📈 IELTS Writing Task 1: plummeting and skyrocketing 📉

For some reason, students like strong verbs like "soar," "skyrocket," or "plummet." The problem is they usually use them for insignificant changes. For example:

1. "It started at about 9 metric tonnes and then grew quickly to over 10 tonnes a decade later, plummeting to 7 tonnes in 1987."

Falling from 10 to 7 doesn't qualify as plummeting as the change is less than 50%.

2. "Starting at 35 quadrillion units, the figure is anticipated to skyrocket to almost 50 by 2030."

Again, rising from 35 to 50 is not really skyrocketing as the growth is not even twofold.

And then I get a sentence like this:

3. "The number of closures fluctuated between 6000 and 7000 shops in the first three years but showed an abrupt fall by 2015 to only 500. However, the figure then increased to slightly above 5000 stores ... "

Falling from 7,000 to 500 - that's plummeting! Rising from 500 to 5,000 - that's skyrocketing! This is a rare case when the verbs are actually begging to be used.

The bottom line is strong verbs like "skyrocket" or "plummet" express significant and rapid changes. So use the verbs wisely - to express what they really mean.