for quite technical words.
But doing this will make you stand out.
e.g. it hatches, emerges, wriggles free, comes out
8. Use adjectives
This is similar to point 6, but what I mean here is that you should try not to just use verbs to describe the steps.
There is one good example here of an alternative:
It does not move = It is motionless.
9. Use nouns and collocations
This is another example of how you can avoid using verbs mechanically and how to add some variety to the text. e.g.
- It transforms = it undergoes a transformation
- It looks for = it goes in search of
10. Don't worry too much about facts!
OK this is a bit controversial, and I’m not suggesting you should go off-topic or make up random scientific facts to meet the word count, but you can add details without worrying TOO much about how scientifically accurate they are.
e.g. from the picture, it’s not clear how long each stage takes. So it is absolutely fine to say
‘it waits for several hours/days/weeks before it emerges’
The examiner will not worry too much about how true this is.
Do lots of googling about natural cycles. They all follow the same pattern. Watch YouTube videos and those little Facebook videos – they will really help you get familiar with describing a cycle.
And finally…
Do lots of googling about natural cycles (carbon, water, nitrogen etc). They all follow the same pattern.
Watch YouTube videos and those little Facebook videos – they will really help you get familiar with describing a cycle.
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