🚩 CLAPTRAP advice: "elucidate"
I keep all of the terrible advice that I see online in a secret folder called ⚠️"CLAPTRAP"⚠️ on Pinterest.
(Real meaning of ‘claptrap’ = ‘absurd or nonsensical talk or ideas’)
Don't get caught in the Common Language Advice Posts Trap🪤(CLAPTRAP) that I see on social media and websites with thousands of followers.
These sites often give TERRIBLE advice. I will always strive to help my students avoid the confusion caused by these posts.
Pauline Cullen (a true IELTS expert) says you don't need anything more than "The diagram SHOWS" in the first line of Academic Writing Task 1. She's right. Follow someone like her (or me) for sensible advice about IELTS.
Synonyms for "show" often have different meanings. A PERSON can elucidate (though it's a very formal word, and not one that I EVER see in real-life descriptions of data) but a diagram can't elucidate.
If an examiner sees a word like 'elucidate' in the first line, it's a huge red flag. It tells them that you're just learning lists of weird synonyms but not reading any real English.
