Session 3

Session 3 (one hour of writing)
 TASK 1: information transfer task

 This means you need to take information from a table,
chart or diagram and present it in the form of a short-
written description.
 Spend no more than 20 minutes on task 1 and write / type
no less than 150 words.
 You will be marked on: task achievement, coherence &
cohesion, lexical resource, grammar.
 Getting information from a chart:

1. Read instructions carefully – these will tell you
what the chart shows.
2. Does the chart have a title? If it does read it
carefully so that you know what the chart is
about.
3. Is the chart static or dynamic? (STATIC: shows
data at one point in time; DYNAMIC: shows
how data changes over time.
4. What do the axis of the graphs represent?
5. What unit of measurement is used?
For example:
1. What kind of a graph is this?
2. What are the units used?
3. What do the axis represent?
4. Is it static or dynamic?
5. What does the title of the graph suggest?
** Strategy for line graphs:
Organization---> 1. Paraphrase the title of the graph
2. Provide an overview
 Describe the trend of the graph (starting points and
ending points of each line)
 Describe the sudden changes of the lines
 DO NOT include any data
 Better if started with “Overall”
3. describe about the given categories in an

organized manner according to category or trend.
Make sure each body paragraph has dates and information to
support it.
Pay attention to tense of writing task (it depends on the year

mentioned in the graph)
 How to use and write numbers for describing a graph
1. The use of a number. (Using the actual number or

value given)
Ex: 200 units of ice cream sold weekly are blueberry

flavored.
2. Using percentages
Ex: 50% of all the ice cream sold were chocolate

flavored.
3. The use of phrases that begin with the article “A”

You can use phrases that show or present an idea of
some amount or portion in discussing charts.
Ex: a small number, a huge number, a minority, a large

group, a majority, a small group
4. The use of phrases beginning with the preposition “of”
Ex: ‘of’ can mean ‘taken from’ such as:

Of the research made
Of the data gathered
Of the observation made
Of the survey conducted, people who studied English,

was at 94%.
5. The use of phrases beginning with the preposition ‘of’

meaning ‘out of the’
Ex: of the total number of

of the participants in the survey
of the total participants in the survey conducted by
Eurostat in 2015, 94% study English.
 The use of superlatives:
If we use a superlative adjective (the most popular

country for tourists) then there is obviously only
one (or one group) of the things which we are
talking about.
In 2018, Germany saw the largest growth in exports.
The largest fraction of the pie chart is the foreign section, representing
over 20% of the total.
The most significant fraction of the pie chart is the imports section,
representing almost 90% of the total.
The most fluctuations can be seen in the year 1998, ranging from a low
of 20 to a high of 100.
Although the overseas section is the largest, the smallest section
belongs to the domestic sector at just 11%.
The Line graph below shows the number of overseas

students who came from six Asian countries to study
in Australia from 1994 to 1997
Introduction 1: The diagram shows the amount of students
from six different countries in Asia, who came to study in
Australia between 1994 and 1997.
Introduction 2: Between 1994 and 1997 the number of Asian
students from six different countries, who came to study in
Australia.
Questions:
1. Do they cover all the necessary information?
2. Are there any errors in them?
3. How you would write your introduction to the line graph
above?
4. How many paragraphs would you have for your complete
report for the above line graph?
5. How would you organize your task 1 writing for the above
line graph?
6. How many paragraphs would you have?
7. What information would you put in the body paragraphs?
(30 minutes)
Writing task 2: Discursive composition
 The second part is a discursive composition. For this
task you are given a statement or an opinion about
something and you must present your view.
 You have to use no more than 40 minutes to complete this
task type.
 You have to write no less than 250 words.
 Marking is based on: Task response, coherence &
cohesion, lexical resource and grammar
 Common types of essays are: opinion essay, discussion
essay, advantage and disadvantage essay, direct questions,
cause and solution essays.
 Opinion essay: How to write an organized answer

for opinion essays.
This type of essay is where you are presented with
someone else's opinion and you are asked if you
agree or disagree with it. The opinion is often
flawed or extreme in its views.
The instructions can be written in a number of

ways. Below are a few examples:
To what extent do you agree?
Do you agree?
Do you agree or disagree?
What is your opinion?
No matter how the instructions are written, you can take
any position you want: agree, disagree or partial
agreement (balanced view).
Below is an example essay question:
Opinion Essay
Question: Some people think that only electric cars should
be allowed on the road by 2040. Do you agree?
 An introduction paragraph requires two statements: a

background statement (This is a paraphrase of the
essay question).
A thesis statement (A direct answer to the question
and task.)
Analyzing the Essay Question

Now this is the essay title we're going to look at.
"The best way to improve health is to do regular exercise.
To what extent do you agree?"
So, our essay is all about improving health and possible

solutions. IELTS suggest that exercise is the best solution -
you might agree, not agree or partially agree.
What does this mean "to what extent"?
Well, that means how much do you agree. You don't need
to agree or disagree. You need to think about it and think
do you agree with all the sentence, is there something that
you don't agree with? Do you agree with most of it? So
that's how you analyze it.
Background statement
You do this by paraphrasing the question. This means you

rewrite the essay question your way.
Tips:
 Do not write long background statements
 Try to write your background statement as one complex
sentence.
 Do not paraphrase unless you are 100% sue your word is
perfect.
 Aim for accuracy.
Paraphrasing:
1. Simple synonyms
Using of synonyms for the words that we are given in the
question. We have to be quite careful that we don’t use
synonyms in the wrong context.
In recent years waste from multi- national companies’
production sites has significantly damaged the environments of
their host country.
Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
It is said that waste from large scale companies has begun

destroying the ecology of the countries they operate in.
2. Change the order of words when paraphrasing.

Some people believe that getting a degree from university is
the best way to guarantee getting a job. Others believe it would
be best to go straight into work and get experience. Discuss
both sides and give your opinion.
some people’ = ‘certain people’
‘Graduating from higher education’ = ‘getting a degree from a university’
‘Best way to guarantee getting a job’ = ‘optimum way to assure getting a top job.’
Certain people think that graduating from higher education is

the optimum way to assure getting a top job.
 This a very obvious way to paraphrase the statement as
we can see the word order has not been changed.
However, we can also switch the order of the sentence
around as well.
The optimum way to assure getting a top job is by graduating

from higher education, according to certain people.
Exercise: When a country develops its technology, the

traditional skills and ways of life die out. It is pointless to try
and keep them alive.
attempting developments disappear futile lifestyles preserve

survive worthwhile
Paraphrase A:
It is not ................trying to ......... a country's traditional skills
and ways of life as these .......... as a result of
technological ............
(30 minutes)
READING (one hour)
 The reading test is one hour long and it comes directly

after your listening test.
 There is NO extra time given to transfer answers to your
answer sheet in reading.
 There are three reading passages and for each spend
about 20 minutes.
 There are 40 questions in total for the reading test.
 There are many different types of questions you will get in
your reading test ( true, false & not given, heading
matching etc.)
 Spelling is important.
 Not all answers come in order.
Skills to develop:
o Develop skills of each type of reading.
o Develop your reading speed.
o Develop your ability to scan read.
o Practice
Reading : true / false and not given strategy
 True : you can find this information in the passage and it

agrees with the statement
 False : the passage and statement have different
information.
 Not given : this means you cannot find the information in
the passage.
1. You must be prepared to paraphrase the words in the

statement given to the words in the passage.
2. You are just looking for meaning . do not try to just match
words but you actually need to match meaning and check
the content of the information given.
3. The answers follow the order of information in the
passage for these questions.
(60 minutes)

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Session 3 (one hour of writing)

 TASK 1: information transfer task

 Getting information from a chart:

3. describe about the given categories in an

Pay attention to tense of writing task (it depends on the year

1. The use of a number. (Using the actual number or

Ex: 200 units of ice cream sold weekly are blueberry

Ex: 50% of all the ice cream sold were chocolate

3. The use of phrases that begin with the article “A”

Ex: a small number, a huge number, a minority, a large

4. The use of phrases beginning with the preposition “of”

Ex: ‘of’ can mean ‘taken from’ such as:

Of the survey conducted, people who studied English,

5. The use of phrases beginning with the preposition ‘of’

Ex: of the total number of

 The use of superlatives:

If we use a superlative adjective (the most popular

The Line graph below shows the number of overseas

 Opinion essay: How to write an organized answer

The instructions can be written in a number of

 An introduction paragraph requires two statements: a

Analyzing the Essay Question

So, our essay is all about improving health and possible

You do this by paraphrasing the question. This means you

It is said that waste from large scale companies has begun

2. Change the order of words when paraphrasing.

some people’ = ‘certain people’

‘Graduating from higher education’ = ‘getting a degree from a university’

Certain people think that graduating from higher education is

The optimum way to assure getting a top job is by graduating

Exercise: When a country develops its technology, the

attempting developments disappear futile lifestyles preserve

 The reading test is one hour long and it comes directly

Reading : true / false and not given strategy

 True : you can find this information in the passage and it

1. You must be prepared to paraphrase the words in the

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