Effective examples versus ineffective examples on your Task 2 essay?

Let me offer an analogy regarding the importance of examples: Examples are to an IELTS essay as a tent pole is to a tent. In other words, examples are what hold up an argument in an essay (whether that argument is yours or someone elses). Without them, an argument simply fails to hold much water and is impossible to prove. Thus to succeed on your IELTS Task 2 essay question, youve got to choose effective examples carefully. So what makes a good example good and a bad example bad? The answer is simple: (1) Good examples are specific. Bad examples are vague. (2) Good examples demonstrate the argument in action. Bad examples show little connection to the argument at all. (3) Good examples are displayed in a manner that does not disrupt the flow of the writers work. Bad examples feel like they have been randomly dropped into the essay. When it comes to choosing an effective IELTS Task 2 essay example, specific is always the goal. Take the following, for example: Dont be ambiguous For instance, mobile phone growth in some countries has been dramatic. Instead try being more specific For instance, mobile phone growth in China and India has been dramatic. Dont write in a manner that will make your IELTS examiner guess at your meaning Cars are the example. Tell your examiner clearly what the link is between the argument you are trying to support and your evidence Cars play a good example here as they are the largest source of carbon emissions in the developing eastern world. First impressions matter! Why the opening sentences of your IELTS Task 2 essay are critical When correcting essays written by my classroom and online IELTS students, I consistently see essay opening sentences like these: (1) Culture is a well-known topic around the world.(Problem: too ambiguous) (2) There are many people in this world who work hard, like my father, for example. (Problem: too specific) (3) The Global Economy has helped make the World a safer Place. (Problem: basic grammar) (4) The invasion of computers in the classroom has caused student marks to skyrocket. (Problem: amplitude) Let me elaborate on why each of these examples prove to be terrible introductions to your essay: In the first example (1), the student is making a large, overly generalized statement that is somewhat ambiguous and therefore difficult to understand. In a nutshell, this sentence is too broad. The students meaning is probably closer to: It is a well-known fact that the cultures of the world are not uniform. Of course, its a bad sign if your IELTS examiner cant understand the first sentence you have written! The second example (2) depicts a student with the opposite problem: their response is too specific. Giving examples before youve stated your argument is like trying to put on your shoes before youve put on your pants. The third example (3) is a basic grammar issue, in this case capitalization. Im always astonished by the number of students who seem to have forgotten when to capitalize their words and when not too. In this example, only The should be capitalized. The final example (4) shows a student who is trying to use more complex words in hopes of making themselves sound more academic. The problem is that this alters the amplitude of the sentence and therefore distorts the meaning of the piece. Saying that student marks have skyrocketed is an overstatement. Skyrocketed gives the

impression that student marks have tripled or perhaps even quadrupled. A statement as outlandish as this would need to be supported with evidence. Sound more academic in your IELTS Task 2 response instantly! An important skill to master is the art of being able to present your opinion without using personal pronouns. IELTS students often like to write I think, I believe that, Our world today or other such phrases that express their personal opinion or the collective opinions of a group they belong to using active, personal pronouns. A trick to instantly help your essay sound much more academic is to learn to write passively and to avoid phrases that use these personal pronouns. So basically I think that would become: It is thought that. I believe that would become: It is believed that. Our world today would become: The current global situation or In todays world. To see this in action, take the following 2 sentences as an example: (1) Our world today is unstable in many ways. (2) The current global situation is unstable in many ways. Can you see how sentence 2 has a much more academic air to it than sentence 2? Making this little change will do wonders for the tone of your essay.

When your Academic Writing 1 Task is graded by IELTS examiners, they look for this structure: Introduction Body Conclusion Introduction should describe the purpose of report and say what overall trends you see. For example, if the graph is climbing up or dropping down, you should mention that.You need to remember that you are describing a graph to someone who doesnt see it. Write what the graph is about, its dates and location. Body should describe the most important trends, while all information is summarized to avoid unnecessary details. For example, if there is a graph that has 2 peaks, you should mention them; tell when those peaks appeared and what the peak values are. Notice how many distinctive features diagram has and divide information into paragraphs, one paragraph for one feature. You should link the paragraphs by sentences that logically connect them to one another. Important! You need to write about all the periods of time and all the subjects of graph. If it shows several years (1992, 1993, 1994) write about all of them, if it is about men and women write about both. Remember, summarizing doesnt mean throwing away information. The secret here is to select whats important, organize it, compare and contrast. Conclusion should sum up the global trends shown on the figure and compare them if possible.

Dubai Gold Sales 2002

(estimates)

The line graph shows estimated sales of gold in Dubai for 12 months in 2002 in millions of dirhams. There were two main seasons for gold sales. The main season for sales is in the December to May period. Sales were consistently above 200 million dirhams per month, rising sharply to a peak of 350 million dirhams in March. However, for the next four months, sales declined steadily, reaching an annual low of 120 million dirhams in July. In August, there was a sudden increase. Sales almost doubled, rising from 120 million dirhams in July to 210 million dirhams in August. This was followed by a drop in September, back to the July figure. From September to October, sales recovered, from 120 to 180 million. In October and November, sales remained steady, and there was a small increase in December to 190 million dirhams. In conclusion, the main sales period is in the early part of the year, slumping in the summer, except for a sudden increase in August.

Describing spatial images on the Task 1 portion of your IELTS exam Describing spatial images on the Task 1 portion of your IELTS examination requires particular vocabulary to be employed. Lets look at this cross-section of a new basketball shoe design, tentatively titled Speedlite, and a list of its components:

Speedlite shoe cross-section

Component Code Reference Chart

Component Code 3 11 12 13b 14a 14b 15b

Description pliable rubber shoe sole patented one-directional mesh that lets moisture escape but does not let it enter foot heat-responsive foam that moulds the shoe to the shape of the foot air duct allowing air to escape to make the shoe more flexible flexible rubber framing the air ducts patented Foamtech foam/plastic mix allowing for greater jumping ability

To describe this image properly, we would need to first select a part of the cross-section to begin with. Ideally, as we move from describing one part of the shoe to another, we want to transition smoothly. This means that the parts we describe in sequence will most likely be connected to each other in some way, such as the sole of the shoe (component 3) and the Foamtech part (component 15b). Thus, a plausible response would look something like this: This image is a cross-section of the new Speedlite high-top shoe. The general shape of the shoe is somewhat standard, yet the basic components that make up the shoe are quite unique, 2 of which hold patented technology. From the bottom up, the sole of the shoe, Component 3, appears to be made of a pliable rubber base encasing 2 air ducts, 1 beneath the ball of the foot and 1 beneath the heel. The wearer stands on the patented Foamtech, which has been designed to give them an increased ability to jump. Surrounding the foot is a foam mould, denoted in this image as Component 13b. The tongue of the shoe harbors Component 11, a

patented mesh, allowing excess water to exit but not enter. Above the ankle is a third air duct allowing for further flexibility. Between the combination of pliable rubber, air ducts and Foamtech in-sole, the Speedlite is expected to allow its wearer to jump at increased height, making it an asset to any basketball player. As you can see, our description moves from 1 part of the shoe to another in a sequence that follows how the shoe is built, giving the reader an better impression of the shoes overall structure. To avoid overly focusing on minute details, Component Codes are shared only as we move to new parts of the shoe and not for each individual part. IELTS Task 1 How to describe a cyclical image Cyclical images are images that depict a process that repeats, for example the life cycle of a butterfly or the process nature goes through to create rain. In this post, Id like to go over some of the language you can use to accurately write the opening broad sentence in your IELTS Task 1 response. (Please note: this is the second sentence in your response following your data type description sentence. If you are unfamiliar with how to structure your Task 1 response, please view my Task 1 structure tutorial here.) Lets take the following diagram as an example. Here, we can see an image outlining the life cycle of a frog:

(Image source: infovisual.info) -From start to finish, the life cycle of the frog appears to have 7 stages. (Ryans note: The exact number of stages may depend on how you wish to dissect the image. Personally, I would break this image down into 4 stages: early growth, first physical changes, terrain adaptation stage and full development.) How can we describe the overall process of this image? Take the following sentences as examples: -The common frog undergoes a number of physical changes over the course of its life. -From an egg to a fully-grown adult, the common frog experiences a number of radical physical changes.

-Adapting from a water-dependent creature into one capable of surviving on land, the frog undergoes a tremendous transformation over the course of its life. Identifying data types in tables A table can present data in 1 of 2 ways and depending on how the data is presented, the students response will need to vary in the lexical resources it uses. Lets look at examples of the 2 manners in which a table can present data: 1 Static data/cyclical data Static data (such as a menu) and cyclical data (such as a bus schedule) present data that does not evolve or change over time. For example, the data presented on a menu never evolves and the data presented in a bus schedule repeats but never really changes. When describing these kinds of tables, we often use language that denotes its static or cyclical nature and will thus typically speak in present tense.

Worlds 10 most populous countries

China India United States Indonesia Brazil Pakistan Nigeria Bangladesh Russia Japan

1,341,000,000 1,210,193,422 311,086,000 237,556,363 190,732,694 175,626,000 158,259,000 150,308,000 142,905,200 127,960,000

To describe this table, we would use comparative phrases like:

There exists a huge difference between the first 2 entries and the remaining 8. China is bigger than the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh combined. Russia, although geographically largest, is only a fraction the population of China or India. 2 Trending data Tables that present trending data pull from alternate lexical resources. Take the following table as an example: Canadian Population Growth

1985 27,233,000 1990 29,084,342

1995 31,788,000 2000 32,230,700 2005 33,893,000 2010 34,567,300

Because this data presents trends, the nature of the language we use to describe it changes. In our description of this data, we would need to accurately depict the way the data changes and this requires more than comparative sentences written in the simple present tense. Here, our language would vary. The following are some examples regarding how to describe the trends present in the above table:

The Canadian population sees a faster overall climb between 1985 and 1995 than between 1995 and 2010. Between 1995 and 2010, the population of Canada grew gradually and at a somewhat steady pace to roughly 34 and a half million people. In Canada, the population appears to have grown by more than 7 million people in a 25-year time span. As you can see, the lexical resources and written structures we use to describe static/cyclical and trending data are different. How to describe an image that depicts a process on your IELTS Task 1 question response (Before reading this blog post, please review my video regarding proper Task 1 response writing.) Images that depict a process typically come in 1 of 2 types: (1) an image depicting a cyclical process and (2) and image depicting a linear process. Today, we are going to look at the linear variety. Lets take a look at this sample question: The image below shows a basic paper making process. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below.

The first thing we should notice when looking at this image is that it depicts a linear, paper making process that commences with the addition of 2 wood sources and concludes with the production of 2 separate commodities: (1) rough paper for boxes and (2) refined paper for printing. Another thing we can see is that the process itself is quite long, which means were not going to describe every step in minute detail, as this would waste time and cause our IELTS Task 1 response to grow needlessly long. So, as you are aware, the first step in writing our Task 1 response is to state the data type we have been given as well as the broad trend (or in this case process) it outlines. Thus, wed probably start with: This image outlines a linear paper-making process, from raw material to finished product. Next, we must describe the process. Here we want to group minute steps together to help keep our description from becoming too long and too detailed. So our description would most likely resemble something like this (while reading this next section, please consciously try to pinpoint where I have included minute details among the minor details):

The beginning of the process is twofold, with raw logs of wood being chewed into pulp and mixed with other purchased wood chips in a digester to further refine their consistency. The resulting pulp is then washed and screened for purity before entering into either 1 of 2 finalizing processes. The first produces rough box paper by initially forming and drying wet pulp. After this, the pulp is rolled into reels and is cut. The finished product is stored as bales, ready to be shipped off and made into boxes. The second finalizing process produces refined printing paper, which requires the wet pulp receive additional cleaning and dying. The pulp undergoes 2 separate pressing methods before being dried and finally rolled for storage. Now lets take a second and review what we have done here. Firstly, we have grouped certain sections of the process together. For example, the entire first few steps have been grouped into a single sentence presenting a single thought: grinding wood into pulp. Secondly, we move on to talk about how the pulp is prepared before either being turned into box paper or printing paper by grouping these few steps. Finally, we describe the details of each finishing procedure separately. When looking at the response as a whole, we can see it numbers at about 125 words, which is perfect and leaves us with a few words with which we can put together an interpreting paragraph to help conclude our passage strongly (were not going to focus on this section today, though). So, in a nutshell, we took our process and broke it down into smaller minor details: (1) the creation of pulp from raw materials, (2) the finalizing process employed to create box paper and (3) the finalizing process employed to create printing paper. The cohesion we use helps the reader to see how the ideas relate to one another and makes the piece overall easier to read. How to employ parallelism in your IELTS writing A piece of writing that employs a consistent form throughout is considered to follow parallelism. Parallelism is the basic idea that writing structures and patterns should remain consistent throughout an entire piece of writing. For example, in the following sentence: Russian natural gas was revalued to $330.84 USD in January of this year, up from three hundred and fourteen US dollars in December last year. we can see an instance of improper parallel structure. The student should have written the second monetary value as $314 USD, not three hundred and fourteen US dollars. Writing in this manner helps strengthen the piece stylistically. Mistakes related to parallelism are all too commonly committed by IELTS students. Another stylistic note Id like to touch on in this blog post is shorthand. Shorthand is an unfortunate habit that IELTS students often exhibit in their essay response, most likely in an effort to increase their writing speed. Common shorthand notes and symbols that should never be included in your IELTS Task 1 or 2 response are: (This sign is formally called an ellipsis and used to denote information the reader is to assume. Dont let your examiner assume anything or they will only assume you dont know how to write academically!) - (A dash is often used in shorthand to allow the writer to jump quickly from one topic to another. Its great for sending text messages on your mobile phone but not so great when you are expected to sound academic.) e.g. / i.e. (Both symbols are often used to denote examples but neither will bring formality to your writing.) @ (I am always astounded when I see students using the @ symbol in academic text!) acronyms (I regularly suggest students avoid them on their examination unless they are acronyms that refer to countries or very established companies, such as the UK or IBM. As a basic rule, if you feel your reader wont know what the acronym refers to, dont use it.)