IELTS Energy 1483: Your IELTS Writing Forum Questions Answered
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1483. Your IELTS Writing Forum questions answered.

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

forward slash my score. Writing is one of the most secretive parts of the IELTS test. What exactly does the examiner want you to do in task one and task two? What are you supposed to write about or not write about? Today we answer these questions and more to demystify this challenging part of the IELTS exam.

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Excellent. I am excited to dive into this today. We found some questions on forums about writing. We get the most questions about the writing exam, and these will both be very applicable to everyone out there listening. So I'm excited to dive into this. But I have a question for you, Lindsay. Okay, I'm ready. Go for it. When you have a question, especially about something specific, like if you were taking IELTS, how do you describe it?

decide whom to ask? Who to trust? It's a really, it's a good question, Aubrey. I mean, we definitely, I would need to make sure that I could trust the answers. So English exams are all different. You know, we've seen TOEFL teachers trying to teach IELTS, which really doesn't work, or general ESL teachers trying to teach IELTS. There's a very specific knowledge set that comes with the IELTS exam. So I would ask an IELTS teacher.

Exactly, right? This is really tricky. So if you're reading these forums on Reddit or wherever you're finding them, there are all of these really interesting questions, but then there's a whole list of answers. And it's tough to know which information to trust. And you have to recognize it's mostly students. Wow.

putting their opinion, what they think makes sense. So we often recommend, don't trust those forums. Send us your questions for sure. And we will share on the podcast information you can trust. Yeah, guys, send your questions into support at allersenglish.com. We'll get your question routed in the right direction. And hopefully if it's a good one, it'll be on the show. Alright.

All right. Absolutely. So we're sharing one today that has two separate questions here about task one and task two. Let me show the first part of the question just said, Hello, I will be taking IELTS academics soon. And I would like to clarify some queries that I have regarding task one and task two. So we'll first read the question about task one and answer it. Can you read that for us? Yes, I'd be happy to. Here we go. So task one.

I went through some of the online resources and I realized that there may be times when there will be a combination of data. For example, table and bar chart or a line graph and pie chart. In these situations, do we describe the data in separation? For example, one paragraph per chart or do we attempt to draw links between the two sets of data?

This is such a good question. And if you haven't faced this before, I can imagine students just staring at these two charts on test day, wasting time deciding how to do this. So the first thing we're going to give you a very clear answer that you should write about each one in its own body paragraph, separate them. Yes. And we are going to look at an example here, an essay with a line graph and a pie chart to sort of show you how to do this.

Yes. All right. So here we are looking at a line graph, Aubrey. And what we're talking about here is the number of books borrowed from four village libraries. Right. And it goes between the graph. The numbers go between zero and 350. And it goes from June until September.

All right, so we see the lines showing which increased, which decreased, some of them really oscillated, increasing and then decreasing. That's a great word, by the way, oscillated. Yes, band nine word to describe these charts on academic IELTS. We have that in our three keys course. Yes, that's definitely a word to use.

But then we have a very separate pie chart, right? Can you describe that one for us? Yeah. So this is a pie chart of the types of books borrowed, right? The types of books borrowed. And it's breaking it down between self-help, fiction, history, science, and biography.

Okay.

Right. And so... Apples to oranges, right? Exactly, right? Apples and oranges. So the strategy is to draw a line separating the information in every task one essay into two groups in the way that makes the most sense to separate them. This is actually one of the easiest to do that because you just have two graphs. The line is going to be between the two, right? And then you'll write about each group in its own paragraph. Love that. So in this case...

You would draw a line between the two. The number of books from different libraries will be detailed in the first body paragraph. And then information about book genres goes in the second body paragraph. That makes it seem very straightforward, right? The way to do this. I love it. And will save you so much time on test day. You don't want to spend any time staring at the charts, deciding how to organize information. You need to know ahead of time exactly how to do this.

Yeah. So maybe we can get an example of what the band nine overall trend would look like. If we wanted to score a band nine on our essay here, what would it be? Because you definitely have to include both charts in your overall trend. That's what's a little tricky here because these charts are so different. The overall trend is a little trickier to include information from both.

So, Lindsay, can you give us a band nine overall trend for this essay? Yes, here it is. Overall, the most massive amount of books were loaned by Ryslip and the most paltry number were borrowed at Churchmount and West Eaton. Well, fiction was by far the most popular genre.

All right, and very impressive overall trend. You have often heard from us to share the highest and the lowest or the biggest increase and decrease.

Here, you have to do that for both. So in this case, you have the first part of your overall trend is the largest amount of books, which this Rice Lip Library was by far the highest. And then the two lowest were almost tied. So you have to share names of both libraries, right? The Most Paltry, which is another band nine word for the lowest number of books, were borrowed at these two libraries, Churchmount and West Eaton.

You couldn't just name one of them because they're almost exactly the same. And then the second part of your overall trend, you're sharing the most popular genre. And the reason you only share the most popular here is it was far and above. It was like 43% for fiction. And then everything else was basically tied.

for second place. So there wasn't a clear lowest. So you leave that out, right? You're sharing overall information. For the second pie chart, you can just share the most popular. Yeah. And I love how this all flows together really nicely. It feels like it belongs together, even though the sets of numbers don't really belong together.

You also used the most massive amount, which I love that. It's more descriptive than just the largest amount. Exactly right. Anytime you can use less common vocabulary, it will be higher scoring. So if you can replace highest, lowest with more impressive words, that will boost your vocab scores. And then keep in mind, as far as the cohesion, the cohesiveness of your essay, when you go to write the body paragraphs, it will make the most sense to have

what's covered in the first part of this overall trend in the first body paragraph. That's what the examiner would expect to see described first. Perfect. Good to know. This episode is brought to you by State Farm.

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All right, Aubrey, we are back from break. Let's go into task two now. All right, let's read the part of her question about task two. Can you read that for us, Lindsay? Yes. For opinion questions, for example, to what extent do you agree or disagree where there are two sides to a question? Must we include points from both sides or can we just fully agree or disagree on our paper?

Yeah, so this is really interesting. The bottom line is you must cover all parts of the question. So you do have two options with this type of essay. We recommend you write an argument essay where you're addressing both sides, one side in each body paragraph, so you can really fully address both sides of this issue. But your other option is to write an opinion essay with a concession.

We've talked a lot about concessions here on the podcast, but let's look at an example Task 2 essay and share how you would do each. Okay, so should I go ahead and read this one, this piece here? Okay. The government's investment in arts, music, and theater is a waste of money. Government should invest these funds in public services instead. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Okay, so you can see we have the two sides of the issue. And it's just not like, should governments invest in arts or not? Right. Two separate, right? The investment is a waste of money in these things. And then the second issue is,

governments should invest these funds in public services. So the best way to do this is to write an argument essay where, of course, you have the introduction with your opinion. And then the first body paragraph is about the side you don't agree with. You have to decide what's my opinion. And then that second body paragraph will be about the side you agree with. And then you're good.

Love that. That makes total sense, Aubrey. But there's another way we could do it too, right? What would that be? Yeah, your other option is to write an opinion essay. This is an essay where all you really have in the essay is your opinion, the one side. But if you do that in order to address both sides here, you would need to include a concession. So what this would look like is the introduction with your opinion. Then the first body paragraph is about the side you agree with, right? You give your reason, your details, examples.

And then start the second body paragraph with a concession. It acknowledges the other side, names the other side and provides one reason people might believe that or might agree with that side. And then the rest of the paragraph can still be the side you agree with. You transition with a phrase like, however, I maintain that.

you provide the side you agree with because, and then you can provide more details and examples for the side you agree with. This is especially an opinion essay is going to be your choice if you are having a really hard time thinking of any examples to support the other side. Like for this, if you think, if you strongly believe that governments should invest in art, music, and theater, and you don't want to write a whole paragraph disagreeing with that or stating the other side, you can provide a concession and write an opinion essay.

Yeah. And by the way, I love the phrase, however, I maintain that, right? Despite these pieces to the contrary, I still believe that. That is so high level band nine, Aubrey. Yes, this is a great template sentence for either a body paragraph or maybe your conclusion. You know, I maintain that in sum, I maintain and then state your opinion again, reword it, of course, from the introduction and the body paragraphs.

But instead of saying, it is still my opinion, this is a more impressive, higher scoring vocabulary. Really high scoring. So for a takeaway today, Aubrey,

I think the most important thing to know here is don't get your information from forums, right? Super important. Don't trust the answers in forums. Exactly, right? Send your questions to us. Go back into our catalog. Listen to older episodes. Great information here that you know you can trust. We also want to make sure you know this is a four-part series. We are pulling

questions we found on forums about listening and reading. We've already done those. That was 1480 and 1482. So scroll up if you missed those. Hit follow if you're missing these amazing episodes. And then stay tuned this Friday for the final installment, part four, answering speaking questions.

Fun. Looking forward to that. Fantastic. All right, Aubrey. Well, thanks for great to be on IELTS Energy with you here. And thanks for hanging out on the show. Yes. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. See you next time. All right, Aubrey. Have a nice one. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash my score.