IELTS writing bible by DC IELTS task 1

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IELTS
Writing
Task 1

May 4

2016

Tổng hợp bài giảng IELTS Writing Task 1 của thày Dominic Cole từ Facebook page
Tôi được 9 điểm Viết IELTS

IELTS Kungfu


Contents
Bạn cần làm gì với IELTS Writing Task 1 | Understand what you need to do in task 1 ...................................... 3
Tổng quan Task 1 .............................................................................................................................................................. 4
The chart types ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Biểu đồ tĩnh và động về mặt thời gian ................................................................................................................ 4
A video tutorial ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Những ngôn ngữ cần dùng ................................................................................................................................... 4
Line graph & Trend vocabulary .................................................................................................................................... 6
Từ vựng chỉ xu hướng | Trend vocabulary............................................................................................................. 6
Up verbs................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Down verbs ............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Từ vựng chỉ xu hướng | Tính từ và Trạng từ ......................................................................................................... 9
Other useful adjectives ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Bar charts ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Phân tích những thông tin chính và nổi bật | Analysing the key details .......................................................... 12
Tìm những điểm giống và khác | Ask yourself if the lines look similar, different or the same .................. 13

Bố cục bài làm và Nguyên tắc: Chọn cách đơn giản nhất | Choose the simplest option.......................... 13
Main details – NOT every detail ......................................................................................................................... 15
Some tips ............................................................................................................................................................... 15
Hãy luôn bắt đầu với những gì nổi bật và dễ nhìn | Start with the obvious................................................. 17
A sample report .................................................................................................................................................... 20
Hướng dẫn lựa chọn thông tin đúng cho Bar chart | Choosing the right details in a bar chart (chi tiết) ........ 21
Cách bố cục bài ............................................................................................................................................................ 21
Kỹ năng paraphrase | The key skill – paragraphing........................................................................................ 21
Key features là gì? | What are key features? ................................................................................................... 21
Pie charts – những cách để miêu tả tỷ lệ | Pie charts – different ways to describe percentages ................... 24
Bảng biểu | Tables ....................................................................................................................................................... 33
Bức tranh tổng thể | The big picture/summary ................................................................................................ 34
Cách nhóm thông tin | How to group information together ............................................................................ 34
A sample task ....................................................................................................................................................... 37
Ví dụ về việc table có quá nhiều số liệu | The problem – too much information ........................................ 37
Giải pháp | A solution – divide and conquer..................................................................................................... 37
Đâu là main features? | What are the main features? .................................................................................... 38
Bố cục bài làm | Organising your report ........................................................................................................... 39
Ngôn ngữ so sánh | Comparisons in task 1 tables ................................................................................................. 39
Process diagrams: tổng quan..................................................................................................................................... 44
1


Diagram – hãy tìm điểm đầu và điểm cuối | Reading a process diagram – find the beginnings and ends
................................................................................................................................................................................. 44
Hiểu các bước trong quy trình | Understand the different stages of the process ....................................... 45
Hướng dẫn bố cục bài | Find a way of organising your description ............................................................. 45
Mở bài và kết luận | The introduction and conclusion .................................................................................... 45
Ngôn ngữ miêu tả | The language of the description ..................................................................................... 45
Bài mẫu và phân tích chi tiết | Sample description with detailed notes ....................................................... 46

Diagrams: Ngôn ngữ chỉ quy trình | The language of process diagrams ........................................................................ 48
Diagrams: dạng bài miêu tả quy trình tự nhiên | Describing a natural process in task 1 writing ..................... 50
IELTS Writing Task 1: Hướng dẫn luyện tập hàng ngày ....................................................................................... 54
Tài nguyên Task 1 – The Economist ................................................................................................................. 54
Task 1: Lỗi kết hợp từ.................................................................................................................................................. 55
Bài mẫu Task 1 ................................................................................................................................................................ 58
The Olympics medal table........................................................................................................................................... 58
Two pie charts and a line graph – farming in the UK .................................................................................................. 62
Bao nhiêu paragraphs là đủ? | How many paragraphs? – Normally two....................................................................... 63
Ngôn ngữ So sánh trong Task 1 ................................................................................................................................ 67
Amounts and numbers ........................................................................................................................................ 67
Differences ............................................................................................................................................................ 68
Similarities ............................................................................................................................................................. 68
Sử dụng Thời trong Task 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 70
Task 1: Hướng dẫn viết Kết luận ............................................................................................................................... 74

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Bạn cần làm gì với IELTS Writing Task 1 |
Understand what you need to do in task 1
The place to start is to know what the examiner wants you to do. The instructions are the same each
time.
Bài giảng video />
3


Tổng quan Task 1
This is the first in a series of postings about how to approach academic task 1 in the writing paper. The
starting point is to be aware of the different types of charts and graphs you may see. The key point is

that each chart and graph will require a different form of language.

The chart types
There are 4 different chart type you may see in the exam:
1.
2.
3.
4.

the bar chart/line graph
the pie chart
the table
the process/diagram

Biểu đồ tĩnh và động về mặt thời gian
You should note that there are 2 major types of chart and graph: the static chart and the dynamic
chart. The static chart shows only one period of time or has no time element. In contrast, the dynamic
chart shows two or more periods of time or a change over a period of time.
It is essential to note this as static charts and dynamic charts require different language. You cannot
use the famous “trend language” in static charts where there is no change in time. Many candidates
focus exclusively on this language. That is a big mistake.

A video tutorial
In this video, I talk through the different chart types and describe some of the typical problems they
present.
/>
Những ngôn ngữ cần dùng
What language do you need for academic task 1? It will depend on the chart/graph you see. These are
the main possibilities:
topic specific language: if the graph is about leisure activities, you will need leisure activity language;

if it is about employment, you will need employment language, etc. You should note that to get a
reasonable score, you will need to vary the language in the question and the chart: it is not sufficient to
copy that language.
comparison language: typically, you will need to compare and contrast in tables, charts and graphs.
You will need this language whether the chart/graph is static or has a time element. To get a good
score, you will need more than one comparison structure: it is not sufficient to repeat the same
comparing structure every time.
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trend/change language: this language is only appropriate in charts/graphs where there is a change of
time. If there is no time element, or if there is only one period of time then you do not need this
language.
process language: if you see a diagram or process, then you will need the language to describe
processes (first, then, next etc)

5


Line graph & Trend vocabulary
Advice on how to write an IELTS task 1 report from a graph

Từ vựng chỉ xu hướng | Trend vocabulary
This post looks at some vocabulary for IELTS writing task 1 when you need to describe a graph or
chart that has a time element. I begin by looking at some of the most common vocabulary you need.
Then I give you some variations and talk about some grammar.

The most basic trend vocabulary – a few variations
Let’s look at this graph and see what words we need to describe it. Put simply we need language that
describes







up (2009 to 2010),
down (2008 to 2009),
up and down (between 2006 and 2009)
no change (2006 and 2007)
the top (2010)

The trend vocabulary I am going to suggest may seem very basic. It does, however, allow you to say
the same thing in up to 6 different ways.That’s good.
Tip: if you find yourself repeating a word, try changing the form of it from a verb to a noun
You should also note that, even with this basic language, there are a variety of grammar problems that
cause many candidates problems. That’s bad.

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Up variations

Down variations

Up and down

Sometimes you need to describe a graph that goes up and then down. Here we have fewer options.

No change

7


Top

Từ vựng chỉ xu hướng | Giới từ

1 – by and to
Prepositions are horrid in English. Have another look at the graph:

Note how these two sentences mean exactly the same:
The rate of unemployment rose to 12% in 2010.
The rate of unemployment rose by 5% in 2010.

2 – in and of
This one is harder. We use “in” to describe changes in things and “of” to describe changes in number
or amount. For example,
There was a rise in the rate of unemployment
There was a rise of 5% in the rate of unemployment.

Từ vựng chỉ xu hướng | Động từ
These verbs are alternatives to the basic rise and fall vocabulary. One benefit of using them is that
sometimes they help you avoid repeating too many numbers. If you have a strong verb, you don’t
always have to give the exact figure.

Up verbs

8

Notes:




“Soar “and “rocket” are both very strong words that describe large rises. “Rocket” is more sudden. You
probably do not need to qualify these verbs with adverbs.
“Leap” shows a large and sudden rise. Again, you probably do not need to qualify it with an adverb.
“Climb” is a relatively neutral verb that can be used with the adverbs below.

Down verbs

Notes:





“Plummet” is the strongest word here. It means to fall very quickly and a long way.
“Drop” and “drop” are normally used for fairly small decreases
“Slip back” is used for falls that come after rises
“Drop” and “Dip” are also frequently used as nouns: eg “a slight dip” “a sudden drop”

Từ vựng chỉ xu hướng | Tính từ và Trạng từ
Bài tập thực hành với tính từ và trạng từ chỉ xu hướng
/>
This is a selection of some of the most common adjectives and adverbs used for trend language.
Please be careful. This is an area where it is possible to make low-level mistakes. Make sure that you
use adjectives with nouns and adverbs with verbs:

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






a significant rise – correct (adjective/noun)
rose significantly – correct (adverb/verb)
a significantly rise – wrong wrong wrong
Please also note the spelling of the adverbs. There is a particular problem with the word “dramatically:
dramatically – correct
dramaticly – wrong
dramaticaly – wrong

Adjectives of degree

notes



“sudden” and “sharp” can be used of relatively minor changes that happen quickly
“spectacular” and “dramatic” are very strong words only to used to big, big, big changes

Steady adjectives

Small adjectives

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notes


“marginal” is a particularly useful word for describing very small changes

Other useful adjectives
These adjectives can be used to describes more general trends

notes



“overall” can be used to describe changes in trend over the whole period: very useful in introductions
and conclusions
“upward” and “downward” are adjectives: the adverbs are “upwards” and “downwards”

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IELTS task 1 – Bar charts
Advice on how to write an IELTS task 1 report from a bar chart

Identifying patterns in bar charts
This lesson looks in detail at one way to organise your answer when describing a chart or graph in part
1. The suggestion is that you should try and look for patterns in the data. When you write, you report

those patterns and note any exceptions to them. This works on several levels:




your writing becomes more coherent – linking ideas together
you are more likely to identify the key points
the report becomes easier to write
To help you do this, you will find a bar chart with a sample answer below. I also show you one way
how to identify patterns in bar charts.

Sample task
The bar chart below shows the different types of accommodation chosen by the British when
they went on holiday in 2012. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main
features, and make comparisons where relevant

Phân tích những thông tin chính và nổi bật | Analysing the key details

Don’t look at the whole chart, look at the x axis and the y axis separately

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The first step is to analyse the chart – carefully. Don’t rush this stage. One way to do this is by asking
yourself some simple questions. Ask yourself which is the biggest/longest? Are there any patterns? As
you do this I suggest that you
don’t worry about names of countries and types of accommodation. Think colours and lengths. Look
don’t read.
look at each element one by one. It can be very confusing of you look at the chart as a whole.
look at the extremes (the biggest/the smallest) first – they are almost always important

look for patterns – these are also important. Note that a pattern can have exceptions.
note exceptions – these are also details you want to include.

Tìm những điểm giống và khác | Ask yourself if the lines look similar, different or
the same
Try this brief quiz to analyse the y axis. As you go through the test, you should notice how I ask simple
questions. What is the biggest? Are they the same, different or similar? Does any one bar look
different from the rest? Remember that you are looking for patterns.
My conclusion from this is that we must state:






hotels were the most common form of accommodation at over 50%
self-catering was second most popular (just below 30%) but there is one major exception
caravan and camping holidays were typically least popular (around 10%) but again there was an
exception
England, Scotland and Wales follow a broadly similar pattern (Scotland is only slightly different)
the popularity of caravanning in Northern Ireland needs to be highlighted

Bố cục bài làm và Nguyên tắc: Chọn cách đơn giản nhất | Organising the report –
choose the simplest option
There is always more than one way to organise a report. In the exam you are under time pressure, so
it makes sense to choose the simplest option. Here the 2 main choices you have are:



go through each type of accommodation (the y axis option)

go through the countries (the x axis option)
My choice would be to use the countries. There are only 4 of them and 3 of those are very similar and
it seems natural and easy to group England, Scotland and Wales together. Northern Ireland is the odd
one out.

A sample answer
This answer is not perfect. It is not meant to be. Rather you should note how it is logically
organised, grouping similar information together. There is one paragraph for England, Scotland
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and Wales showing the main pattern. I start by noting the most evident feature of the chart. I also use
England as a model and then compare the situation in Wales and Scotland. Then there is a separate
paragraph for Northern Ireland, highlighting the key exception.
This bar chart shows illustrates the holiday accommodation chosen by people in the United Kingdom in
2010. Generally, it is possible to say that the English, Scottish, Northern and Welsh made very similar
choices and that hotels were much the most popular form of accommodation.
In all four countries approximately half the people chose to stay in hotels. This figure was highest in
England at around 55%, almost twice the number of people who cooked for themselves (27% of the
sample) and far greater than the number who stayed in campsites (12%) and finally caravans (6%). A
similar pattern was repeated for the Scots and the Welsh. In each case, around 50% of holidaymakers
went to hotels with around 30% in self-catering apartments. The one difference being that caravan
holidays at 12% were twice as popular as camping holidays in Scotland, while the opposite pattern
could be seen in Wales.
The one country that shows a different pattern is Northern Ireland. It is notable how there just over
30% of the population chose caravan holidays in preference to self-catering accommodation and
camping (both around 12%).

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Bar chart: tổng quan
In academic task 1 it is important to learn how to read a chart and a graph. This is because the
instructions always tell you to summarise and select and report on the main features of the graphic.
Many candidates make the mistake here of including as much detail as possible in their report. This
brief tutorial gives you a sample task 1 report and some tips on how to select the main features of a
bar chart.

Main details – NOT every detail
The task in academic part 1 almost always contains these words:
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

This means that you cannot/should not try to report all the detail in the visual. If you do, it will be hard
to write well in 150 words and more importantly you may be penalised on task response.

Some tips
Here are some general tips to help you select the main features on bar charts in brief.

1.
2.
3.
4.

look at the top
look at the bottom
can you see an average?
are there any exceptions?

An exercise
Look at this bar chart and see what main features you would select to report. There are at least 21

different features on the chart and you cannot report them all! Then watch the video below to see if you
agree with me. My sample answer is further down the page.
Bài giảng video
/>A sample essay

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This bar chart compares how long people can expect to live in seven different countries.
We can see that in each of the seven countries people have a life expectancy of between63 years and 83
years. People will live longest in Canada at 83 years and the UnitedStates (81 years), while Bangladesh
has the lowest life expectancy at just 63 years. Of theother countries, Turkey, Vietnam, Iran and India all
have a similar level close to theaverage of 73 years.
We should also note that women are expected to live longer than men in all thesecountries. On average,
females will live approximately 4 years longer than men, althoughthere are differences here. The greatest
difference is in the United States (about 5 years),while in Iran females are expected to live only 2 years
longer than men. However, themajor exception is Bangladesh where both genders have the same
life expectancy.
Thus, we can see there are comparisons to be made in life expectancy both ingeographical location and
gender.

Hướng dẫn lựa chọn thông tin bar chart | Choosing the right details in a bar
chart
This lesson is designed to help you think about how part 1 IELTS writing works. The idea is that many
of the problems with task 1 writing are caused by the thinking part – analysing the data. That matters
because the goal in task 1 is not just to describe the information in the chart, but to summarise it
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by selecting the key data. To do this, you need to spend time thinking – it is not simply a vocabulary

exercise.
I’d add that time spent thinking is rarely wasted. If you spend 3/4 minutes thinking of what details to
include, the report actually becomes easier to write. All the “ideas” are there (good for your Task
Response score) and it becomes much easier to organise the report (good for your Coherence and
Cohesion score).

Thực hành
This is a simple bar chart similar to one you might find in task 1. Your task is to analyse and decide
what information you would choose to include in your writing.
1. Look at the chart and think for 3/4 minutes
2. Make notes of what details you would include
3. Try the test – how many of the details I suggest did you find?
Have problems? Disagree with me? Read on below.

Hãy luôn bắt đầu với những gì nổi bật và dễ nhìn | Start with the obvious
Sometimes it is easy to forget to include a detail because it looks too simple. Don’t do that. Simple
matters. If you don’t include these simple details, your writing will lack clarity. The tip here is to look at
the simple (that word again) things like colours and line lengths – let the visual help you. Do that and
you get something like this:
1. there are 6 countries
2. some bars are longer than others – there are significant differences in the proportion of proficient
second language speakers among the different countries
3. there are two colours of bars – males and females are included in the study
4. the green lines are typically longer – generally more females than males are proficient in a second
language

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Bố cục bài theo key info | Look at the key – use it to organise your

answer
The key can also help you. Its role is to show what the different lines mean. One thing that you can do
is to use it to organise your answer: in this case, that means making sure you write about:




males
females
a comparison of males and females

I’ve helped you here by reorganising the data. This is what you should see and need to include:
1. India is much the largest (around 55%)
2. China is the smallest (about a third of India) (around 17%)
3. Romania, Vietnam, Russia and Thailand are in that order and approximately similar (between 32 and
42%)

Likewise with females, it’s
a good idea to look at the extremes and this is what you get:
1. India and Romania are the largest (around 65% and 65% respectively)
2. Thailand is the smallest (about 27%)
3. There are fairly significant differences between Vietnam, Russia and China

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Comparisons are almost always important. Here you should see:
1. Typically, more females are proficient than males
2. Thailand is the exception because there the pattern is reversed (the lines cross)
3. Romanian females appear to be especially good at languages

Look at the axes
Another detail you need to include is that the percentage of second language learners varies
considerably from country to country. You can see this by simply looking at the length of the lines on
the “y” (vertical) axis. To help you see this, I have re-organised the data in a pie chart:

Key information to include from this is that overall:
1. China has significantly the lowest proportion of second language speakers
2. India is much the largest
3. there are no major differences between Romania, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam
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A sample report
Take a look at this sample report and see how I have included the relevant details.
This bar chart shows how second language proficiency varies between males and females in 6
different countries. It is immediately apparent that while there is significant regional variation in second
language ability, typically a higher percentage of females than males speak a second language well.
If we look at males we can see that India has much the greatest proportion of proficient second
language speakers at around 55% and China has the least at fewer than 18%. There is only a 10%
difference in competency ranging from around 40% to around 30% between Romania, Vietnam,
Russia and Thailand in second to fourth places respectively. There are,however, notably more female
than male second language speakers in every country with the exception of Thailand. So, India once
again leads the way with around 65% , closely followed by Romania and then Vietnam and Russia at
56 and 42% in turn. The two countries with fewest proficient second language speakers are China and
Thailand at around 30%. The final point to note is that of the countries in the report, India would appear
to have the highest overall proportion of proficient second language speakers and China the least.
Notes

The “obvious” details form the summary statement/introduction.

The main content paragraph looks first at males and then makes a contrast with females. Doing it this
way means you don’t need to repeat a lot of detail.
For both males and females, the first figure included is the highest figure and, typically, the numbers
run logically from high to low.
Download
The bar chart below shows the percentage of male and female students in a variety of countries worldwide
who are proficient in a foreign language. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main
features, and make comparisons where relevant.

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Hướng dẫn lựa chọn thông tin đúng cho Bar chart | Choosing the right
details in a bar chart (chi tiết)
Cách bố cục bài | A bar chart – organising your answer
Much of the difficulty in academic IELTS part 1 is knowing how to organise your answer. This post
shows you one way to do this when the diagram is a bar chart. I talk about paragraphs, but what you
really need to understand is that this is a visual task. You need to be write so that someone else can
“see” the diagram.
This post shows you one to organise your task 1 with a step-by-step guide and has the added bonus of
an interactive quiz on comparison language.

Kỹ năng paraphrase | The key skill – paragraphing
The key skill is to make sure that you write in organised paragraphs – just as you would in an essay.
This is so important because it will not just improve your coherence and cohesion band scores, but it
will also make the report easier to write. To do this, we need to identifykey features that will make the
topics of the paragraphs. When we have done that, we can look for the details that explain those
features.

Key features là gì? | What are key features?

Normally, they are obvious. Never ignore the obvious. Look at the bar chart below and what do you
see?

What you should see is this:
1. 2 sets of lines (one red and one blue)
2. some lines are longer than others
Those are your key features that you must highlight in your report as paragraph topics. Everything else
is detail.

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Tip: Think visually. Look for the obvious and ignore any writing when you first look at a chart. Close
your eyes. What do you remember? It’s easy to be confused by detail.
What are supporting details?
Let’s now look at the complete chart.

Key features

We now see what the 2 key features that need to be reported are. Remember these will be the topics
of our 2 content paragraphs :
1. the distinction between men and women (the blue lines and the red lines)
2. how certain purposes of travel are more common than others (how long the lines are)
Supporting detail: men and women

Looking at the blue and red lines this is what I see and needs to be included:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

little or no difference in “walking” “holidays” and “personal business”
more men in “education”, “entertainment” and “commuting”
more women in “school run”, “visiting friends” and “shopping”
many more women in “school run” (5% difference)
many more men in “commuting” (8% difference)
Supporting detail: purposes

This is fairly straightforward as all you need to do is arrange the different categories into an order
showing the most common and least common purposes.
1. commuting and shopping much the most common (around 20% average)
2. visiting friends and school run both around 15% average
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3. personal business just under 10% average
4. sport/entertainment around 7% average just more than education at 6%
5. least common is walking and holidays at around 3% each
Note the % figures here are averages of the male/female numbers.
Tip: when you have many different categories, it is a good idea to group them together under a few
headings

A possible answer
There are, of course, many possible answers to this task. Here is one solution.
This bar chart shows the different reasons for making journeys in the UK in 2006 and how males and
females differed in this.
It is immediately apparent that the most common purposes for travelling were commuting and
shopping, both being around 20 per cent of trips. The next most common reasons were visiting friends
and doing the school run at 15%, closely followed by personal business at around 10%. Travelling for

sport and entertainment (7%) was only just more common than journeys for educational purposes
(6%). Finally, the fewest number of trips were travelling for holidays and walking, both of which
accounted for around 3 per cent of all journeys.
Typically, there were few major differences between males and females. In holidays, personal
business and walking both sexes took approximately the same amount of journeys, while slightly more
men travelled for educational purposes and more women visited friends. Notably, almost twice as
many men as women travelled for entertainment reasons and, likewise, around 7% more men
commuted to work. The two areas in which women travelled significantly more than men were
shopping and the school run.

Test your comparison vocabulary/grammar
In this form of writing comparisons are crucial. Indeed, they are perhaps the most important grammar
item in academic task 1. So why not test yourself with this exercise? See if you can re-use the
comparison language from my example.
comparison quiz
Tip: try to vary the language you use to make comparisons. One way to do this is use adverbs such as
“significantly”

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Pie charts & Ngôn ngữ miêu tả tỷ lệ | Pie charts & Descriptions of
Percentages
Advice on how to write an academic task 1 report from a pie chart

Bài giảng videos | A video lesson on pie charts
This post contains a long training video on how to analyse a pie chart for IELTS writing part 1. In it, I
look at and suggest how to approach a part 1 question. In brief, my tips are:
1. See the big picture: do not get lost in the detail – it is a summarising task
2. Learn to identify the correct details to support the main points

3. Think about the correct language to use by reading the question carefully – often this language is
explaining and comparing language
4. Decide how to organise the information
For an explanation of how to use these tips in practice, here is my video lesson:
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Pie charts – những cách để miêu tả tỷ lệ | Pie charts – different ways to
describe percentages
One task that seems to concern IELTS candidates is the pie chart. I think I understand why and I hope
I have a solution. In this post I talk you through a major difficulty and give you some language to deal
with it. There’s also an exercise at the end to test you out.

Có thể bạn sẽ không có gì nhiều để viết | The difficulty – I have nothing
to say
Typically, the problem is that candidates find they have very little to say about a pie chart in
comparison with a bar chart. Really this is just a problem of language. Very often, candidates spend a
long time learning about the language of trends when they prepare for task 1 and that language very
rarely applies to a pie chart. You need some different language.

Lối thoát: dù pie charts có thế nào thì ngôn ngữ ứng dụng cũng vẫn
không thay đổi
The key point is that whatever the chart looks like the language you need is the same. Take a look at
these 3 pie charts and ask yourself what language you need.

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