In IELTS academic task 1 essay questions, you have to summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features in a line graph, chart, pie chart, table, map, cycle or process and make comparisons where relevant. You have to write more than 150 words in 20 minutes.
The most important thing to remember here, is that this means you need to describe the important factors in the information as if the reader cannot see the chart, graph, map…….
This means you cannot refer to the chart in your essay as if the reader can see it.
Structure
Paraphrase the question – restate the question in your own words
Overview – a general outlook of the whole question
Detail paragraph 1 – contains the most important information such as start, highs, lows, finish and so on
Detail paragraph 2 – contains less important information such as trends and crossovers.
IELTS Writing Task 1 is marked using a rubric containing Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammar and Accuracy, and should be written in a formal style.
Let’s go into this in more detail
Paraphrase the question
There are many types of question and so many ways to paraphrase, most of which are covered in this post.
Overview
Please note: If you do not write an overview, your task achievement score will drop!
Imagine, you meet your boss in an elevator and he asks about a chart, let’s say it’s about The number of tourists visiting a Caribbean island between 2010 and 2017. You are only going to be in the elevator with him for less than a minute, so you need to be brief (like an elevator pitch, but here you aren’t trying to sell anything).
So you could say something like: Overall, the total number of visitors increased by over three times over the period, with visitors by cruise ships showing the strongest growth and finishing higher than visitors staying on the island.
Don’t use numbers in the overview, except when talking about years or periods of time.
Think about sticking the chart or map on the far wall of the room. What can you see? What are the obvious things that are happening in the image?
Detail Paragraphs
Splitting the paragraphs
In some questions it is difficult to decide how to split the paragraphs, while in others it seems simple. This takes practice and thought should be given to what kind of language you can use in each paragraph (See Language below).
If you are in doubt, then think about it this way. If you have paraphrase,overview, detail 1, detail 2, then as the essay progresses, you are going into more and more detail. The overview is just the obvious points with no numbers, detail 1 is the major points,including numbers and detail 2 has the minor points.
Key features
Remember your task is to summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
The main points here are ‘selecting’ and ‘main’.
You should select the main points and report them in the detail paragraphs. You DO NOT need to report EVERY feature. If you report every feature, you are not completing the task, and therefore your Task achievement Score will go down.
Language
In some IELTS Task 1 academic writing questions, there are two charts or two maps, or before and after maps as below.
When you have a situation such as this, it is very easy to use one paragraph for ‘before’ and the second one for ‘after’. In this case, that is fine because you need to describe changes, with the ‘after’ map being completely different to the ‘before’ one.
However, if you have a question like this:
It is very tempting to talk about the earlier pie chart in one paragraph and the latter in the other one. If you did that, the language you used would be very similar in both paragraphs, which won’t show the examiner what you can do.
This also happens if you compare the larger sectors in the first paragraph and the smaller ones in the second. You will use the same kind of language.
However, you could talk about the main changes in the first paragraph, then about other changes in the second, grouping similar percentage changes together. In this way you should be able to use different language in each paragraph.
Detail paragraph 1
This paragraph should talk about the main details, so it should include numbers and times if necessary. So what are ‘main details’ or ‘main features’? They are the start points, the highs and lows and the finish points as well as trends and crossovers. You do not need to do this mechanically, think about which are important and remember you can group some of these numbers together.
In the question above with two maps, if you split the paragraphs ‘before’ and ‘after’ then the first paragraph would be very short, just one or two sentences with most of the information in detail 2.
Detail paragraph 2
This paragraph should be about the minor points, but not all of them. Only the most important ones. Whatever you write about, try not to use the same language as you did in Detail 1.
Planning
Planning saves you time
Five minutes planning will make your essay much easier to write, so you should also have tie to proofread it.
Planning makes your essay relevant
Identify the main features, compare them and answer the question. These are all included in your Task achievement score, 25% of the total.
Planning gives you a better structure
Planning your structure and practicing before your test will make your task 1 essays more coherent and cohesive (another 25% of your score).
Structure
Paraphrase – covered here
Overview – Talk about the obvious points without using any numbers
Detail paragraph 1 – the major points
Detail paragraph 2 – the minor points
Grammar (another 25%)
The most important aspect of academic task 1 grammar is time.
If there is no date or year, then use present simple tense for something that always happens.
If there are dates or years in the past, then use the past simple
If there are dates or years in the future, use the future simple or the future perfect.
Knowing which grammar, you prefer to use BEFORE you take your test, will make planning your essay much faster.
Vocabulary (another 25%)
There is a huge amount of vocabulary for describing task 1 questions, but here is some of the most useful, including some collocations (better score). As with grammar, if you choose your favourite collocations and expressions when you practice, you will be able to fit them into your plan quickly and effectively on test day.
Describing Trends
Describing trends is common in IELTS academic Writing Task 1 In IELTS writing task 1and may be needed with line graphs, bar charts or when comparing more than one chart.
Two structures are used to describe trends.
1.There + be + adj. + noun + in + noun phrase
Example:
There was a gradual rise in the price of oil.
There has been a sharp drop in the price of oil.
| adjectives | nouns |
| gradual | a rise |
| moderate | a decline |
| modest | a decrease |
| sharp | a dip |
| dramatic | a drop |
| slight | a fall |
| steady | a peak |
| significant | a fluctuation |
| considerable | growth |
| rapid | an increase |
2.Noun phrase + verb + adverb
Example:
The price of oil rose gradually.
The price of oil has risen dramatically.
| verbs | adverbs |
| rise | gradually |
| jump | moderately |
| grow | modestly |
| climb | sharply |
| increase | dramaticallys |
| rocket | slightly |
| fall | steeply |
| decline | significantly |
| plummet | considerably |
| plunge | rapidly |
It is important to note that you need to be sensible, something cannot rocket slowly or plummet gradually. Practice, as ever makes perfect.
Describing Increases and Decreases
In IELTS writing task 1, it is common to have to describe increases and decreases. There are three main ways you can describe them.
| Structure | Example |
| Noun phrase + verb + adverb | The price of gold fell sharply. The percentage of vacancies dropped dramatically. |
| There + be + noun + in + noun phrase | There was a fall in energy levels. There has been an increase in the cost of building materials. |
| Using fractions | The price of oil halved in less than a year. The price of oil has halved since July. By July, the price of oil has halved. |
Proofreading
Once you have written your essay, try to take some time to check what you have written.
If you just read what you have written, you may find several errors that you can fix quickly, but it’s much much quicker if you look for certain types of error. Which ones do you look for? The ones you have made in your practice essays.
If you look for them, then
1/ it should be easier for you to find them
2/ you should know how to fix them by now
3/ read once for each kind of error, it’s quicker and more effective than trying to read once for them all.
Doing this will increase the chances of getting a better score in your test, but if you do this each time you practice, it becomes habit and will become much more effective.
Using a teacher to show you how to overcome your writing problems or mark your practice essays will show you which errors you make consistently and how to check for them after you have finished.
Conclusion
I hope at least some of this article has been of use to you. Good luck with your IELTS Academic Writing Task 1!