A lot of students focus more on task 2 than task 1 because it carries more marks. This may be true but when you are seeking a high band like 7 or 8 it is the combination of your two tasks that will most likely get you the score. Remember also that the examiner is likely to see your task 1 first and so this will be the initial impression they will have of your writing and you want this to be a positive one.
In my experience (and that of other IELTS teachers I know) Task 1 is often not done as well as it might be. It should be easier for you as you have the information you need for the writing in front of you and it is only 150 words or so. The kind of vocabulary you need for the task is limited by the type of data or type of task so the whole process should be easier and faster than task 2. With some attention and practice you should be able to complete this part of the writing test very quickly giving you a little more time for task 2.
Here are 3 things you can do to make sure your task one is well written and of the right calibre.
1. Know your number vocabulary
For task 1 you will need a variety of different ways to describe the data. You will also need to consider the type of data you have; is it a line graph which shows movement or a bar chart or pie chart which are more static? Fluctuation, for example is a feature of a line graph not a static chart.
Presenting numbers in the same way each time will not give you a band 7 as it doesn’t make for interesting reading. You need a few ways of doing this:
- Sales increased in June by 10%
- Sales increased from 50 units in May to 55 units in June
- Sales experience a rise from May to June with 50 and 55 units sold respectively
- Summer sales rose gradually through May (50 units) and June (55 units).
These four sentences give exactly the same information but in different ways.
- Use a preposition
- Use the period of time (from… to here)
- Match like with like using ‘respectively’ (only ever use once in your task)
- Put the numbers in brackets
There are other ways of presenting your numbers too. You can find a free resource on the website to help you with this.
2. Organise the data or other information logically
Task 1 is a formal, practical piece of writing. It is intended to give information in the form of a brief description about the task that you have been given. If you imagine that you are writing this for someone who is too busy to look at the data/information themselves and they have requested a short description from you then this is what you should produce. It is broad-brush. You do not need every detail just the information that is important and relevant. This means that you can use averages and ranges to group data, events or steps together.
Deciding what to highlight and what to group forms the planning process of your task 1. Look at the data and see what ‘jumps out’. This will usually form your overall comment and will generally be only one thing – your overall comment should not give detail.
Look at this task below:
Academic Writing by Sam McCarter
The bar chart shows the estimated sales of silver goods for two companies for the next year and the pie charts the percentage of projected market share for the two companies
Although the two companies appear in both charts the information is different so they should be dealt with separately in two paragraphs. Clearly the pie chart paragraph will be shorter. The information in the bar chart can be organised in two ways either by company or by period. By company makes sense as the pie chart also deals with the companies so we can make comparisons. This means that our task will have three paragraphs - paragraph one – Meteor, paragraph 2 Mark Jones and paragraph 3 the pie chart. Due to the word limit we can only give a summary of the data.
- Overall: both companies’ sales are expected (remember these are estimates) to rise
- Para 1: Meteor Products Ltd
- Para 2: Mark Jones Ltd
- Para 3: Pie chart
The overall and pie chart descriptions will only need to be a sentence each and the rest of the words split between the two company performances. It might be that one has a little more information than the other and this is fine as long as they are almost balanced. Overall this structure provides a balanced and logical approach to the task.
3. Keep close to the word count
Most people will do Task 1 first (some prefer to do Task 2 and this is fine as long as you regularly practise this) - it’s a good idea because it helps you to get into the writing with the shorter task and also if you do it well it will set you up well for Task 2.
You have around 150 words and I would advise not to exceed 180 for this task. The danger of writing too much is clear – you will not have enough time for the longer and more involved task 2.
There is also a big advantage to keeping to the word count and that is that it forces you to be very selective in what data or information you choose to include in your task and how you present things. You will not have time to write about everything especially if you have a table. The examiner will expect you to group things, combine elements and use averages etc. in order to produce a high standard of writing that presents the data in a clear and concise way.
Look at this table.
As you can see there is a lot of information! Looking closely you can see that some things are roughly the same and these can either be grouped around an average or in a range; for example, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium can be grouped together at around 8%. Similarly Holland, Italy and Britain range from 10% to 15.5%. Turkey and Greece are similar and Eritrea is an outlier. Once you have grouped things you can see how fewer sentences will be required and these can be made with more clarity and focus while still keeping to the word count.
These three important skills will help you to produce great Task 1 writing within the time, the word count and with great language to get you your band 7 or 8 band score.
(I have not forgotten General Training Task 1 – look out for a post on this next week)