The IELTS ACADEMIC ENGLISH WRITING

Tutor UNIT 1: PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE

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Practice 1: Recognising Topic Sentences
Paragraph 2:
1. Twelve years after Sputnik, the United States caught up by becoming the first
nation to land a man on the moon. _______________
2. The Europeans have joined the competition, vowing to land European
astronauts on the moon by 2025 and on Mars by 2035. _______________
3. The number of nations competing in the “space race” has grown since the
early days of space exploration. _______________
4. China joined the competition in 2003 when it launched Shenzhou 5.
5. Initially, the former Soviet Union took the lead when it sent the first man into
Earth orbit in the spaceship Sputnik in 1957. _______________
6. For almost 50 years, the United States and Russia were the only competitors
in the contest to explore space using manned spacecraft. _______________

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 The IELTS ACADEMIC ENGLISH WRITING
Tutor UNIT 1: PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE
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Practice 1: Recognising Topic Sentences
Paragraph 3:
1. Another important change was that people had the freedom to live and
work wherever they wanted. _______________
2. The earliest significant change was for farming families, who were no
longer isolated. _______________
3. The final major change brought by the automobile was the building of
superhighways, suburbs, huge shopping centres, and theme parks such as
Disney World in Florida. _______________
4. The automobile revolutionised the way of life in the United States.
5. The automobile enabled them to drive to towns and cities comfortably
and conveniently. _______________
6. In fact, people could work in a busy metropolitan city and drive home to
the quiet suburbs. _______________

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 The IELTS ACADEMIC ENGLISH WRITING
Tutor UNIT 1: PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE
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Practice 1: Recognising Topic Sentences
Paragraph 4:
1. In time, this melted part rises as a magma. _______________
2. The formation of a volcanic eruption is a dramatic series of events.
_______________
3. As the plate sinks, friction and Earth’s heat cause part of it to melt.
4. The magma produces heat, steam, and pressure. _______________
5. First of all, most volcanoes are formed where two plates collide.
_______________
6. Then one of the plates is forced under the other and sinks.
_______________
7. When the heat, steam, and pressure from the magma finally reach the
surface of the earth, a volcanic eruption occurs. _______________

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The Two Parts of a Topic Sentence
• topic
• controlling idea

Example:
1. Convenience foods are easy to prepare.
2. Immigrants have contributed many delicious foods to U.S. cuisine.
3. Indie films are characterised by experimental techniques, low production
costs and provocative themes.
4. Independent films are characterised by experimental techniques.

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Practice 2: Identifying the Parts of a Topic Sentence
1. Driving on freeways requires skill and alertness.
2. Driving on freeways requires strong nerves.
3. Driving on freeways requires an aggressive attitude.
4. The Caribbean island of Trinidad attracts tourists because of its calypso
music.
5. Spectacular beaches make Puerto Rico a tourist paradise.
6. Moving away from home can be a stressful experience for young people.
7. Many religious rules arose from the health needs of ancient times.
8. A major problem for many students is the high cost of tuition and books.
9. Participating in class discussions is a problem for several different groups
of students.

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Practice 2: Identifying the Parts of a Topic Sentence

10. In my opinion, television commercials for cosmetics lie to women.

11. Owning an automobile is a necessity for me.
12. It is an expensive luxury to own an automobile in a large city.
13. Taste and appearance are both important in Japanese cuisine.

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 The IELTS ACADEMIC ENGLISH WRITING
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Writing Topic Sentences

When you write a topic sentence, remember these three points:

1. A topic sentence must be a complete sentence, with a subject and a verb.
2. A topic sentence should be neither too general nor too specific. If it is too
general, the reader cannot tell exactly what the paragraph is going to
discuss. If it is too specific, the writer will not have anything to write
about in the rest of the paragraph.
3. A topic sentence should not have unrelated controlling ideas.

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Practice 3: Writing Topic Sentences
Paragraph 1

__________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
_
English speakers relaxing at home, for example, may put on kimonos, which is
a Japanese word. English speakers who live in a warm climate may take an
afternoon siesta on an outdoor patio without realising that these are Spanish
words. In their gardens, they may enjoy the fragrance of jasmine flowers, a
word that came into English from Persian. They may even relax on a chaise
while snacking on yoghurt, words of French and Turkish origin, respectively.
At night, they may shampoo their hair and put on pyjamas, words from the
Hindi language of India.

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Practice 3: Writing Topic Sentences
Paragraph 2

__________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
_
In European universities, students are not required to attend classes. In fact,
professors in Germany generally do not know the names of students of the
students enrolled in their courses. In the United States, however, students are
required to attend all classes and may be penalised if they do not.
Furthermore, in the European system, students usually take just one
comprehensive examination at the end of their entire four or five years of
study. In the North American system, on the other hand, students usually have
numerous quizzes, tests, and do homework assignments, and they almost
always have to take a final examination in each course at the end of each
semester.
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 The IELTS ACADEMIC ENGLISH WRITING
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Practice 3: Writing Topic Sentences
Paragraph 3

__________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
_
For example, the Eskimos, living in a treeless region of snow and ice,
sometimes build temporary homes out of thick blocks of ice. People who live
in deserts, on the other hand, use the most available materials, mud or clay,
which provide good insulation from the heat. In Northern Europe, Russia, and
other areas of the world where forests are plentiful, people usually construct
their homes out of wood. In the islands of the South Pacific, where there is an
abundant supply of bamboo and palm, people use these tough, fibrous plants
to build their homes.

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Practice 3: Writing Topic Sentences
Example
Topic: cell phones
Topic sentences: 1. Using a cell phone while driving can be dangerous.
2. There are certain rules of cell phone
manners that everyone should know.
3. Cell phones have changed he way we
communicate.

Topics:
Movies Your home town
The computer Advertising

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Supporting Sentences
Purpose: explain / prove topic sentence
Types: examples, statistics, quotations

Practice:
1. Read Paragraphs A and B about red-light running. Notice specific
supporting details that have been added to Paragraph B.
2. Locate the topic sentence in Paragraph B. Circle the topic sentence and
underline the controlling idea.
3. Which supporting sentences in Paragraph B contain the kinds of details
listed below? Give the sentence numbers of each kind.
An example: _______________
A statistic: _______________
A quotation: _______________

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Practice 4: Supporting Sentences
Paragraph A: Paragraph without Support

Red-Light Running
Although some people think that red-light running is a minor traffic
violation that is no worse than jaywalking, it can, in fact, become a deadly
crime. Red-light runners cause accidents all the time. Sometimes people are
seriously injured and even killed. It is especially a problem in rush hour
traffic. Everyone is in a hurry to get home, so drivers run red light
everywhere. The police do not do much about it because they are too busy.
The only time they pay attention is when there is an accident, and then it is too
late. In conclusion, running a red light is a serious offence.

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Practice 4: Supporting Sentences
Paragraph B: Paragraph with Support
Red-Light Running
Although some people think that red-light running is a minor traffic
violation that is no worse than jaywalking, it can, in fact, become a deadly crime.
Ref-light runners cause hundreds of accidents, including deaths and injuries as well
as millions of dollars in damages. Each year more than 900 people die, and nearly
200,000 are injured in crashes that involve red-light running. Motorists run red
lights all the time. For example, in Fairfax, Virginia, a five-month-long survey at
five busy intersections revealed that a motorist ran a red light every 20 minutes.
Red-light runners are seldom caught. According to the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety, “Communities don’t have the resources to allow police to patrol
intersections as often as would be needed to ticket all motorists who run red lights
(“Q&A”).

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Examples
• easiest type of supporting detail
• why? take examples from your own knowledge and experience
• no need to search library/internet for supporting material
• make your writing lively and interesting
• reader more likely to remember your point with memorable example
• words/phrases: for example, for instance, such as

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Model: Paragraph Supported with Examples
Language and Perception
Although we all possess the same physical organs for sensing the world –
eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, noses for smelling, skin for feeling, and mouths for
tasting – our perception of the world depends to a great extent on the language we
speak, according to a famous hypothesis proposed by linguists Edward Sapir and
Benjamin Lee Whorf. They hypothesised that language is like a pair of eyeglasses
through which we “see” the world in a particular way. A classic example of the
relationship between language and perception is the word snow. Eskimo languages
have as many as 32 different words for snow. For instance, the Eskimos have different
words for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed as hard as ice, slushy snow,
wind-driven snow, and what we might call “commeal” snow. The ancient Aztec
languages of Mexico, in contrast, used only one word to mean snow, cold, and ice.
Thus, if the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is correct and we can perceive only things that we
have words for, the Aztecs perceived snow, cold, and ice as one and the same
phenomenon.

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Writing Technique Questions
1. What is the main idea of this paragraph? Identify the part of the topic
sentence that expresses the main idea.

2. What examples does the writer use to support this idea? Put brackets [ ]
around them.

3. What words and phrases introduce the examples? Circle them.

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The Concluding Sentence
• 2 purposes:
• signals end of paragraph
• leave reader with most important ideas to remember by:
1. summarising main points of paragraph
2. repeating topic sentence in different words
• not always necessary in a paragraph
• single/long paragrphs: helpful to reader to remind important points
• not necessary for every paragraph in multi-paragraph essay

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The Concluding Sentence
End-of-Paragraph Signals Followed
End-of-Paragraph Signals
by a Comma Not Followed by a Comma
• Finally, • The evidence suggests that …
• In brief, • There can be no doubt that …
• In conclusion, • These examples show that …
• Indeed, • We can see that …
• In short
• Lastly,
• Therefore,
• Thus,
• To sum up,

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Models: Concluding Sentences
Greeting Cards
Have you noticed how many different kinds of greeting cards you can buy these
days? In the old days, the local drug store had one rack displaying maybe five or six basic
kinds of cards. You could walk into the store and choose an appropriate card in five minutes
or less. Nowadays, however, the display space for greeting cards is as big as a soccer field,
and it may take an hour or two to hunt down exactly the right card with exactly the right
message. There are at least 30 categories of birthday cards alone: birthday cards for different
ages, from different ages, for different relatives, from different relatives, for different
genders, from different genders, from a couple, from the office, for dog owners, for cat
owners, and so on. There are cards for getting a job, for retiring from a job, for acquiring a
pet, for losing a pet, for becoming engaged, for breaking up. There are also greeting cards to
send for no reason – “Thinking of you” or “Just because” cards. The newest type of card is
the “encouragement card”. An encouragement card offers comforting thoughts and helpful
advice to someone who is sad or distressed in these troubled times. In short, there is now a
greeting card for every possible life event and for a few non-events as well.

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Models: Concluding Sentences
A Hawaiian Legend
Native people create legends to explain unusual phenomena in their
environment. A legend from the Hawaiian island of Kauai explains how the
naupaka flower, a flower that grows on beaches there, got its unusual shape.
The flower looks like half a small daisy – there are petals on one side only.
The legend says that the marriage of two young lovers on the island was
opposed by both sets of parents,. The parents found the couple together on a
beach one day, and to prevent them from being together, one of the families
moved to the mountains, separating the young couple forever. As a result, the
naupaka flower separated into two halves; one half moved to the mountains,
and the other half stayed near the beach. This story is a good example of a
legend invented by native people to interpret the world around them.

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Writing Technique Questions
1. In which paragraph does the concluding sentence summarise the main
points of the paragraph, which are not specifically stated in the topic
sentence?
2. In which paragraph does the concluding sentence paraphrase (repeat in
different words) the topic sentence?
3. Circle the conclusion signals in each paragraph.

Examples:
• [Incorrect] In conclusion, we now have more variety of greeting cards to
choose from, but they are also becoming very expensive. (This is a new
idea)
• [Incorrect] In conclusion, there are many other legends like this one in
Hawaii (This is a new idea)

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