Lander Hawes has taught EAP in UK higher education for thirteen years and is the co-founder of Kinjugo, an ed-tech maker of digital games for English language learning (www.kinjugo.com). His classroom teaching interests lie in critical thinking, academic writing and bridging the gap from IELTS to university.

 

Introduction

This article unpacks a common problem for international students when writing at a British university. The problem involves using gerunds to open sentences or using present participle clauses as the first clause in a sentence. This grammatical strategy features in academic IELTS courses as it helps students to incorporate more ‘complex structures’ into their work. This article explores how overuse of the strategy can impact negatively on academic writing.      

The content was originally from an ‘IELTS to University’ blog published by the author between 2018 and 2020. The monthly posts became an opportunity to reflect on and distill knowledge gained from nine years of intensive EAP teaching.

 

The problem in more detail

Sentences which open with a gerund or a participle clause are a widely taught strategy to increase the grammatical range and accuracy score in IELTS writing task 2. These participle clauses make sentences more complex, and therefore contribute to a piece of work being higher scoring in the writing criteria.

 For example, look at the two sentences below:

• The company decided to delay their investment plans because of the economic outlook.
• Considering the economic outlook, the company decided to delay their investment plans

The grammar in the first sentence is relatively simple as the subject noun phrase (The company) starts the first clause of the sentence, and the main object noun phrase (the economic outlook) is introduced by a prepositional phrase of cause (because of) which together form a second clause (because of the economic outlook).  

The second sentence is more grammatically complex as the participle form which opens the first clause (Considering) converts the main object noun phrase (the economic outlook) into the main subject. Therefore, the second sentence is more likely to score the IELTS grammatical range and accuracy descriptor - ‘Uses a variety of complex structures’.

So, high-scoring IELTS students arrive at university, often at post-graduate level, having been trained to use these participle clauses as they associate them with effective academic writing. In some respects they’re right, as these participle forms do have a role. Compare the two italicised statements below:

• The company decided to delay their investment plans because of the economic outlook. The wider economic conditions were poor, as quarterly increases in inflation were affecting consumer spending.
• Considering the economic outlook, the company decided to delay their investment plans. The wider economic conditions were poor, as quarterly increases in inflation were affecting consumer spending.

The gerund which opens the second statement is clearer as the negative economic conditions repeat as the subject at the start of the first and second sentence of it. This paragraph will clearly continue to analyse the economic conditions in more depth. However, in the first statement the development of the paragraph is confused by the differing subjects at the start of sentence one (The company) and sentence two (The wider economic conditions).

So, the participle form is useful for flipping the sentence object into the sentence subject. Used carefully, as in the second italicised statement above, this can reinforce meaning in an academic paragraph. The problems start when participle clauses are inserted more regularly in a way which may generate more marks in IELTS writing task 2 but has a disruptive effect on the crafted continuity of meaning, from clause to clause, and sentence to sentence, which characterises the strongest academic work.

 

Building meaning step by step

So, a strong academic paragraph develops an argument in a step-by-step fashion – clause by clause and sentence by sentence. For this reason, it becomes important to track the developing subject through the paragraph, and the overuse of participle clauses can complicate this flow. Look at the different ways the paragraph develops in each italicised statement below:

• Considering the economic outlook, the company decided to delay their investment plans. The wider economic conditions were poor, as quarterly increases in inflation were affecting consumer spending. Taking into account price rises in basic commodities like crude oil and steel explains much of this inflation. Raising capital subsequently became much more difficult.  
• Considering the economic outlook, the company decided to delay their investment plans. The wider economic conditions were poor, as quarterly increases in inflation were affecting consumer spending. Inflation in crude oil and steel largely created these increases which made raising capital much more difficult. 

In the first statement the use of the participles ‘Taking…’ and ‘Raising…’ at the start of the 3^rd and 4^th sentences make sense and are acceptable English. However, they disrupt comprehension in comparison with the second statement. In the third and fourth sentences in this statement, ‘Inflation…’ is clearly presented as the main subject, and the relative pronoun ‘which’ introduces the consequence more naturally than placing it in a following participle clause sentence.

Whilst this approach may seem over-analytical at a paragraph level, its benefits become clearer over pages of academic text, where the thread of the main argument can easily diffuse  unless the writer carefully links the constituents of the subject as it evolves.   

The final point is that there is an inverse relationship between complexity of meaning and simplicity of grammar, and an expertly constructed argument is best founded on frequent restatements of a subject noun, and the use of relative pronouns and adverbs which signal cause and effect relationships. The student journey involves learning how to achieve this within multiple clause sentences, which also presents an answer to the ‘complex structures’ problem faced by high level IELTS students and their teachers.

 

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