Hi there. My name is Ben Worthington. In this video, we're going to look quite briefly
at how to describe you IELTS Academic Task 1 Pie Chart. This is the quick version because
there is another video which goes into much more detail. It�s about 15 minutes long.
Okay? So, this is the summary, the overview. Let�s get going. First of all, you need
to know what type of language you�re going to use and this means, getting familiar with
the fractions. Okay? You need to know that 50% is half. Okay? So, you can say half of
the exports come from Canada or a quarter of the exports come from China. Quarter�s
obviously 25%. If you want to go even further, you can make
sure that you are familiar with like a more advanced structures like slightly under a
quarter of the exports came from China. Now, slightly is a more elaborate eloquent way
of saying let's say, instead of saying, "24%", "slightly under a quarter".
Or if it's "51%" we can say �just over half of the exports came from Russia
or wherever it is. So, varying the language we use and using
slightly more sophisticated structures will help us a lot in getting or picking up some
of the good points, okay, some of the high points.
Next one: we also need to implement the superlatives. In this case, what we're going to do is
we're definitely going to mention the largest portion and the smallest portion, without
fail because by the very nature, the kind of exceptions, alright?
So, we're going to mention the biggest, so in this case, we�ll say the largest portion
of export came from Yorkshire, for example or whatever.
Just a side note here, to improve the vocabulary even more, we will use words like the largest
or the most prominent. Try to avoid using words like good, bad, big, small as these
are kind of like basic vocabulary. Now, we'll go into the language. The next
thing while we're talking about selecting and choosing, reporting on the portions is
if we find three portions that are roughly the same, three portions that are say 10%,
12% and 15%, for example. What we can do is group them together and then we can use the
famous sentence, respectively. For example: Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Lancashire
had 10%, 12%, and 15% respectively, of total exports. So, getting to groups with that sentence
is very useful, as well. Now, so that's the language and the choosing
of information. How are we going to structure the actual report? First of all, like I�ve
said even in the other videos, what we want to do is quickly describe what the graph is
showing, not the story. So, to describe what the graph is showing, we're just going to
reinterpret the title, paraphrase it and then just write it. We're not going to mention
anything about the largest, the smallest, the fastest growing or whatever. We�re just
going to restate title, that's it. We're not going to implement the story,
we're not going to talk about the story because we'll save that for the summary.
It's not a conclusion, by the way. So, we've got our introduction then the body paragraph.
It might be one, it might be two, depending. If you've got a pie chart and a line graph,
then you'll probably want to use two paragraphs. If you've got maybe three pie charts, one
bulk body paragraph and then your summary. To become a professional comes just through
practice. It's not an easy task. It's selecting information. So we've got our introduction,
body paragraph, and then we�re going to finish with our summary sentence. Now, what's
really important as well, is that we plan the essay before we actually start. So we're
going to choose what information we�re going to implement or what we�re going to report
about in our body paragraph because it has already more or less got two sentences completely
under control with the introduction and the summary. Basically, it�s about eight, ten
sentences left. Choose that information before you start writing
and then transfer from your notes into your writing using superlative and all those language
points we talked about before. Then as a final bonus tip. Once you've done all this and
hopefully you can do this between 15, 18 minutes, leave about 2 minutes to go through all the
words, all the sentences and look for mistakes. But don't just look for mistakes in a general
fashion. Look for mistakes that you�ve made previously on a writing task that you've
written before. So, what you should have done is get some
feedback on your writing. You can send it to me. Final and see check. You can send it
to me and I'll say, �Look, Maria or whoever. You've got this, this, and this wrong. Singular/plural
is a serious problem for you and I don�t know. Sex and genitive, as well.�
What you really should do the next part is -- sorry for the next essay she writes, is
in those two minutes afterwards, look for the mistakes that she�s made in essays previously
that she sent to me. If I were Maria, I'd be like, "Okay I've got to look for singular/plural,
third person singular, sex and genitive and this way you can at least pick up 5%, 10%
extra points. Go through, correct your own mistakes, so
the examiner doesn't have to, happy days. You're going score high. Alright? Okay then.
So hopefully that will help you. If you want more tips like that, the more advice, the
more support, more feedback and you�re desperate to improve, come to the website. Sign up and
let�s get cracking. Okay? All the best!