Words for education, and giving reasons
You can talk and write about education with exact words, and join a reason to its result correctly.
Education comes up all through IELTS. Listening Parts 3 and 4 are set in education and training, Speaking Part 1 often asks about your studies, and many essay questions are about schools or fees.
This unit stays with that topic in all four papers. We start with its words, and with one piece of grammar you need in every essay: joining a reason to a result.
Warm-up
Which word fits?
One word fits this sentence better than the others. Look at the words just before the gap.
My sister is studying for a ______ in engineering. It takes four years.
Words for education
Courses and study
Put your name down and officially join. Over 200 adults enrolled on evening courses this year.
The subjects a school teaches, and what is in them. Coding is now part of the curriculum in some primary schools.
A talk to a large group, and a discussion class for a small one. First-year students have three lectures and one seminar a week.
Studying from home, with the teaching online. Distance learning suits people with full-time jobs.
Leave a course before the end. Some students drop out in their first year.
How well a student does in their studies. Sleep has a clear effect on academic performance.
Qualifications, money and people
Proof that you have passed a course or exam. The job asks for a qualification in accounting.
The money a student pays to be taught. Tuition fees have risen at many universities.
Something everyone must do, by law or by a rule. School is compulsory until the age of 16 in many countries.
Someone who starts university later than usual, often after working. Mature students bring work experience to class.
Training for a particular job, such as nursing or plumbing. Vocational training can lead straight to work.
Someone who has finished a degree. Graduates often look for work in the city where they studied.
Grammar: reasons and results
A reason answers why. A result answers what happened because of it. English joins the two in several ways, and each way has its own grammar.
A clause has its own subject and verb. Many adults study online because they work during the day.
Classes were cancelled because of the storm. The rise in applications is due to the new grants.
Put a comma before so when it joins two clauses. The course was full, so I joined the waiting list.
These start a new sentence and take a comma after them. Fees went up. As a result, fewer students applied.
Mistakes that cost marks
- because of they work: because of needs a noun. Write because they work, or because of their jobs.
- Because the course was expensive.: on its own, this is half a sentence. Join it to the rest: I chose the online course because the campus course was expensive.
- Fees rose, therefore fewer students applied.: a comma cannot hold two sentences together. Use a full stop, or a semicolon: Fees rose; therefore, fewer students applied.
- Starting an essay sentence with So: it sounds like speech. Use As a result or This means that.
Watch me do one
I have two ideas to join: Many adults work full time and Evening courses are popular.
First I decide which one is the reason. Adults working full time is why evening courses are popular, so that is the reason, and popularity is the result.
If I start with the result, I use because: Evening courses are popular because many adults work full time.
If I start with the reason, I use so, with a comma: Many adults work full time, so evening courses are popular.
In an essay I might keep two sentences and link them: Many adults work full time. As a result, evening courses are popular.
What I would never write is because of many adults work full time. Many adults work full time is a whole clause, and because of is followed by a noun.
Practice with Elita5 questions
Five questions: four on joining reasons and results, and one on the words from the cards.
A noun after the gap
Complete the sentence with two words that give the reason.
The library closed early a power cut.
Write no more than 2 words.
Two sentences or one?
Only one of these is correct in an essay. Which?
Choose the correct version.
Find the mistake
One of these sentences has a grammar mistake. Choose it.
Which sentence contains the error?
Words and meanings
Match each word to its meaning.
Two links in a row
Fill both gaps with words that join a reason to its result. The first joins two clauses. The second starts a new sentence.
Mature students often have jobs, many choose part-time courses. , universities now teach more classes in the evening.
Write no more than 3 words in each gap.
Use it
A course you know
Write three or four sentences about a course you have taken or would like to take. Say why you chose it and what happened as a result.
Write about a course you have taken or would like to take: why you chose it, and what happened, or what you hope will happen, as a result. Use two words from this lesson and two different ways of joining a reason and a result.
0 / 45 words
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Before you go
Use because before a clause, and because of or due to before a noun.
Put a comma before so when it joins two clauses.
Start a new sentence with As a result or Therefore, and put a comma after it.
Use the exact word: you study for a degree, enrol on a course and pay tuition fees.
Next: Next, you read a passage about school start times and match each paragraph to a heading.