IELTS Preparation Series 2, Episode 25: Academic Writing

(Bấm vào đây để xem/nghe bài kế tiếp)

Xem lời thoại bên dưới:

0:13

Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation.

0:19

Today on Study English we're going to give you some tips and strategies for answering

0:24

Task 1 IELTS Academic questions.

0:27

We'll look at what's involved in planning an essay, and then we'll try planning answers

0:32

to some practice questions.

0:34

Task 1 of the IELTS Academic module asks you to describe data.

0:45

The key word is describe.

0:48

That means you don't need to comment on or interpret the data. Your task is only to describe

0:54

the data.

0:56

When you're writing a description, it's important to know what the context is and who your audience

1:02

is.

1:04

In Task 1, the audience is usually a university lecturer or a teacher. So we know that it

1:11

should be formal.

1:13

Let's review what we know about task 1.

1:17

The key word is describe, and the context is formal.

1:24

There's a range of things you might be asked to describe. Let's have a look at some examples.

1:31

You might be asked to describe data.

1:34

That could be in a bar graph or column graph,

1:40

a pie chart or a line graph.

1:43

Or it could be presented in the form of a table.

1:49

You might have to describe some kind of process or cycle.

1:53

You could also be shown a diagram of a machine or object and asked to describe the parts

2:00

or the function.

2:03

Now, let's take a look at a practice question. Here's an example Task 1 question:

2:10

This table gives participation rates in higher education, in New South Wales, for males and

2:18

females according to home location, in urban, rural or remote areas, for the year 2004.

2:26

We also have a graph.

2:29

The graph shows the same information as the table.

2:34

We can see that we have information about the number of men and women who go onto higher

2:40

education, or university, in three different areas.

2:46

Before we can describe this data, it's a good idea to think about how to organise our description.

2:54

There are two options. It's up to you which one you choose, but let's look at each of

2:59

them.

3:01

With Option 1, you could divide your essay up into an introductory paragraph and two

3:07

body paragraphs.

3:10

One paragraph would describe male participation rates in each of the three locations, while

3:17

the other paragraph would describe female participation rates.

3:23

So our essay would be structured like this.

3:26

The first paragraph is the introductory paragraph. It should only have 2 sentences.

3:34

Sentence 1 should paraphrase the question, and sentence two should outline your approach

3:41

to the data.

3:43

The second two paragraphs are body paragraphs 1 and 2.

3:50

In the first, you might address female participation rates for each location - urban, rural and

4:00

remote.

4:02

In body paragraph 2, you'd talk about male participation rates for each location - urban,

4:10

rural and remote.

4:12

Or, you could try Option 2, and divide the essay up into three body paragraphs, one for

4:21

each of the locations.

4:23

The essay would be structured like this: with an introductory paragraph, as always; then

4:31

3 body paragraphs.

4:34

Body paragraph one would discuss urban participation rates for males and females.

4:42

Body paragraph 2 would discuss rural participation rates for males and females.

4:49

And body paragraph 3 would be used to discuss remote participation rates for males and females.

4:56

There's no clear answer as to which way is better. They are both correct.

5:04

But remember that your essay needs to be at least 150 words.

5:13

Now, let's take a closer look at how to structure your essay.

5:18

The first paragraph is always the introductory paragraph.

5:21

There should be two sentences in your introductory paragraph.

5:26

Sentence 1 aims to paraphrase the question, by telling the reader what the topic is. It

5:34

is important not to just copy the question. You can use the language of the question and

5:39

build your own sentence.

5:42

In sentence 2, outline how you will organise the data and therefore how you'll organise

5:49

the essay.

5:52

Let's try to write our introductory paragraph.

5:55

It might look like this:

5:58

The table represents data, supplied by the Department of Education, Employment and Training,

6:05

on the participation rates in higher education for males and females in 2004. The data is

6:13

for three locations: urban, rural and remote.

6:17

So, our first sentence tells us about the question. It includes information about where

6:26

and when the data has come from.

6:28

Our second sentence tells the reader that we have divided the data into three sections.

6:36

There will be three body paragraphs - one each about the urban, rural and remote data.

6:43

This is an introductory paragraph for Option 2.

6:49

The order of the paragraphs will follow the order given in our introduction: urban, then

6:56

rural and then remote.

6:58

So, let's review and take an overall look at the essay we're creating.

7:07

Let's say we've decided to go with Option one.

7:12

Remember, that was an essay with two body paragraphs, one describing female participation

7:18

rates for the three locations, and one describing male participation rates.

7:24

So, let's start with our introductory paragraph.

7:28

We might write:

7:29

The table presents data supplied by the Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET),

7:36

on the participation rates in higher education in 2004 from three locations: urban, rural

7:45

and remote. The data is divided into two sets: female and male participation.

7:54

Notice our second sentence tells the reader that the data will be presented according

8:00

to female and male participation rates.

8:02

So our first body paragraph will be about data for female participants.

8:11

Here's the structure of body paragraph 1.

8:15

It shows female participation rates in each of the three locations.

8:21

Body paragraph 2 will describe male participation rates for each of the three areas.

8:28

Now, let's finish with another example.

8:31

Here's our data.

8:34

It's a table. You can see that it shows data for the number of international students studying

8:40

intensive English courses in Australia.

8:44

We have the number of students in 2002, 2003 and 2004 for five countries: China, Korea,

8:55

Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

9:01

So, how could you structure this essay?

9:04

One option is to have body paragraphs for each of the three years. Within those paragraphs

9:11

you'd have to describe data for the 5 countries.

9:16

You might be able to think of some other structuring options as well. If you want to practice with

9:22

some more examples, just go to our study English website.

9:26

It's at abcasiapacific.com/studyenglish.

9:32

And that's all for today. I'll see you next time, for more. Bye bye

#II22Ieltsprepseries2