IELTS for Band 6, 7 and above

An overview is an essential element of an IELTS task.

Without it you are limiting yourself to a low score. 

It’s important to realise the kind of overview you need to provide will change depending on the type of data.

What kind of overview would you write for this diagram?

The diagram below shows how the Australian Bureau of Meteorology collects up-to-the-minute information on the weather in order to produce reliable forecasts.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words

The diagram provides an overview of how a variety of data is gathered to give up-to-date weather forecasts for the Australian continent.

It is clear from the information that there are three types of data collected from three sources and there are three ways in which the forecast is then given to the public.

The information used to make a forecast comes from three data types. Weather patterns in the form of images are collected from satellites while synoptic chart information is gathered from drifting buoys on the ocean, from information sent from satellites and land-based radar stations. Additional specific information is collected by radar and this is viewed on a radar screen. The three types of data are then combined to analyse and make a prediction which can be used as a weather forecast.

Next, the forecast is prepared for broadcasting using a desktop computer. After that, the information is then presented on television by a TV newsreader, broadcasted by radio waves or available as a recorded announcement on a telephone line.

Word Count (171) 

TEST TIP – An overview

To write an effective overview in this Task 1, it is important to note the number stages or sequences and include this in your writing.

Other possible notable features to include in an overview are….

whether the process is natural, man-made or industrial, whether the inputs and outputs are similar or different or if something is added or taken away.

While this example may look confusing, looking carefully, we can see that there are three simultaneous sequences which happen before data is inputted into the computer for processing.

It is also noticeable that there are three ways in which the information is then used.

‘It is clear from the information that there are three types of data collected from three sources and there are three ways in which the forecast is then given to the public.’

Failing to report details such as these can limit you Task Achievement score to just Band 5.

How to write an Overview Paragraph

In IELTS WRITING Task 1, a well-developed overview paragraph will impress the examiner and lead to a higher BAND score.

The overview comes after the Introduction paragraph.

There are a few things that you need to be able to do in order to write the paragraph you need for a higher score:

Writing an Overview sentence for Task 1 is relatively simple.

I have provided the steps for you to follow, but you will still need to practice writing for different topics and read the questions carefully.

4 Easy Steps 

Step One

You need to be able to locate the overall change in the pictorial starting from the first year or day or month to the last

Step Two

You then need to locate the major trend or trends and the most significant features; these could be the highest and lowest number in the group.

Step Three

Next, you should consider the whole picture. If I wanted to paraphrase, I could say that you need to look at the big picture or look at the pictorial ‘globally’. In practice, for example, this means looking for differences between categories rather than exact numbers.

Step Four

And finally, you need to summarise the main trend, key feature or exception.

Too often, I see students get poor marks because they write figures in the Overview paragraph, and I strongly recommend that you do not.

You should always remember, the Overview refers to the ‘significant’ and not the ‘detail’

Have a look at the overviews I have written and see how I have related the graph to the points I made in 4 Easy Steps.

Q1 – The table below shows the number of prisoners in thousands in five countries between 1950 and 1980.

Here is how I would write an Overview for this chart:

“While the figures for imprisonment fluctuated over the period shown, it is clear that the United States had the highest number of prisoners overall. Great Britain, on the other hand, had the lowest number of prisoners for the majority of the period.”

Q2 – The graph shows the number of internet users in three countries over a decade.

“It is clear from the graph that the proportion of people who use the Internet increased in each country over the period shown. Overall, Mexico had the lowest percentage of Internet users, while Canada experienced the fastest growth in Internet usage.”

Q3 – The graph below shows the differences in wheat exports over three different economic areas.

“It is clear that Canada exported more wheat than Australia and the European Community for most of the period shown. However, while Canada’s wheat exports fluctuated and Australia’s fell, wheat exports from the European Community rose steadily.”

Q4 – The table shows the number of computer workstations available to students in different faculties at a university.

“It can be concluded from the given information that there are not enough computer terminals in comparison to the number of students in different faculties. It is clear that some faculties with a higher number of students have fewer computer terminals compared to some less populated faculties.”

Note: the information above is fictional and for practice purposes only.

Phrases to use in the Overview

Here I have provided a few phrases that can be used to start Overview paragraphs:

    It can be seen from the graph that…

    It can be concluded from the graph that …

    It is noticeable that …

    We can see that …

    It is clear that …

    Overall, …

Significant features

Remember, you are looking for significant features so all of the above phrases are suitable for the majority of Overview paragraphs.

It can be seen from the graph that… there are not enough computer terminals.

It can be concluded from the graph that .. there are not enough computer terminals.

It is noticeable that … there are not enough computer terminals.

We can see that … there are not enough computer terminals.

It is clear that … there are not enough computer terminals.

Overall, it is clear that, …there are not enough computer terminals.

Overall, …there are not enough computer terminals.

So there are my basic tips for writing an IELTS TASK 1 Overview

Finally, you can  go over to my Facebook page and join other students who are working towards the test.

Join my IELTS WRITING TASK 1 group for free practice.

All the Best,

Jonathan

Punctuation is a feature of the IELTS band scores. Although this aspect may come naturally to most students, it is often overlooked by students in the actual exam. 

Simple punctuation errors or omissions can affect the meaning of your writing, it can also affect the progression and therefore affects the overall cohesion of the task.

What is punctuation in IELTS Writing and Reading

IELTS Writing 

A major reason to practise effective punctuation in your writing is that it can make ideas clear and concise, for example, 

In addition to the ideas already outlined, I also believe that work experience improves a person’s character and moral values.

IELTS Reading

Having a good understanding of basic punctuation can help you understand the ideas in IELTS reading more easily and work out the points made, thereby finding the answers you need.

Travel, except during the Dark Ages, has continued to grow and, throughout recorded history, has played a vital role in the development of civilizations and their economies.       

Source: Cambridge IELTS 10, 2015

In both cases being able to use and understand punctuation can help increase your overall band score.

So what are the punctuation marks of English grammar that can help improve your IELTS writing.

The good news is that you don’t need to draw on all the punctuation marks that are a feature of English. 

Apart from capital letters, there are definitely six types of punctuation to be aware of for the IELTS exam.  

These are the full stops, commas, semicolons, colons, dashes and hyphens. Following their correct usage can make your writing easier to read and more appealing to the examiner and may help your understanding of IELTS reading passages.

The good news is ‘don’t worry’ about making some mistakes. 

Even I make punctuation errors in my writing which I have to redraft and review!

Punctuation at the end of sentences 

Only one of these punctuation marks is appropriate for use as sentence endings. This is the ‘full stop’ or in American English, the ‘period’.

 A full stop is placed at the end of a sentence to show the end or completion.

Completed sentence: 

The graph shows the number of households who own more than one television.

Another common use for IELTS is with numbers and dates:

 was born on May, 18, 2019.

For IELTS General letter writing, it is common to use a full stop after abbreviations. This is just a ‘need to know’ convention of writing in English.

James Cooke sr. or James Cooke jr.

Comma, Semicolon, and Colon

These three punctuation marks are often incorrectly used in IELTS because all can indicate a pause in a series and this can lead to confusion.

The Comma

Commas are used to separate ideas or elements within a sentence. 

• Separation of two complete sentences: 

We went to the cinema, and then we went out to dinner.

• Adding additional information of a subordinate clause to the main clause:  

In the old ruined town of Abhaneri, about 95 kilometres east of Jaipur, is Chand Baori, one of India’s oldest and deepest wells.

• Separating discourse markers as in: 

However, some important sites in Gujarat have recently undergone major restoration.

• Separating a list or elements within sentences: 

The girls wanted the blue, green and yellow sweets. The car as personal transport is economical, reliable and quick.

Another use of the comma is in numbers and dates.

The infamous meeting took place on Wednesday, August 31, 1973

As well as in General IELTS letter writing after the greeting and closing.

• Direct address in an IELTS General letter:

Thanks for all your help, Jane.  All the best, Jonathan

The Oxford Comma

You can find lots of online information about whether to add a final comma before the conjunction in a list as in this example: 

The children wanted the blue, green, and red sweets.

Known as an Oxford comma, one argument is that it can make writing clearer, especially in complex phrases, while others argue it is a simple stylistic choice. 

Either way, it is probably an unnecessary consideration for IELTS writing and just something to be aware of.

The Semicolon

Semicolons (;) are used to connect independent clauses and help indicate a closer relationship between the clauses than a full stop could.

In the old ruined town of Abhaneri, about 95 kilometres east of Jaipur, is Chand Baori, one of India’s oldest and deepest wells; aesthetically it’s perhaps one of the most dramatic.

The colon

A colon (:) has three main uses. 

The first is after a word introducing a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series.

Students commonly study four core subjects in my country: English, maths, science, and  a second language.

This growth (international travel) led to the development of a major new industry: tourism.

The second is between independent clauses when the second explains the first, similar to a semicolon:

Scientific progress is not all theoretical, knowledge is also vital to outstanding performance: individuals who know a great deal about a specific domain will achieve at a higher level than those who do not.

The third use of a colon is for emphasis:

At the age of thirty, Nobel made the first of his major inventions: an innovative blasting cap.

It is the second usage that is most likely seen in IELTS writing or reading.

A colon is also used in non-grammatical time and in ratios.

The meeting is scheduled for 11:30.

A 5:1 ratio was found to be the most suitable. 

The Dash and the Hyphen  

Two other punctuation marks to be aware of are the dash and hyphen. 

These marks are often confused with each other due to their appearance but they are quite different and it is the ‘hyphen’ that can be regarded as more important in IELTS. 

A dash is a device to separate words into statements. The most common type of dash is the en dash.

• The En dash is used in writing or printing to indicate a range, connections or differentiations, such as 1942-1945 or the London-Liverpool train.

A hyphen is used to join two or more words together into a compound term and is not separated by spaces. For example, part-time, back-to-back, well-known.

A well-known part-time job in my country is waitressing.

Finally, 

Apostrophes

The final punctuation form in English grammar to be aware of for IELTS is the apostrophe. 

An apostrophe (‘) is used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word and for the possessive case.

Up to that point, she’d never seen her father’s dream car of the 1990’s and she wasn’t disappointed. The car’s condition was the same as her father’s description and she would’ve driven it there and then; except the keys had been lost.

We can say that the Lapitas’ canoes were capable of ocean voyages and so the real adventure didn’t begin until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side.

Source: Cambridge IELTS 10, 2015

Examples of the apostrophe in use include:

It’s an important discovery that …….

Singular plural 

Lapita’s trade with others …..

Possessive plural  

The Lapitas’ canoes allowed them ….

For IELTS General writing, where the style and the tone of a Task 1 letter needs to be friendly or informal there are often an omission of letters from a word:

I’m writing to congratulate you on your birthday! I’ve seen that movie several times. She wasn’t the only person who knew the answer.

If possession or belonging to a group is indicated then the possessive apostrophe is used in a singular or plural form

Possessive case: 

• Singular

Jane’s dog bit the neighbour’s cat.

• Plural 

Janes’ dogs bit the neighbours’ cats.

The travel and tourism industry is the world’s largest employer and this industry is the world’s leading industrial contributor. 

Omission

To show the omission of a number in a period: 

In the ‘80s, during the ‘70s

Conclusion

As you can see from these illustrations, punctuation can be many things. 

As a developing reader and writer, you should aim to have a clear understanding of common punctuation and functions for the reading text and be confident in using the basics of punctuation in your IELTS Task 1 and Task 2 writing.

You don’t need to be perfect, however you would be marked down on the simple or careless errors that result under test conditions.

Capital letters and full stops are a ‘must know’ and ‘do’, but also pay attention to the basic ‘comma‘ and the basic ‘apostrophe‘ to make ideas and meaning clear. 

There isn’t much opportunity to go much further than these punctuation features in the limited words you have for writing so always check these in your proofreading and you should be fine.

Now try these exercises to test what you know

 

What do you think IELTS examiners look at first in IELTS Task 1? 

What do examiners really look for first in marking your IELTS writing?

Is it the word count, the choice of words, the spellings or even the choice of grammar?

In my experience, examiners ignore all of these aspect and generally focus on one thing first, and that’s the ‘overview’.

In fact, overviews are a huge part of IELTS Writing Task 1 and probably the most important aspect overlooked by students. 😕 

Understanding what examiners are looking for in IELTS Writing Task 1.

IELTS examiners are experts in their field and are selected on the basis of their linguistic knowledge, qualifications and experience.

Despite this, all the examiners who mark IELTS use band descriptors to form their opinions of both writing and speaking and to maintain the same standard between the many examiners who mark for IELTS.

Band descriptors help examines apply the same criteria and judgement to any example of writing which responds to an IELTS prompt.

This is reassuring as you be certain that the IELTS test is fair and valid

One feature of the Band descriptors and how they link to assessment is the list of items which examiners check.

Some are arbitrary and judgmental, like this example,

Inadequately covers, key features/ bullet
points; there may be a tendency to focus on details

but a few are completely straightforward and clear.

Presents an overview with information appropriately selected

Source: Public IELTS band descriptors, online

By studying the Task Achievement descriptors of the band scores, we can clearly see that 

• No marks are given specifically for an introduction, but you need it,
• key details are important
• but clearly an overview or ‘summary’ of the main or most obvious trend is a feature to score anything above Band 5.

We can ascertain, examiners use this checklist to their advantage.

You can be sure that the overview is one of the first things an examiner checks in your writing.

Why the overview is important in Task 1

Examiners I speak to also tell me the overview is probably one of the first things markers look for when viewing a Task 1 writing response. 

It’s the first aspect of your writing that can be easily checked and and the first that can be easily assessed across all four band scores.

A well-written overview can also indicate the level of the content to follow in both the language and ideas, and create a positive impression. 

Besides, without a well-written overview, it will be difficult to get a high score as overviews feature highly in the first band score, Task Achievement.  

So you can see there are a number of good reasons to present an overview of some quality.

Writing the best overview for IELTS Writing Task 1

To score high in Task Achievement, you need to provide a well-written overview paragraph of 1-3 sentences.

The overview identifies and describes 1, 2 or 3 of the main or noticeable trends from the visual representation in general terms.

The number of sentences and the length of an overview is always dependant on the visual trend or changes that you can see.

In some cases, there may be only one noticeable feature, and this would shorten the length of the overview. A short overview is nothing to worry about!

An overview paragraph is like a condensed version of your full 150-word answer, however, there are some important points to consider.

For example, many candidates mistakenly include minor or irrelevant details in an overview sentence and end up losing marks in this area.

What makes a good overview?

I feel that to successfully present an overview a writer must

• Summarise the notable trend, features or changes
• Limit these to a maximum of three
• Summarise trends, features or changes between multiple charts

An overview should probably not:

• Include any data (e.g., numbers, figures)
• Include minor or irrelevant details

Clearly, while the number of research students has increased, there have been larger increases in international research students. In the second chart, there is also a noticeable decrease in the number of male-home research students by 2010.

Advantages of a good overview

Presenting an exceptional overview to the examiner has a number of advantages.

In terms of words and grammar, this type of overview gives you the opportunity to be creative and display high-level language.

This is contrasted to the rather mechanical writing of reporting the key features in the body paragraph. Often the body writing is quite a dull section of the report as it simply reports the significant numbers, stages or changes.

A good overview is not restricted in this way.

While the tone needs to be academic and serious, there is some flexibility in the grammar and vocabulary choices you can make which can add to your score. 

A further advantage, and one that always impresses me, is that a good overview can set examiner expectations for the remainder of the writing.

Creating a positive impression with a well-written overview at this stage undoubtedly has beneficial effect on the rest of your writing.

Writing an overview example

Let’s go through a process of writing an overview of this sample Task 1 Writing question.

Let’ see how we can address some of the points I have raised and make an excellent overview:

Here’s a sample question

The graph below gives information about the consumption of drink beverages (in millions of litres per week), in the UK from 1990 to 2010.

And here are the instructions

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Noticing the overview

Noticing the trend or changes overall is the first step in understanding this chart but we also need to pay attention to the data.

There are three types of drink being tracked and the quantities are recorded in millions of litres per week.

It is also important to note in this example that the graph presents data between 1990 and 2010. Another common way of describing this time period is two decades.

If we follow the trends for both ‘milk’ and ‘soft drinks’ from the beginning to the end, we can see that soft drink consumption has risen and ‘milk’ consumption has fallen.

These are main features because they are the most obvious.

To find another important feature, we could mention that ‘tea’ has almost stayed the same over the years, over the period or over the period recorded.

We could mention that there were slight changes, but we must be careful not to give too much detail at the point in the report. 

Remember this overview is a summary.

Overall, the consumption of milk has generally fallen while the consumption of soft drinks has increased. 

Remember this an overview so avoid giving key details and save these for later paragraphs.

Depending on the graph or chart, you may want to add another main feature. If you feel it is significant and meaningful, you could add it.

In this graph, I can see that the figures for tea are quite significant. The figures haven’t changed that much over the period.

The consumption of ‘tea’ has almost stayed the same over the two decades.

I think this is quite a nice contrast to the other figures, so I could use a ‘prepositional noun phrase’ such as ‘in comparison’ or ‘in contrast’ to highlight the differences I can see.

In comparison, the consumption of ‘tea’ has almost stayed the same over the two decades.

Now I feel we have sufficiently summarised the most important ideas and the result looks like this.

Overall, the consumption of milk has generally fallen while the consumption of soft drinks has increased. In comparison, the consumption of ‘tea’ has almost stayed the same over the two decades.

If we added any more information this would probably be unnecessary detail and we would run the possibility of losing marks.

That’s an important point to remember: Never over complicate the overview sentence.

You might be thinking of mentioning ‘there was a slight change in the consumption of ‘milk’ or “Pepsi” in 2000, but is this significant enough for the overview sentence?

Remember, a great overview is only a summary of the main features.

How can I increase my Band Score even further?

Now that we have taken the most valuable information from the graph, we can combine these features to make the following overview sentence that follows the introduction. 

The graph shows the amount of consumption in litres per week of various beverages between 1990 and 2010.

Overall, the consumption of milk has generally fallen while the consumption of soft drinks has increased. In comparison, the consumption of ‘tea’ has almost stayed the same over the two decades.

This is a good overview because 

• Clearly identifies two main trends
• Puts forward a strong contrasting statement
• Shows clear coherence, cohesion and progression between paragraphs
• Display enough vocabulary and grammar to be assessed 

Can you see how an effective overview can give you additional marks in the eyes of the examiner?

If you didn’t know already, IELTS like to give marks in ‘Grammatical Range and Accuracy’ for complex sentences.

It’s another important feature of the band descriptors.

Given the fact that an overview sentence should contain more than one main idea, it is a good idea to link these ideas together in the form of a single complex sentence.

Using Linking Words.

By using linking words such as ‘in contrast‘ ‘while’, ‘although’ or ‘despite’ (to name but a few) to connect naturally two pieces of information together, you are one step closer to a band score of 7 in Grammatical Range and Accuracy.

Using Complex Sentences

At this level, the marking criteria state that a candidate needs to ‘use a variety of complex structures’.

Make sure you understand what these words mean and how to include them in a sentence. Here I have taken my example and combined it it to one sentence that explains three ideas.

We can see that in comparison to the consumption of ‘tea’, which has almost stayed the same over the two decades, the overall consumption of milk has generally fallen while the consumption of soft drinks has increased.

It’s better to use one or two good complex sentences than many long and complicated sentences. That’s a clear instruction, isn’t it.

Using an overview checklist

It is worth remembering these general guidelines for writing an overview;

• There is no need to support the features with data.
• Save data for the details paragraph.
• Never include irrelevant or minor information.
• Never give your opinion or try to explain why something has happened. If it’s not on the graph, don’t add it
• It’s possible to start your overview sentence with ‘Overall’, ‘In general’ or ‘It is clear that’.
• Avoid repeat the words from the question, the examiner will ignore these.
• Try to avoid writing an overview in more than two or three sentences.
• Write your overview as a complex sentence.
  

How do examiners mark an overview?

A basic attempt at an overview will only get a maximum of 5 for Task Achievement.

Notice how the word ‘overview’ is mentioned several times in the marking criteria for Task Achievement below. 

Of course, examiner marking is subjective.

However, if you produce an overview that explicitly addresses the right features and nothing else, you are objectively matching the Band 7 criteria.

What next?

Your next step should be to select a number of tasks and practice writing effective overviews.

The best way to learn and benefit from this practice is to get feedback.

Jonathan