Cohesion is a quarter of the IELTS writing mark, and paraphrasing decides whether your introduction counts towards your word total at all. Both are mechanical skills you can practise away from whole essays. This page drills linkers, reference words, substitution and prompt rewording across forty original questions.
Turn a noun into a verb or an active clause into a passive one. 'The government funds the arts' becomes 'arts funding is provided publicly'.
Words like climate, university or unemployment can stay. Forcing a synonym on them produces unnatural English and costs vocabulary marks.
Read the prompt, look away, and write what it means in your own words. Then check nothing important has been dropped.
Write the two sentences first and then ask what relationship they have: contrast, cause, addition, concession. Choose the connector that names it.
However, at the start of a sentence, takes a comma. 'Although' joins two clauses without one; 'despite' takes a noun phrase.
This approach, such measures, the latter. These tie sentences together without adding new connectors.
Topic sentence, explanation, example, link. A well-shaped paragraph needs fewer connectors because the order already carries the logic.
If every sentence starts with a connector, delete half of them. Overuse is penalised in the same criterion as underuse.
Check that nothing there is copied from the prompt, since copied strings do not count towards your 250 words.
Not thisHowever, the cost is high, but the benefit is greater.
ThisThe cost is high, but the benefit is greater.
Two contrast markers in one sentence is over-linking, and the sentence contradicts itself grammatically.
Not thisDespite the price was high, sales rose.
ThisDespite the high price, sales rose.
Despite takes a noun phrase; 'although' is the form that takes a clause.
Not thisMoreover, furthermore, in addition, additionally in four consecutive sentences.
ThisUsing one addition marker and letting the paragraph's order do the rest.
Mechanical linking is explicitly identified as a weakness in the cohesion criterion.
Not thisCopying the prompt sentence into the introduction.
ThisRewording it, including its grammar.
Copied strings are excluded from the word count, so a copied introduction can push an essay under length.
Not thisTherefore this is why the policy failed.
ThisThis is why the policy failed.
Therefore and 'this is why' do the same job; using both is redundant.
Not thisStudents don't have enough time.
ThisStudents do not have enough time.
Contractions belong to informal register and are out of place in an academic essay.
Not thisReplacing 'young people' with 'juvenile individuals'.
ThisKeeping 'young people' or writing 'adolescents'.
A paraphrase that breaks collocation shows less control than the original, and the vocabulary mark falls.
Not thisWriting a paragraph in which every sentence introduces a new idea.
ThisOne idea per paragraph, developed.
No amount of linking words can make a paragraph cohesive if its content jumps.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
6Complete the sentence.
7Paraphrase this prompt: 'Some people believe that competitive sport should be compulsory in schools.'
One good answer
It is sometimes argued that every school pupil should be required to take part in competitive sport. The nouns, the verb and the grammar have all changed, so nothing is copied from the original.
9Complete the sentence.
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24Rewrite this sentence to remove over-linking: 'Moreover, in addition, the cost is also high as well.'
One good answer
The cost is also high. One addition marker is enough, and repeating three of them adds words without adding meaning.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
34Explain why the cohesion mark can fall when a candidate uses many linking words.
One good answer
Because the criterion assesses whether linking is appropriate, not how much of it there is; connectors that do not match the logic, or that pile up on every sentence, make the argument harder to follow rather than easier.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
40Give three ways to paraphrase a prompt without relying on synonyms.
One good answer
Change the word class, for example from a verb to a noun; change the voice, from active to passive or back; and change the sentence structure, turning a statement into a conditional or moving a subordinate clause to the front.
Note
Pick Two Activity is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, IDP, ETS, Duolingo or any other exam board. Exam names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to describe the exam you are preparing for. Every question on this page is original practice written by us: we do not provide, copy or reproduce official exam papers.
Fewer than most candidates use. Two or three clear connectors per paragraph, chosen because they name the relationship between the ideas, score better than one at the start of every sentence.
Yes, twice. Copied strings are not counted in your word total, which can push you under 250, and an unparaphrased introduction shows none of the vocabulary range the criteria reward.
No. Repeating a topic word such as 'employment' is normal and clear. It is the whole phrases you should avoid repeating, and reference words such as 'this shift' are the tool for that.
Cohesion is local: the linking and reference that join sentences. Coherence is global: whether the paragraphs are ordered so the argument can be followed. They are marked together, but they fail in different ways.
Once each, as scaffolding for a list of reasons. If they are the only cohesive devices in the essay, the mark is limited, because sequence is only one of the relationships an argument needs.
Take a prompt a day, write three different introductions for it in five minutes, and check each one against the original for copied strings and for meaning you dropped. It is faster than writing whole essays and it fixes the part most candidates get wrong first.