Overviews

Hi everybody this video is a preview of my upcoming video course on I am writing task 1 and how to achieve a band 7 and above. In this part of the exam for those who do not know me my name is Matt and I run a Web site called the child’s teacher where I help students to pass the exam via Skype and screen sharing lessons. A few months ago I released a video course on ials frighting task to this video course has gone on to become the best selling you do me video course on ials writing. It has over 16 hundred students from over 100 different countries out of the over 250 reviews. It has got so far it has a rating of 4.7 out of 5 with over 180 five star ratings and you can get 50 percent of this video course by clicking the link in the description below. Here we are having a look at lecture 13 in Section 4 of structuring our response and this lecture is all about how to write a clear coherent and relevant overview. So let’s get started by looking at the band descriptors and what they ask of us. So the overview is one of the most important paragraphs in your task one response. It is explicitly stated as a requirement to achieve anything above aband 6. In fact the requirement for band six states that the writer must present an overview with information appropriately selected band Five actually states that there may be no clear overview. So in order to secure at least a band six you need to present an overview in order to secure and seven you must present a clear overview of main trends differences or stages now in a previous lecture election 9. We looked at how to identify and discuss trends differences and stages but in this lecture we’re just going to look at how to construct a clear overview. Let’s get started. First of all some should and should not cause for overuse or should you not do. Here’s a table for us to look at as an example. Now the overview should not contain any specific figures related to that table. For example do not mention the Bournemouth boss 391 Honda’s or Carlyle board one hundred ninety four Toyotas. The overview should contain a look at the main trends differences or stages particularly in a comparative graph comparative table like this one. We might look for the differences for example mentioned instead that the largest number of cars was bought in Chippenham or that the least popular car brand overall was Toyota. Let’s go into a bit more detail here and look at the type of language we want to use for overviews for different question types. You can see at the bottom here. We have a color coded key so your overview really should contain cohesive devices. A quick piece of language to introduce the overview a conjunction to make sure we have a complex sentence and Trendall comparison language. Let’s have a look at this here. We’re going to begin by looking at grasp of the trend. So here is an example. Overall Here’s a cohesive device just makes it very clear that you are now in the overview. It is clear from the graph that just a little bit more to it. Again make sure the reader knows where in the overview whereas football remain popular throughout the period. Basketball experienced a significant fall in popularity. You can see here we’ve got the conjunction whereas as a subordinating conjunction. This ensures that we are addressing the requirement for a complex sentence. We contrast that clause with the following clause something staying popular with something going down. Basketball experienced a significant fall so that purple language there. This is a this is a piece of trend language and experience to fall as a trend. Now we have an extra sentence here. I will return to this at the end of the lecture. But you do not need to include an extra sentence to secure aband 7. Most of the time only at this extra sentence. If you are confident that you have enough time to complete the rest of the response to an accurate level as well. Anyway here is the next sentence. Additionally there’s the cohesive device although there is the conjunction although the number of runners and swimmers grew in similar proportion trend. The latter then declined as the former continued to increase to trend. But notice there are no figures here. No specific numbers no specific dates. Here’s another way that we can write it again. We’re just looking at the key as we go through it. In general what stands out from the graph is that while football remained popular throughout the period basketball witnessed a dramatic decline in popularity. Furthermore despite the number of runners and swimmers growing in similar proportion the latter then slumped as the former continue to rise. We’ll look at one more graph with the trend here as these tend to be some of the most common ones here. We’re looking at a bar chart for air conditioning units bought in the UK and Australia in the month of 2014. In general what stands out from the graph is that it’s a cohesive device in the introduction while Australia’s AC sales witnessed a decline before rising after July the number of AC units sold in the UK experienced the opposite trend. Another interesting point is that in the month of May these two countries purchased an equal number of air conditioning units. I’ve just included a C here because I wanted to keep it short for the slide but I would recommend that you actually write air conditioning unit sales and the number of air conditioning units sold so those across with the trim. Let’s have a look at comparative graphs here. Again we’ll return to this table on the number of cars sold by town in 2010. This will hopefully start to look familiar now. Overall it is clear that of the car brands listed while Chippenham but marginally more than Bullmoose and Farnborough Whitcomb. So by far the fewest purchases. Furthermore Toyotas were nowhere near as popular as any other car brand. So instead of trend language here we use in comparison language marginally more. By far the fewest nowhere near as popular has. So if you’re looking at a comparative curve for a comparative table you’re more likely to be discussing differences and comparisons than trends. Let’s look at a separate one here. Here we have a pie chart and a bar chart looking at different energy sources in general. What stands out is that nonrenewable energy sources constitute the majority of total output while only a small minority is made up of renewable energy sources. In addition charging and lighting consume not nearly as much energy as appliances and heating can. You can see this comparison language being used. And notice that we can move the conjunction as well instead of looking at it at the beginning of the sentence. We’ve moved while into the beginning of the second clause instead of the first. So it follows the comma. OK so I said then look at comparative graphs. What happens when it comes to processes. A process here on how bees make honey and then the production of honey. Overall it is clear that bees must go through a cyclical progression of six stages to make money whereas the honey production process consists of five steps. Hey you’ve got all the usual suspects you’ve got a device you’ve got your overview introduction or your conjunction with Whereas here we’re looking at stage language when we are making a comparison. Are we comparing six stages with five stages. Another option is to consider listing the first and last stages of each of the processes. Another option still. Particularly if you are looking at more of a man made process is to consider listing or comparing the amount of equipment used. Or consider comparing the number of elements or ingredients to go into a particular cake or recipe or something like that. It’s a little bit harder with process’s but do just try to make sure you are introducing some comparisons or listing the overall number of stages. Finally let’s have a look at a map map over views are a little bit trickier because there are a lot of different variables that can be involved but the majority of maps tend to look at a map from the past with a map from the present or from the recent past. And so we can make comparisons between those two maps overall. What stands out from the maps is that whereas Stoke used to be a quiet agricultural town it has undergone a significant transformation to become a heavily residential area with many new developments. Here you can see change language but still comparison language as well. So undergone a significant transformation. Many new developments. Again we’re not being specific we’re not picking out the retirement home. We’re not picking up the gardens or anything like that. We’re looking at things as a whole. So let’s sum up with some advice. Some people say that you should write a summary rather than an overview. That’s OK. So you can write a summary instead of an overview. Really it is just a case of changing the position of the paragraph. Some find it easier to finish with the overview rather than put it in the second paragraph position. Just make sure you do not write both an overview and a conclusion. They serve the same purpose so it’s silly to write both although you should avoid mentioning any specific figures. It is OK to mention dates particularly if you’re talking about the beginning or the end of a period for example whereas chicken was the most popular meats in 1940. Turkey had claimed this position by the end of the period we’ve introduced 19 1940 the because it might be the beginning of a period. Finally if you write about just one comparison or trend in the overview you are covering task requirements. I mentioned this a bit earlier I said I’d come back to it. You don’t need to write any more than this single sentence so only add an extra sentence if you feel you have time or you do not think you will reach the minimum word count without the extra sentence.