Irina Lutsenko: IELTS, writing, cohesion

IELTS 21.

#Duolingo English Test Writing: picture description task 🏝 What makes a good picture description in #DET? Here is an example by our DET instructor Mariia Botina (DET 160 out of 160!):

"I see a picture of a beach during low tide, with boats stranded on the shore. It doesn’t seem like it’s a very well-kept beach, judging by its size and wild grass and trees around. The water has a magnificent color with foaming cyan waves hitting the shore. This may well be off the beaten track and only used by locals. "

Here are some things that are expected from a high-level response and why mine was just that: 1. Advanced descriptive words, not just obvious adjectives. I used "stranded, wild, off the beaten track." This is advanced vocabulary that fits the context, not just to fancy words. 2. Participle clauses to connect ideas, e.g. "judging by." Here I killed two birds with one stone - both speculation and a clause. 3. Speculative language: "may well be, doesn’t seem like." 4. Appropriate sentence length and answer length. A good answer is between 30-50 words. Mine is 52. It uses different sentence structures, which we see in my answer. So, on the one hand, the answer looks quite simple. But on the other, there is some great language there! This summer, we are running a workshop on teaching for Duolingo English Test. The workshop will cover: - Types of writing tasks and time constraints for each one - Assessment criteria - Ways to approach each task - Types of questions that you’re likely to encounter during the exam - The necessary language for each type Instructor: Mariia Botina, DET 160 out of 160 Price: 2500 RUB Schedule: Friday, 17 July, 11:00 Moscow time Place: in real time on Zoom, some participation is expected 💌 Sign up: @iraluts

How to launch 6 projects and maintain sanity I was recently launching six projects at the same time (note to self -- bad idea): 1. IELTS Writing Task 1 Overviews Sprint: 32 people joined 2. IELTS Writing Task 1 Overviews workshop: under 10 people 3. Duolingo Writing Sprint: 12 people joined 4. Creative Writing Club: 23 people joined 5.Creatie Writing Bootcamp: under 10 people 6. Writing with The Guardian: under 10 people That's a lot of people, a lot of messaging, and a lot of admin. When I launch many projects at the same time, I get tens and tens of messages a day. Some of them I don't reply to -- guilty as charged. I don't reply to poorly written messages because I just don't have the bandwidth (sorry not sorry). And that's how I maintain my sanity. It's a good idea to write very clear messages, following this formula, for example:

"Hi Irina, my name is [Name Last name]. I would like to join [word-for-word name of project]. Here is my [the thing requested in the post.]"

This simple formula will stand you in good stead in many situations. It communicates what you want clearly and concisely -- you can't go wrong with that. 💜

#IELTS Writing Task 1: passenger-kilometers This came up in my recent overviews sprint. I was writing an overview for this task, when my curious brain suddenly said, "Hm, Irina, what exactly is passenger-kilometers? Let's research this word." The terms measures the total volume of passenger travel by multiplying the number of passengers by the distance they traveled. For example: - If 1 person travels 20 km, they contribute 20 passenger-kilometers (1 × 20). - If 4 people travel together for 20 km, they contribute 80 passenger-kilometers (4 × 20). Why does it matter? One word: lexis. ❌ First and foremost, you cannot use the word "distance" in this task. ✅ Here are some alternatives: - Passenger volume - Transport activity - Transport performance - Total passenger movement Disclaimer: The alternatives were suggested by Gemini. ❗️ In this task, understanding the concept "passenger-kilometers" is super-important for correct paraphrasing. I hope this post helps. Try your hand at the overview for the attached task in the comments, making sure to use the right alternatives for "passenger-kilometers" -- and stay tuned for the next overviews sprint! (More about the sprint: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/714)

#IELTS Writing Task 1: passenger-kilometers This came up in my recent overviews sprint. I was writing an overview for this task, when my curious brain suddenly said, "Hm, Irina, what exactly is passenger-kilometers? Let's research this word." The terms measures the total volume of passenger travel by multiplying the number of passengers by the distance they traveled. For example: - If 1 person travels 20 km, they contribute 20 passenger-kilometers (1 × 20). - If 4 people travel together for 20 km, they contribute 80 passenger-kilometers (4 × 20). Why does it matter? One word: lexis. ❌ First and foremost, you cannot use the word "distance" in this task. ✅ Here are some alternatives: - Passenger volume - Transport activity - Transport performance - Total passenger movement Disclaimer: The alternatives were suggested by Gemini. ❗️ In this task, understanding the concept "passenger-kilometers" is super-important for correct paraphrasing. I hope this post helps. Try your hand at the overview for the attached task in the comments, making sure to use the right alternatives for "passenger-kilometers" -- and stay tuned for the next overviews sprint! (More about the sprint: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/714)

#Duolingo English Test sprint: "Write about a picture" task It’s the toughest task in terms of timing - what can we write in just 60 seconds? So let’s practice together! It's plain and simple: Join the sprint to write one picture description a day for 7 days. Every day, you will get one Duolingo English Test "Write about a picture" task. Within the next 24 hours, you have to write your description. Then you get mine and the next task. The purpose is to practice typing fast, thinking fast and learning from others! The sprint is led by Mariia Botina -- a teacher on my team who got 160 out of 160 on Duolingo English Test. 💡 Start: 6 July, 9:45 am Moscow time Place: Telegram chat, no real time meetings Price: free Feedback: no individual feedback Important: - If you don't write by the deadline, you have to leave. - If you don't write, but don't want to leave, no worries - you can stay if you pay a fine of 1,000 RUB (for each instance of not writing the task). - Deadline: 9:45 am Moscow time every day. 💌 To join, send me a DM @iraluts with one sentence about the attached picture. When you message me @iraluts, please introduce yourself with your name and last name. My name is Irina Lutsenko -- I want to know yours. Nameless subscribers and people with nicknames or aliases won't be admitted. #DuolingoEnglishTest #DET

The summer season of my legendary Creative Writing Club! 🦋 It’s perfect for people who want to unleash their creativity and have fun writing in English. 🦋 Here is how it works: - I prepare inspiring #creative writing prompts and exercises; - We meet on Zoom for some pre-writing practice; - We write stories on our own over the following five days; - We share and review each other’s works on a collaborative Google doc; - We meet again, and the cycle is repeated. 🦋 The nuts and bolts: - There will be four sessions meeting weekly on Sundays, 5 July - 26 July, 11 am Moscow time. One session is around 45 minutes. - Not participating in online sessions is OK as long as you keep in touch, write, and review other people’s work in time. - If you join, you have to write one work and review one participant’s work every week. If you don’t write or review other people’s work by the deadline, you’ll have to leave. ❗️ This is an AI-free zone. The goal of the project is self-expression, so let's express ourselves -- us, humans. 💌 The project is free. To join, message me @iraluts with a creative ending to this sentence: "The blazing sun is hoisting up out of the sea ... ." ☀️ 💌 When you message me, please introduce yourself properly. My name is Irina Lutsenko - I want to know yours. Nameless subscribers and people with nicknames or aliases won't be admitted. Enrollment closes: 4 July, 20:00 Moscow time. 📅 ❗️❗️❗️ This project is in no way helpful for IELTS. If anything, it might be detrimental.

The overview is the most important part of your #IELTS Writing Task 1 How do you write a good one? In this practical workshop, you will learn how to nail your overview for all types of IELTS Academic tasks: - tasks with figures (with and without a time change); - tasks with combinations of charts; - maps and floor plans; - processes. What will happen in this workshop? - You will get my list of questions that help you choose the key features for each task type; - We will look at my examples and discuss how I chose the key features; - You'll write your own overviews, get my feedback, and compare them with mine afterwards. The workshop is based on my extensive IELTS taking, teaching, and writing experience: - IELTS 9 x4, Writing 8.5 x3 - IELTS prep experience: over 10 years - IELTS answers written: over 200 Important: This is not a webinar. This is a practical workshop where you are expected to write. Please join with your camera on and from a good work station. 📌 Price: 2500 RUB 📅 Monday, 6 July, 11-12:30/13:00 Moscow time The duration might vary between 90 and 120 minutes, depending on the number of participants and the speed of writing. 📍 Place: in real time on Zoom, camera must be on, participation is expected ❗ You will get the pdf of the presentation and the document with the overviews, but there will be no video recordings! Why don't I record my workshops? I believe participation without recording ensures a safe space for attendees to participate openly and without fear of asking questions or making mistakes. 💌 Sign up: @iraluts

How much can you learn from one sentence? When it comes to writing, you often here that you need to learn from reading. It is true, but you need to know what to look for. Take a look at the screenshot. It's a small piece of text, but each sentence contains a lot of things precious for writing: metaphor, ellipsis, dahes, parentheses, to name just a few. ❤️ What we do in my "Writing with..." courses is we learn to notice writing techniques and to then implement them. If this is something you would like to do, how about my summer mini-course "Writing with The Guardian"? It is a course geared towards the C2 Proficiency exam (or CPE) articles but is also good for a variety of non-fiction and creative non-fiction types of writing. 📝 Who is the course perfect for? - people who have taken CPE and want to stay in a good writing shape; - people who want to take CPE some time in the future; - people who blog, write copy, or write for pleasure - and those who want to. 📝 More about the course: 📝 Student's articles written in this course: - "Who’s Talking? Finding a Human Voice in the Age of ChatGPT" - "You do not talk about Fight Club (enough)" 💌💌💌 @iraluts

I was today years old (actually yesterday but nevermind) when I found out that ... Seasons are backwards in Australia. And you might think: So what? Who cares? But... But there are #IELTS tasks about Australia. 🇦🇺 I was writing the overview for the attached IELTS task 1 the other day. Look at what I wrote with my northern-hemisphere brain: Overall, ... , both cities tend to have colder weather late spring through early autumn, ... . The rainfall pattern, however, is drastically different: while in Canberra precipitation levels increase in summer ... Can't do that! Summer is not summer in Australia. Summer is December through February. Et cetera. Anyways, try your hand at this overview in the comments with backwards references to seasons or avoiding such references altogether. ⬇️

If you are tired of IELTS Writing... Why don't you join "Writing with The Guardian" this summer? ☀️ "Writing with The Guardian" is a writing mini-course based on articles from The Guardian. It is geared towards the C2 Proficiency exam (or CPE) articles but is also good for a variety of non-fiction and creative non-fiction types of writing. 📝 What will we do? - read and discuss two articles from the "The Guardian"; - work with sophisticated lexis and sentence structures; - explore the power of punctuation to enhance meaning; - explore a wide range of writing tools and techniques that will keep the reader engaged; - work on cohesion, coherence, paraphrasing and more. - After all that, you'll write a CPE article (or a non-fiction piece if you don't need CPE). 📝 Who is the course perfect for? - people who have taken CPE and want to stay in a good writing shape; - people who want to take CPE some time in the future; - people who blog, write copy, or write for pleasure - and those who want to. 📝 Deets: - Course duration: one month (4 classes) - Classes: one 90-minute class a week, in real time on Zoom - Homework: one week - reading, next week - writing (2 articles in total) - Feedback: personalized, detailed feedback on every piece of writing - Price: 8,000 rub a month (4 classes). Feedback included. 📆 Summer 2026 schedule (July, August): - Tuesday 10-11:30 Moscow time - Thursday 12-13:30 Moscow time Course designer: Irina Lutsenko Course instructor: Yulia Levina — always seeking the perfect word order in sentences and the perfect sentence sequence in texts - CPE 217/230 - BA, MA in Linguistics - Delta M1 - 8 years of teaching experience, including 5 years (and counting) of specializing in Cambridge exam prep A great summer mini-course! ☀️ 💌 @iraluts

IELTS Writing Task 1 Overviews Sprint: 10 days, 10 overviews So I thought, why don't I repeat my epic overviews sprint? 💡 It's plain and simple: Join the sprint to write one overview a day for 10 days. Every day, you will get one IELTS Writing Task 1. Within the next 24 hours, you have to write your overview. Then you get mine and the next task. Start: 23 June, 9:45 am Moscow time Place: Telegram chat, no real time meetings Price: free Feedback: no individual feedback Important: - If you don't write by the deadline, you have to leave. - If you don't write, but don't want to leave, no worries - you can stay if you pay a fine of 1,000 RUB (for each instance of not writing an overview). - Deadline: 9:45 am Moscow time every day. - This sprint will feature tasks with figures and maps from previous sprints. If you participated before, you can still join, but the tasks are the same. 💌 To join, send me a dm with an overview for the attached task @iraluts. Deadline: 22 June, 21:45 Moscow time. When you message me, please introduce yourself with your name and last name. My name is Irina Lutsenko - I want to know yours. Nameless subscribers and people with nicknames or aliases won't be admitted. We're off to the races! Stay tuned for the next sprint in July -- with completely new tasks! And if you participated in the sprints before, drop a comment to let others know whether it was useful. ⬇️

IELTS 21. Most Writing Task 1s are standard, but one looks crazy.

#IELTS writing: idiomatic items If you've scrutinized the band descriptors, you will have seen the word "idiomatic." The screenshot shows "Lexical Resource" band 8. Don't let "idiomatic" confuse you. This word does not mean "using idioms." Or rather -- it does not mean just that. Make sure you know the second meaning: 1. Collins dictionary: idiomatic = using words in a way that sounds natural to native speakers of the language 2. Cambridge dictionary: idiomatic = containing expressions that are natural and correct For example: 1️⃣ ✅ Natural and correct: The vast / overwhelming majority of the attendees have a PhD degree. ❌ Clear, but not natural or correct: The wide / astronomical majority of the attendees have a PhD degree. 2️⃣ ✅ Natural and correct in a report: The team is predominantly composed of PhD-degree holders. ❌ Natural in colloquial speech, but unnatural in a report: - The team consists of a whole bunch of PhD degree holders. - The lion’s share of the team members have a PhD degree. ✏️ Over to you. Rewrite this sentence from an overview in a way that would be idiomatic (natural and correct) in IELTS Writing Task 1. The number of runners who aren't exactly spring chickens shot up insanely and in your face -- these oldies even overtook the younglings, by a sliver though. (Picture in comments). ⬇️

#IELTS Writing Task 1 overview: how many sentences? As is often the case, this post is based on a question by a student. The student saw a claim online that the overview must be two sentences and asked me for clarification. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The number of sentences is not a reliable metric. Compare these two overviews: 1️⃣ Overall, life expectancy varied significantly across the given countries in 2008. However, it became longer in all over the 55 years. 2️⃣ Overall, while life expectancy varied significantly across the given countries in 2008, it became longer in all over the 55 years. Notably, Japan, the leading country, showed very small growth, but Indonesia, the country with the shortest life span, showed the largest increase. Or, these two: 1️⃣ Overall, while life expectancy varied significantly across the given countries in 2008, being different worldwide over the 55 years. Notably, Japan showed very small growth, but Indonesia showed the largest increase. 2️⃣ Overall, while life expectancy varied significantly across the given countries in 2008, it became longer in all over the 55 years. Notably, Japan, the leading country, showed very small growth, but Indonesia, the country with the shortest life span, showed the largest increase. In both sets of examples, the overviews are two sentences, but the amount of information is drastically different. The overview is all about the features, not just the number of sentences. That said, I have to admit two is a good number for a good overview. But not just any two. To polish your skill of writing overviews, join my practical workshop dedicated exclusively to this crucial paragraph of IELTS Writing Task 1. More about the workshop: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/708 Dm me: @iraluts The whole answer to the task in the picture: https://t.me/irinalutsenko/551