The Easy Way
to
IELTS Writing
Academic module
by:
Arghavan Ghajar
About the author
Arghavan Ghajar is a passionate, resourceful,and innovative IELTS teacher whose profession has been evolving around teaching this specific course for the past 12 years. She is an award-winner English teacher for best IELTS instructions in Vancouver, Canada, where she currently resides.
For everyday tips on the IELTS test, follow Arghavan on Instagram @:
THE.EASY.WAY.TO.IELTS
All the trends, graphs, charts, tables, diagrams, maps, their corresponding writing samples, and all essays are created by Arghavan Ghajar in this reference book and are subject to copyright.
Contents
Introduction
The easy way to IELTS writing is a reference book mainly designed to target the notorious challenges in the IELTS writing test. IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System, a language proficiency test required by all universities and colleges worldwide. For most IELTS candidates, writing is by far the most formidable section to tackle. The main reason for this is that the IELTS writing test requires specific academic structures and approaches with which many candidates are not familiar.
This reference book focuses on both IELTS writing tasks and aims to help higher-achiever candidates master their writing skills and feel confident to write about any topic and stand out with triumph through practical and comprehensive sample writings and examples.
The easy way to IELTS writing is the result of 20 years of devotion to teaching ESL and IELTS preparation courses. This compilation of knowledge and experience originates from an extensive focus on developing a well-built curriculum based on a great deal of research conducted on standard IELTS books and test requirements. This IELTS curriculum has helped many brilliant students improve their IELTS writing skills and achieve high overall scores for over a decade.
Writing is renowned for being a challenging skill to advance for many IELTS candidates; however, following impactful instructions provided in this book will equip them for the exam, qualifying them to further their academic goals at highly reputable educational institutes internationally.
Adhering to the test requirements, writing tools, tips, and techniques taught in-depth through sample writings in this book will undoubtedly support diligent and ambitious candidates to obtain their dream IELTS writing scores. Not being familiar with the required structures, organization, and paragraphing are only a few primary reasons preventing IELTS candidates from achieving the writing scores they deserve.
This book walks you through a smooth path to get acquainted with various practical methods to approach different types of questions for task 1 and task 2 in the IELTS test. Pivotal grammatical points and lexis you need to focus on to reach your goals are all addressed in this book through simple examples and sample writings, all created by myself. This book will prepare you to communicate your thoughts in the written word with confidence.
The easy way to IELTS writing is a token of my appreciation to all supportive individuals who have encouraged me to push my boundaries to attain higher objectives. I hope my efforts would shed light on the path for those who are determined to learn and practice how to write flawlessly for the IELTS test.
Prosperity is the definite outcome of perspiration.
With warmest regards,
Arghavan Ghajar
The IELTS Test
IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System used globally for various purposes. The test evaluates candidates English proficiency level regarding the receptive skills of reading and listening and the productive skills of speaking and writing. There are two modules in the IELTS test: Academic and general. The listening and speaking parts are identical for both modules; however, reading and writing portray the two modules main differences. This book focuses on the writing skill for the academic module. In this module, the writing section consists of two tasks: task 1 is a short report on a graph or a diagram of some kind, and task 2 is an essay. This reference book reviews both tasks and their requirements.
Writing Task 1
Differences between academic and general modules
As mentioned above, one of the main differences between the Academic and the General module of the IELTS test falls on writing, especially task 1. In the Academic module, candidates require to write a short report on a line graph, a bar chart, a table, a pie chart, a diagram, a flowchart, or a map for task 1, while in the General module, candidates write a letter, which can be formal, semi-formal, or informal.
The academic module
In the academic module, candidates need to develop a minimum 150-word report on graphs, charts, diagrams, or maps, and there is no upper word limit. I have categorized them under three different groups based on their similarities in organizing the given information and the range of required language and focal grammar. This categorization makes them easy to comprehend. Following the defined structures based on the IELTS writing band descriptors, which will be explained shortly, gives birth to the ultimate organization and coherence, leading to clarity in transitioning numbers, figures, and trends into written language.
This task will assess candidates ability to describe the main features of a chart, a graph, or a diagram in a comparative and or descriptive style using specific vocabulary. Task 1 comprises around 35% of the overall writing score, and as it is a short writing, it takes up approximately 20 minutes of the total 1-hour writing time.
Task 1 categorization
The three groups of academic writing tasks go as follows:
Line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and tables
Diagrams and flowcharts
Maps
In the following pages, there are some samples for each category focusing on their major and specific features. Note that these designed samples are quite simple as my main intention for creating them is to show how to structure and organize them. They also show how to use the required language in describing trends and figures effectively. However, candidates may face more detailed tasks on the official IELTS test, but this should not impact paragraphing or any other writing aspects.
Line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and tables
As depicted below, in a line graph, trends are shown using lines, and in a bar chart, trends are compared using bars. In a pie chart, trends are given in percentages, while in a table, trends are the given numbers for each category. As mentioned earlier, these four possible questions for writing task 1 share quite a lot of similarities. Consequently, we take corresponding steps in describing them. Among these categories, line graphs are the easiest to describe as upward and downward trends with their fluctuations, and plateaus are clearly shown using lines.
However, these trends and their changes are more subtle in bar charts, tables, and pie charts, where changes in trends are shown differently.
