One of the main things students have to do in academic writing is to make comparisons between different theories, methods and sources of data. In task 1 of the IELTS writing test, students need to compare the significant features of the visual provided. In both cases, it is clearly a big problem if students cannot use the various forms of the word ‘compare’ correctly. One very common grammar error is to use ‘compared’ and ‘comparing’ incorrectly. The sample of student writing below shows this problem:

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It is very important that students preparing for the IELTS test know how to use compared and comparing correctly. Here are three structures you can usefully learn:

Example

The basic hand drawn graph below will suffice for this example:

Assuming the x axis represents time, we can use comparING and comparED like this:

Comparing A and B in the graph above, it is obvious that A remains higher throughout the time period shown and it increases more rapidly.

Compared to A, B is significantly lower throughout the time period shown and it does not increase as rapidly.

Compared with A, B is significantly lower throughout the time period shown and it does not increase as rapidly.

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