Fundamentals of Writing Task 1

Hey everyone.

Welcome back to this course.

In this section I’ll be teaching you some basic information that you need to know to take the writing

task one essay.

Let’s get started.

Here is some basic information.

So first of all you’re going to be writing a report on an info graphic.

So when you’re writing or essay you’re going to receive some kind of a chart graph table or a diagram

on which you have to write a report.

Next.

Keep in mind that the task number one essay is worth half as many points as Task Number Two.

So make sure that you leave enough time to finish the task.

Number two.

OK.

You don’t want to lose points on task number two.

Since it’s worth twice as many points.

So how much time should you spend on task one.

Ideally that should be about 20 minutes.

OK 20 minutes for task number one so that you have 40 minutes left over for Task Number Two.

As for the number of words that you need to write you have to write at least 150 words.

That is the minimum I would say that you should try to aim for 180 words if you can but definitely don’t

go over 200 words.

OK.

Because that can start to cut into your time that you have left over for the task number two essay.

Now one more thing to keep in mind is that even if you write just 150 words that’s totally fine.

OK.

It’s still possible for you to get a band Nine score with just 150 words.

So the important thing here is the quality of your writing quality is always far more important than

the quantity.

For example it’s much better to write a shorter essay in which you have fewer mistakes than to write

a much longer essay with a lot of mistakes so always focus more on the quality of your writing.

Next.

Keep in mind that the essay is factual in nature.

This means that you have to write a very academic and a formal essay so your opinions are not required

so don’t be using words like I you we or us next you’re going to have many different types of questions

on the writing task one you may see a line graph question or a bar graph question a pie chart question

a process or a diagram question in some questions you have to compare the data and other questions you

have to describe the changes that are happening over a period of time.

However regardless of the different types of questions that you’re going to see.

Keep in mind that the same basic strategy applies to every single question type the strategy does not

change.

All right.

So this makes it much more easier and simpler to answer the question regardless of the type of question

that you see.

Now you’re going to be writing four paragraphs in total for your writing task essay and you have to

write a total of eight to eleven sentences to write an essay that fits within the number of words that

you need to write.

Lastly I recommend that you use a pencil when you’re writing.

This just makes your corrections much more easier and much faster as opposed to using the pen which

may cause a mess on your answer sheet.

Let me now break down the different paragraphs for you so that you can better understand what each of

the paragraphs are about and how much time to spend and how many sentences to write.

All right let’s take a look.

So you have a total of four paragraphs.

You have the introduction paragraph as your first paragraph.

Then you have the overview paragraph for the second paragraph.

And then you have your paragraphs number three and four.

So what exactly do you have to write in each of these paragraphs.

Let’s take a look in the first paragraph.

The introduction paragraph you have to paraphrase the question language.

OK so when you see a question there is going to be a brief description about what the infographics is

about what you have to do is rephrase this question language in your own words for the second paragraph

the overview paragraph you have to summarize the key information that you see in the info graphic and

then in the third and the fourth paragraph you have to describe the key details which are the main features

that stand out to you about that info graphic will cover all of this in much more detail later down

the road.

This is just a brief overview of what the paragraphs are about let’s now take a look at how many sentences

to write for each of these paragraphs for the introduction paragraph.

You only have to write one to two sentences and then for the remaining paragraphs you have to write

two to three sentences per remaining paragraph.

Lastly how much time to spend on each of these paragraphs on the introduction paragraph you should be

spending two to three minutes for the overview paragraph.

You should be spending three to five minutes and then for the remaining paragraphs number three and

four you should spend five minutes on each of those paragraphs so this will bring your total time up

to 20 minutes which is how much time you have to finish this essay.

If you do have any leftover time I suggest that you go back to your essay and spend that time to check

your work.

So that concludes this video.

I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

I’ll see you in the next video in which we’re going to talk about the different types of questions that

you’re going to see on the writing task one essay.

I’ll see you there.