Memorised Phrases Examiners Recognise Instantly

"In this fast-paced modern world, the issue of education has become a controversial topic which is widely debated among people from all walks of life."

That sentence appears in a very large number of IELTS essays. It takes twenty five words and says nothing about the question. A candidate who writes it has spent about two minutes of exam time and gained nothing, and has told the reader something they did not want to reveal: that the essay was partly written before the question was seen.

Why memorised language does not work

The IELTS public band descriptors for Task 2 make the point directly. In the Task Response criterion, language that is clearly memorised and does not fit the question is not credited. In practice that means those words are treated as though they are not there. A 280 word essay with 40 words of template is being marked as a 240 word essay, which risks the length requirement as well.

There is a second cost. The rest of your writing sits somewhere around your true level. A memorised chunk sits well above it. The contrast is visible, and it makes a reader look harder at everything else you wrote.

The phrases that appear most often

These are the openers and fillers that recur across exam essays. If one of them is in your notes, take it out.

Notice what these have in common. Every one of them could be pasted into an essay on any topic without changing a word. That is the test. If a phrase fits everywhere, it means nothing anywhere.

What a real introduction does

An introduction has two jobs and needs about forty words. It restates the question in your own words, and it states your position. Nothing else.

Question. Some people believe that all children should study a second language from primary school. Others think it should begin at secondary school. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Memorised version:

In this fast-paced modern world, the issue of language learning has become a controversial topic which is widely debated among people from all walks of life. Some people are of the opinion that it should start early, while others opine the opposite. This essay will shed light upon both views and give my opinion.

Fifty eight words, and the reader still does not know what you think, or which subject is being discussed beyond the single word "language".

Rewritten:

Countries disagree about when second language teaching should begin. One view is that primary school children absorb pronunciation and grammar more easily, while the other is that secondary students learn faster because they already understand how language works. I believe an early start is better, provided the teaching is frequent rather than merely early.

Fifty five words, almost the same length. It paraphrases the question, names the reason behind each view, and commits to a position with a condition attached. Every word is about this question.

Paraphrasing without a template

Paraphrasing means saying the question in different words. It is a skill, not a phrase, and there are three moves that cover most cases.

1. Change the word class. "Governments should invest in public transport" becomes "Investment in public transport by governments". Verb becomes noun.
2. Change the structure. Active becomes passive, or two clauses become one. "Because cities are growing, housing costs are rising" becomes "Rising housing costs follow directly from urban growth".
3. Replace with a precise synonym, not a rare one. "Young people" becomes "adolescents" or "school leavers", depending on which is actually accurate. It does not become "the youthful cohort of society".

Do not paraphrase every single word. Some words have no good synonym, and forcing one produces an error. "Government" can stay "government". Topic nouns such as "climate change" or "artificial intelligence" should usually stay as they are.

Prepared material that is allowed

There is a difference between memorising sentences and preparing to write. Preparation is not only permitted, it is what strong candidates do.

Useful to prepare:

1. Ideas and arguments by theme, so you have something to say about education, technology, health and the rest.
2. Collocations, which are word pairs used together naturally, such as widen access, strict regulation, carry a risk, place a burden on.
3. Sentence patterns, meaning the shape only. A conditional, a relative clause, a concession clause. You fill the shape in the exam.
4. Essay structures: four or five paragraphs, one idea per body paragraph.

Not useful to prepare:

1. Whole introductions.
2. Whole conclusions.
3. Complete sentences that mention no specific topic.
4. Long strings of "impressive" words waiting for somewhere to go.

The line is simple. Prepare the raw material. Build the sentence in the room.

Rewriting your own templates

Take an essay you have already written and mark every phrase that could appear in an essay on a different topic. Then rewrite each one so it could not.

The right column is harder to write. That is the point. It is also what the marking rewards, because it shows a position developed on this question rather than language carried in from outside.

Do this today

Open your notes and delete every complete sentence that does not name a specific topic. Keep the ideas and the word pairs, delete the ready made openers and conclusions. Then write one introduction, forty to fifty five words, for a real Task 2 question, using none of the phrases in the table above.

Paste the full essay into Bandly afterwards for an estimated band on each of the four criteria with the sentences behind each estimate. It is a useful way to see whether a paragraph reads as your own English or as material you brought with you.