Today, we are going to discuss another bar graph that we have to describe when doing IELTS Writing Task 1. As usual, we will also discuss strategies used to do the writing step by step. Before we start writing, look at a sample bar graph below.
 |
| IELTS Writing Task 1 Bar Graph |
Paragraph 1 - Introductory Paragraph
Step 1
The first paragraph of an IELTS Writing Task 1 will contain general information about the graph. The first step of writing is introducing the graph. We do this simply by writing "The bar graph outlines/shows/explains/describes, etc..." and paraphrasing the original title. For the sample bar graph above, we're going to do the paraphrasing word by word. So, we are going to use income instead of money. We are going to change the sentence structure a little bit so tgat the word "allocation" cab be replaced with "allocated for" mention the three different purposes, and replace the phrase "income level" with economic status. The first sentence will look like this:
The bar graph describes how income is allocated for spending, saving and investment by people from different economic status ✔
Step 2
Okay, so now that we have introduced the bar graph, we are going to continue to Step 2, which is explaining other relevant information in the bar graph. We can see that the allocation of income is presented in percentage, so we can write:
Units are presented in percentage ✔
Step 3
Now, we are going to explain the major trend in the bar graph, which will be used to organize our paragraph later. It's clear that people from lower-middle income and middle income use much of their income for consumption, unlike the wealthy people. We can explain it like this:
Overall, people from lower-middle economic status and the more affluent middle class earmark a significant portion of their earnings for consumption, while people with high income tend to invest their money ✔
So, our first paragraph will look like this:
Body Paragraph 2 - Detailed Information
So, the second paragraph of our writing will explain how income allocated by people with lower-middle income and middle income. We don't have to explain everything, just the main features. We know that people with lower-middle income spend a very significant portion of their earning on consumption, just a little above 90%. We also know that they hardly invest their money, so we can compare the huge difference between consumption and investment as well.
As for the people with middle income, we know that they also spend much of their earning on consumption, but they also have saving and investment. We can write our second paragraph like this:
So, our first paragraph will look like this:
Okay, I think that second paragraph looks good enough, so now we will proceed to the third paragraph.
Body Paragraph 3 - Detailed Explanation
The last paragraph of our Writing Task 1 is actually pretty much the same, except for the trend. Wealthy people invest most of their money, and their money allocation for consumption is lower than that of saving and investment. Well, this is the reason why we put them in a separate paragraph. Their money allocation is far different from the other income groups. Okay, so our third paragraph looks like this.
So, our first paragraph will look like this:
So, the entire writing will look like this:
There are four aspects that are graded in our IELTS writing, namely the task achievement, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and coherence and cohesion. Let's see how the sample writing above has somewhat met the criteria of a good writing in IELTS.
Task Achievement
The word count for the sample writinig above is 174, and it is good that we write a minimum of 150 words as required, but not too many words as to make the writing become extremely boring. Other than making sure that the word count has met the requirement for IELTS Writing Task 1, we also have to pay attention to the following aspects:
Lexical Resource
First of all, make sure that we use formal language in our writing at all time. For example, I don't change the word "money" with "cash" because it is less formal than, let's say, "income" or "earning". Secondly, we are not supposed to overuse certain word because that way, we won't be able to get maximum score on lexical resource. We have to be creative with the use of vocabulary, because sometimes, certain is extremely hard or even impossible to paraphrase. In this case, we can change the sentence structure instead, or simply change the word from certain word class to another, or turn certain word into a phrase or clause. This is what I have done with the word "earning". Since I don't want to use the word over and over again, I simply turn it into "the money that they earn" which actually means the same thing.
Speaking of the lexical resource, here are some words and phrases that you will frequently use in IELTS Writing Task 1. I also use these words/phrases in the sample writing above.
- describe - we use this to explain that certain information is described in a graph/chart
- present - just another way saying describe
- percentage - certain amount/ number in a hundred
- significant - a huge amount of something
- portion - a part of a whole
- indicate - just another way saying describe
- a little above - we use this for estimation
- nearly - we use this for estimation
- a third - just another of saying 33.33%
- unlike - to tell that certain thing is different from another
- around - we use this for estimation
- one-fifth - just another way of saying 20%
- in contrast - this is used for comparison
- half - just another way of saying 50%
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
In the writing, I try to demonstrate my mastery of English grammar by using various sentence structures. I use active voice, passive voice, sentence with multiple clauses, reduced clause, etc. This is a good way of getting the highest score in this aspect. If you use active voice in your entire writing, just doing the S + V + ... over and over again, it's just apparent that we may lack of skill (or effort) to explore and use other sentence structures.
Coherence and Cohesion
Coherence and cohesion is an important part of our writing. They help readers understand the relation between sentences, like causality, comparison, and elaboration. Sometimes, they also show the readers where we start our explanation, like the word "to begin" that use above. Here are some of the words that are commonly used to make our writing more cohesive and coherent.
- to begin
- overall
- while
- likewise
- however
- unlike
- in contrast
No comments:
Post a Comment