The task 1 of the IELTS writing module holds 33% marks, half as many as held by the task 2. You are required to write no less than 150 words, adapting to a somewhat a formal style of writing. You should be able to complete task 1 in about 20 minutes, leaving ample time for task 2 as well as revision.
Task 1 comprises of a graphic, which is usually a compilation of data, different stages of a process, an account of how something functions, or a description of an event or an object.
The question in this part can be presented to you in a variety of forms, which include the following:
The question you will encounter in task 1 will be a compilation of three elements:
The advantage of this part of the writing module is that it is always structured in the same manner, making it significantly scoring. Talking about the marking criterion allocated for task 1, you will be examined on the basis of four parameters, each carrying 25% weightage.
There are significant commonalities in almost all types of task 1 questions, some of which are listed below:
Line graphs are common questions in IELTS Writing task 1. It represents a set of data set between the x and y axes to represent a set of data through lines. Although they may boggle the mind of someone who does not have a way for data representations, they are easier to attempt than they might appear. The correct way to crack your task 1 is to practice each type of line graph beforehand, to practice the techniques of interpreting a line graph appropriately. Here are some points to note while preparing for the line graph questions:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The graph below shows the number of tourists visting a particular Caribbean island between 2010 and 2017. Summaries the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where revelant. Write at least 150 words.
The given line graph illustrates the total number of tourists as well as the places where they stayed in a particular Caribbean Island between 2010-2017. Overall, total tourists visiting the Caribbean island rose considerably by the time and those staying in cruise ships increased in particular and even those staying on island itself underwent a moderate increase. In 2010, visitors staying on the island starts at about 0.75 million. Then it keeps growing till 2013 after which there was a marginal decline and then rose again in 2016. On the other hand, no. of tourists staying on cruise ships started at 0.3 million in 2010. After two years of fluctuations, the figure rose steadily surpassing the no. of tourist staying on island in 2015 and reaching the pinnacle in 2017. There was a substantial gain for overall visitors which started at just 1 million in 2010 and grew to 3.5 million by the end of 2017. There was a marginal decline in 2015 but after that there was a sharp growth.
If you remember mathematics vividly, you can remember how bar graphs look like. A bar graph is a visual representation of data done through rectangles of equal width, placed parallelly to display the levels or values of a data set. Follow these tips to efficiently attempt bar graph questions in IELTS task 2:
The chart below shows the results of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and drinking habits in five Australian cities. Summaries the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The first advantage with pie charts is that they appear pretty, and might have an easing effect on your mind. Pie Charts are the circular form of graphical interpretations, where a circle is divided into multiple proportions to represent elements of data.
Stumble upon these useful tips to befriend pie charts in your IELTS examination:
Example:
The pie chart shows the amount of money that a children’s charity located in the USA spent and received in one year.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Tables might trick you into believing that they are difficult to interpret as they are plain numbers without any kind of visual representation. However, the good news is that tabular charts are not really complicated. Afterall, the IELTS examination is not conducted to test your mathematical aptitude, but your knowledge and understanding of the English language. Go through these insightful tips to crack tabular chart questions in the writing task 1:
Example:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The Table below shows the results of a survey that asked 6800 Scottish adults (aged 16 years and over) whether they had taken part in different cultural activities in the past 12 months. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
Process Charts are comparatively less frequent to appear in your writing module than the other types of visual representations. As the name suggests, process charts are pictorial representations of a process, which can range from the manufacturing process of a product to natural phenomena like the water cycle.
Following are some important questions to answer when you have your question in front of you:
Remember these important points while curating essays for process charts:
Example:
The diagram shows the process by which milk and related products are produced.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features.
Write at least 150 words.
Usually, maps are visual representations of a place. Mostly, you will be asked to explain the changes that you can observe in the given two or three maps of a particular location, for example a city of a building.
Consider the given tips when you bump into a map question during your examination:
Example:
Here is some map vocabulary to enrich your map writing experience.
Buildings – demolished, knocked-down, flattened, replaced, renovated, built, constructed, reconstructed, developed, extended, expanded, relocated, converted and modernized.
Examples:
Trees and Forests – cleared, cut-down, chopped-down, removed, planted.
Examples:
Leisure facilities – opened, set up, developed.
Examples:
How to Describe General Changes.
As this is an IELTS writing task 1 question, you must write an overview, where you should generally talk about the main changes that have occurred between the two time periods.
Below are some examples of general statements we could use to describe change in towns and cities.
Every informal letter in IELTS Writing task 1 is mostly the same. You will be asked to write a chatty, friendly and personal letter to a friend. The topic will probably be work-related, demanding you to explain you work experiences or why you switched your job.
Keep these points in your mind while writing an informal letter in your IELTS examination:
Ques. Your friend has asked you to help him/her to find a music teacher for his/her child. Write a letter to your friend that you have found a suitable teacher. In your letter, you should tell:
Ans.
Dear Joseph,
Hello, hope this letter finds you in pink of your life and in high spirits. Though,I am delighted that in last letter you asked me for music teacher for your child, I have found best music teacher Mr. Beny running well known music institute in the city and this teacher will be beneficial to learn music for your child.
At the outset, as this music teacher has awarded wth my music award for his extreme dedication for music,he will be suitable for your child to make him proficient in music. While, he runs separate classes according to their talent level,it will help your child to learn music from beginners level.Apart from this, even though his fee for his student is not so high, it will be affordable for you to get admit you rchild in institution.
Next, though Mr. Beny is well for his achievements in the city,the major achievement is winner of ‘Rising Star’ music show. Besides this, as he is the winner of numerous music shows, he also hosted a music show named ‘Little Champ’. In addition to this,since his father Mr. Yaniv is legend of music industry, he has given music composition to many popular songs and he also served as a music professor in the Harvard University for 5 years.
Further, although he does not provide his own number, I am sharing his instituation number and you an also search on google for contact. You may give my reference for more concession as my cousin is also a part of this staff.
With love!
Anthony
The first obvious things to do when you stumble upon the writing task 1 in your General Training IELTS exam is to figure out whether the question is about an informal letter or formal letter. One very simple way to figure this out is by checking whether you have been given the name of the person whom you are writing the letter to, or not.
In case the letter is about registering a complaint, applying for a job, or resigning from a job, and the name of the recipient is not mentioned, it is supposed to be formal letter. However, if the name of the person is mentioned, it will be an informal letter.
You will be given the instructions of writing your letter in the form of three bullet points in the question. Each time you write a letter, you should plan your letter first and then begin jotting down.
Following is a very simple yet smart format of presenting a formal letter in IELTS:
Dear Madam/Sir Paragraph 1- Mention the reason why you are writing this letter (extract from the question)
Paragraph 2- Take reference from bullet point 1 and elaborate
Paragraph 3- Take reference from bullet point 2 and elaborate
Paragraph 4- Take reference from bullet point 3 and elaborate
Yours faithfully
[Full Name]
And you are done!
When elaborating each paragraph, make sure that the details being provided by you are relevant and logical.
Following are few points to remember when writing the formal letter:
Ques. The school library is seeking applicants for a job over summer break. Write a letter to the library’s manager, in your letter include:
Write at least 150 words. Ans.
Dear Sir,
Greetings for the day! I am student of your college pursuing Bachelor of Liberary(B. Lib). As liberary is hiring a applicant for summer vacation, I would like to apply for this position.
On theoutset, since I am a brillent student of final year and I have attained a first position in class from the starting of the course, I will be the best suitable person for this job. Though next semester is the intership semester and now there are summer vacation, I do not want to miss opportunity to get practical experience in library management.
Next, as I am a student of library management, I have enough knowlegde about library management techniques and I am well aware about the software application being used in library. Apart from this, being a student of this college, I know the flow of work of this library so this would be beneficial for you as you will not have to put much effort to train me. In addition to this I am good in book indexing and maintain books in rangs according to all bookin keeping methods like alphabetically and choronologically which are most widely used techniques.
Furthermore, though I am in final year of this course, this job will enhance my book keeping skill and will help me in future to get job. Besides this, this is the best opportunity to unitilies the free time and to earn some money handle my hostel expense as I my family is hardly able to pay my fee every semester.
Hoping for soon and positive revert.
Yours faithfully,
Aryan
Semi-formal letters, as the name entails, are neither too formal nor too informal in nature. Thus, in this case, it is imperative to recognize your audience so that you can alter the formality in language. To make it easier for you, semi-formal letters are written to people you know, but not too well.
For example, you could write a semi-formal letter to the manager of your organization, requesting for some leaves as you have to attend an important family gathering!
A formal that will help you improve your semi-formal letter-writing has been presented below:
Dear Mr. Jones Paragraph 1- Mention the reason why you are writing this letter (extract from the question) Paragraph 2- Take reference from bullet point 1 and elaborate Paragraph 3- Take reference from bullet point 2 and elaborate Paragraph 4- Take reference from bullet point 3 and elaborate Kind Regards [Full Name]
A few things to remember while writing a semi-formal letter:
The Writing task in your IELTS examination is divided into two tasks. The task 2 of the module holds 66% weightage and should be written in no less than 250 words. You should dedicate 40 minutes worth of your time to complete this task. The good news is that task 2 is always about general topics, all of which you might have wondered about at least once throughout your life. Therefore, it is easy, scoring and surprisingly interesting!
Here are some points that will make it easier for you to perform well in task 2:
An example of task 2 attempted by a student:
Ques. To learn effectively, children need to eat a healthy meal at schools. How true is this statement? Whose responsibility to provide food for school children?
It is true that health plays a vital role in the development of a child. To be good at learning, a children should get a balanced diet. The parents and the school authorities, both are to be held responsible for this. This essay will discuss the given situation briefly.
Undoubtedly, food affects the mental and well as physical health of a child directly. A healthy diet provides the required nutrition in proper amount for growth of mind and body. As these are the growing years of a child, it becomes even more important to feed them well. Moreover, disease caused due to unhealthy eating habits disturbs the academic performance of a child. Furthermore, when children are hungry during the school timing, they cannot focus on their lessons properly.
The responsibility of providing health food stuff should be taken by both parents and schools. For instance, in government schools of India, Mid-Day Meal program has been a successful approach in this regard. Something similar should be done in private schools as well. When the children are at home, parents should provide them nourishing and fresh food. If both the factions came forward to furnish the nutritional supplements to all children, the future of India will be certainly bright.
To conclude, a student’s learning ability is largely affected by the quality of food they eat and collective efforts can always bring better results. Therefore, guardians and the school authorities should work together for supplying wholesome food to children.
If you observe the above essay carefully, you will discover that it is a compilation of four different paragraphs. They can be labelled as the following:
So now, you know how to draft a coherent essay that your examiner will definitely enjoy reading. Use this template to practice writing your task 2 essays, and you are good to go!
Types of essays in task 2:
Do you remember writing essays when you were in the sixth grade? Well, it’s time to make way for some nostalgia and get inspired by your younger self!
There are basically five types of questions that you will encounter while attempting this part. While all of them are distinct from one another, they are based on real-life, interesting topics which you will enjoy pondering upon. So, following are the types of essays you will find in task 2:
Now that we have classified them on the basis of type, let us discuss each of them one by one.
As the name suggests, opinion essays will demand you to discuss your opinion on the given topic, whether you agree or disagree, and up to what extent.
Remember: As conveyed earlier, your examiner will not judge you based on your opinion. Therefore, it is a rational approach to collect ideas/points for both agreement and disagreement, and then choose the one for which you can write the best content.
Example: Many people believe that global environment problems should be dealt with internationally rather than domestically. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Tips:
Example of such an essay:
Ques. Hobbies are given a lot of importance nowadays and are generally perceived as stress busters. Still many people believe that they divert us from our important routine and waste our precious time. Give your opinion.
Ans.
In today’s era, people are spending a lot of time on their hobbies. However, some people consider it as a waste of time. This essay will discuss both the viewpoints. Personally, I feel that such leisure time activity is very helpful.
On the one hand, the trend of having a hobby had increased a lot. It keeps people occupied and divert them from their stressful lives. Moreover, it is a natural way of healing oneself as it forces one to take a break from day-to-day affairs and carve out time to devote to oneself. Furthermore, some hobbies like reading, designing or learning a new language can keep a person productive and enrich life with a sense of purpose while having fun. In addition, hobbies not only satisfy a curious mind but also put a person in a new community, allowing to broaden his experience and social life.
On the other hand, some people consider it as a total wastage of time. It is pointed out that just to divert mind, people spend their precious time watching screen for long hours which not only side-track us from our routine but also damage our health. Next, hobbies may also cause addiction to people. In addition, hobbies such as rock climbing are very dangerous and can even lead to death.
To conclude, every coin has two faces. Similarly, hobbies can lead to both benefit and loss depending on its type. I feel that, if used properly, pastime is a good source of recreation and its merit outweighs the demerit.
Ques. Some people think that success is the best measure of intelligence whilst others think that intelligent can be measured in other ways. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
The concept of intelligence has long been a subject of debate because of its measurement related to various aspects. Some people believe success is the ultimate measure of intelligence, while others think that intelligence can be assessed through other. I opine that both of these viewpoints hold equal importance and this essay will explain the reasons behind my opinion.
To begin with, people’s achievements in numerous fields indicates their intelligence cognitive ability. Individuals with immense knowledge along with exceptional problem – solving and creative skills always seems to be successful in academics and other fields of life such as art and business. For instance, intelligent students in schools are said to be successful by many people by getting high scores. Moreover, it is believed that intelligence is the key to success as it can make a person more capable of getting accomplishments as compared to others who lack this ability. Therefore, success can be said a measure of intelligence.
However, solely relying on success as the measure of intelligence overlooks other aspects of the human mind. Intelligence is a complex concept and not only cognitive abilities. It involves social skills, practical knowledge and many more. It can be evaluated by many aspects such as solving problems in a creative manner and having ability to work on multiple task at the same time. People with these kind of skills may not be successful but are equally intelligent.For example, someone may excel academically but struggle to face with adverse situations. Thus, there can be others measures to assess the intelligence other than being successful.
To conclude, intelligence is a varied characteristic that cannot be measured by a single aspect like success. Using a more comprehensive approach that consider social intelligence and problem-solving skills can provide a more holistic understanding of human intelligence.
This type of essays will make you stumble upon both sides of the argument, discuss them and then finally present your opinion as conclusion.
Example: Some are of the opinion that people are naturally born as good leaders while others feel that leadership skills can be learned. Discuss both the views and give your own opinion.
Tips:
Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others, however, believe there are better alternative ways of reducing crime.
Discuss both views and give your opinion.
It is a common notion that the most efficient way for reducing unlawful acts is to pass a judgement of spending longer time in prison. While others argue that more the ways of punishment less would be the illegal acts. Both statements will be further discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.
On the one hand, there are persuasive reasons for longer prison time. First and foremost, criminals in prison are disciplined as it helps them to reduce their sentence. Additionally, prison wardens treat prisoners worse than animals and are cruel to them. Besides this, the longer the people are in prison the more time they get to work on themselves and realise their mistakes. Many prisoners showed behavioural changes and transformed into a person with a good personality.
On the other hand, There are multifarious ways of punishing the offender to reduce the illegal acts. Initially, rehabilitation is a good way of changing the mindset of people and offenders can also be converted into good people. Furthermore, charging them fine can also help them realise their mistakes and can work on them. Finally, there is always a meaning behind every action and offenders also have reasons for committing crimes. It can be changed by introducing new policies for the need of criminals.
To encapsulate it, there are profuse ways of punishing criminals but crime rates can only be decreased by joint efforts of people and authorities.
The advantage-disadvantage essays will ask you to discuss either advantages of a certain phenomenon, or its disadvantages, or whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
Example: In many workplaces, online communication is now more common than face-to-face meetings.
Do the advantages of this trend outweigh the disadvantages?
Tips:
Example of such an essay:
Ques. Some are of the opinion that people are naturally born as good leaders while others feel that leadership skills can be learned. Discuss both the views and give your own opinion.
Ans.
Some people believe that leadership skills are inherited by birth whereas others put forward that they can be learned. This essay will discuss and analysis both the viewpoints briefly. Personally, I feel that without working on strengths, nothing can be achieved just by inheritance.
To begin with, a good leader has some special characteristics like strong and attractive personality, outstanding communication skills and high level of energy. So, some people consider that most of these qualities are by genetic designs .Many of the good leaders in the world are naturally good speakers. According to them, leaders are born, not made. So, these attributes cannot be taught and can be obtained only by birth.
On the other hand, there are several people who believe that leadership skills can be attained later in life. Firstly, the environment in which a child is brought up influences him a lot. If he is not properly heard in his formative years, chances are, that he will possess a reserved personality ahead. Secondly, there are several personality developments programmes and Neuro Linguistic Programming courses available through which lakhs of people have developed their leadership potential. Furthermore, by working on communication skills and by keeping a growth mindset, one can always enhance their leadership skills.
To conclude, although genetic set up defines a person and his skill-set to a large extent but with hard work and dedication, one can always excel and can become a powerful figurehead.
Some children have to live at different places during their childhood because of transferrable jobs of their parents. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of living in different places in childhood and give your opinion on whether it is good or bad to stay at different areas for children.
In this fast-paced world, as most of the parensts have to relocate due to their jobs,children have to live in different places in their childhood.It has many merits and demerits on children’s development. However, this essay will delve deep into advantage and disadvanatges of this given statement followed by my own preception on the same.
To begin with, let us shed light on disavantages of living in different places on children.First and foremost,it results in loneliness.To elaborate,since parents are transferred to new place after some interval, it did not provide enough time to mixup their child with other and they prefer to live alone. Secondly,it has devastating impact on their studies. To explain, as childhood stage is a primary stage in which base of children is to developed for studies, transfers of jobs of their parent create extreme level of distraction in learning the basics and which has negative impact on thier future carrier.Thus,it is plausible to say living in different places have bad impact on children development.To illustrate, the survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau in 2011 in the US on 1000 children who often suffer from transfers of their parents jobs revealed that children face difficulty in future studies because their basic concepts are not clear.
On the contrary,there are good grounds to argue that it also has advantages of living in different place in childhood stage. Primarily, it is mismerizing to learn new culture. To substantiate, although parents are transferred to new place, it provides great opportunity to learn diverse cultures. Besides this it helps to develop additional moral qualities and they can explore new places. To cite an example, the research conducted by the Harvard University in 2003 in the New York on 200 group of children who belongs to parents from another places chalked out that they have knowledge of numerous culture as compared to other students.
I agree with the later notion that it has negative impact on development on children as they are not able to develop stronger bond between other members like grandparents. Though children have to live away from the other members of family, they did not have deeper attachment with them. Therefore they never get a chance to learn traditional values that are mostly provide by our ancestors in childhood. Thus, it is fair to claim that it living in different places have negative impact on chlidhood phase of a children life.
To encapsulate, after agglomerationg the aforementioned writing I beleive there is an undeniable evidence that disadvantages of living in different place overlap the merits
Simple, this essay will question you about the possible causes or solutions to a given problem.
Example: Even though healthcare has advanced drastically, yet people die of preventable diseases. Why do you think this happens? What are the possible solutions to this problem?
Tips:
In this modern era, world’s popuplation has increased drastically since past few decades which has lead to overpopulation. It has caused mutifarious issues in ubran sector.The issues and solutions will be further discussed in upcomming paragraphs.
On the one hand, overpopulation has caused various problems which are hard to tackle. First and foremost, not all the resources and renewable and mojority of resources used in todays world is non-renewable which takes years to replenish and some do not replenish. more and more people are using resources which has caused shortage of them. For instance, living areas are not available for people and most of unused and forest land are getting used for it which has disturbed the ecosystem. Shortage of food has also begin to rise due to the land usage in housing sector.Besides this, flora and fona is getting affected by overpopulation and they are loosing their habitat as accommodation for more people are getting built. Deforestration has been uprised to one of the major world level threat which has affected the environment. Due to overpopulation many species of flora and fona and in danger of getting extinct.
On the other hand, evrey problem has its solution thus, problem arised by overpopulation also has its solution.Initially, majority of problems will be solved by controling overpopulation and there are multifarious ways for controling overpopulation. It can be controlled by government introducing new policies and by taking help from medical field. In some of the countries there are policies of not having more than 2 children and birth control can also play a crucial role in controlling overpopulation.Finally, another way would be using the renewable resources in daily life to solve issues caused in urban sectors. To elaborate, barren lands can be use to make housing colonies and new technologies can be introduced to solve the shortage of food by using artifical method of growing food.
To encapsulate it, solving a global issue can not be a easy task but it can be solved by joint efforts of people and by taking proper preventive measures.
The direct question essays greet you with a statement, which has one or two questions attached to it. You have to answer each of the question in your essay.
Example: People spend large amounts of time and money on clothes, hairstyles and make up to change their appearance.
Is it important for people to be concerned about the way they look?
What are the consequences of focusing on physical appearance?
Tips:
An example of such an essay:
Ques. Write an essay on the following topic:Is freedom of speech necessary in a free society? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Ans. Freedom of speech and expression is the fundamental birth right of a human being that’s why in democratic countries, this right is protected with all possible safeguards. This essay will discuss the importance of freedom of speech in a free society.
To begin with, the right to express oneself is the basis of a constitutional society .This human right allows individuals and communities to find information which is important to them and share it with others, without censorship or reprisals. To add to it, without right to speech, elections will have no meaning. Moreover, all the political actions, without allowing the citizens to give their opinion, will eventually lead to dictatorship regime.
Furthermore, freedom of speech is sometimes all that a person has .To take away a person’s thoughts and opinions is to diminish their values and strip their life always .In addition, an effective media also depends on the legal basis that right to speech gives the right to function and report freely, sometimes critically, without threat of punishment .To add to it, knowledge is power, without a free exchange of information, people cannot be fully aware of what is happening around them.
To conclude, for the proper functioning of every single institution in a democracy, freedom of speech and expression the basic requirement and hence, it should be given to all the citizens at any cost.
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