The Attitude Spectrum
Eight stances on one line — with the one that refuses to sit on it.
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Seven of these sit somewhere on the line. One is pulled toward both ends at once.
Identify the writer's stance from vocabulary choice — what Matching Features and writer-view questions actually test.
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Writers rarely announce their opinion. They reveal it in the verbs and adjectives they pick.
You will not find I disagree with this theory in an IELTS passage. What you will find is this:
Proponents claim the method is reliable, though the supporting data remains thin.
No opinion is stated. The writer is nonetheless clearly sceptical, and they said so through two word choices: claim rather than show, and thin rather than limited.
Matching Features and writer-view questions test exactly this. They are not asking what the passage says — they are asking what the writer thinks about what the passage says.
POSITIVE enthusiastic · supportive
NEUTRAL neutral · cautious
NEGATIVE sceptical · critical · dismissive
BOTH AT ONCE ambivalent
Eight stances on one line — with the one that refuses to sit on it.
Seven of these sit somewhere on the line. One is pulled toward both ends at once.
Eight short extracts. Name the stance behind each.
Terms
Definitions
Five extracts where the stance turns on one or two words.
In each case, the writer never states an opinion. Find the one or two words that give it away.
"Advocates claim the scheme will pay for itself, though no jurisdiction has yet demonstrated this." What is the writer's attitude?
Three extracts along the negative end of the scale. Name the stance and the word that proves it.
One
"Supporters claim the reform will reduce waiting times, though the trial data does not yet bear this out."
Attitude:
What gives it away:
Two
"The analysis neglects seasonal variation, and its central estimate rests on a single unrepresentative year."
Attitude:
What gives it away:
Three
"These proposals are fanciful and scarcely merit the column inches devoted to them."
Attitude:
What gives it away:
Twelve signal words sorted by the stance they reveal.
Sort each item into the correct category