IELTS Academic Task 1: Mastering the Art of Description!

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Hey Writing Maestros, you have embarked on the IELTS journey, and the writing task one got your attention? Fear not! Let's unravel the mysteries of this task and equip you with the skills you need. So I would like to talk about this according to the following topics.

1. Understanding IELTS writing task 1.

2. Types of tasks.

3. General Structure to follow.

4. Good vocabulary you can use.

5. Tips and Tricks.

Try to read the whole post I know it is boring but it not only boosts your reading skills but also will give you good knowledge about IELTS writing. I'm sharing my own experience and knowledge with you because I think it will help you in your exams.


Understanding IELTS Writing Task 1: The Overview

Alright, Let's start with the beginning. Task one, you'll be presented with a visual, which could be a graph, chart, table, or diagram. Your job is to describe and summarize the information in a clear and organized manner. All together you will have one hour to complete writing task one and task two so 20 minutes for task one. 

If you remember in our primary school classes we had the same kind of tasks in our books. Just describe a picture or a chart of some numbers. Well, here it's the same but a bit more advanced than that. You have to be a bit more precise, accurate, and logical when you describe the given task and most importantly the points should be well organized and presented.

Types of Tasks

1. Graphs and Charts:

They may include Bar carts, Line graphs, Pie charts, and more. They represent data over a specific period.

Bar Graph
Line Graph




Pei chart

2. Tables:

Tables provide information in a structured format, making it easy to compare different elements.



3. Diagrams:

These could be Process Diagrams, Flowcharts, or Maps. They illustrate a sequence of events or a layout.

Map
Process Diagram















General Structure to follow

Introduction:

Start by introducing the visual. Mention the type, what it represents, and any noticeable trends or patterns. Basically, this is paraphrasing the question.

"The line grap depicts the average monthly price fluctuation of three metals during 2014, compared to the preceding months."

" The chart classifies US households into five income brackets for 2007, 2011, and 2015."

Overview:

Summarize the main features or trends. Highlight the most significant information without going into too much detail. Don't give out numbers in here leave them for the body paragraphs. Always start the overview with "overall".

"Overall, prices for all three metals increased throughout most months of the years, with nickle showing the greatest price changes compared to the other two."

"Overall, income distribution among US households displayed similar patterns in these three years, with significantly more households in both the highest and the two lowest income brackets than either of the two-income brackets."

Body Paragraph(s):

Depending on the task, describe specific details. Use data points to support your description. Group similar information together. Keep it simple and don't write more than three paras. Two paragraphs would be enough normally one describing the main feature and numbers of it and the second one is about other details worth mentioning. 

Good vocabs you can use

I'm just going to put some good words you can use to describe these tasks better. You can go and find out how to use them by yourself.

For Bar Charts:

"Plateaued", "remained constant", "Peaking at", "Changed gradually", "Jumped from", "Marginally", "Remained static", "Steadilly", "Initially", "Similarly", "Where as", "By contrast"

For Bar Graphs:

"Leads", "More.... than", "In comparison", "It also notworthy", "Paticularly", "Proportion"

For Tables:

"By far the most", "With an increase", "With an avarage", "Which increased", "This number increased", "Compared to"

For Line Graphs:

"Went up gradually", "Rocketed", "Fluctuated", "Sharp growth", "Out paced", "After which", "Where it remained", "Small dip", "In contrast", "Where as", "Afterward", "From there"

For Pie Charts:

 "By", "Percentages", " The Proportion", "Also", "Like", "Compared with", "Account for the....", "Make up", "Represent", "Provides information on"

For Cycles:

"Subsequesntly", "Turned into", "Transformed into", "Developed into", "Matured into", "After which", "Following this", "In the next stage", "Gradully", "In order to", "As a result of this", "Having completed", "The step aftwer this", "At this point", "Eventually", "Reapetedly"   

For Maps:

"Upon entering", "Going forward", "Used to be", "Give way to", "Give place to", "Replaced", "Taking the place of", "Now occupy the space", "Previously housed", "Now features", "Which has been", "Currently"

Again these words are not big words but they can be really useful when writing task one. I'm not going to tell you how to use these in writing it's up to you guys to find out yourself. I'll attach LILIE's Sample easy page you can go and read her essays and find out how to use them and watch her videos for more information. Trust me it will help.

Click here to go to Sample Essay Bank

Tips and Tricks

1. Practice, Practice, Practice, Get yourself familiar with all types of tasks and watch out for the time.20 minutes is not that much you have to identify the details and write them in a well-organized manner.

2. Report details and features according to their importance. Like the first body para for the most important one and the second one for the second most important one.

3. Make broad comments, Only give detailed descriptions of important data.

4. In the overview try to show the most two significant features or one fact with a simple comparison.

5. Group less important data together and put them in a range. Say this figure ranges from this to this.

6. You can say two things both are the biggest or the smallest.

7. Avoid the following mistakes:

  • Just writing about data without a comparison. At least try to make one comparison about data.
  • Not using a variety of linking words.
  • Trying to describe every single trend. Just identify the most significant two or three facts and describe them in detail while making broad comments about other details.
8. Keep it simple.

9. Dont guess the data and numbers if you can't tell it exactly use words like " around", " Approximately", " Just over", and "Just Under"

10. Use Linking words only when appropriate.

11. Divide paragraphs clearly.

12. Don't write numbers in the overview.

13. Don't write a conclusion in task one.

That's it for this one guys. I hope you learned something from this and I hope it will help you with your exams.

cheers,

Hasitha Senarathna

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