5 WORDS absolutely should not be used in IELTS writing Task 2

5 WORDS absolutely should not be used in IELTS writing Task 2

1. First and foremost / Last but not least

Many people think that the word “first” is very simple, so it is often thought that the longer the sentences look, the more dangerous they will impress. So many of you change first to the phrase “first and foremost” similarly, you will think of the phrase “Last but not least“.

However, the examiners in the IELTS exam said that “first and foremost” and “Last but not least” would not be suitable for IELTS writing academic instead, instead of simply using “first” “firstly” and “last”. “,” Lastly

2. Good

Good” is a common word in English, but “good” is considered a “brainwashing word” because it has a general meaning that is not suitable for task 2.

3. Bad

In contrast to “Good“, we have “bad” as a generic word and you should not use it for your IELTS writing.

4. Moreover, Besides …

These are 2 words that the natives rarely use in academic writing, so you need to brainwash these two words and instead you can use instead of other words.

Moreover – Furthermore

Besides – In addition / Additionally

5. In a nutshell, To put in a nutshell …

These are “informal” phrases so we absolutely should not use them in the conclusion sentence.  You should use “In conclusion” instead.

Above are very important phrases that every article we need in IELTS Writing Task 2, but hope that you should know what words you use the most reasonable and safe way to get high scores, please “brainwash” inappropriate phrases. 

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5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Band 8.5 Sample

IELTS writing task 1 - Bar chart

Introduce you to practice IELTS writing 5 writing Task 1 special samples or 8.5 Writing. With 5 sample articles you can use to refer to good ideas, special sentence structures used for writing, and how the writer connects the paragraphs together to create a coherent link.

#Sample 1:

“The bar chart below give information about five countries spending habits of shopping on consumer goods in 2012. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.”

IELTS writing task 1 - Bar chart

IELTS writing task 1 – Bar chart

The chart compares the spending habits of shoppers in five European countries on six consumer products, recorded console games, outdoor game accessories, cosmetics, books, toys and camera. Overall, more money was spent on the latter two than on any other product.

It can be observed that in Britain, the highest amount of money was spent on camera (more than 160 million pounds), while similar amounts were spent on console games and outdoor game accessories. The Austrian spent the second highest amount of money on the first three products while they stood last in the latter three. It is also revealed that Spanish spent more money on toys than on any other product (a bit less than £ 150 million), but they also paid a lot for camera. Finally, Belgian spent the least overall, having similar spending figures for all 6 products compared in the bar chart.

To sum up, the British were the biggest spenders in all six categories among the nations compared in the bar chart while the lowest spending levels were attributed to the residents of Belgium.

#Sample 2:

“The chart below gives information about” Istanbul Promo plus “sales in 2007. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant”

IELTS writing task 1 sample

IELTS writing task 1 sample

The chart shows how Promo Plus in Istanbul fluctuated over a period of 12 months. It is observed that in the first month of 2007, Promo Plus sales stood at 200 million turkish lira and rose slightly to reach about 225 million in February. This was followed by another increase, although much steeper, in March when sales where almost 125 million turkish lira higher than February.

However, this upward trend was suddenly broken and sales plummeted dramatically over the next 4 months to reach a little over 100 million turkish lira in July. August sales showed a significant rise back to January levels as figures nearly doubled, but this was not to last as they dropped again in September to the same level as they were in July. October came with a small increase of about 100 million turkish lira in sales, after which sales figures levelled off and about relatively static over the last two months of 2007.

Overall, Promo Plus in Istanbul fairly relatively unchanged in 2007 as January and December sales were fairly equal. Also, sales were at their highest in March while the weakest sales figures could be observed in July and September.

(197 words)

#Sample 3:

“The graphs below show the development of the cutting tools made by stone, one was made 1.4 million years ago, and the other was made 800 thousand years ago, viewing from back view, front view and side view. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. “

The given diagram illustrates the cutting stone tool and how it was advanced, from 1.4 million years ago to 800 thousand years ago. It can be clearly seen that the stone tool was improved into a sharper and better one, over the years.

The stone tool made 1.4 million years ago was more rounded at the top and bottom edges. From the front and the back view of the tool it is clear that the diameter in the middle was almost 5 cm and towards the top and bottom, it was around 3 cm wide. The side view shows that the tool was wider in the middle, with a diameter of around 3 cm and it tapered towards the top and the bottom ends. The back of the stone had fewer cuts than the front and they were also not very fine.

800 thousand years ago, this tool developed into a sharper, more refined tool. In the front and the back view it can be seen that the maximum diameter of the tool was the same as in the older tool, but it was more towards the lower side. The bottom tapered into a 1 cm point, but the top tapered more sharply into a 1 cm point. The side view makes it clear that it was much lesser in width (1.5 cm) than the older tool. The stone was more chiseled than the previous one.

#Sample 4:

“The graph below shows the pollution levels in London between 1600 and 2000. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant”

The graph shows pollution levels in London between 1600 and 2000. It measures smoke and sulfur dioxide in micrograms per cubic meter. According to the information, the levels of both pollutants formed a similar pattern during this period, but there were always higher levels of sulfur dioxide than smoke in the atmosphere.

In 1600, pollution levels were low, but over the next hundred years, the levels of sulfur dioxide rose to 700 micrograms per cubic meter, while the levels of smoke rose increased to about 200 micrograms per cubic meter. Over the next two hundred years the levels of sulfur dioxide continued to increase, although there was some fluctuation in this trend. They reached a peak in 1850. Smoke levels increased a little more sharply during this time and peaked in 1900 at about 500 micrograms. During the 20th century, the levels of both pollutants fell dramatically, though there was a great deal of fluctuation within this fall.

Clearly air pollution was a bigger problem in London in the early 20th century than it is now.

(176 words)

#Sample 5

“The charts below show the results of a survey about what people of different age groups say makes them most happy. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.”

There are several similarities between what younger and older people say makes them most happy. However, there are several striking differences.

Firstly, let us look at the similarities. It is noticeable that for both younger and older people, the highest percentage says that achievement at work brings them most happiness: 31% for the younger age group and 32% for the older group. Doing hobbies is also very important for both groups: the second largest percentage of both age groups mention doing hobbies as making them most happy.

Turning now to the differences, many younger people regard having a good appearance as extremely important: 18% of them state this brings them most happiness. This is followed by 15% who state that travel brings them happiness. Neither of these two factors is mentioned by older people. Instead, 20% of older people report that having financial security is most important to their happiness and 14% say they feel most happy when they are with their family.

(163 words)

Above are 5 great special samples of IELTS writing task 1, we want to share for you who want to get to a high writing score. In the following articles, we will share more good examples with many different topics. Get ready for it!

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Unit 12 – Writing task 2 – How to describe a topic with ‘Many’ and ‘Little’

Writing task 2 - How to describe a topic with 'Many' and 'Little'

If you notice, in the opening and closing sections we have written, there is a term used quite a lot, that is: more and less. We write many sentences like: there are many ways, there are many reasons, there are many causes … You can see that at one point, I cannot rely on “many” and ” a lot of “forever. You need to know other ways to say more and less.

A. Many

Apart from “many” and “a lot of”, there are several other ways you can use to say “many”. I will divide into two categories, “many” and “many and different”

a. Many:

many (many reasons)

a lot of (a lot of causes)

a myriad of (ways)

plenty of (resources)

a number of (choices)

countless / innumerable (people)

Some examples of possible nouns

With just the words above, you have expressed quite a lot of quantity already. Notice that the word pair at the bottom of “countless/innumerable” means quite heavy, not only many but also “countless, uncountable“, so you have to choose carefully accordingly.

For example you might say: Countless people prefer university. Many listeners still make sense, but avoid using “countless reasons“, because it’s obvious that the reason you listed only a few.

Apart from the above words, there is also a small branch of many “majority”.

a large part of

the majority of

most of

b, Just as much as different

We have a more specific meaning, “diversity”. To say “diverse”, you will have the following expressions:

various

a variety of

a wide variety of

a range of

many / a lot of / … (words above) + different

If you want to name and focus on categories, you should use the words above. They are more colorful than the “many” words listed earlier. For example, instead of “a lot of options“, you can use “various options“. Notice, the terms “more and more different” listed here should be avoided for people. We hardly say “a variety of people“, but we absolutely can say “a variety of food“. Don’t try to explain this in your native language (oh, but in my country follow this way), I’m learning English, and English speakers don’t think like that.

B. Little

Less” is also … less words. In fact, we say “a lot” in IELTS more than “a little” is a lot, but “less” has a lot of good expressions:

a. Basic:

few / little

(only) a handful of …

(only) a selected few …

Notice the word “only” here is used to emphasize the meaning (that’s all there is …)

b. Limited, rare

limited

finite

The words above refer to something that has a limited amount and is likely to run out. They are great if placed next to the words “resources“. You shouldn’t think of “resources” as just about “resources,” and its meaning is broad. It can be human resources, financial resources or intellectual resources. In addition, you can use words like resources, which means a “reserve” for something like: supply, funding, capabilities, …

c. Rare

This is the stronger word for “limited”. There are 2 common ways of saying “rare”, they are:

rare

scarce

You can associate the two words with any word that comes with the words “limited”. For example, instead of limited supply, it could be scarce supply, scarce resources.

d. Not enough

If you use “not enough”, it is completely OK. I just introduce some more words for us to change the wind:

insufficient

inadequate

The meaning is not enough, it is often used: not enough money, not enough time, not enough resources, …

For example: The inadequate supply of workers has led to a rise in salary.

Wish you all good study!

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Unit 11 – IELTS Writing task 2 – How to describe a bad thesis

IELTS Writing task 2 - How to describe a bad thesis

If there is a compliment, there must be criticism. In IELTS Writing, the topic is usually about a “problem”, so it feels like the article must always have something “bad” or “harmful”. Therefore, it is extremely useful to know many harmful expressions in IELTS. Similar to the previous article, we should not say sentences like:

A is bad

>>>> Review the previous lesson: How to describe a good thesis

Instead, we need to focus on how specific the “bad” is. You can follow one of the following methods:

1) Use correct adjectives

There are many adjectives with negative meanings, and negative sentences like this are a good opportunity to “pull” out these adjectives. For example, instead of saying:

Overeating is bad.

Say:

Overeating is detrimental/unhealthy.

For each noun that belongs to different topics, you have very different adjectives to attach to it. For example, if something is bad, it could be illegal, harmful, wasting time, etc. If a food is bad, it could be bad, unhealthy, expensive, … Think about what words you will use in your language to describe this, and find the English word that best fits your language word you know.

2) A waste of something

A very common meaning of “bad” is “wasting something”. For example:

Watching TV is bad => watching TV is a waste of time

Shopping for clothes is bad => shopping for clothes is a waste of money.

Note: you can change “is a waste of …” to the verb “waste”

Watching TV is a waste of time => Watching TV wastes a lot of time

Shopping for clothes is a waste of money => Shopping for clothes wastes a lot of money

3) A reduction of something of B

This is a fairly colorful way to interpret the subject’s “bad” in more detail. Take for example: watching lots of TV harmful to children. Think about what “watching TV” reduces to “children”.

There are many things, right? The “watching TV” can reduce first is the dynamism, moreover is the time for family, interaction with parents.

Watching TV is bad for children

=> Watching TV reduces children’s activity level.

=> Watching TV shortens the time children spend with their parents.

4) A raises something “bad” in B.

Similarly, we can rewrite in the opposite way that A raises an already “bad” quality in B.

For children, in contrast to the dynamic, it is definitely … tedious, cake dirt, lazy. Contrary to the time spent with parents, it is likely that children will be exposed to violence that is not suitable for their age.

Watching TV reduces children’s activity level => Watching TV encourages children’s laziness.

Watching TV shortens the time children spend with their parents => Watching TV means children are spending more time watching violent content.

Here are 4 easy to use methods to help you better describe the “bad” quality. You don’t have to stick to one method and use it for the whole article. Mixing all 4 ways together will give you a lively essay and show more language skills!

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Unit 10 – IELTS Writing task 2 – How to describe a good thesis

How to describe a good thesis

The art of writing, whether in IELTS or not, is about the author’s wording. In English, each person’s expression is more or less dependent on the “accuracy” of their language. Specifically, no one appreciates a sentence writer:

A is good

Some people write better than others in that they know how to properly express “good”. In IELTS Writing Task 2, we have to comment that one is good, the other is a lot worse, in other words: mention the benefits and harms. In this article, we will study how you can say “better” better.

A. Use the correct adjectives:

For each object, the “good” quality is expressed in many different aspects. For example:

“Good” foods can be delicious, nutritious or easy to make.

With each school meaning “delicious“, “nutritious” and “easy to make” we can use many different expressions. For example:

Instead of writing:

burgers are good

You can write:

+) delicious: burgers are delicious / burgers are scrumptious

+) nutritious: burgers are healthy / burgers are nutritional

+) easy to make: burgers are easy to make / it is so easy to make burgers

B. Who is good for what / what

You can more accurately express the “good” quality by saying who / what will enjoy the good:

Burgers are good for children.

Riding bikes are good for health

Computers are good for the development of society

Depending on the noun used, you might say what the advantage/ benefit is.

Burgers are good => Burgers have many benefits

Going to university is good => Going to university has many advantages

You note, “benefits” is always possible, but “advantages” are not. For example, it would be foolish to write “Burger has a lot of advantages.”

In benefits/advantages, you also have many ways to express. You can use the following 2 ways:

– A has this benefit:

=> A has a lot of benefits

=> There are a number of benefits to A

– A for B benefits this

=> A provides B with / gives B / offers B a lot of benefits

=> B benefits from A in many ways

For example:

Going to university is good for young people

=> Going to university has a lot of benefits

=> There are a number of benefits to attending university

=> Attending university provides young people with a lot of benefits

=> Young people benefit from going to university in many ways

C. In particular, which is better

If above we say:

A gives B many benefits

We can say more specifically which side of B will get better from A. For example:

Going to university provides young people with a lot of benefits

You can:

1) Use “in terms of …” at the end:

Going to university provides young people with a lot of benefits in terms of career.

2) A does “increase” something in B

Going to university improves young people’s career prospects.

Going to university betters young people’s understanding of society.

Going to university increases young people’s chances of finding a job.

3) A does “reduce” something bad in B

Eating vegetables reduces the chances of people having diseases.

Planning the week ahead eliminates the risk of people forgetting what they should do.

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Unit 9 – IELTS Writing task 2 – How to write long sentences in Task 2

IELTS Writing task 2 - How to write long sentences

In IELTS Writing Task 2, sentences like:

Smoking is bad.

Playing sports is good.

Children are watching too much TV.

Will definitely ruin your band point brutally. These sentences, as you can see, are “too modest” in length. In Speaking we can say short sentences, but in Writing we have to write long sentences.

Why does IELTS require long sentences?

IELTS is a test to mock a candidate’s language ability. If the candidate, despite being good in English, writing only short and speaking briefly, the examiner will not have a basis to assess their language ability. Therefore, IELTS test takers always try to write or speak long to have a “land” that shows all their vocabulary and grammar.

How to write long sentences?

There are some very easy ways to turn a short sentence into a “luridly flowing poetry” in Task 2:

A. Interpretation:

If you notice, the words “bad”, “good” and “too much” above do not tell the reader what specific information. If you are using these words, ask yourself “how bad is it?”, “How good?” and “how is how much?”

If you think about it, you will find that you can get closer to it:

Smoking => harmful health

Playing sports => good for health

Too much TV => more than you should

So, we can rewrite the sentence:

Smoking is bad for health

Playing sports is good for health

Children are watching TV far more often than they should.

B. Addition of words

Similar to the principle explained above, we can make sentences longer by modifying existing words, for example:

Smoking? How to smoke?

=> Frequent smoking (regular smoking)

(?) Is there any other way of saying longer?

=> Smoking on a regular basis is bad for health

Playing sports? What sports?

=> Playing competitive sports (playing competitive sports)

(?) playing too simple?

=> Participating in a number of competitive sports is good for health

(*) Note, with plural nouns, you can take advantage of the words “many” such as: a number of, various, a variety of, …

Children? Which children?

=> Children before secondary school are watching TV far more often than they should.

C. Use relative clauses

Relational clauses (which, who, that, whose, whom, …) are easy tools to extend sentences. You will simply use relative clauses to expand the meaning of a noun, or a whole sentence. For example:

Smoking, an activity which most men in Vietnam do everyday, is bad for health

Playing competitive sports which involves a lot of physical activities (good physical activity) is good for health

Open to whole sentence:

Children are watching TV far more often than they should, which affects their mind and body in a negative way.

D. Return “owner” for nouns

In fact, this principle is similar to the explanation. You can, instead of just naming a noun, attach a certain ownership to the noun. For example:

Smoking is bad for people’s health.

Playing sports is good for children’s health.

Here are 4 common methods to expand sentences both in terms of meaning and number of words. You can use only 1, or you can combine 2,3, even 4 methods to write sentences. However, it should be noted not to abuse these methods to create clumsy sentences, explain unnecessary things.

You practice regularly to be more proficient, thereby conquering IELTS Writing task 2 better offline!

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Unit 8 – IELTS Writing task 2 – How to find ideas for the Task 2 test

How to find idea for IELTS Writing Task 2

One of the biggest problems for candidates who take the Writing Task 2 exam is … being implicit. It is true that the great vocabulary or complex grammar that wants to show it is always necessary to mean. So when the secret, we have to do?

First of all, we need to know where the essay, or thesis, comes from. When writing an IELTS Writing Task 2, we must “put” our views into the article. That perspective, or the way we perceive everything around us, comes from the information we read or interact with every day. So the question you need to ask here is, what information are you exposed to every day?

Not necessarily in English, the information we interact with daily can be news, media, social networks, gossip with colleagues, etc. If you are not in contact with one of the This type of information, you should learn and create habits for yourself to see them every day. I usually get information from online newspapers and news, 2 sources that I think anyone on this day can also access.

So from the information sources that you read, you form two great arguments to use for the body of the text. Let’s take an example of a recent topic: university vs. vocational school

Suppose we support the university completely, so now we have to give 2 reasons to support the university?

Here is your first suggestion: “why?” Why support “university”? Support is good for the university to support, right? => Why is university good? => What does good mean, is there any benefit? => university what is the benefit? Benefits are specifically for whom, for those who go to school, right? => What are the benefits of University for students?

Continuously asking questions to clarify what is not clear from the “why?” is a way to shape big arguments. Now, suppose we have a big point:

University helps learners find jobs.

The next question you should ask is “Why?”

=> University gives learners the skills necessary to work

After the “Why?” Question, you should ask “How?”, Or “How is university for people to learn skills? How does it work? Is there anything at university that helps people get skills?” power?” => “Ah, courses”

The question “why” helps readers understand why you think so, while the “how” helps illustrate the reader to add persuasion. So, when the know-how in task 2, ask yourself the “why” and “how” questions in turn. You will get a complete, tight essay without “scattering” about unrelated issues.

I wish you a high score in the IELTS writing test!

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Unit 7 – IELTS Writing task 2 – Common topics in Task 2

Common Topics in Writing Task 2

Each task 2 question has a request and a topic. If you are asking a topic to shape the way it is written, the topic will determine the content. Once we have identified the topic of the lesson, we can choose the vocabulary appropriate to that topic to write the sentence.

We can package the topics in Task 2 into the following 10 main sections:

– Health

– Environment

– Education

– Globalization

– Development

– Public Transport

– Crime

– Technology

– Government

– Employment

There may be smaller topics, but it is also one of the 10 main topics here. So how do we build the vocabulary for these topics?

1. Read the sample text:
The fastest way for you to acquire vocabulary that is sufficient and appropriate for each topic is to read sample literature. Specifically, when reading the sample text, identify the main topic of the article you are reading, then look for words under this topic and underline. Often the “unique” words for each topic will be nouns, so pay special attention to this word format.

2. Read the paper:
The principle is the same as above, but you will have less chance of finding words to learn. The simple reason is that the vocabulary of the newspaper is quite large, but in the sample text, words that have been written almost can be used. However, newspapers and magazines are still the standard of language that we want to target.

3. See Ted Talks:
If you haven’t already, the above topics are all social topics. But for social topics, there is hardly a better source of reference than Ted Talks. When the speakers speak, you should note the special words of the topic they are talking about. Again, note the noun.

In addition, to help you learn better Wiki Study English will have a lot of sharing for many different topics. Thereby, for each topic, there will be similarities and differences as well as a vocabulary-grammar system with different levels. This will help you to conquer IELTS Writing task 2 with the highest possible score.

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Unit 6 – Writing task 2 – Read and understand the topic in Writing task 2

Read and understand the topic in IELTS Writing Task 2

One of the most basic requirements, if you read the grading barem, of Writing, is “address the question”. The question asks me what, I have to answer that. It sounds simple, but the reality is that there are too many friends who are “adventurous”, focusing on “topics” rather than asking questions. So, we need to determine the problem requirements before we start writing Task 2.

Task 2 has 4 main types of topics:

A. Opinion

This topic usually has common sentences such as:

– How much do you agree with this statement?

– Do you agree with this statement?

– To what extent to do you agree with this statement?

You can easily identify this topic when it asks if we have: agree or disagree with a point raised earlier.

With this form, you can choose to follow one of two directions: (1) totally agree / disagree or (2) half lean and half fat (partly agree). With the complete form, you will follow the structure:

Open lesson => Reason 1 => Reason 2 => Summarize

With half lean, half fat form, you will write:

Post => Aspect agree => Disagree aspect => Summarize

Whichever type of answer you choose, the examiner will not judge whether you chose “true” or “false”. However, according to the experience of 99% of IELTS test takers, going “completely” is always safer and easier to write. There are some things that would be silly to write both yes and no, for example:

Smoke:

=> Idea 1: extremely harmful to health

=> Idea 2: looks very cool

Obviously, going in the “completely” direction will be a lot easier to write. Remember, the examiner doesn’t care what you answer, people just care how you express the answer.

B. Discuss / Discuss + Opinion

This article is easy to recognize, because it simply has the word … discuss. The discussion will give you 2 points. It may ask you:

– talking about 2 points of view (A)

– talk about 2 views + give your opinion (B)

This article is also quite easy to write, with type A, you just need to write:

Open lesson => Viewpoint 1 => Viewpoint 2 => Summary

With type B, people will ask what opinion you support, that is, you will have to choose. After choosing the opinion that you support, you will write

Open lesson => Viewpoint 1 => Viewpoints that I support => Summary

Note, when writing point 1 in form B, not that you “object” to this view. You simply give out the reason why others support it.

C. Problems + Solutions

We can identify this form of post quite easily by the phrases:

– What are the causes?

– What do you think causes this?

– What are the solutions?

In short, see “causes” & “solutions”. The way of writing this article is simple:

Open the post => Causes => Solutions => Emphasize the need to do right solutions

When writing causes and solutions, the easiest way is to write in an enumeration, for example

– Causes: There are a number of causes to …

– Solutions: A number of solutions can be used …

Then list out the causes and solutions. Quite systematic and simple.

D. 2-part questions

Finally, there are 2-part questions, which are quite easy to recognize because there will be no sign words for the above forms, but 2 question marks.

=> …? …?

This is also very easy to write:

Go to lesson => Answer question 1 => Answer question 2 => Finish lesson

So here are 4 types of topics in Task 2, please pay attention to write as required so you don’t get lost!

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Unit 5 – Writing task 1 – How to read a large data sheet in IELTS Writing task 1

How to read a large data sheet in IELTS Writing Task 1

Of all the types of tables, Table is probably the most difficult to read. It has too much data and often has no ordering. This leads to a situation where “numbers are still numbers” but have no meaning, making it difficult to compare and describe. So, when approaching a Table, the first thing before starting to write is to rearrange the information to make sense.

Have a look at the following table:

The table below gives information on consumer spending on different items in five different countries in 2002.

You can see there are 15 numbers in this table. Of course, we cannot report each number in turn. Instead, choose a axis to compare. You can go along (by Country) or traverse by each type of item (by Items):

  • Follow Country: if you use Country as the axis to describe, you will consider each country to see how they spend on the three items in the table.
  • Following Items: If Items are axes, you would describe the difference in expenditure for each item of the country.
    When doing Table task, not choosing any axis will give us 2 equivalent posts. In fact, one axis makes us have a more logical article than the other axis. If you notice above, if you write in Country, you will have to write an article of 6 different ideas, while writing in Items, the coal only has 3 different ideas. Similar to the spirit of the chart article, we always try to make fewer and more comparisons. So we can see, if followed Items, our article will have more comparisons (5 objects vs 3 objects). This also means that the reader after reading our article will remember more.

After selecting the axis, we can go into the table description. Like charting articles, you should always comment on this table. Since we have set an axis to describe as Items, we will comment on Items. It can be seen that people spend the most on Food / Drinks / Tobacco and at least on Leisure / Education

Looking at the graph, it is immediately obvious that people in six countries spend the most on food, drinks and tobacco while allocating the smallest portions of their budget to leisure and education.

Note: You can see above is that the word spend on the first side has been paraphrase back to allocate … portion to the back. In Task 1, we try not to repeat the two structures. Of course, you can write “… spend the most … spend the least …”, but the article will be more appreciated if you have more than one way to express an idea.

After making a general comment, you will go into the description along the selected axis. So, if you use Items as an axis, you will describe the difference of the same item in different countries. You should note not to write in this way:

In Food / Drink / Tobacco, Ireland spent A%. Italy spends B%. Spain spends C%. etc.

This style of writing does not reflect the relationship between the countries we want to compare. Instead, group the countries together. Looking at the table, we can clearly see that in Food / Drink / Tobacco, Ireland and Turkey spend significantly more than in the other 3 countries. So you can write:

Among the five countries, it can be noted that the expenditure for food, drinks and tobacco of Turkey and Ireland was significantly higher than that of the others, at 32.14% and 28.91% respectively. In the same category, Italy, Spain and Sweden all spent under 20% of their budget with Sweden having the smallest percentage at 15.77%.

As you can see, none of the expressions are used twice. You can repeat, but if possible, avoid doing this in the same paragraph. Task 1 only has 12-15 sentences, so it is not difficult to paraphrase.

Similarly, you can write a paragraph describing the remaining 2 items as follows:

Compared to food, drinks and tobacco, spending for clothing and footwear is noticeably lower in all countries. With the exception of Italy who spent 9% on these items, the expenditure of the other countries in this category was relatively the same and below 7%. The smallest proportion of spending was allocated to leisure and education. In this category, Turkey has the highest percentage of national consumer expenditure at 4.35% while the smallest figure can be seen in Spain at only 1.98%.

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Unit 4 – Writing task 1 – General comment in IELTS Task 1

General Comment in IELTS Task 01

There is a very important part that is very easy to write in IELTS Writing Task 1 that many people take the exam or ignore, which is the general comment. In the right order, the first task when writing Task 1 is to paraphrase the topic, and before going into describing the details of the drawing, you must write a summary of about 1-2 sentences. You should note that never write more than 2 sentences to summarize, because if you write more, you are writing too specific.

So what do you need to write in the general comment section? Simply what catches your eye first. However, our eyes are not the same. The details you immediately notice may not be seen by others. So, a good rule of thumb for all Task 1 lessons is to: comment on the overall trend and / or order comments.

For this general comment, you should have a sentence template to get started. The most common, easy and effective sentence patterns are:

It is immediately obvious that … = Immediately obvious that …

There are also other spellings such as: It can be seen that …, it is transparent that …, etc. Notice that ways like “I can see” or “we can see” are not mentioned. In Task 1 as well as Task 2, we always try to avoid the use of human pronouns (I, you, we, they, he, she), because these words reduce the formality of the sentence. .

You can also add at the beginning of the phrase:

Looking at the graph / chart / diagram / picture …

In addition to the sentence pattern above, we have a sentence like “Looking at the chart, we have …” quite similar in math. This is an easy-to-remember sentence pattern that every candidate should understand and memorize to make the test smooth and effective.

A. Look in order

With the multi-line graphs or objects as above, ask yourself: which one is the largest or has the highest proportion? So, with the chart above you can write:

Looking at the graph, it is immediately obvious that people in Germany spend the most money on books out of the four countries.

B. Looking at the general trend

For items that have few objects (1-2 subjects) or no clear order, you should comment on the overall trend of all subjects. Although in the picture above, the order of the lines has changed, but in general, the trend of the lines is going up, because the end point is higher than the starting point. You can write:

Looking at the graph, it is immediately obvious that all three countries experience an increase in the number of people aged 65 years and over.

C. General commenting process (Process)

So what about non-numerical articles and trends like Process? For Process threads, you will write a general sentence to group the steps into the main stages: what to start with and what to end with. For example, study the following topic:

The above diagram can be divided into several steps, however, we can divide it into the main stages as follows:

  • Getting started: use limestone and clay to create cement
  • Finish: using cement and other materials to create concrete

After writing the opening sentence: The diagram shows …, we can add the general comment section right behind without having to go to a new sentence:

The diagram shows …, beginning with transforming limestone and clay into cement and finally adding that to a combination of other materials to produce concrete.

D. General comment Maps

Please rely on the peculiarities of maps to comment on it. All maps show the change of a place over the years, and this change usually revolves around the addition and loss of buildings (buildings, roads, …). The map above is a difficult problem of a difficult problem. However, you can see the change of this map taking place in two aspects: the appearance of roads and the appearance of new buildings. If you pay close attention, new buildings only appear after roads are built. So, you can write:

Looking at the picture, it can be seen that more buildings emerge in the village following the construction of different types of roads.

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Unit 3 – Writing Task 1 – The increase / decrease in the IELTS Writing Task 1

The increase / decrease in the IELTS Writing Task 1

Statistically, Task 1 is most likely to fall into a number of graphs that focus on numbers: bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and tables. In these types of articles, we focus on describing the changing or unchanged of numbers. So one of the most important vocabulary topics for this test is how to say the data increase/decrease

In the most basic form, we have the increase (and decrease) duo. Anyone who takes IELTS must know these two words. However, one more thing that every IELTS test person must know, that is to avoid word duplication. In a 10-15 sentence essay in Task 1, you have to show a wide range of vocabulary, which means you have to know more than one way to say a word. So, do we have other ways to describe the increase and decrease?

1. Increase

Interestingly, the other vocabulary for describing increase/decrease and even “advanced” than increase/decrease are the simple verbs that we come into contact with when we first learn English. Specifically, these are verbs that indicate an upward movement, such as:

Climb (climb the mountain)

.Rise (Sun rises)

Escalate (The escalator goes up)

Or simply go up

The fact that you use a variety of words rather than just using one word will help you easily improve vocabulary points in Task 1. In addition to the words above, sometimes you have to use the words “stronger” to Describe a sharp increase. In English, we also have very “figurative” words to describe this increase:

Shoot like a rocket (verb skyrocket or shoot up)

Soaring like an eagle (verb soar)

2. Reduction

Corresponding to the above rising words, we also have the opposite words with the opposite meaning, for example

Go up => Go down

Rise => Fall

In addition, we also have some other words that are quite memorable and familiar, such as decrease, reduce or drop.

With the sharp decline, in IELTS you will mainly use two words that are also relatively “figurative”: dip (sink) and plunge (dive).

You should pay close attention to the strength of the trends, because vocabulary points will be most appreciated when you use the most accurate words.

Take a look at a chart below:

This chart has a clear uptrend, but there are two types of gains, slow and fast. It can be seen that before 1985, national recycling rates inched up very slowly, but after this year, the increase was very strong.

So we can write:

Overall, total waste recovery increased. From 1985, it skyrocketed.

Other spelling
If you notice, the words given above are all verbs. So, when using these words, we will often write S + V sentences like:

A + increase / decrease / fall / rise / …

This style of writing is completely OK, but in IELTS, besides dividing the correct verb, if we show many different sentence patterns, the grammar of the article will be more appreciated. So is there any way we can describe an increase / decrease without verbs?

The simplest way is to use the nouns of the verbs above. Some of the verbs above have noun forms, and the great thing is that their noun forms are written exactly like the verb form. For example, you have:

Rise => a rise

Fall => a fall

Drop => a drop

But how to use these nouns? Obviously, all sentences in English have verbs. So what verb are we going to use?

Please write the following form:

A + experience + a rise / a fall / a drop …

So, the sentence above that we wrote:

Overall, total waste recovery increased. From 1985, it skyrocketed.

Can be rewritten to:

Overall, total waste recovery experienced an increase.

Please note that not all words can be converted into nouns. You should only use the structure “experience + nouns” with the words: rise / fall / drop and increase / decrease.

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