IELTS Academic Task 1 - How to Describe a Table. Let�s get to this. Hi there. My name
is Ben Worthington. In this video, we�re going to look at the structure and some of
the tips you need to successfully describe an IELTS Academic Task 1 Table of figures.
Let�s go into the details. First of all, we want to start by summarizing
the information and we�re going to use four paragraphs: introduction, paragraph 1, paragraph
2, and then a summary, not a conclusion. I�ll go into that into more detail later on.
We�ve got the two-body paragraphs and we�re going to focus on these first because this
is where we�re going to pick up the lion�s share of the points. Now, before we even start
writing, what we�re going to do is try and choose and identify the main features or the
main information that we�re going to include. Now, one tip to doing this is to group the
information in the table. How can we group? Probably we could use age, we could use time,
we could use the countries. From personal experience tutoring students I found that
this probably the most difficult part of the whole task is choosing the data.
The best advice I can give you here is of course, practice and practice and try choosing
like the largest, the smallest, the countries and like we said before, and practice. This
is an exam skill. It�s not actually a skill related to the English Language. It�s an
exam skill you need to get good at. The second way to get good at it is to get
feedback is to start getting your essays corrected from professionals, from native speakers,
ideally. Get some feedback and find where you�re going wrong, find if you are choosing
the correct information and then you can improve from that. If you go to ielstpodcast.com,
you can find a correction service there. At the moment there�s an ex-IELTS examiner
doing the corrections and sometimes it�s myself but either way, you�re going to get
a high quality valuable correction backing your hands, usually within about 24 hours,
fast improvement. Right then, let�s carry on. We�re talking
about choosing the information, choosing the data. First of all, we choose and we select
the correct data and we sort of like make few bullet points, few notes, that�s all.
And then when we get into writing the actual essay, we�ve got one sentence, two sentences
for the introduction. Then we�re going to do the body paragraphs and to the body paragraphs,
we�re going to take all the information that we took, that we identified at the planning
stage and put it into our two paragraphs. Then for the summary, at least one or two
sentences. Now then. First of all, let�s go into the introduction because this is really
easy and with this tip I�m going to tell you, you can just save a lot of time. Now
what I teach my students to do is look at the graph and if you see that I don�t know.
For example, imagine we�re talking about a table of a figures showing immigration or
bird migration numbers for you know, three counties in the UK: Yorkshire, Lancashire,
and Derbyshire. And if we can see that on this table of figures that the numbers are
showing up, the figures are showing that the number of birds in the UK, in these counties
is falling or has fallen over a hundred year period, the common thing to do is to just
say, �The table of figures shows that the number of birds in the UK counties has fallen
over a hundred year period starting from 1901 to 2001.�
That�s not bad. Okay, the introduction is not bad. However, I would avoid stating like
the overall idea of the graph and I�d avoid it for a number of reasons. Firstly, because
you�re going to use and you�re probably going to say that information again, even
in the body paragraphs or in the summary. And because you�re going to have to use
it again, you don�t have to look for a different structure and then avoid the repetition, to
show the examiner you�ve got all these different grammatical structures and these repetitions.
We�re kind of making life difficult for ourselves.
What I would recommend doing is that you just look at the graph, and you say, �The table
of figures show bird migration and those are for the three UK counties over a hundred year
period� or �from 1901 to 2001.� Doing it this way, you�re going to avoid just
stating immediately what the graph shows and you can use it in your summary or you can
use it in your body paragraph and it�s very simple to do and you�re going to get the
introduction out of the way so you can just focus on the body paragraph where you pick
up the lion�s share of the points, as we said before.
I�ll give you another example. If we�ve got a table of figures that show exports for
I don�t know, three Asian countries and we�ll show that their exports are basically
exploding that they�re just increasing dramatically year after year after year after year, then
what we would say is, �The table of figures shows the exports of three Asian countries
between 1970 and 2010. And we will talk whether they were exploded, whether they were all
descended apart from one Asian country, we wouldn�t talk about the actual message behind
the graph. We�ll just talk what the graph is illustrating, not the process and not the
results or not the description of it, just what it illustrates. We get one sentence out
of the way and done. Then after that, we�ll focus on the body
paragraphs. So the body paragraphs, what we�re going to do is write about the groups of information
that we identified before. We�re not only going to write about the groups, we�re going
to write about just like the exceptions, any exceptions to the data. For example, going
back to the migration of birds, we could say, �All counties showed a gradual fall in the
number of birds visiting over the 100 year period except Derbyshire which saw a remarkable
increase blah, blah, blah. This is part of the information we�re going
to include in the body paragraphs. The next thing I wanted to say was, to avoid going
to every single figure, and to go and avoid using the figures constantly, what we can
say is was we can use, �was almost around 300,000� or �nearly touched 250,000�.
Or �was just under 400,000�. We can use these different like ways of describing, these
different descriptions to avoid saying all the figures.
In the blog post, there�s going to be a list of these because it�s quite handy.
It�s an easy way to improve your essays. Now, now that we�ve finished our body paragraphs
either one big body paragraph, or more recommendable, body paragraph 2, body paragraph 3 but two-body
paragraphs then we�re going to the summary. Now, a common mistake here is to write, �To
conclude, bam, bam, bam� because this is what we do in task 2.
However in your IELTS Academic task 1, it�s not a conclusion because a conclusion is like
the final point when you reach after considering an argument and this we haven�t considered
any argument because it was 100% objective. There shouldn�t be anything subjective.
There shouldn�t be anything subjective in there.
We can�t really say it�s a conclusion. What we can say is, �To summarize, the data
showed that in all three counties, there was a dramatic fall in the number of birds migrating,
except in Derbyshire, where the number continued to rise over the hundred year period.�
We either say, �To summarize� or we can say, �Overall, the table of figures show
bam, bam, bam.� And can you see that by not using the information that first jumped
out at us which we were going to use in the introduction, by not using it in the introduction,
we cans say that for the summary and we can finish on a very coherent note and make the
examiner smile and cry with joy. No, I�m just joking.
It will make your essay a little bit better and it will make life easier for you, as well.
Okay now if you want more tips, I�d recommend that you subscribe to the YouTube channel
and of course, you come over to my website, have a cup of tea, subscribe to my email list,
and send me a question if you got any problems. Okay, good luck, as well if you got an exam
coming up soon. All the best.