Joining your ideas with this, such and the latter — and deleting the linkers that are doing no work.
How this drill works, and why it is built this way›
In a corpus study of IELTS essays, linking words were the smallest error category — 1.2%. Yet almost every course sells a list of forty of them.
The reason is that over-use is not counted as an error. Band 7 asks for cohesive devices used “appropriately although there may be some under-/over-use”. You lose the mark without making a mistake.
Band 6 names the real fault: candidates “may not always use referencing clearly or appropriately”. Referencing is this, these, such, the latter, it, the former — the words that point backwards.
Referencing holds a paragraph together invisibly. Linking words announce the join. Good writing does more of the first and less of the second.
The test: delete the linker and read the sentence again. If the meaning survives, the linker was not working.
Worked example
The scheme cost far more than forecast. Moreover, it reached fewer households than planned. Furthermore, the evaluation was delayed by a year.
Three sentences, two linkers, one idea.
Answer: The scheme cost far more than forecast and reached fewer households than planned. This second failure was not reported for a year.
Moreover and furthermore both mean and, and the first can simply become one. This second failure then points back and carries the reader forward without announcing anything. The point: join with structure and referencing first. Reach for a linker only when neither will do.
Moderate · CEFR B1around band 5 – 5.5change level:
The drill moves you up or down on its own. Two good sets and it gets harder; two hard ones and it steps back.
The band range is what this level practises for — it is a guide, not a score. Only your first answer to each item counts towards the level decision.
Your answers and explanations open after the set is complete, the attempt is saved and your email is verified.
For whole-sentence tasks, the checker looks for the required structure and facts; it is not an examiner and cannot judge every possible sentence.
