IELTS Writing Task 1: How to Describe a Bar Chart

00:18:26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3U1Y1jgGls

Zusammenfassung

TLDRIn this lesson, Liz provides essential tips for handling bar charts in IELTS writing task 1. The process involves structuring the description into clear paragraphs: an introduction, an overview, and two body paragraphs. The introduction should paraphrase the task description, mentioning categories and specific units. The overview must highlight key features using comparative language, and is crucial for scoring well. Body paragraphs should be logically organized and supported by data from the chart. Using brackets for information, varying vocabulary for synonyms, and applying consistent measurement units are emphasized techniques. Logical organization and clarity are vital for coherence and task achievement in your writing.

Mitbringsel

  • 📊 Structure your response with clear paragraphs: introduction, overview, and body.
  • 📝 Paraphrase the task statement in your own words for the introduction.
  • 📈 Highlight key features in the overview using comparatives and superlatives.
  • 🔄 Use symbols for currencies and percentages to avoid redundancy.
  • 🗂 Organize body paragraphs logically and include data.
  • 📌 Use brackets effectively for listing categories and numbers.
  • 🔍 Pay attention to the task date for appropriate tense usage.
  • ✅ Ensure you have at least two body paragraphs for proper coherence.
  • ✍️ Sophisticated language and clear logical organization can achieve a high band score.
  • 🔗 Use linkers to connect ideas smoothly between sentences.

Zeitleiste

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The instructor, Liz, introduces a lesson on effective strategies for describing bar charts in the IELTS Writing Task 1. She emphasizes the importance of understanding each paragraph's purpose and guides students through an example bar chart illustrating the expenditure on consumer goods in France and the UK during 2010. Liz outlines the components of the bar chart, highlighting categories like cars, computers, and more. She advises how to write an introductory paragraph, noting that some original words like 'chart' can be retained, and suggests paraphrasing techniques such as changing 'expenditure' to 'amount of money spent'.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Liz continues by discussing the importance of including all pertinent information in the introduction, such as the currency used, highlighting its academic writing utility. The overview paragraph's significance is stressed, as it affects the overall band score substantially. She explains how to identify key features like the highest and lowest expenditures and compares overall spending between the UK and France. The overview should include comparisons to highlight major trends and differences between the countries' expenditures, using words like 'overall' to signal summary content.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:18:26

    In the final part, Liz explains different ways of organizing body paragraphs and stresses the importance of having two instead of one for better organization, which impacts coherence scores. She suggests structuring paragraphs based on highlighted key features or distinct differences, ensuring logical flow. Examples of sentences for body paragraphs are provided, emphasizing the necessity of including data to support statements. The use of symbols in writing, like the pound sign, is approved to avoid repetition, and Liz encourages checking an online blog for more resources and a complete model answer.

Mind Map

Mind Map

Häufig gestellte Fragen

  • What is the first paragraph in an IELTS task 1 bar chart description?

    The first paragraph is the introduction, where you paraphrase the information provided by IELTS.

  • How should you start the overview paragraph?

    Start the overview with the word 'overall' to clearly indicate to the examiner that it is the overview section.

  • What determines the tenses used in IELTS writing task 1?

    The date given in the chart determines the tenses you will use in your writing.

  • How many sentences should the introduction typically have?

    The introduction usually has one or two sentences.

  • What is the significance of using brackets in the introduction?

    Brackets are useful for listing categories or including data in academic writing.

  • Why is the overview paragraph important?

    The overview is crucial because it highlights key features, and a missing overview can limit your band score.

  • What are key features in a bar chart?

    Key features include high and low points in the data, such as which category had the highest or lowest expenditure.

  • What happens if you have only one body paragraph?

    Having only one body paragraph may lower your score in coherence and cohesion as you are tested on organization.

  • Can you use symbols in the IELTS task 1 writing?

    Yes, you can use symbols like currency signs and percentages to avoid redundancy.

  • What should you do if you have unique units of measurement in a chart?

    Include the units of measurement in the introduction, especially if they are unique or specific, like currency.

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Automatisches Blättern:
  • 00:00:02
    hello my name's Liz and in this lesson
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    I'm going to give you all the essential
  • 00:00:09
    tips and techniques that you need to
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    know to be successful with bar charts
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    for IELTS writing task one we're going
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    to look at each paragraph and I'm going
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    to show you what information you need to
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    put in each paragraph and how to write
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    it this is the bar chart we're going to
  • 00:00:31
    use for this lesson so let's have a
  • 00:00:34
    look the chart shows the expenditure of
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    two countries on consumer goods in
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    2010 I Els will always give you a
  • 00:00:47
    description of the chart and this is key
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    information that you need to read to
  • 00:00:53
    understand the meaning of your bar chart
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    now when we look at the bar chart we can
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    see that that down the vertical axis
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    here so at the side we've got all the
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    different amounts of money that the two
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    countries
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    spend along the bottom so that's the
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    horizontal axis we've got all the
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    different types of consumer goods so
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    we've got five different types of
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    consumer goods we have cars computers
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    books perfume and cameras
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    and if we look further we can see that
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    the two countries we've got one in blue
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    and one in red we got France and the UK
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    so that is our bar chart for this lesson
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    let's have a look at our
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    paragraphs the first paragraph that you
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    will need to write is your
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    introduction then you will have
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    something called an overview after that
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    you've got two body paragraphs for the
  • 00:01:57
    introduction we need to paraphrase this
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    statement here so the information that
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    IELTS give you we need to write it again
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    in our own words for the introduction
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    let me show you how to do that now and
  • 00:02:13
    here is our introduction so let me show
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    you how I wrote it now the first two
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    words the chart you can see it's the
  • 00:02:22
    same I have not change those words and I
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    don't recommend that you should a chart
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    is a chart a Gra is a graph a table is a
  • 00:02:31
    table you do not need to paraphrase
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    every word because not all words can be
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    paraphrased successfully in English so
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    it is normal for a band score nine to
  • 00:02:45
    have some words the same so we've got
  • 00:02:49
    the first two words we're going to keep
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    them then we will take a look at the
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    verb they say shows we can use
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    illustrates you could also say gives
  • 00:03:00
    information
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    about they say the expenditure and I say
  • 00:03:06
    the amount of money spent that's a very
  • 00:03:09
    nice
  • 00:03:11
    paraphrase they say that it is the
  • 00:03:14
    expenditure of consumer goods so what
  • 00:03:16
    I've done is I've kept that word that's
  • 00:03:19
    the correct word it's an academic word I
  • 00:03:22
    don't want to change it but I do add the
  • 00:03:27
    number it's time to introduce
  • 00:03:30
    the categories remember this is your
  • 00:03:32
    introduction you want to introduce the
  • 00:03:36
    information so the amount of money spent
  • 00:03:38
    on five consumer goods and here you can
  • 00:03:43
    see that I have given the list now it's
  • 00:03:47
    very good to give a list of the
  • 00:03:50
    categories but only if it's not too long
  • 00:03:54
    so here we've got five if it is over
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    eight maybe you don't want to do that
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    and you just give the number but here
  • 00:04:02
    I've given the list and I have used
  • 00:04:06
    brackets and brackets are very useful in
  • 00:04:10
    academic writing task one so that you
  • 00:04:13
    can put data or information in them
  • 00:04:17
    perfectly normal to use so we've got the
  • 00:04:20
    list and then I say in France and the UK
  • 00:04:25
    they say in two countries but again this
  • 00:04:28
    is the introduction and I want to
  • 00:04:30
    introduce these two countries so always
  • 00:04:33
    try to give the names if you
  • 00:04:35
    can in the UK and France in
  • 00:04:40
    2010 and of course the date very
  • 00:04:42
    important because we must pay attention
  • 00:04:46
    to the date to know the tents that we
  • 00:04:48
    will use for writing this task one is
  • 00:04:53
    there anything
  • 00:04:54
    missing yes you can see down the side
  • 00:04:58
    here that we've got some extra
  • 00:05:00
    information so of course we want to
  • 00:05:02
    paraphrase the information given by
  • 00:05:05
    IELTS but we also want to look at the
  • 00:05:08
    chart to see if there is any other
  • 00:05:11
    information that we want to introduce
  • 00:05:14
    and of course here we've got that all
  • 00:05:17
    money is measured in Pounds Sterling so
  • 00:05:21
    we need to write that in our
  • 00:05:23
    introduction and we can
  • 00:05:27
    write units
  • 00:05:30
    are
  • 00:05:32
    measured
  • 00:05:35
    in
  • 00:05:37
    Pounds Sterling and this is a very
  • 00:05:42
    useful sentence to use because of course
  • 00:05:45
    that is a passive tense which is very
  • 00:05:48
    nice for the examiner so if you have
  • 00:05:51
    interesting units for example pound
  • 00:05:55
    sterling or a different currency then
  • 00:05:58
    please put put the measurement for your
  • 00:06:01
    units in your introduction so that means
  • 00:06:04
    the introduction is sometimes one
  • 00:06:08
    sentence sometimes two sentences not
  • 00:06:12
    longer it's the easiest paragraph to
  • 00:06:16
    write in ielt writing task one you
  • 00:06:19
    should not make any mistakes with this
  • 00:06:22
    so please make sure you practice that
  • 00:06:25
    now let's move on and we'll have a look
  • 00:06:27
    at the overview the overview is the most
  • 00:06:31
    important paragraph in your I writing
  • 00:06:34
    task one this is the paragraph where you
  • 00:06:37
    will collect all the key features and
  • 00:06:40
    put them together in an overview
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    statement The Examiner is looking for
  • 00:06:46
    the overview if you have no
  • 00:06:50
    overview you will not get above band
  • 00:06:53
    score 5 for task achievement that's 25%
  • 00:06:58
    of your marks
  • 00:07:00
    if you have an overview that's band
  • 00:07:02
    score six if you have a clear overview
  • 00:07:05
    that's band score seven so your band
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    score will go up depending on this
  • 00:07:11
    overview so very important now before I
  • 00:07:15
    show you how to write your overview
  • 00:07:17
    let's have a look at what the key
  • 00:07:19
    features are if you look at the chart
  • 00:07:22
    you will see that in red is the UK and
  • 00:07:25
    in blue is France and of course key
  • 00:07:28
    features are all about the high points
  • 00:07:30
    and the low points of your chart so if
  • 00:07:33
    we look here for the red one that's UK
  • 00:07:37
    we can see that most of the spending was
  • 00:07:40
    on cars and also for France the blue one
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    that's the same so both France and the
  • 00:07:47
    UK spent most of their money on cars but
  • 00:07:52
    if we look at the other end so the lower
  • 00:07:54
    points for
  • 00:07:57
    England the least amount of money was
  • 00:07:59
    spent on
  • 00:08:01
    perfume and for France it was cameras so
  • 00:08:06
    those are key features is there any
  • 00:08:10
    other key feature we can have yes and of
  • 00:08:13
    course what you need to look at is very
  • 00:08:15
    simple can you see more red or more blue
  • 00:08:19
    so which country spent more money in
  • 00:08:23
    total on the consumer goods and you can
  • 00:08:25
    see that obviously there is more red so
  • 00:08:29
    the UK spent more money than France so
  • 00:08:33
    let's write the overview and here we've
  • 00:08:35
    got the overview so let's have a look we
  • 00:08:38
    start with the word overall because we
  • 00:08:42
    want to show the reader to show The
  • 00:08:45
    Examiner that this is our overview this
  • 00:08:48
    is a good technique to use because it
  • 00:08:51
    means the examiner can easily find the
  • 00:08:53
    overview and that will help us get a
  • 00:08:56
    better band score so overall the
  • 00:08:59
    expenditure of the UK was higher than
  • 00:09:03
    that of France so this is our first key
  • 00:09:08
    feature overall so taking the whole
  • 00:09:11
    chart together which one was higher and
  • 00:09:15
    you can see we're using a
  • 00:09:17
    comparative overviews often usually have
  • 00:09:22
    comparatives now we look at the next
  • 00:09:25
    part this is quite a long sentence and
  • 00:09:29
    it's connected with two linkers we got
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    while and compared to so let's have a
  • 00:09:34
    look we got both the French and the
  • 00:09:37
    British so here I've changed it instead
  • 00:09:40
    of giving the name of the country I'm
  • 00:09:43
    using the
  • 00:09:44
    nationality both the French and the
  • 00:09:46
    British spent the most money on cars and
  • 00:09:52
    here we've got a superlative so the
  • 00:09:54
    highest the
  • 00:09:56
    most while in the UK the least again
  • 00:10:01
    this is a superlative the least amount
  • 00:10:05
    of money was spent on perfume compared
  • 00:10:08
    to cameras in France so in total in this
  • 00:10:12
    overview we've got three key features
  • 00:10:16
    we've got which one was higher than the
  • 00:10:19
    other
  • 00:10:20
    overall and we've got the most money
  • 00:10:22
    spent and the least money spent three
  • 00:10:26
    key features how many do you normally
  • 00:10:29
    have
  • 00:10:30
    well it's very rare to have only one I
  • 00:10:33
    think that's almost impossible you are
  • 00:10:35
    usually looking at two three or four key
  • 00:10:38
    features occasionally five it depends on
  • 00:10:42
    all the information in your chart or
  • 00:10:44
    your table for
  • 00:10:46
    example right so that's the overview now
  • 00:10:49
    let's have a look at the body paragraphs
  • 00:10:52
    this is one way to organize the body
  • 00:10:56
    paragraphs now let me give you a rule
  • 00:10:58
    first you must divide the body
  • 00:11:01
    paragraphs you cannot have one body
  • 00:11:03
    paragraph you are being tested on your
  • 00:11:07
    organization and your use of
  • 00:11:09
    paragraphs so that's 25% of your marks
  • 00:11:13
    so if you have only one body paragraph
  • 00:11:16
    it's going to be hard to get a good
  • 00:11:18
    result for coherence and
  • 00:11:20
    cohesion so I'm going to show you two
  • 00:11:23
    different ways to organize the body
  • 00:11:26
    paragraphs the most important thing is
  • 00:11:29
    is that it's logical so this is one
  • 00:11:33
    possibility in body paragraph a we can
  • 00:11:36
    have information about cars perfume and
  • 00:11:40
    cameras and that is because we
  • 00:11:42
    highlighted them as the highest and the
  • 00:11:47
    lowest so that would be a very easy
  • 00:11:51
    logical way to organize your writing and
  • 00:11:54
    of course body paragraph B would have
  • 00:11:56
    the other two categories so computers
  • 00:12:00
    and books let me show you another way to
  • 00:12:03
    organize it and here is the alternative
  • 00:12:08
    the other way to organize your body
  • 00:12:10
    paragraphs you can see I've got cars
  • 00:12:12
    books and cameras together let's have a
  • 00:12:15
    look why well cars you can see that the
  • 00:12:18
    UK was higher than France the next one
  • 00:12:21
    books that's the same the UK spent more
  • 00:12:25
    money than France on books and cameras
  • 00:12:28
    you can see the same you can see a
  • 00:12:31
    significant difference between the
  • 00:12:34
    spending and for body paragraph B we
  • 00:12:37
    have the reverse so you can see that
  • 00:12:40
    computers France spent more than England
  • 00:12:45
    UK and
  • 00:12:47
    perfume you can see again that France
  • 00:12:50
    spent more than the UK on perfume so
  • 00:12:53
    that is the other way to organize it
  • 00:12:56
    which one is better they are both very
  • 00:12:59
    good they will both give you a band
  • 00:13:01
    score nine for
  • 00:13:03
    organization the most important thing is
  • 00:13:06
    that it's logical and easy to follow for
  • 00:13:09
    the reader now let's just have a quick
  • 00:13:11
    look at how to write the body paragraph
  • 00:13:15
    here we have two sample sentences for
  • 00:13:20
    the category of cars and books so let's
  • 00:13:24
    have a look you can see that we start
  • 00:13:26
    off with a Linker in terms of cars this
  • 00:13:30
    is very nice because the reader
  • 00:13:32
    immediately knows which category we're
  • 00:13:35
    talking about in terms of cars the UK
  • 00:13:39
    spent around
  • 00:13:42
    £450,000
  • 00:13:44
    so when you're writing your body
  • 00:13:46
    paragraphs you need to take a look at
  • 00:13:48
    the graph at the chart and you need to
  • 00:13:51
    have a look this is the cars and here
  • 00:13:53
    we've got the UK and you can see that it
  • 00:13:56
    is between 400,000
  • 00:13:59
    and
  • 00:14:01
    500,000 we cannot write it was
  • 00:14:05
    450,000 because we cannot see exactly
  • 00:14:09
    but we can see that it was around
  • 00:14:13
    £450,000
  • 00:14:15
    so they spent around £450,000 on this
  • 00:14:20
    that means
  • 00:14:21
    cars as opposed to this is a very nice
  • 00:14:25
    Linker to connect the information about
  • 00:14:29
    France and England as opposed to exactly
  • 00:14:32
    £400,000 in France and you can see here
  • 00:14:36
    we've got £400,000
  • 00:14:39
    then we move on to books that's this one
  • 00:14:42
    here and it says that the expenditure on
  • 00:14:45
    books in the UK was higher than in
  • 00:14:50
    France so we've got another
  • 00:14:53
    comparative when you have a comparative
  • 00:14:56
    like that you still need to give the
  • 00:14:59
    numbers the data you cannot miss the
  • 00:15:02
    data if your sentences in the body
  • 00:15:06
    paragraph are not supported by data you
  • 00:15:10
    will get about bandore five for task
  • 00:15:13
    achievement so that's another problem so
  • 00:15:17
    please avoid that and always support
  • 00:15:20
    your sentences with the numbers so you
  • 00:15:24
    can see in this sentence what I've done
  • 00:15:26
    is I've decided to put the numbers in in
  • 00:15:30
    Brackets so that's another bracket
  • 00:15:33
    sentence and you can say I've got about
  • 00:15:37
    400,000 and about £300,000
  • 00:15:41
    respectively now respectively means that
  • 00:15:45
    the order of the numbers follows the
  • 00:15:48
    order in the sentence UK is first that
  • 00:15:52
    number refers to the first one the
  • 00:15:55
    second number refers to the second one
  • 00:15:58
    so make sure you got you the order of
  • 00:16:00
    information right and also if you decide
  • 00:16:04
    to use this method and have a sentence
  • 00:16:07
    using respectively please don't put a
  • 00:16:10
    long list of numbers because it becomes
  • 00:16:13
    very difficult for the examiner to check
  • 00:16:15
    he has to go through each number and
  • 00:16:18
    check that everything is correct he will
  • 00:16:21
    check every number that you write so
  • 00:16:25
    those are two examples of complex
  • 00:16:29
    sentences to describe the categories in
  • 00:16:33
    the body paragraphs of course you have
  • 00:16:35
    to write the others um other things I
  • 00:16:38
    want to point out and that's here just
  • 00:16:42
    here you can see that I have written a
  • 00:16:44
    symbol for the pound sign I have not
  • 00:16:48
    written pound sterling and that's
  • 00:16:50
    because I don't want to keep repeating
  • 00:16:52
    words all the time it is fine in I
  • 00:16:56
    writing task one to use symbols you can
  • 00:16:59
    use symbols for currencies and
  • 00:17:01
    percentages and many other things so
  • 00:17:06
    please make sure that you use that and
  • 00:17:08
    when the examiner is counting the number
  • 00:17:10
    of words you've written he will take
  • 00:17:13
    that as one word because it's just a
  • 00:17:15
    symbol with a
  • 00:17:16
    number so that is the body paragraphs if
  • 00:17:21
    you would like to see the full model so
  • 00:17:24
    a band score9 piece of writing for this
  • 00:17:27
    chart then I will give you a link at the
  • 00:17:29
    end of this video so you can have a look
  • 00:17:32
    well that's all for this lesson if you
  • 00:17:35
    found it useful please press like if you
  • 00:17:37
    have questions then put them under the
  • 00:17:39
    video or visit my blog on my blog there
  • 00:17:42
    are many answers to questions about
  • 00:17:46
    writing task one as well as all the
  • 00:17:49
    other skills in I so please take a look
  • 00:17:52
    I will see you again in another I
  • 00:17:57
    lesson e
Tags
  • IELTS
  • bar charts
  • writing task 1
  • introduction
  • overview
  • key features
  • coherence
  • comparative language
  • data representation
  • academic writing