IELTS Writing. The most common mistakes and things you should know, Part 2. We'll continue reviewing our Part 2 of the most common mistakes and things you should know by review parallel structures. Parallel structures are structures that follow the same pattern, so for example, when you write with parallel structures your writing has a pattern that is easy to follow, it helps make your ideas easier to understand to other people, for example, in English we have different types of parallel sentences, and the first one we're going to review today is a subject parallels. For example, here you see a couple of sentences we have, and the first one shows parallel, for example, play and study are two ways children can use a computer, as you see, planned study, what are involved and they are parallel in this case, and the following one is another example of parallel sentence, playing and studying are two ways children can use a computer, so here we have instead of for example, in a study we have playing and studying, so we added "I-N-G" ending. The next sentence after that is not parallel, so you'll understand shortly why, and here we have playing and study are two things children can use a computer for. As you see playing and study, so the first word we have playing was I-N-G ending, and the second one, study was added, so it's not a parallel sentence in this case, so you have to make sure when you're writing sentences and you are using parallel structure, they have to be consistent, for example, playing, studying, dancing and playing, so you have to make sure you are consistent and adding I-N-G ending in both cases, that's what we call parallel structure. The following parallel structures we're going to discuss are verbs, adjectives, and passive voice. The first one is for verbs, and we have a verb parallel structure sentence here. I reached out my hand, grabbed the glass and noticed that my watch was gone, as you've seen here, we have highlighted words or in other words what's involved, reached out, grabbed and notice, and it's going to be parallel because all these words are in the past and all of them are verbs, so that's why this is a parallel structured sentence. The following one is not a parallel one, and here we have, the village has grown and becoming more prosperous. As you see, has grown, is a perfect tense and, becoming, is continuous tense, that's why the sentence is not going to be parallel structured. The same goes for adjectives and passive voice, so for example for adjective, as you see we have an example, maple syrup is a popular and tasty treat, this is parallel because popular and tasty, they are both adjectives in this case, and the following sentence, maple syrup is a popular tree and also taste good, so as you see popular, it's adjective and taste it's actually verb, so that's why this is not a parallel sentence. For the passive voice, it's actually goes the same, the house was painted, the roof was repaired, parallel sentence, and not parallel sentence would sound like this, the house was painted and we repaired the roof, so as you can see, was painted is in the passive voice, repaired is just a past simple tense. You have to make sure when you're writing your essay, you are very careful with your parallel structure and you double-check and revise your essay carefully. Now we're going to talk about punctuation, and the first one is the most common one, it's a full stop or we call period in America, so you can see the sign how it looks like, and full stop or periods have three distinct uses, we are going to discuss that. The first one, we use period to mark the end of a sentence, so for example, when you finish your idea, you need to put a period, so the cat is completely black. I'm a teacher, period at the end. Then the second use is to indicate abbreviated words. Abbreviated words, it's something like, the teacher will be John Smith and then you see how we have B and A, so B is a bachelor's and then period, A, it's an art, Bachelors of Art, so it's a teacher's degree and we abbreviate it as B.A in this case and we'll put a period after that. The last one we have is to punctuate numbers and dates. For example, all assignments should be submitted by 6.15.21. You see when we have numbers or especially date, it's very common, so we use period in that case as well. The next punctuation we have, it's a colon. A colon can be used to indicate that a list, quotation, or summary is about to follow. For example, buy these things: a bag of peanuts, two loaves of bread, and a pound of steak. Do you see how we have colon by the sinks? Then when you have a list, here we have a list of three items: a bag of peanuts, two loaves of bread, and pound of steak, so that's when we use colon in the first case. The second way of using a colon is to separate an initial sentence in other words what we call the clause from a second sentence, list, phrase, or quotation that support the first in a particular way. Here we have an example that I'm going to read it to you, writing an essay is not easy: you have to do a lot of research. As you see, after writing an essay is not easy I have a colon and then I have the second sentence, you have to do a lot of research. These two sentences, they support each other. The second part of the sentence supports the first part of the sentence. This is one way of using a colon. Now we're going to talk about commas. This is one of the most common and favorite, probably punctuation for some students because they use them a lot. They overuse them sometimes and there are some students who don't like to use them at all. We are going to discuss how to use them properly and know exactly when and how to use them. As you know, comma signal a slight pause, but not a complete stop. I understand why they are tricky, because they have lot of rules. We're going to discuss a couple of them today. The first one, you need to use commas to separate items in series. A series contain three or more or similar items in a row. Here we have an example, the girls like playing golf, reading books, and riding horses. As you see, this is items in series. We have three things, playing golf, it's one, reading books two and riding horses, three. If you have a couple of things that you want to show, you want to list in your sentence, then you need to use your commas. For example, if you have only two, then in that case you are not using any commas, it has to be three or more. The second of way of using commas is to separate two or more adjectives that precede and modifying the same noun. It's not very common, but it can happen sometimes and you need to know it too. Here we have an example, the human eye is a complex, efficient organ. Here we have two adjectives and because we have two adjectives, not just one, we need to use comma in-between. You have to note that you should not use commas when the last adjective in series is part of a compound noun. You can tell if one of the adjective belongs to the noun and if you reverse the position of the adjectives. Here, for example, we have a sentence. Whose read eyeglasses case is this? As you see, eyeglass case is a compound noun and that's why we did not use any commas in this case. Here we are going to discuss about an exception we have. We'll not use our commas even though we have some conjunction. For example, when a coordinating a conjunction such as and, or but, you guys remember your fanboys connects a compound verb in a sentence. In that case, you do not add commas. Here we have an example. Jen, dropped a contact lens and searched for 10 minutes but couldn't find it. You see how we have these conjunctions and, but, and we did not use any comma. Because here we have only verbs, see we have, searched, before and we have couldn't before but, so in that case, we do not need any commas because it's not a complete independent clause. That's why we do not use commas, so just be very careful, and then try to remember this rule. The last way of using commas, it's when we have two independent clauses, or in other words, two simple sentences. For example, Jen dropped the lens comma, and she couldn't find it anywhere. In that case, do you see how we have two complete sentences? Jen dropped the lens, if you see this sentence is okay by itself, that's why we call it independent clause. The following one, she couldn't find it anywhere. So she couldn't find it anywhere, it's a complete idea too, so that's why it's independent clause as well. When you have these type of two complete ideas or independent clauses and you combine them with conjunctions, FANBOYS, then you need to put a comma before the conjunction. This is one of the most common rules we have for using comma, so try to remember, it's our compound sentence. The following punctuation we're going to discuss is apostrophe. Apostrophes are used in the IELTS Essay for possessive forms of nouns and indefinite pronouns. The first way we use apostrophe to show possession in a plural noun that ends with the letter S. In this case, we do not add anything except apostrophe itself. Here we have examples, students' report, you see students in the plural form, and we'll only add S ending. That means students have report or we can say students' report. The next one, the neighbors' dog and students' assignments. As you see, neighbors, students, all of them are in the plural form, that's why we only add apostrophe. The second one is quite different. Here we add an apostrophe and letter S to show possession in a plural noun that does not end in S letter. For example, women, it's a plural form and we add apostrophe and also S letter. Women's wages, children's drawings, geese's feathers, this is a second way of using apostrophe. The last one is using apostrophe to show possessive forms of indefinite pronouns. For example, we have indefinite pronouns such as everyone, someone, anybody. In this case, we just say everyone's paper, someone's wallet, and anybody's turn. This is a third way of using this punctuation. Our final punctuation mark is parentheses. Parentheses are used to set off information within a text or paragraph. They always come in pairs, so make sure you use them both. Typically, the words inside of them provide extra information about something else in the sentence. Remember to use parentheses, especially maybe in your Academic Writing, Task 1, when you're providing data or some numbers, it can be really useful. Here, we have an example, how to use parentheses, and I'm going to read it to you. The total number of cars, 10. As you see, we have number 10 inside of parentheses, and this is a total number. For example, if you have a sentence that you forgot to include the numbers in, you can actually put the numbers at the end of your sentence, but don't forget to put a period after your parentheses mark punctuation. The last thing I have for you in here is little tip that I would like to mention is that you do not need to use exclamation mark and question mark in your IELTS exam, in your Academic Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2, because remember, both of your essays are academic ones, and you don't really have a hook in your Writing Task 2. Just try to avoid using them at all, so you do not make any mistakes. That's all we have, guys, for punctuations. I really hope this course was very helpful for you, and you learned a lot about writing sections of the IELTS test.
