IELTS Writing Task 1 Academic -

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

IELTS Writing Task 1: Academic

Under IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, you must write a report based on visual information such as charts, graphs, tables, etc.

You will be required to write at least 150 words within 20 minutes.

Academic Writing Task 1: Understanding the visual information

To help you understand the visual information, you need to ask these questions:

In describing the visual information, it is advisable to use the passive form of the verb rather than the active form. E.g. Estimate, forecast, predict, measure.

For example: it is measured, it is estimated, etc.

Academic Writing Task 1: Structure

How to structure the INTRODUCTION

Under the introduction, you need to paraphrase the statement from IELTS in the question. However, you need not paraphrase the key terms in the statement otherwise it will alter its original meaning.

Paraphrasing means expressing the meaning of (something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity.

You can paraphrase using either of these two methods:

Using synonyms: different words with similar meanings. For example,

The chart shows how many people traveled by air in the year 2000.

Paraphrased as:

The picture presents the number of passengers who used air travel in the year 2000.

Note: You need to paraphrase some of the words while retaining the KEYWORDS.

Chart – graph, picture, figure

shows: indicates, presents, depicts

How many people traveled by air: the number of airline passengers/travelers

Further examples:

The use of hard drugs is on the rise among teenagers.

Paraphrased as:

The abuse of banned substances is rising among young people.

Reordering method: here, you rearrange the sentence.

This may include changing the order of the words in the sentence and arranging and rearranging them without losing their original meaning and correctness. The reordered sentence must be grammatically correct.

For example,

Many manufactured food and drink products contain high levels of sugar, which causes many health problems.

Paraphrased as:

A number of the health related-challenges are a result of the consumption of many products with high sugar content.

Further example:

The chart shows the components of GDP in the UK from 1992 to 2000.

Paraphrased as:

The parts of Gross Domestic Products in the UK between 1992 to 2000 are illustrated using the bar chart.

Note: the paraphrased expression constitutes your INTRODUCTION under IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

How to write an OVERVIEW

This is the point where you present a general review or summary of the report (you summarise the main trends). Since it is just a summary, you do not need to go into details quoting figures.

An OVERVIEW is a general review or summary of a subject.

The examiner is interested in your overview because it shows that you have identified the major points and trends in the chart or graph.

Let us look at an example:

The chart shows the components of GDP in the UK from 1992 to 2000.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

Sample Overview

Overall, it can be seen that both the IT and Service Industry in the UK from 1992 to 2000 increased as a percentage of GDP, but IT remained at a higher rate throughout this time.

To better understand how to structure your overview, you need to look at the question.

The question reads:

Summarise the information by SELECTING and REPORTING the MAIN FEATURES and make comparisons where relevant.

What you do under overview is to summarise the MAIN FEATURES of the graph, chart, table, or diagram. At this level, you do not need to provide data from the chart; just a summary of the main features is what is needed.

In summary, you will need to describe the key features of the diagram by quoting figures in body paragraphs (1 and 2).

How to describe a DIAGRAM

Before writing your answer to a task requiring you to describe a diagram, you need to spend some time studying and trying to understand the diagram.

While you study the diagram, you need to identify the most important information and then describe the process using the passive voice.

Your writing will be assessed based on Coherence (is it easy to understand?)

and Cohesion (are the ideas well connected?).

Your ideas must be organized logically and connected. This means that your ideas must not be disjointed.

Note: we must remind you that when describing a process, you are to use PASSIVE VOICE.

Example:

Active voice: First, pour some water into the jar.

Passive voice: First, some water is poured into the jar.

Just the same way you organize your response into INTRODUCTION, OVERVIEW, AND BODY(1 & 2) when you are reporting graphs, charts, or tables as we have considered above, you need to follow the same structure when reporting a diagram which usually may be the production process of a product.

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