WRITING TASK 1: HOW MANY PARAGRAPHS? WHAT TO WRITE?

It is important to divide your report into at least three paragraphs. Also, keep in mind to use 'linking words and phrases' to facilitate smooth transition of your ideas. This way, you can rest assured that you will get solid points for 'coherence and cohesion'.

SO WHAT DO YOU WRITE IN THE INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH?

Let's dive right in!

In this paragraph you should describe what the graph is about, its date and location and say what overall trends or patterns you observe. For instance, you could mention whether the graph is ascending or descending. Alternatively, if you feel that your ‘overall’ is lengthy enough to stand independently; you could opt for a separate overview paragraph. 

It is essential that you use certain "reference" structures: show, demonstrate, illustrate, depicts, and the like. 

Also, make sure that you use the right 'collocation'. Many students who are not familiar with collocations might write something like "bar chart show" or "bar charts shows"( which is grammatically incorrect). As a result, they lose points for 'grammatical accuracy'.

Rather, start your introductory paragraph with something like: "The bar chart shows/ bar charts show the percentage of graduates from 10 Australian Universities working or studying full time(note: this is your topic sentence)". Here, 'bar chart' is a noun and 'shows' is a verb: this is a noun-verb collocation. 

Then after, you can highlight on the key factor(s) of the graphic(s) and develop your topic sentence into your introductory paragraph. 

"The bar chart shows the percentage of graduate students from ten Australian Universities working or studying full time. The figures take into consideration universities like ANU, UTS, Sydney, Charles Sturt, Wollongong, Macquaire, UNSW, Newcastle, Southern Cross and Western Sydney.”

Note: You should, however, avoid using “reference” structures too often in order to prevent unnecessary repetition.

In many cases, the topic sentence (general statement) might already be included in the task itself. In such a scenario, do not copy the topic sentence word for word. The smartest thing to do instead is: paraphrase the sentence. Paraphrasing is an effective method to show off your writing skills. This increases your chances of getting a good score.

Example:

The bar chart shows the percentage of graduates from 10 Australian Universities working or studying full time.

(Paraphrased sentence): The figure illustrates the percentage of students who have graduated from ten Australian Universities and are involved in full-time study or work. 

Once you are done with the introduction, move into the body of the writing task 1.

In this part of the report writing, you must describe important trends, however, avoid redundancy. As a general rule, you should look for large differences first-try to find some aspect that is significantly larger than another and one that is much smaller or less than another. Then find an aspect that is constant or two that are similar. That is enough.

The number of paragraph depends on the number of distinctive features your graph or chart has. There should be one paragraph for each. You should link the paragraph by sentences that logically connect them to one another. You should have two body paragraphs for your report. For convenience, you can practice selecting points for 'comparisons' to include in one of your paragraphs and reporting the 'main details' in the other. Remember, you will be marked based on whether you have these features in your report or not. So make sure that you have done a proper analysis of the graphic(s) prior to initiating on the writing task. 

It is essential that you write about all the periods of time and all the subjects of graph. If it shows several years (1992, 1993, 1994), refer to all of them. If it is about boys and girls, write about both. Remember, summarizing doesn’t mean throwing away information. The secret here is to select what is important, organize it and compare and contrast.

Examples(of sentences that you may include in the BODY) :

Australia and Canada has the same number of student enrollment. (For a present situation)

Student enrollment increased dramatically over the years. (For a past situation)

In order to get a high score, try to incorporate these 'verbs' and 'adverbs' in your report. 

·         Increase, rise, jump, peak, soar

·         Decrease, drop, fall, plunge, bottom out, hit a trough

·  Considerably, gradually, rapidly, slowly, slightly, steadily, sharply, suddenly,   significantly,

·   Fluctuate, change, remained stable, remained steady, hardly any change, little   change

·         Nearly, approximately, precisely, fairly, exactly, about, almost

Examples:

-The monthly sales soared to 50 % in August.

-University B has almost twice as many students as University A.

-The profit percentage gradually increased over the years and reached an all time high in 2015.

-The stock prices of Company X fluctuated considerably, whereas that of company Y remained fairly constant.

Note: You are not required to write a separate conclusion for writing task.