There is no "I" in IELTS. Wait, there is.
There is an opinion that “I” in academic essays should be avoided. While there is some truth to that, I want to clarify what exactly should be avoided and when.
First and foremost, what is meant by “Academic English” in British and American resources is not IELTS or TOEFL. Academic English implies getting a degree and writing a thesis in English. When you write a thesis, it makes sense to avoid using “I” because you will be reporting what is generally believed in the scientific community and/or was a product of teamwork. You are highly unlikely to write about something you achieved all on your own.
IELTS has a lot in common with academic English in terms of vocabulary and register. But some questions in IELTS writing explicitly ask you to give your opinion, which you should explicitly do. “It is believed that” does not express your opinion. “I believe that” does. There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying “I believe” or “I agree” in an IELTS essay. That said, you should tread lightly and probably use “I” only two times per essay tops - in the introduction and the conclusion.
I want to give you an example of what you should definitely avoid doing at all costs. This is a piece of my student’s first foray into writing essays. Please don’t be too hard on him - the essay is far from perfect, which is why it is a perfect essay to demonstrate my point. (It’s an introduction and the first body paragraph.)
"There is an opinion that in the future online shopping will one day lead to extinction of traditional stores in cities and towns. I wouldn’t say that I could support this point of view. This trend exists but I totally disagree with this strong statement.
First, nowadays trade models are highly difficult and flexible and as a result show the true condition of the economy. In my strong opinion, the future part of online shopping will increase from 85 to 95 percent but will never get 100%. I suppose local stores could be transformed into last-mile-warehouse. So I predict that many goods can be buyed by a plan, in other words automatically by smart fridge or smart home or even by global artificial intelligence without any human participation. But there is a huge group of things which are impossible to predict. I mean such goods like drugs, pills, emergency products, sometimes clothes and entertainment goods."
In this case “I” is definitely, undeniably, unquestionably overused. Don’t do that. Avoiding “I” completely in essays where you need to give your opinion - don’t do that either.
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