By Wordcraft Publishing in IELTS Writing Course — Apr 8, 2023

IELTS Writing Course: Lesson 7 - Linking Words

We have many linking phrases in English, but it is common for people to overuse some of them. In this lesson we will focus on using a variety of them.

Using a variety of linking words is a key to success in your IELTS writing tasks. (Photo by Edge2Edge Media / Unsplash).

In lesson 3 - Topics, we looked at how you could organise your main points for an IELTS writing task 2 essay, before fleshing those ideas out into topic sentences and then full paragraphs. In this lesson we will look at how you can link these ideas together with a very important language item that you should use in both your writing and speaking tests: linking words. In the 'practise' section below, we will stay on the topic of comparing the city to the countryside using the same ideas from lesson 3 and we will look at a range of linking devices that will support every aspect of your essay.

Two lists that compare a couple of advantages and disadvantages of living in a city with living in the countryside. — You can make notes like this on the question paper before you start writing. For computer-based tests, you may have to simplify the way you make notes on-screen.

In the picture above, the arrows highlight a couple of the advantages of living in a city and relate them to a couple of disadvantages of living in the countryside. These can be compared and contrasted in your essay using a variety of linking words. Watch the video below for more information.