Hello everyone! Welcome to my channel! This is Dori I am a teacher of english and in today's
video we will talk about the basic plan you need to follow for Academic Writing task 1.
Ok, so in a previous video we talked about the strategy you need to follow by reading
the information and the details given to you by the topic, so if you haven't watched that
video yet you might want to check this out first in this link over here. Now, all you
need for this task is just a simple plan of 3-4 paragraphs because mainly all you need
to do is to write a basic summary of the data that you are given in the diagram. Please
remember that because lots of my students have the tendency to make this task a little
bit more difficult than it actually is. So, in your first paragraph which is your introduction,
all you need to do is to just paraphrase the topic, that is, use your own words in order
to say the same thing by stating the main points. For example, So, if you remember the
writing task that we used the previous time, it looked like that and let's read the topic
a little bit to remember it "the chart below shows the annual profit made by four major international companies
in 2011-12-13-14" and then we have the names of the companies which are represented here with colours.
Ok so, the first thing we do we read the topic as we said the previous time. So, every time we ask
"What does the chart show?" "What are the main points?" 1.) the annual profit made by
what? 2.) by four major international companies 3.) in the course of four years. So,
here is our small plan we can see here our introduction we always ask ourselves "what does the chart
show?" and our notes, just the main points briefly, -the annual profit-of four companies-four
years, ok? So, in order to paraphrase the previous topic a little bit here's what we
can do in just 3 lines or so. "This chart/diagram follows the performance of four major international
companies in terms of their annual income over the course of four years: 2011- 2014."
So, as you can see, I am just stating the main points and I have actually paraphrased
a little bit the topic given. Ok? This is what you need to do in your introduction.
Ok, that's it! Our introduction will be ready in no time especially if you familiarise yourself
with paraphrasing introductions. Now, about your next paragraph all you need to do here
is to state the most important points and information you can see in the diagram, I
know that this can be a little bit overwhelming at first, but just start from the most obvious
information you see. For example, start from the highest values and then from the lowest
values and then you can move on with stable performances and things like that, for example,
So then in our summary we start by noting all this information that stands out, for
example we can see that in 2011 over here the annual profit of Grow&Flow was the lowest,
the yellow colour over here. However, what else can we see that really really stands
out? It's that in 2014 ABC10 company's profits skyrocketed in 2014, MegaMarket was the most
profitable in 2011, it has a big difference from the rest but then, it dropped a little
bit and then went up again, these are the things that you first notice and these are
the things that you are going to put in your summary. So, for the next paragraph, over
here the first actual paragraph that we're going to write, it is about our observations
about what we can see about the information that we see in the diagram. So, our notes
briefly could be -the annual profit of Grow&Flow was the lowest in 2011- the profits of ABC10
skyrocketed in 2014 - over here- and MegaMarket was the most profitable in 2011 but then...-
and we continue by stating what we see. These are just examples of notes just to give you
an idea what you can write in this paragraph and how you can phrase what you actually see
in the picture. This is what you do, you include the summary of the diagram in this paragraph.
In this case, in our example, you just describe each company and the performance over the
years by starting from the most exceptional data, the most exceptional information in
order to help you, ok? Now, in the next paragraph you start making comparisons, you don't have
to state each and every thing NO by no means no, don't do that! Just the most important
points that you think that should be mentioned. Just be clear and specific and choose the
most important obvious correlations according to your own opinion. So, your plan notes for
the next paragraph could look like that: So, you can say that Grow&Flow, the profits of
Grow&Flow and TodayGlobal's have been decreased in 2014, you can also say that from 2012-2014
MegaMarket and Grow&Flow are closely aligned, as you can see, not much of a difference and
of course you can also say that with the exception of ABC10 over here, that steadily increases
reaching each peak in 2014 all the rest have significantly dropped in terms of profit,
ok? In your next paragraph, second paragraph you can start with comparisons, so mainly
these are just examples, -the profits of Grow&Flow and TodayGlobal decreased in 2014 -from 2011
to 2014 the profits of MegaMarket and Grow&Flow are closely aligned and- with the exception
of ABC10, all the rest have significantly dropped in terms of profit. Ok, so these are
just notes of just stating what you can see by comparing the information, just that, ok?
you do not have to write everything, just what you consider important. Always be simple,
you have no idea what you can gain with that. I mean, lots of students think that if their
phrasing is too simple they are going to lose marks for it but really the only way that
you can lose marks is convoluted phrasing, complex phrasing that is, that leads to grammatical
and syntactical mistakes. So, what I like to say, "Better be simple, than sorry". And
lastly, you have your conclusion, mainly what you can state in your conclusion, actually
you wrap-up all the most important information, the most important points in a single paragraph.
Now, if you know a reason, if you believe that something is the cause for increased
values or dropped values or anything like that, now is the time to actually state your
opinion but only if this opinion is based on the information that you see in the diagram
not something you just think it could be from your own personal experience or something
like that, ok? You always base your opinion on the data that you see in the diagram. So,
here's what your notes could be for the conclusion: Now, so your notes could be -global financial
crisis results in dropping profits -only one company steadily increased. So, basically
you just conclude all your main points, for example you could say in your conclusion:
"To sum-up, the diagram shows that the international financial crisis has affected the majority
of the companies as/because.." and you move on by stating your own opinion. And now you're
ready to go and write that essay. Ideally, with enough practice this plan will be written
in no time you would be able to write it on the spot with some notes of yours, especially
if you practice enough. However, if you're just starting out it will prove very helpful
to actually fill that in, in more detail, before you write your essay. Ok, that's it
for today! Ask me your questions here or in Fb, T, G+ I've added all three links down
below in the description box, thank you very much for watching, good luck with your exam!