Logical Writing in IELTS Writing [again] (4 of 10)

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Logic (4 of 10)

One of the biggest problems in IELTS essays is a lack of logic. IELTS writing needs to be detailed and accurate, and you have to hit the target, dead centre, to get a high IELTS mark (hence the picture). So, let’s start thinking everyone.

Try to work out the logical problems with the following sentences. The answers will be given and explained in the next post.

  1. We only have one earth nowadays.
  2. There are many civil wars happening in Syria.
  3. Since scientists invented electricity, energy has become important.
  4. Undoubtedly, it might be hard.
  5. Guns can cause intentional accidents.

Answers to Logic 3 of 10

Here are the answers to the previous post.

I will give the original illogical sentence, then my comments.

  1. We should let people use nuclear energy.

People don’t use nuclear energy. They just use energy. So, we could re-write the sentence as ….

Governments should build nuclear power stations.

If talking about people, we could write …

      People should accept nuclear energy.

  1. C02 is a major problem of global warming.

Maybe this is a collocation issue. Change ‘problem’ to ‘cause’.

  1. Thieves have trouble entering a house with a dog.

This sentence sounds as if the thieves own the dog. Hmmm. We need more words to make this clearer, and remove the double meaning.

Thieves face difficulty trying to enter houses in which there are dogs.

  1. Fossil fuels are used faster than they are produced.

Hmmm. We don’t produce ‘fossil fuels’, right? We just dig [coal] or suck it [oil] from the ground. The whole sentence doesn’t work, and isn’t true, either. We have enough fossil fuel to meet our needs. However, it will run out in the future.

Maybe we could write:

            Fossil fuels will eventually be depleted.

            The world will one day run out of fossil fuel.

  1. When I returned to the table, my bag was stolen.

This sounds as if the bag was stolen when the person returned to the table. We need more words (and past perfect tense) to make this clearer.

When I returned to the table, my bag had already been stolen.

logical writing in ielts writing again 4 of 10