This is going to be quite a long post, but perhaps a useful one. What it’s about is vocabulary for the IELTS essay. You’ll find a little further down the page a list of phrases to help you structure your essay. But before taking a look and perhaps downloading the document, I suggest you read on and watch the video first.
How word lists can help
Structuring an IELTS essay using key vocabulary
Read through this essay model and count the words.
How many words do you need to write in an IELTS essay? 250
How many does it contain? 125
One of the most controversial issues today relates to . ……………. In this essay, I am going to examine this question from both points of view
On one side of the argument there are people who argue that the benefits of considerably outweigh its disadvantages. The main reason for believing this is that …………………. It is also possible to say that …….One good illustration of this is ………….
On the other hand, it is also possible to make the opposing case. It is often argued that in fact ……….. People often have this opinion because …………… A second point is that ………..A particularly good example here is…………..
As we have seen, there are no easy answers to this question. On balance, however, I tend to believe that ……………..
Consider what balance you need between structural and content language in your essays. Also consider the role of this language in making your writing coherent
What kind of vocabulary is needed in an IELTS essay?
One form of vocabulary needed in IELTS is the language to structure your essay and make it coherent. This vocabulary is not specific to the topic of the question, but can be recycled from essay to essay with appropriate changes.
Where can you find this vocabulary?
There is a list further down this page, you could also find more by reading sample essays and noting down useful phrases.
Should you just learn these phrases?
That depends. If you are looking for a “quick fix” to get a result asap, it is one possible approach. However, that may not work. If your general English is of a lower standard, the examiner is likely to realise that these are “learnt” phrases and you may not get credit for them.
- you choose a few of these phrases – not all of them
- you see how they work by trying them in your own essays
- you adapt them to your writing
Hi Dominic!
This is my reply to the comment you posted on my blog. Sure, I’d like to help you out. Actually, I was really planning to put a tutorial and link on templatize regarding dropdown menus, but since it may take a while to write down that post, just follow this link to download your menu creator. It’s pretty simple to use anyway. 
http://wonderwebware.com/css-horizontal-menu/
Sorry, my mistake…this is the correct link–>
http://wonderwebware.com/css-menu/
I'm now making a tutorial for this to be posted at templatize. Sorry if I tried reaching you by using comments. I didn't know how else to get to you.