Writing a review presupposes making judgments and rating, say, a service, establishment or work of art. For ESL / EFL exam-takers, this means having to come up with a variety of words that qualify what is being described, something which might present problems since making more than one assessment in such pieces of writing is the norm. If words used to assess something are repeated, then candidates cannot expect to receive a satisfactory grade (at least in terms of their lexical ability and range). Using less formal words is also frowned upon. Therefore, this list should serve as a brief catalog of go-to words aimed at digging students out of the proverbial hole they might find themselves in during the Writing section of an English exam. The list has been divided into three categories: saying something is terrific, so-so and terrible.

The first post in this series of "Words to use instead of ..." dealt with the overly used word "nice" (read about it here ). Today, I'll tackle that bane of every ESL teacher's existence, that word they often hear when helping students work on their oral exams or read when correcting essays, the one every student so easily lets slip out when they can't think of what else to say: important. It's always "this must be done because it's very important " or "saving the planet is extremely important " or "graduating from a good university is very important these days." Examiners might be lenient the first time they hear this word, but imagine hearing it 5 times in answers to 6 questions asked? To put it more mathematically, in a 10 to 12-minute examination where an exam candidate uses the word in five out of six responses, the examiner hears the same word once roughly every two to two and a half minutes. Though it...

Writing at C2 level (Proficient User) on English language examinations is the same no matter the awarding body when it comes to writing essays. If you are a candidate giving an exam in English (IELTS, CPE, ECPE, CELP, LRN, ESB, TOEFL), make sure you read my earlier post What do I do with the sample writing found on this blog? to get the most out of the sample essays provided on Argute Legacy .     The topic of this essay is to discuss whether wealthier nations should share their wealth with poorer nations or if each nation should fend for itself. If you are not taking an exam but need to discuss this topic, then read on and note down what you deem useful. If you intend to use this essay as part of an assignment, remember to paraphrase so as not to plagiarize.

Today's word, alongside its less commonly used variant "chthonian", is a word which comes from Greek.  It means "of or related to the underworld; subterranean" and is tied to the ancient Greek female deity Χθων (Chthon) that personified the depths of the earth.  Chthon was often identified as the earth's principal goddess Γαία (Gaia) and like her was commemorated as the mother of the Titans,

Having discusse d the overall organization of an academic essay, the introductory paragraph and the topic sentence of main body paragraphs, let's ta ke a look at what we need to do to develop an argument .  As mentioned in the first article in this series, student s wr iting an essay as part of an assign ment or an ESL/EFL examination often find it difficult to elab orate on t he topic they have been given. One cause which can only be remedie d by reading newspapers, academic journals or discussin g current affairs and a variety of subjects with others, is a lack of ideas. The other is no t knowing how to expand an argument , but f ortunately this can be solved by putting into play the various types of supporting sentences available. Let's see what these six types of sentences are.