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

Is it the word count, the choice of words, the spellings?

In fact, overviews are a huge part of IELTS Writing Task 1.

Without a well-written overview, it will be difficult to get a high score as overviews feature highly in the Band Scoring.

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

0 Shares

The overview

Experience tells me that an overview is probably one of the first things the examiner will look for when viewing your Task 1 Writing Response.

What should you try to do when writing the overview?

An overview must:

Summarise
Include 2 or 3 main features
Make comparisons where relevant

However, an overview should not

Include data (e.g., numbers, figures)
Include minor or irrelevant detail

Remember, you are looking for significant features so all of the phrases below 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.

Overall….. fixed line calls use had decreased significantly. In addition, the gap between the three categories had narrowed in the last four years of the period so it is clear that mobile phones were becoming the preferred choice for voice calls.

Look at the following overview examples and notice if key figures or minor details are included.

Do these attempt to summarise and compare information

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.

Overall, although fixed line calls were still the most popular way to make a phone call in 2002, its use had decreased significantly and the gap between the three categories had narrowed in the last four years of the period so it is clear that mobile phones were becoming the preferred choice for voice calls.

It can be concluded 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.

I hope that you found this information useful and you have taken on board some of the tips.

Please share to someone you know and in the meantime take a look at my

Facebook Page and Website for IELTS answers and you can also join my Facebook Group here too.

I also recommend taking a look at my free blog below, which gives further instruction on how to write that perfect Writing Task 1 overview:

Good Luck

Jonathan