Writing Skills 2: Language, Paraphrasing, Concision, Proofreading & Time
The language layer: academic vocabulary, sentence variety, paraphrasing and summarizing, saying more with fewer words, and the two-minute proofread that rescues points.
Academic vocabulary
Precision beats impressiveness: 'significant increase' not 'very big increase'; verbs like 'contribute, require, demonstrate, result in' carry academic register. Learn words in collocations (pose a risk, draw a conclusion) — the vocabulary course on this site feeds directly into these tasks.
Sentence variety & grammar
Mix lengths and structures deliberately: a complex sentence (with although/because) → a short punch → a medium one. Variety signals control; identical S+V+O chains signal survival. Grammar accuracy under variety is the scoring sweet spot — stretch ONE structure per task, keep the rest safe.
Paraphrasing & summarizing
Paraphrase = same idea, new words AND new structure (change the voice, swap the clause order, replace key words with synonyms). Summarize = selection + compression: keep claims and evidence, drop examples' details. Both are tested hardest in integrated work; both are forbidden from borrowing sentence strings — three consecutive copied words is already a smell.
Concision & avoiding repetition
Cut 'due to the fact that' → 'because'; 'in order to' → 'to'; delete throat-clearers ('It is important to note that'). For repetition: track your key noun — if it appears 6 times, pronouns and synonyms ('the program / this system / it') should carry half of those.
Proofreading — the 2-minute rescue
- Pass 1 (meaning): every bullet covered? position stated? classmate named correctly?
- Pass 2 (grammar hotspots): third-person -s, past-tense consistency, articles before singular nouns, plural after numbers.
- Pass 3 (surface): repeated words, missing words (read once slowly), punctuation at sentence ends.
Time management — the whole section (~23 minutes)
- Build a Sentence: ~4-5 minutes for 10 — never stall on one; a skipped pattern guessed fast beats a perfect answer that eats the email's time.
- Email: 7 minutes (1 plan / 4 write / 2 check).
- Discussion: 10 minutes (2 read+plan / 6 write / 2 check).
- The check minutes are not optional extras — they are where accuracy points live.