Speaking

The need for variation
The most common word is of course "think": of course you will use it, but you do need to be able to use variations. It is extremely easy just to get stuck on the word "think" without knowing it. So have a look at the mindmap below which shows some of the potential variations, you do not need them all, but you do need a selection.


Neutral, certainty and doubt
One level of certainty you need is to be able to express how certain you are about what you say. Are you 100% sure or is it only a guess. Here are some of the basic options.

Green: neutral
Blue: certain
Pink: doubtful

You can expand the mindmap if you wish. You can also drag the words with your mouse.





Suggested practice for speaking

Go to sample IELTS speaking topics and practice giving extended answers to the questions you find there by giving your opinion where appropriate. Do not use "I think" or "in my opinion".



Writing

A different range of language is required for your written language. This language is normally going to be:

• more impersonal - not using the personal pronouns "I" or "you"
• more grammatically complex - using relative clauses

Being impersonal

In your speaking, you are generally going to be presenting your own personal opinions. In contrast, when you write academically you are typically going to be presenting ideas impersonally: part of the academic process is after all examining other people's opinions.

There are of course exceptions to this. If you write an opinion based essay (see argument essays and opinion essays), you are more likely to be using more personal opinion vocabulary. The other exception is that in your conclusion you are going to need to state your own view. Even here, however, you should minimise the first person singular.

eg "I think" becomes "My personal view is" or "In my opinion" or "Personally"

Key grammatical structures

If you are to write impersonally, you are going to need to master some impersonal structures. There are 3 basic structures available to you here and, as ever, the best advice is to use a variety of structures as you will be given credit for this in the exam. The most common structures are:

• it (eg "It can be argued that..")
  
• there (eg "There is a strong argument that..")
  
• using nouns not verbs (technically called nominalisations) (eg "I believe that" becomes "My personal belief is that..")
  

To see how to use these in practice, look at the mindmap of possible opinion structures further down this page. Alternatively, go to sample IELTS essays to see how they can be used in context.



Key words

It is equally important to vary the vocabulary used for impersonal opinions. There are any amount of possible variations, but it is sensible to start with a few and master those before going on to learn alternatives.

Indeed, even if you start with some of the most common and basic words, you can achieve sufficient variety. For example, look at how many variations are possible by using the words "say", "argue" and "claim".





Suggested practice for writing

Those are some of my variations. To learn them you will need to start to use them for yourself, I suggest that you:

Go to sample IELTS essays and see how they are used in context and make a list of the different opinion structures
Look at coherence to see how to use this language to add structure to your essay
Go to dictionaries and see what collocations or synonyms you can find for "argue" "argument" "claim" "think"
Go to IELTS essay questions and practise writing opinions on some of the topics you find there.
Make a list of your own of the phrases you like. You learn by using and writing a list is one way of using the phrases.


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