My Notes for IELTS Preparation

Date: 8/7/2012 

Academic Writing

 In IELTS writing is divided into two parts:

Task 1: It includes Bar chart, Table, Pie chart, Line graph etc.

Task 2: Essay of general topics

It is important to understand how the examiner is going to grade our writing, before the beginning of our preparation. Mindful things to memorize while starting our writing on an exam or during the practice are:

1.      Task Response

Ø  Write between 150-200 words in Task 1 and 250-325 words in Task 2

Ø  Clearly identify the task in the introduction

Ø  State your position in the introduction and conclusion

Ø  Relate each paragraph with the task

2.      Coherence and cohesion:

Ø  Write in paragraph

Ø  Give clear introduction ,main argument and conclusion

Ø  Use example and reason for the main arguments

Ø  Link the sentences using linking words. Some examples are:-

 Because of this, …
As this shows, …

As can clearly be seen from this example, …

It is clear that…

Thus, the idea that…

To illustrate this, …

After analyzing both points of view, …

To provide a summary, …

Without a doubt, this causes…

Ø  Use the appropriate punctuation

3.      Lexical Resource

Ø  Do not repeat the same wording of the question

Ø  Determine if you have repeated same words consistently, if so avoid repetition

Ø  Practice the use of variety of vocabulary

Ø  Be sure to use vocabulary specific to the topic of the question

4.      Grammatical range and accuracy

Ø  Use correct spelling and punctuation

Ø  Use parallel structures

Ø  Write variety of sentence types, like: simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences

After analyzing all the marking strategies, lets discuss what to include in each paragraph of essay.

Introduction paragraph

   - A background sentence giving some background information on the essay topic.
   - A more detailed sentence linking the background sentence to the thesis.
   -A thesis that presents your point of view on your given topic.
   -An outline sentence declaring the 2 points you are going to use to support your thesis.

Supporting paragraph 1

    -A topic sentence illustrating the first point you will be presenting to support your thesis (this point taken from your outline sentence).
    -A sentence showing a real-life example of this topic in action.
    -A discussion sentence that shows how your example links or proves your topic sentence.

          In this step, it is necessary to understand how to introduce examples. One piece of language to do that is of course “for example”, then there is “for instance” or “an illustration of this is”. But best way to illustrate the example is using “if”, which is an excellent alternative for introducing examples, not least because it typically leads into a more extended example with a greater range of topic vocabulary.

    -A conclusion sentence that links this entire paragraph back to your thesis.

Supporting paragraph 2

    -A topic sentence illustrating the second point you will be presenting to support your thesis (this point taken from your outline sentence).
    -A sentence showing a real-life example of this topic in action.
    -A discussion sentence that shows how your example links or proves your topic sentence.
    -A conclusion sentence that links this entire paragraph back to your thesis.

Conclusion paragraph

    -A summary sentence that briefly states the 2 points you discussed in your supporting paragraphs.
    -A restatement of your thesis using different words.
   - A prediction or recommendation based on the topic you have been given.

Here are some Transition Words, which can be useful for both Task 1 and Task 2.

Big Adjectives	Small Adjectives	Steady Adjectives	Others
Spectacular Dramatic Substantial Significant Sudden Sharp Rapid Noticeable Wide Considerable	Modest Slight Marginal	Steady Consistent Gradual	Overall trend Downward trend Upward Trend Upturn Downturn

Up Verbs	Down Verbs
Soar Leap Surge Climb Rocket Grow Increase Rise Peak	Plummet Sink Dip Drop Slip back Dive Decline Plunge Slumped Fall Decrease

Cause	Effect
Accordingly As a result Because Because of Consequently Due to Eventually For this reason	Have an effect on Hence Owing to Reason for Since So Therefore Thus

Comparison	Contrast
Almost the same as Common with Correspond to In the same way At the same time Just as Like, Alike Resemblance Resemble Similar to Similarly To be parallel to Also	Different from Differ from Even so However In contrast to In opposition to Less than More than Otherwise Slower than Still Nonetheless Nevertheless Although Even though Yet Even if Even so Unlike

Time	Degree
Before After Since Next Then Soon At the same time While Meanwhile	Most important First Principally Above all Primarily In the first place Less important Second In the second place To a lesser degree

Explanation	Adding more Information and summarize
In other words Such as To clarify Like For instance For example That is To illustrate Namely To begin with	In addition Moreover Besides Furthermore Also As well as What’s more Above all In conclusion In summary Lastly Finally To sum up To conclude To recapitulate In short

Pie chart

While describing pie chart, the word percentage may be often repeated. To avoid this chance of repeating we can replace this word by proportion, amount, number, majority, minority etc. It is always better to use word percentage than percent. The correct way to use percent is per cent, even we use it less likely.

It is better to use percentage into fractions and with some appropriate words, like:

20%-One fifth or a fifth

21%-Around one fifth

24%-Almost a quarter

25%-One fourth or a quarter

33%-One third or a third

50 %-One half, a half

67%-Two third

66%-Precisely two thirds

75%-Three fourth or three quarters

73%-A significant majority, approximately three quarters

87%-A very large proportion

5%- A small fraction, an insignificant proportion

Noun Phrase	Former/respectively/such
One possible explanation is……., Another is………	Of the two, the former would appear to be
It is clear that sales of smart phones and laptops both rose substantially	by 48 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.
A number of suggestions have been put forward…………	One such suggestion is

Note: If you look for everything, you may find nothing, but if you look for something, you have every chance of finding it.

References:
http://www.ielts-blog.com/category/ielts-preparation-tips/writing-tips/page/2/
http://www.dcielts.com/