IELTS Writing Task 1

Hi, I’m back with the second video in the series “IELTS Tips in 3 Minutes”. Today I’ll show you a simple way to write the Introduction for Writing Task 1.

Turn on captions/subtitles for easy learning 😉

Today, I want to share with you guys a sample essay that I wrote earlier. This is a “bar chart” type of question.

As usual, my essay follows a “simple and effective” approach. I focused on describing and comparing figures in a way that is easy for the readers to read, instead of trying to use difficult words and grammar structures.

Take note of the sentence structures that I have used to describe and compare figures in this essay.

Full essay:

The two bar charts compare graduates and postgraduates in the UK who did not work full-time in terms of what they did after finishing college in 2008.

It is clear that UK graduates who did not have full-time jobs were most likely to continue their study after leaving college. Meanwhile, part-time work and further study were the two most common choices for postgraduate students who did not work full-time.

For graduate students, the number of those deciding to study further was highest, at 29,665. By contrast, the figure for graduates who chose voluntary work was lowest, at only 3,500 students. While nearly 18,000 graduates had part-time jobs, there were more than 16,000 students who were unemployed after finishing their undergraduate courses.

For graduates, further study was also the most popular option with around 2,700 students choosing to continue their study after college, whereas the number of those working part-time was slightly lower, at 2,535 students. While there were approximately 1,600 postgraduates who had to face unemployment, only 345 decided to become volunteers.

(172 words, by The IELTS Genius)

In Writing Task 1, you need to describe a graph which contains a lot of numbers/figures. As you have to write many sentences describing different figures, it is not a good idea to use the same structure every time. You need to remember some different structures, so you can use them flexibly and avoid being too repetitive.

In order to do this, you need to practise how to describe one figure in different ways. Today, I will show you how to improve this one skill.

Let’s look at the graph below.

1. The graph below shows the consumption of fish and different kinds of meat in a European country between 1979 and 2004.

Let’s say now I want to describe the figure of chicken consumption in 1979. There are more than one way to describe this figure:

– In 1979, the amount of chicken eaten in this country stood at more than 50 grams per person per week.

– In 1979, 50 grams of chicken were eaten per person per week.

– In 1979, there were 50 grams of chicken eaten by a person weekly.

– In 1979, an average individual in this country consumed 50 grams of chicken every week.

Now, try using this technique for other figures. For each figure, try to come up with as many ways of describing it as posible. After practising this skill for a period of time, you will get better at describing figures, and your Writing Task 1 band score will be improved.

When writing an essay, there might be many times when you find yourself repeating a word again and again, and you cannot think of a way to paraphrase it. This is a very common problem for many students. We all know that we need to paraphrase keywords to avoid repeating them, but there will be situations in which our range of vocabulary is not enough for us to do it.

Don’t worry. If you find yourself in this situation again, there is a simple trick. You can use the phrase ‘this/these + a noun’ to replace almost any word that you don’t want to repeat in your essay.

Let’s look at an example to make things clearer.

Example 1.

Let’s say you’re writing an essay which discusses the advantages and disadvantages of museums. We all know that there is no perfect synonym for the word ‘museum’, which means it is likely that you will have to repeat this word many times throughout your essay.

However, this problem can be solved using the aforementioned trick. You can use ‘this/these + a noun’ to replace the word ‘museum’. In this case, you can use ‘these places’ or ‘these sites’. You can write like this:

-> ‘There are several benefits of museums. Firstly, these sites can help visitors learn about the culture and history of a country’.

As you can see, this trick allows you to avoid repeating the same word in two consecutive sentences.

Example 2.

Let’s look at another example. You are writing about why doctors should be highly paid. In this case, ‘doctors’ is also a word that does not have a synonym, and this makes it very difficult for us to paraphrase it. Then, what should we do? It’s simple. Just use the phrase ‘these individuals’ or ‘these people’.

-> ‘There are several reasons why doctors should receive a high salary. The first reason is that these individuals contribute greatly to improvements in citizens’ health.’

Okay, now you can see that this is a great trick. But that’s not everything. You can also use this trick when writing Task 1 essays.

Example 3.

Let’s say we’re looking at a bar chart with all the figures recorded in one country, Canada. As all the figures are in Canada, does this mean you have to repeat the word ‘Canada’ again and again in your essay?

I don’t think so. Just simply use the phrase ‘this country’ to replace it.

-> ‘The percentage of Internet users in Canada was lowest, at 20% of the total population in this country.’

Okay, so this is a simple trick that you can use when writing an IELTS essay. This trick is particularly useful for those of you who do not possess a wide range of vocabulary. Remember this trick and use it for your next essays!