Using conditionals to improve your

coherence
Are you aiming to get an IELTS band 6 or above? If you are, can I suggest some grammar
work for you? In order to get to band 6 your writing needs not just to be correct, it also needs
to contain a mix of both simple and more complex structures. In plain English this means using
some more advanced grammatical structures: tips and tricks arent always enough, you also
need to do some language work. Im going to suggest looking at conditionals thats if
clauses. I have 2 reasons for this:
1. they are relatively straightforward and typically are familiar to most candidates its an
achievable goal
2. they have a real purpose in the IELTS essay theyre not just going to help your grammar,
they can actually make the writing process easier for you by improving your coherence and
extending the range of your vocabulary.
This is the main point: when you are looking at grammar, you should concentrate on its
use, not just its form. This is something familiar to language teachers, but often missed by
language learners.

Examples a key way to produce coherent paragraphs

What do I mean by this? Well, one of the keys to a good essay is to ensure that your paragraphs
are coherent. A coherent paragraph takes one idea in the topic sentence then explains it a
little and then gives an example. These examples are critical for coherence- especially in an
exam context .
Once you have understood that, the next step is to understand how to introduce examples. One
piece of language to do that is of course for example, then there is for instance or an
illustration of this is. But my point here is that if is an excellent alternative for introducing
examples, not least because it typically leads into a more extended example with a greater
range of topic vocabulary.

Some examples
These are examples from mysample IELTS essays. See how the if clause is used to extend,
explain and illustrate the main idea and also helps you use more topic language: this is a good
thing.
The second point to make is that there are many much more urgent projects on Earth that
require investment. If governments spent less money on space research, then they would be
able to help solve some of these problems such as population control, elimination of diseases
like cholera, global warming and food shortages. It seems to me that all of these issues are
more important because they affect the lives of millions of ordinary people. An illustration of

this is that the US government could provide food for all the starving people in the world if
they did not spend so much on NASA.
There is, however, an important qualification to be made. The internet and IT in general are not
always easy to access. There are two grounds for saying this. Firstly, there are countries where
there is not universal internet access because of censorship or poor technological infrastructure.
Secondly, the older generation can find it difficult to learn to use the technology or install a
modem. If we use the same example, a grandmother would probably prefer to send a letter
through the post or make a simple telephone call than try using the net.
Those who argue that museums should be free typically make one of two arguments. The first
argument is that institutions like museums are a public service and therefore there should be
free access to the man in the street. If for example there was a charge only the wealthy could
afford to enjoy works of art. The second, and related, argument is that if they did levy a charge
fewer people would go to museums. This would be serious as they are educational institutions
and standards would fall.
There is of course another side to this argument and there are possible reasons why emigration
from developing countries is not a complete solution. One such reason is that people who have
suffered from natural disasters will want to return to their homes as quickly as possible and be
with their families and relatives. This will be difficult if they have moved to another country.
Another reason is that it is often more effective to help the victims in their own country as it
can cause them more stress if they have to move to another country with a different language
and strange customs. For example, it could be difficult for someone from Iraq to adapt to the
English way of life and weather.

Practice
My suggested practice is to start by just writing a few paragraphs to learn the technique, then
when you are confident, try writing the full essay. Here is a sample paragraph from an IELTS
essay on free health service that needs improvement. How could you improve it by using an
example with an if clause.
It is unfair for a health service to charge all patients the same amount of money. Some patients
are wealthy and can afford any treatment, while other patients are poorer and cannot pay for
their prescription.
If you like, you can post your solution as a comment to this post: I shall be posting my
variation in a few days time.

Need some grammar practice?

Here is a fairly tricky quiz on conditionals using IELTS type examples. I suggest you give it a
go and if you find it too hard, you then take a look at the link below it to revise your grammar.

To get my next lesson in your inbox

Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner

You might also be interested in:

Using examples to improve your paragraph coherence

Relative clauses key IELTS grammar
Band score 8.0 writing better paragraphs
Common mistakes: word formation and task 1 writing
Different ways to write about the future in IELTS

8 Responses to Using conditionals to improve your coherence

1.
arman January 13, 2010 at 11:15 am #
if a health service charged all patients the same amount of money, the poorer patients
would treated unfairly than the wealthier ones.
Reply

Dominic Cole January 13, 2010 at 8:59 pm #

Close. Heres the grammar correction:
If a health service charged all patients the same amount of money, the poorer
patients would be treated more unfairly than the
or maybe it is neater to say less fairly.
As for the meaning. How are the poorer patients going to be treated less fairly?
Isnt everyone paying the same? Seems fair to me, unless of course the charge
was high and not nominal.
his is stunning website
me July 17, 2010 at 6:06 am #

Health service was a really complex controversy to most regimes for last few decades,
however, no one can offer an abousolutely effective solution to it. If the government
relocates more finance on medical and clinical treatment for every individuals equally,
the authority would be suffer from financial chaos in other scientific and educational
field, such as space exploration and advanced technology.
Reply

2.
Name August 17, 2010 at 3:38 am #
If a health service charge all patients the same amount of money, it could be unfair for
poorer patients as they will not be able to afford for their prescription or treatment as
wealthier one.
Thanks for making this blog. It helps me a lot.
Reply

3.
Elena December 12, 2010 at 2:39 am #
Hi, Dominic.
Can you please explain in your future article the different sentences structures, such as
simple, compound, complex and combination. how are they usually used.
and is it really importand to include different structures in an essay for band 7?
thank you
Reply

Dominic Cole December 12, 2010 at 10:08 am #

Sure. As it happens I am about to do an article on punctuation. From my point
of view, one of the most practical ways to approach this topic is through
punctuation.

Reply

4.
wu February 16, 2012 at 2:04 pm #
It is unfair for a health service to charge all patients the same amount of money,this is
especially true if the poorer family could not support their unffordable prescription
Reply
2013 Dominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond. All Rights Reserved.
Read more: Conditionals clauses in IELTS essays http://www.dcielts.com/grammar2/conditionals-coherence/#ixzz2I1c3tWkC