Transform Your Writing

This book is a short story designed to help students and teachers of English language to become more aware of the types of sentences needed to improve generally and to get higher scores in tests such as IELTS, The Pearson Test of English Academic test, The Cambridge suite of tests, TOEFL and TOEIC etc. A higher level of English requires more complex sentences and more complex language.

The story is written to elicit a personal response from the readers, as this is a role of literature. It is not the kind of quasi-academic style as used in an IELTS test, for example. This is because English proficiency test takers need to read for pleasure outside the kind of topics used in academic essays. Also, there is an emphasis in the message on how and why to think critically, which is a helpful skill when thinking about essay questions.

If you want to improve your sentences, it is important to learn how to recognise and form complex sentences. This book helps you to do that by highlighting the 3 different types of dependent clauses in different colours and italicising the subordinating conjunctions as shown in some examples below:

Noun clause

[What I need to do] is read more.

I think [that you can achieve your goals].

Adverb Clause

[When I read more for pleasure], all my English skills will improve.

[If I put in the effort], I will reap the rewards.

I want to improve my language skills [because it will help me in the test].

Adjective (Relative) Clause

Paul, [who encouraged me to write this], has also written a book. I love doing lots of exercise, [which keeps me fit].

This story has been written at 3 levels of English using the levels described in the Lexical Resource (vocabulary) and Grammatical Range and Accuracy (grammar) section of the IELTS writing band descriptors public version:

Level 1 - band 6+ Level 2 - band 7+ Level 3 - band 8+

Instructions

1) Read level 1 and add brackets, highlight or underline the complex sentences

2) Turn the page, check your answers and notice the complex sentences.

3) Repeat for level 2 and 3 and notice how the sentences and vocabulary transform.