The Overview is the most important part in a Task 1 essay. In order to get a good band score, you must be able to write a good Overview.

I have a simple technique for writing the Overview: Write 2 sentences, and in each sentence, you write 1 noticeable feature from the graph. So, in the Overview, you need to analyse the graph carefully, select 2 noticeable features and then write them in your Overview.

So, how do you analyse the graph and select the main features? Overall, you need to look at these things:

• The main trends of the figures in the graph (do all the figures increase, or decrease?)
• Are there any important or special figures to mention? (you need to pay attention to the highest or lowest figures in the graph).
• Are there any remarkable changes? (for example, if there is a number that changes dramatically, you should mention it in your Overview).

To sum up, when looking at a graph, you need to analyse the points above to find 2 noticeable features, and then write them with 2 sentences in your Overview.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Example 1:

The graph below shows the proportion of the population aged 65 and over between 1940 and 2040 in three different countries.

When analysing the graph above, we can see that there are 2 noticeable features:

• All these three figures are expected to increase in the research period. (We need to look at the overall trend, don’t look at individual years). I use the “prediction tense” because there are predictions for future years in this graph (2040).
• The line of Japan is expected to change most dramatically (from the lowest in the first year to the highest in the final year).

So, I can write my Overview with 2 sentences like this:

“It is clear that the percentages of people aged 65 and over in all three countries are expected to increase during the research period. Additionally, the figure for Japan is predicted to experience the most dramatic change.”

Example 2:

Looking at this table, I can see 2 main points:

• The proportion of boys in the 6-11 group playing sports was higher than the other group.
• Football was the most common sport (played by the most boys).

Based on this analysis, I write the Overview:

“It is clear that boys aged 6-11 played sports more than those in the older group. Additionally, football was the most popular kind of sport for both age groups.”

In conclusion, this is a simple and effective way to write the Overview for a Writing Task 1 essay.

Everyone who studies for the IELTS knows that we need to avoid repeating words too much in an essay. We need to paraphrase. However, for those who have a limited range of vocabulary (non-native English speakers, like me!), finding a synonym to paraphrase can usually be challenging, especially when being in the exam room.

There is one great and simple trick that very few students notice: We can paraphrase by simply changing the word forms ( or word classes). For example, we can use the same word but change it from a noun into a verb, an adjective into a noun, and so on. By doing this, we avoid repeating the same words, and this can be counted as a successful attempt of paraphrasing, which should get us a better score.

Some simple examples:

1. People have different views about which factor contributes the most to an individual’s success (n) ….
   -> Personally, I believe hard work is the most important element that helps a person to succeed (v).
2. Playing sports regularly can improve (v) people’s health.
   -> Playing sports regularly can contribute to improvements (n) in a person’s health.
3. There are several ways to help children become more creative (adj). …
   -> This might help children to develop their creativity (n).

Of course, it will be better if you learn more vocabulary in order to improve your paraphrasing skills. However, this technique will still be very useful in the situation where you cannot think of a synonym for a word.

Although ideas are the most important parts of a Task 2 essay, many students find it difficult to write and express their ideas coherently and clearly. Today, I’ll share with you 3 easy steps that you can follow to write a good idea.

Here are my three steps:

Step 1: Think of a main idea. A main idea is what you write to support your opinions. For example, if you say that advertising is good, your main ideas would be the benefits of advertising.

Step 2: Develop your main idea with some supporting ideas. These ideas help to make your main idea clearer and stronger. There are a few different ways to write supporting ideas:

• Explain why
• Give a clear example for the main idea
• Give a positive/negative result of the main idea

I have already posted a lesson regarding this step. Have a look at the lesson here.

Step 3: After having the main idea and the supporting ideas, we link these ideas together to form complete sentences. This is the easiest step, you just need to use some linking words:

• Linking words for expressing causes/effects: Due to / Because of, Since / As / Because, or Therefore / As a result…
• Linking words for giving examples: such as / For example / For instance

Okay, so now you can apply these 3 steps to writing all your ideas.

Let’s look at one specific example. Here is one question that was recently given in Vietnam. This is an easy question (Note that you should begin practising new techniques with easier questions, and then you can gradually raise the difficulty level).

Question: The use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, is replacing face-to-face contact in this century. Do you think the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?

For this topic, let’s say I believe social media is good. Therefore, my main ideas will be about the benefits of social networks.

I will apply the 3 steps above to write my idea:

Step 1: Think of a main idea. What are the benefits of social networks? I can come up with a simple one: “Social networks make it easy for people to keep in touch with the latest activities of their family and friends, including those who live far away.”

Step 2: Develop the main idea with some supporting ideas. I will develop my main idea by several ways:

• Explain why. I ask myself: Why/How do social networks help people to do that? “Because social networks allow users to share content such as videos or photos with others via the Internet.”
• Give a clear example. “For example, when I was studying abroad in the UK, I was able to show my parents all the photos and I took at the places I went to.”
• Give a positive result. For this main idea, I can’t think of any good result, so I’ll skip this and just use the 2 supporting ideas above.

Step 3: Link these ideas together. This is the easiest step. I only need to use some simple linking words:

“Because social networks allow users to share content such as videos or photos with others via the Internet, they make it easy for people to keep in touch with the latest activities of their family and friends, including those who live far away. For example, when I was studying abroad in the UK, I was able to show my parents all the photos that I took at the places I went to.”

In order to have a complete body paragraph, you will need 2 ideas like that and link them together following this template:

“On the one hand, there are some benefits of social networks. Firstly, …………. *idea 1*………… . Secondly, ………….*idea 2*………… .

You can try this method to write about the disadvantages of social networks.

In a previous lesson, I talked about how we should practise describing numbers.

However, in a graph or chart, there are always a lot of different numbers. Therefore, apart from describing these numbers, we also need to compare them with each other (Note that the topic always says: “make comparisons where relevant”).

The good news is, comparing numbers is super easy! You will need to use several linking words, and that’s it!

Some linking words are: respectively, compared to/compared with, while/whereas, By contrast/In contrast…

Let’s look at some examples:

• The numbers of Italian and French car users were 2 million and 5 million respectively.
• The amount of pizza consumed in Vietnam stood at 2,000 tonnes, compared to 10,000 tonnes in China.
• The percentage of Internet users in the UK was 70%, while the figure for the US stood at 80%.
• 10 million foreign visitors travelled to the UK in 2000. By contrast, only 2 million went to Denmark.

So, try to use some simple linking words, and you have already made great comparisons in your Task 1 essays.