hi again i'm adam welcome back to
invid.com today's lesson is for the
ielts students who are going to be
taking the ielts test
it's for everybody to be honest with you
this lesson is useful for anybody who
needs to do some writing but it's
especially for those of you who are
going to take the test and because it's
for the test i'm going to start speaking
in a little bit more natural speed
i'm going to kill two birds with one
stone get a little bit of listening
practice and some information okay so
let's get started ielts academic task
task one
what does this task ask you to do it
asks you to look at an infographic what
is an infographic
information graphic it's going to give
you a bar
a bar chart a graph a diagram a pie
chart a table all kinds of things it's
going to ask you to take this graphic
visual with whatever information is in
it convert it into words and sentences
okay very straightforward
now if you look on invid.com excuse me
emma a colleague of mine did a great a
very good lesson on how to score high on
on this task excuse me
watch that video but this is a little
bit different
she was talking about how to write i'm
going to tell you what to write okay one
of the most difficult aspects of this
task is looking at this information
graphic and knowing what information to
pick out and include in your report okay
and that's what it is it's a report now
because we're talking about a report
it's very important to remember that a
report is not an essay it has very
different structures it has very
different requirements okay let's start
what are we going to write they ask you
to write a minimum of 150 words your
target is 170 to 190. 150 is just not
enough and you don't want to go under
because why lose points that way aim for
170 to 190 you'll get everything you
need to say
now let's look at the introduction okay
very different from an essay
your introduction is going to be very
short 1 to two sentences once you start
your third sentence you're saying too
much you're saying more than you need to
say
what do you have to say in the
introduction what am i looking at that's
all they want you to do in the
introduction what am i looking at i'm
looking at a graph i'm looking at a
table this table shows this table
demonstrates this diagram
shows
illustrates demonstrates you don't need
that many words illustrates demonstrates
shows
whatever they wrote in the task use one
of the other words in your introduction
okay basically that's what you're doing
you're rephrasing the task they tell you
what you're looking at they say look at
the following graph about this and that
and summarize what it says okay
this graph shows blah blah blah okay
now
i me we
this is a very common mistake people
make in your introduction in your entire
report for task one
there should never be the word i
there should never be the word me or we
this is not about you this is about the
infographic only now because it's not
about you
there is absolutely no opinion
you will not reach any conclusions
you will not
make an analysis you will not try to
understand what's going on you will not
make any inference you will not take
this information to understand other
information you will not make any
predictions oh what's going to happen
after this
information is explained you're not
going to explain anything
all you're going to do is show me what
is in
the infographic right
are you going to
give me an explanation are you going to
give me the meaning of what you're
looking at no you're not you are only
going to give me facts okay i'm the
grader for example i'm grading your uh
your task one your report i don't care
if you understand what you're looking at
all i care is that can you take this
information and explain it to me in good
english this is an english test not an
intelligence test it doesn't matter if
you understand it or not
can you convert the infographic into
words and sentences that's it
now
having said that keep your introduction
in fact keep your whole report but
especially the introduction very simple
very straightforward you don't need
fancy language you don't need very
high-end vocabulary you just need to
have different vocabulary you need to
have good sentence structures and give
me the information that you see
now before i look at the body of the
report i want to actually look at the
conclusion
okay you're gonna have your introduction
you're gonna have your body what about
the conclusion
now this is a bit of a trick question do
you see all these things i wrote about
the conclusion that's what you're going
to give me nothing there is no
conclusion in task one because you're
not reaching any conclusions you're not
explaining anything
all you're doing is giving me
information you have an introduction
paragraph very short one or two
sentences you have one or two body
paragraphs that's it okay don't try to
get too fancy don't try to show off your
intelligence that's not what they're
looking for english test remember that
okay
now obviously the most important part
what do i put in the body let's look at
that
okay we're gonna look at two things when
we're looking at your report body first
we're gonna look at some things that you
can look for some things to pick out
some information to include in your
report and after that we'll look at how
to split up your two paragraphs or one
paragraph depending on the situation
so what are some things to look for in
your report let's say you're looking at
graphs okay so first thing always pay
attention to your axes
your x y axis what is the information
here what is the information here
what is going up here what is going up
here with that in mind what are the
ranges let's say you're talking about
time you're talking about 1960 to 2010
you have a 50-year range make sure you
mention that range if it's going all the
way across if it's a short range mention
that but what about that range what are
you mentioning within that range all
kinds of things
peaks and valleys so again let's go like
this
this is a peak
this is a valley
another way to look at it is highs and
lows if if a graph is moving up and down
pay attention to the peaks pay attention
to the valleys if it's very steady peaks
and valleys no problem you can mention
the stability aspect of it
okay
now here i also mentioned plateaus
you're going up up up up up up up up up
and flat
up up up up up flat
this
is a plateau means where things flatten
out and stay stable don't change too
much on this axis
okay on this axis everything continues
forward this is usually time or
number of like increase in a sales
percentage for example it could be many
things
this is any variable that can
be this is the range within which you
measure things usually
okay
peaks valleys highs and lows now you're
also looking for patterns
how things are the same like if you're
comparing two or three things or five
things or six things what are the
patterns what are they all doing the
same
trends is another way all of them are
trending up
all of them are trending down
some are trending up some are trending
down you're going to be comparing and
contrasting but you keep these very
general okay if you're comparing five
things
and you find four of them share a
pattern don't talk about each of them
individually put all four into one lump
group
these four countries from the west are
all increasing their military spending
the one country in the south is
decreasing okay so the trends lump them
together
then you look for the anomalies now what
is an anomaly it's something out of the
ordinary if you have a pattern
everybody's going up up up but one is
going down that one is the anomaly it is
outside the pattern outside the trend
exception is another way to say anomaly
something that goes against the trend
here you will get a little bit more
detailed and give me specific numbers or
whatever their variables are to talk
about how it is the exception what is
the exception what is the change of
direction what is the pattern that it
the thing or the person or the place
itself is following
now if you have tables
tables
have
columns and rows
pay attention to the headings in the
columns and the rows they're going to
tell you a lot of information you might
want to include that you could just put
that into your introduction if it's a
very general thing if it's very
important to what's going on you put
that into your body as well now if
you're looking at a diagram
excuse me
a diagram usually shows a process
or a cycle a life cycle of an ant or a
moth
okay what you want to do is you want to
identify the start of the cycle or the
process you want to identify
the finish or the end of the process
and you want major steps along the way
you don't need to tell me every little
bit of detail remember it's 170 words
there's only so much you can say don't
try to include everything
major steps
milestones what is a milestone a
milestone is when something reaches a
specific point in a process
so a moth
for example the mother moth or the adult
moth lays eggs
that's one milestone
the eggs hatch into larva that's another
milestone
six weeks pass by they eat the leaves
blah blah little detail is not so
important next step the larvae start
building their cocoon
around themselves that's a milestone
time goes by they get fed this and that
the other and that next milestone the
cocoon opens the wings come out
these are the steps you want to make you
don't want every little detail
major steps and milestones
now when you're comparing things
you always look for the similarities and
you always look for the differences you
were going to spend more words on the
differences than you are on the
similarities because the similarities
you could say all of them do this
one of them does this this and that in
that specific order in this specific
time the differences
are more detailed the similarities are
more general same as patterns and
anomalies it's the same idea okay so
these are all the things you're going to
be looking for again you don't need
everything
you don't want to tell me what every
piece of the puzzle is doing so let's
say you're comparing five different
countries here you don't want to tell me
this country did this this country did
that this country did this this country
did that this country died no a you
don't have time b you don't have space
in terms of words and see it's not
important
okay you want to tell me a b and c are
doing this way d is going the opposite
way that's what you want to tell me okay
so that's all the information you're
going to look for now how do you split
up your paragraphs let's look at that
okay so now we have to think about how
to split up our report one of the
problems people have is they don't know
when to switch to a new paragraph right
so again there's no rule you'll have to
feel it out when you're doing it but
here's a suggestion if you're only
looking at one chart or one graph or one
pie chart table etc you can split it in
two ways one in the first paragraph look
at all the trends all the patterns all
the things that are basically similar in
the second paragraph focus on the major
differences the anomalies and exceptions
okay that's the easiest way to split it
another way is it in your first
paragraph again even in a table you're
going to have two or three things in a
graph you're going to have two or three
different things in it different
variables etc
in first paragraph focus on one thing
like you're comparing two countries
focus on the first country what it's
doing in the graph
second paragraph focus on the second one
okay again it's a little bit
straightforward to be honest just say
it's simply what you're looking at focus
on one focus on the other now if you
have two charts it's actually much
easier when you're comparing charts it
takes you a little bit longer to get all
the details and information pick out all
your trends and anomalies but
in the first paragraph talk about chart
one in the second paragraph talk about
chart two
with slight comparisons as necessary or
another way to do it in the first
paragraph compare the two in terms of
all the similarities all the trends all
the things that are they are doing
similar
in the second paragraph look at all the
major differences
now some of them
one is going to be linked to the other
you're going to have for example the
type of food eaten in one country and
that the agricultural
expansion in the same country
how does one affect the other the more
food that's eaten the more crops are
grown okay you have to make some sort of
connection don't go beyond what is given
to you okay don't bring your ideas into
it even if you're correct
even if you're an economics major and
you're this is all simple for you you
can take this little bit of information
and write me a whole economic theory
don't
that's not what they're asking you to do
one two this is happening at the same
time this is happening okay even if it's
very obvious don't really mention any
connection one does not lead to the
other this happens at the same time this
happens okay
now if you're talking about a diagram
that shows like a life cycle
in this case i would recommend one
paragraph
start
explain the major break the major steps
and the milestones and finish you don't
need two paragraphs because there's
nowhere to split it a life cycle is a
one
process thing right
the moth lays the eggs actually i'll do
it another way here's the cycle lays the
eggs
eggs become larva start building cocoon
hatch from the cocoon
feed for whatever start all over again
lay eggs again
this is a cycle this is one paragraph
there's nowhere to split this up you
don't have to have three paragraphs in
the report two are fine
you still have your introduction what am
i looking at i'm looking at the life
cycle of a moth and then body say what's
going on now when you've done all this
what do you have to do you have to write
your conclusion
trick question no no conclusion once
you've said everything there is to say
once all the information has been
delivered that's it you're done go to
your essay good luck with that okay
if you have any questions you can go to
invid.com i'll give you a little bit of
a review quiz there you can ask more
questions and i'll see you again soon
you