Hi everyone, in this succinct post I want to remind you of an important correlation. If you try to start almost each sentence of your Duolingo Essay with a kind of an introductory expression – it is good and it adds to your DET Writing score. However, once the number of words in the phrase overpasses a feasible modest amount, your score may get reduced. You didn’t think about this peculiarity of Duolingo Writing? I feel it pertains to the writing section at any test of English including IELTS, TOEFL, SAT and the like…
The primary reason for such an undesirable occurrence is that the AI (or the examiner) clearly sees that you have used a long useless cliche in the beginning of your sentence followed by several meek simple low-level words representing your mediocre level of the language. The disparity is too crying. If, in theory, you would have continued your sentence with your authentic beautiful English collocations, that would be another kettle of water. But most the majority of candidates are eager to stuff those often stupid knock-off cliches into their essays, combining them with primitive cores of sentences. Of course, I am sure that your score is going to be lowered for that.
So, what can we do then? Totally abstain from using introductory phrases? No, it is not beneficial either. We have a nice option: use either brief 3-4 word cliches, or curtail those long ones to match the overall tone and level of your essay.
If you start with something like “I totally concur that pets are our best friends” – it is OK. But when you try to commence with “According to a much debatable viewpoint held by utterly advanced individuals across the globe, pets are our friends” – do you feel, it smells idiocy?))
Don’t overshoot it. Keep it simple yet powerful.
If you need urgent help of an experienced English tutor to attain success at DET (Duolingo English Test) – feel free to contact me at my WhatsApp or Viber: +380674985818