ABOUT WRITING TASK 1
“a summary of information presented in graphic or diagrammatic form”
1. Basic information
a) Time: ~20’
b) The number of words: ≥ 150 words
→ The number of lines: 17-18 lines
d) Assessment Criteria:
- Task achievement
- Coherence and Cohesion
- Lexical Resource
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy
f) Types of Figure:
Illustration
+
Type
Things to describe
2. Writing style
- informal language
- contraction
□
- personal opinion
□
□
- argumentative language
□
3. Outline:
Paragraph
No. of sentences
Introduction 1 (sometimes 2)
Overview
1-2
Body 1
3-4
Body 2
3-4
Content
Paraphrase the topic: type of
diagram, what info, place, time
Useful Language
Paraphrase
1 or 2 most noticeable features
- Introduce noticeable features
- Describe trends (changes)
- Make comparisons
Describe main features with
specific figures in these orders:
- Larger figures to smaller ones
- Chronological order
- Any other logical order
- Describe trends (changes)
- Make comparisons
- Describe numbers, percentages and
fractions
4. Time allocation
The first 3’
- Understanding the task and the diagram
- Outlining (choose the main features)
The next 5’
Introduction + Overview
The next 5’
Body 1
The next 5’
Body 2
The last 2’
Proofreading
5. Writing materials
RULES FOR WRITING BODY PARAGRAPHS (TASK 1):
- Paraphrase  Introduction (W3) - select and report only the main features
- Introduce noticeable features  Overview (W3)
- Describe trends (W1)
- Make comparisons (W2)
(+ describe the largest/second largest/smallest figures
+ describe figures of the first and the last year
+ ignore insignificant figures or describe them all as a group)
- describe larger figures first -> smaller ones later
- for charts/tables with trends: we can always
describe data in the following order (EXCEPT FOR PIE CHARTS)
+ Body 1: describe data in year 1
+ Body 2: describe data in other years
- describe data so that we can make many comparisons