facebook.com/ebook.sos GET IELTS BAND 9 In Writing Task 1 Data, Charts and Graphs Published by Cambridge IELTS Consultants Cambridge, United Kingdom Copyright © Cambridge IELTS Consultants and Jessica Alperne, Peter Swires 2014. All rights are reserved, including resale rights. This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it will not be copied, duplicated, stored or distributed for any purpose or in any form. EBOOKS SOS facebook.com/ebook.sos Also available on Amazon from the same publisher: Packed with advice, examples, models to follow and real Band 9 essays to help you get the best possible result. facebook.com/ebook.sos GET IELTS BAND 9 In Writing Task 1 Data, Charts and Graphs Table of Contents Introduction from the authors Data essays: Our 3-step process Model Tasks, model essays and examiner’s comments Practice Tasks The 10 most common mistakes in Task 1 data essays facebook.com/ebook.sos facebook.com/ebook.sos Introduction from the authors Writing Task 1 is the same for the Academic and the General Training type of IELTS test, and it usually involves a data description Task. Using English to write about data, especially describing charts and graphs, can be difficult for many people. This book gives you a structural process to use with data essays, and teaches you the most useful English vocabulary for these situations. It gives you 12 examples of Task 1 essays written to Band 9 standard, with examiner’s comments explaining you why the essays are so successful. The final 2 models are intended as practice tests for Task 1, which you can use to try the process, skills and language that you learn in this book. If you have experience of IELTS already, you may want to start by reading the ‘Model Tasks’ section from the Table of Contents, and then go back and read the ‘Data essays: Our 3-step process’ section. If you are completely new to IELTS, we recommend starting with the ‘Data essays: Our 3-step process’ section first. We have also included a summary of the 10 most common mistakes that people make in Task 1 data essays – this may surprise you! If you need a dictionary while reading, we recommend the free Cambridge Dictionaries Online from Cambridge University Press. Don’t just trust to luck in your IELTS exam – the key is expert advice! Jessica Alperne & Peter Swires Cambridge IELTS Consultants [email protected] facebook.com/ebook.sos facebook.com/ebook.sos Data essays: Our 3-step process In IELTS Writing part 1, you must be able to answer the Task inside the 20 minutes recommended time, to ensure that you leave at least 40 minutes for Writing Task 2. For Task 1, most test papers ask you to describe data (the other possibilities are maps, flow diagrams or image comparison Tasks.) As it is most probable that you will get a data Task, we have developed a 3–step process for dealing with data quickly, which many of our candidates have used to get very high IELTS Bands. Let’s introduce this process and show you how it works, using examples from the model Tasks and essays in this book: Step 1 Analyse the Task and data Read the Task 1 instructions, and look at the chart(s), graph (s) or table(s) with it, for about 1 minute. Make sure that you understand the following: Step 1 (a) Is this ‘static data’ or ‘movement data’? What are the timescales? The difference is that static data shows 1 timescale only, while movement data shows a number of different timescales. For example, a static data chart may show the population of 5 different cities in 2002, and you need to compare the numbers. A movement data chart would show the 5 cities in 2002 and 2012, and you need to compare the changes in the situation from one timescale to the other. Example Chart 1 (below) is an example of static data: Example Chart 2 (below) is an example of movement data: facebook.com/ebook.sos It is essential to be clear about this difference, because the way that you write about the data will be different. In a static chart, you will compare the sizes and proportions of the figures. In a movement chart, you will also compare the changes in the figures over time. Remember that in Task 1 data, the information could be all static, or all movement, or occasionally a combination of both. This book gives you lots of examples of describing both static and movement data. The next point to be sure about in Step 1 of our process is: Step 1 (b) What do the 2 axes show? Is there a timescale on one axis? (eg years, months, hours etc) If there is a timescale, is this showing the past, present, future; or a combination? What units are shown? (eg 000 of people, or degrees centigrade, or prices in $ etc) Be clear about any ‘multiples’ in the figures (eg “000 people” or “millions of tonnes.”) To illustrate this, look at Example Chart 3 below: Electricity used (megawatts or mw) in a typical hospital This is a movement chart (because the timescale shows 7 different days.) No year (eg 2012 etc) is shown, so you should use the present simple to describe the data. The axes are days of the week and 5 separate countries. The units shown are electricity megawatts (but not in thousands or millions.) Remember that the information about the timescale(s), the axes and the units may be located on the chart itself, or it may be in a caption, and/or contained in the Task description. Check everywhere! Remember that in the IELTS test, you can of course write your notes on the test paper as you wish. We facebook.com/ebook.sos recommend using a red pen to highlight and make notes on the test paper as you are thinking at this stage. You should write the essay itself in a black or blue pen. Don’t be distracted by the fact that some Tasks have bar chart formats, while other Tasks have line graphs, pie charts or tables. The way that the data is presented could be any of these formats, and you need to practise analysing data from all formats. This book contains examples of all possible presentations, but remember that there is no ‘method for bar charts’ or ‘method for line graphs’ etc relevant to IELTS. You should approach the data in the same way, using our 3-step process. In the Test, you have now completed Step 1, and you are sure about these vital points. You can now go to Step 2 of our process. Step 2 (a) Group the data This means deciding which groups of the data are similar to each other. For example, look at example chart 3 again and ask yourself which countries have a similar pattern in their use of electricity? Are any of the countries very different? Electricity used (megawatts or mw) in a typical hospital The answer is that we can group France and Japan together, because their pattern is similar (their electricity figures fluctuate during the whole week.) We can also group Canada and Russia together, because they have a similar pattern (their electricity figures rise considerably towards the weekend.) Argentina is different from these 2 groups, because it declines towards the weekend. This is a classic example of grouping data together. It’s essential for you to be aware that all IELTS Task 1 data Tasks include this concept of groups, because the examiner wants to see that you can identify groups, trends and exceptions. This takes us to the next step: Step 2 (b) Identify trends and exceptions When you have decided on the groups of data, identify the trends and exceptions that the groups show. A trend means a pattern which is common or shared by a group. An exception is a group or an element which behaves differently from the trend (s.) Look at Example chart 4 below, and ask yourself the Step 1 and Step 2 (a) questions: facebook.com/ebook.sos