Grammar for ielts writing a handbook by David S. Wills Contents

essential clause
. If it is purely extra information to add more interest or 
flavor to the sentence, then it is a 
non-essential clause
.
Essential clauses are not surrounded by commas:
„
The girl 
that spoke to us earlier
is my sister.
This is essential because otherwise we don’t know which girl.
„
The house 
where I grew up
is near here.
This is essential because otherwise we don’t know which house.
Non-essential clauses require commas around them:
„
Fran, 
who really likes dogs
, is getting a puppy this weekend.
The information in the clause is interesting but not necessary to understand 
the sentence.
„
My cat, 
who’s always begging me for more food
, is getting really fat.
Again, the information is relevant, but it is not essential to understanding the 
main clause.
Grammar for IELTS Writing

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Parallelism
Parallel means two things (lines, objects, etc.) running next to each other, having 
the same space between them at all points. For example, look at the word “paral-
lel” itself – the two 
l
s in the middle are parallel to one another. Remember the 
spelling of the word, and you can remember its meaning; remember the mean-
ing of the word and you can remember its spelling! There aren’t many words in 
English as convenient as that!
If two things are parallel, then we could consider them to be similar like ob-
jects in a mirror. Thus, parallelism in writing means parts of a sentence which 
have the same features. 
Rules of Parallelism
There are a few important things to remember in parallelism, and they, fortu-
nately, adhere to a few simple rules. Basically, when you are creating a list or
C H A P T E R
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a comparison, you want to create balance and simplicity in the sentence by hav-
ing all parts the same. That means:
1. Keep nouns with nouns
Example:
„
Incorrect: 
He enjoys football more than playing baseball.
„
Correct: 
He enjoys football more than baseball.
Why? In the first (incorrect) example, we have a noun (football) for the first