How to write an impressive Overview in IELTS academic Task 1
IELTS writing Task 1 both in Academic and General Training is considered less important as it carries fewer bands as compared to Task 2. Task 1 also has its own scores and we cannot achieve our desired scores without answering it properly.
Talking about an overview, it is the most important part of any writing content either it’s an essay or report. It is a summary of the main or most important points in assay, graph, chart, process or map. It is usually of 2-3 sentences and comes as the second paragraph in an essay and in reports it lies on first paragraph. Without this you cannot score 7 or more bands in writing tasks. So, today we will discuss How to write an impressive Overview in IELTS academic Task 1.
What the examiner looks for?
An overview is the mirror which shows your capability to identify the most important information from the graph or chart. When the examiner starts checking your writing work the first thing he looks upon is the overview as this segment of your task helps him to know your understanding level. If you have given the overview in an impressive way the chances of getting high bands increases.
What is an overview?
First of all lets understand what exactly is an overview for this we will take a question as an example from the task 1 which is always the same.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
As the question clarifies that we only need to provide a summary of the main feature and not a detailed one. An overview is the platform where you do this by selecting some of the main features from the graph or chart and write them in general. Here, keep in mind that you should give the general view and should not support anything you just go with the data provided in the graph.
Which main features to be selected?
The primary question rises here is that how to chose or which are the main features that should be selected to write an overview? For this first we have to look at the two main kinds of charts and graphs that are dynamic and static.
Dynamic charts show data over a span of time on the other hand, static charts show data at just one point in time. This will affect the type of data we select.
In the dynamic graphs type the feature which can be highlighted are:
– What does the data do from the start to the finish?
– Do they generally go up or down or do they fluctuate?
– Any significant difference from the general trend?
– Overall increase/decrease?
– Peaks/lows?
In the case of static graphs we should be looking for:
– What are the highest/lowest values?
– What are the most noticeable differences?
– Any similarities?
– Any significant exceptions?
Still finding problem in overview here are some tips for you.
What about conclusion?
Conclusion is your opinion or what you think about the given statement. Conclusion for task 2 is mandatory but in task 1 you are not suppose to give your personal opinion or thinking so it is not necessary to write a conclusion in task 1.
I hope you this post will be useful for you and now when you will write task 1 definitely you will take care of the overview and try to write in an impressive way to score good bands.
Give your views in the comment section. Suggestions are always welcome.
THANK YOU 🙂
