Shadowing Practice: IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - Bar Charts Lesson 2 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello, thank you for joining me today for this IELTS academic writing preparation lesson.

Today we are talking all about task one bar charts, but the types of bar charts that function as line graphs.

This is quite tricky because it is a task that will be presented to you as a bar chart,

but you'll have to know that the strategy is actually very similar to that of a line graph.

So think of this as a line graph disguised as a bar chart, and this will, of course, affect our strategy.

So today I'm going to take you through a general guide

that you can use for these types of writing prompts

when it comes to the Academic IELTS Task 1 in the Writing section.

And then, of course, we'll go through a couple of step-by-step examples so that you can see our strategy put in use.

So without further ado, let's get started.

Now, I just want to call your attention to the three types of bar charts

that you are likely to see on the academic version of the IELTS, specifically for the writing section task one.

We're going to look at number two, the second type in our video today, but just be aware that these three exist.

The first one is a bar chart with categories on the x-axis.

So this is a classic bar chart with various categories, different things that you see along the x-axis.

The second type is what we're going to be looking at today.

This is a bar chart with dates or years on the x-axis, and so it functions as a line graph.

And the third type is two bar charts together, and that will require a strategy that looks at both of these bar charts.

Again, today we are going to focus on a number two.

In general, you can use more or less the same guide for all three of these, but note that the language

and a little bit of the strategy will change just a bit when looking at these three different types.

So the general guide that you can be expected to use looks like this.

You've got two steps.

The first step is to analyze the chart and plan how to group the information.

This is very important because you don't want to just start writing your essay.

You want to actually analyze the chart, pick it apart a little bit, like I'll show you today, and know what to write about.

And then step two, very simply, is to write an essay using the recommended essay structure.

This is also something else that you should keep in mind.

You never want to write blindly without any paragraph structure or without different groups because this will affect your score.

So you want to use the recommended essay structure that I'll show you in just a bit.

For now, let's look at step one, and there are different parts to step one to keep in mind.

This is basically what we're going to do on a very general level, but if we really look at the detail of step one, we're going to do two things.

First, we're going to organize the information that we see in our writing prompt and in our bar chart into groups.

Now, they're most likely going to be two groups, but keep in mind that you may have different groups.

And basically you're just going to organize what you see, the information in your bar chart, into these two groups.

And then you're going to find information that stands out, something that is perhaps surprising, like a huge decrease or a sharp increase.

Remember these function as line graphs.

So I'll show you how that will play into this.

So these are the first two things to do in step one.

And then you want to figure out the overall trend.

This is very important because we can't just look at detail when it comes to this.

We have to understand the overall trend.

And so there are two ways to do this as well.

Like I said, we want to analyze the chart as a line graph.

This really makes it easy.

I'll show you in our example, but don't just think in terms of bars, but think in terms of lines.

And this will help you understand general trends, sharp decreases, sharp increases, and the like.

And then, of course, with this, we're going to understand the general trend, like I just said, and understand whether or not there's an increase or there's a decline.

And we can actually look at great language also to use in order to describe this.

Okay, so that is the first thing we're going to do.

This is all part of step one.

This is the preparation work

and the outline work in order to really dissect the writing prompt and the bar chart that we have.

With that being said, let's go ahead and look at our writing prompt today, and then we'll get started with this example.

Okay, and here is our example for today.

We have our writing prompt,

which says, the bar chart below shows the estimated sales of jeans for two companies next year in Turkey.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

All right, so of course we know that our minimum is 150 words, and we see here that we basically do have two groups.

So we have Mango Company and Jack and Jones Company, and we have months on the x-axis.

So this works as our dates.

We have months here and these are next year.

So this is also a great clue that we'll have to be speaking in the future tense because this is not present, not past, but it is estimated sales in the future.

Then on the y-axis, we have the thousands of pairs.

So that will also help us when looking at what we are examining today.

So notice how we have bars here.

technically these are bars and this is a bar chart, but it's really best to look at this as a line graph.

So let me show you what I mean.

Let's look at step one.

And remember step one is analyzing the chart and planning out how to group the information. And

so the first thing you should be doing in step one

is really analyzing the chart as though it were a line graph.

And so all you really have to do is just draw a line for Jack and Jones and also for Mango.

Draw a line and this will give you a better idea as to the increase,

the decrease, and really how you can compare and understand these two companies and the estimated sales.

So note that Jack and Jones is shown here in blue and it starts out higher than Mango, but then it drops.

And then after that you see a steady increase, and then it increases all the way.

Mango, on the other hand, starts off much lower, but then makes a steady increase.

So this shows you the two groups that we talked about in step one.

And so now I'm going to organize the information on the right-hand side here into two groups.

So I got my first grouping, which is going to be my first paragraph in the body, and the second grouping, which is going to be the second paragraph in the body.

I'll show you the outline in just a bit, But just know for now that mango is going to be my first grouping,

which is the orange, and Jack and Jones will be my second grouping, which is the blue.

I'm just going to make a couple of notes here, things that really stand out to us.

Remember, that's the second part of what we're going to do here.

And for mango, really something that stands out to me is that you see an increase from January to August.

Now this is not a sudden increase, but it's quite subtle, but I'm still going to put January to August just to give me an idea Increase

and remember your outline does not have to be perfect.

No one is going to see it This is just for you to base your writing off of

so that's the first thing I'm going to write about mango Then I am going to talk about this plateau

that you see here So from August September October November, there's quite a plateau So then I'm going to say plateau.

I'll abbreviate it there.

And then I'll talk about how after that, there's going to be a rise to December.

Okay.

Now I will talk about numbers later as I'm actually writing out the essay, but this is basically what I'm going to say about mango.

I'm going to do the same thing for Jack and Jones.

And basically what I see here that is quite clear to me

when I make comparisons is that Jack and Jones is going to outsell Mango at the beginning and also at the end.

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Note how I don't talk about the middle

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because it looks like Mango is actually going to outsell Jack and Jones in the middle, but in the beginning and the end,

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it's quite clear that they are going to outsell Mango.

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I'll put here beginning and end.

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This is just for me to understand.

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And then I am going to talk about how sales dip.

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So this is a great way to say that sales will decline, dip a little bit, but then come back up right around February.

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You see how it dips and then it comes back up.

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So I'm going to say sales dip.

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I'll talk about February and then see how this is sort of like a stagnant, slight increase, but it's also just stagnant.

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So I'm going to say something about how sales stagnate until August.

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So I'll say sales dip, then sales stagnates, and then I'll talk about August.

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And then I'll just talk about the increase that we'll see for the rest of the year,

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specifically with September, October, and then we'll talk about the end of the year.

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So these are my two groups here with Mango, Jack and Jones.

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I have included some details that I'm going to include in the essay.

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This just gives me a good idea of what I'm going to write, and it really prepares me for writing with a clear view

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and really just making sure that I touch on all the points.

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Now, remember the second part of step one

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and the last part we're going to do before we actually write our essay is analyzing the chart as a line graph, which is what we have done for our first section,

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and then understand the general trends.

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We don't really need details here.

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We just have to understand if there is an increase or a decline.

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And basically you see

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that there is a prediction of an upward trend in sales of jeans for both Mango and Jack and Jones.

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And it just looks like the customers in Turkey are expected to purchase more jeans from Jack and Jones.

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So we can say that there is an overall upward trend,

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but we do want to make a note that more jeans will be purchased from Jack and Jones.

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So this is something that we can talk about briefly in our overview paragraph.

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We've basically done all of step one.

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So we have analyzed the chart, grouped everything.

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We've understood the trend.

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And now the last thing to do is just look at our outline, which is going to be looking at step two and writing the essay.

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I'm going to briefly show you the outline that we're going to follow, and then we are going to start writing our essay based on this information.

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Okay, and just to remind you, we have step two, writing an essay using the recommended essay structure, and that structure is as follows.

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So we are going to organize our paragraphs.

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Now, we have first, obviously, the introduction, then an overview paragraph, body paragraph one, and body paragraph two.

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Now, to go into detail here, the introduction is going to paraphrase the task question.

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This is pretty much just a sentence, perhaps two sentences maximum.

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Then the overview is going to be about the overall trend or a general overview of the main groupings.

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This is the last part of step one.

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It is what we just did in our writing example, looking at the overview, the general increases.

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And then the last two paragraphs are going to be about our two groups.

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So we're going to write about the first grouping of lines with similar trends and values in body paragraph one.

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And then of course, in body paragraph two, we are going to write about the second grouping of lines with similar trends and values.

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And this is it.

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This is a foolproof outline that will guarantee that you're writing all of the necessary information.

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You're introducing it professionally and also analytically.

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You are looking at trends and then you are going into detail with your two groups.

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So using this, let's start writing.

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Okay, so I've made things just a bit neater.

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I've replaced the original picture of the bar chart with the line graph version just so that it's easier to follow along.

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And our notes are right here on the lower left-hand side.

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We've got our groupings and we've got our overall trend.

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I'm going to write here on the right-hand side.

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And of course, when you are doing your own practice or the actual exam, you do not want to write these headings.

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So I'm just using this so that you can follow along and see the introduction, the overview, and the different paragraphs.

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At the end of writing everything, I will talk about some key language, and we'll look at the word count and everything else together.

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For now, I'm just going to write it as though I would write the essay based on the notes.

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So first thing first, we have our introduction, which is basically just going to be a different version of the writing prompt.

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I'm going to paraphrase it and write the task question and just provide a nice introduction.

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So I'm going to say

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that the bar chart illustrates the predicted sales in Turkey of denim jeans for Mango and Jack and Jones companies.

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Transactions are measured in thousands of pairs.

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This is very important because I need to know exactly what I'm talking about.

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So this is thousands of pairs.

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Note that this would not be 1,000.

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It would be 100,000.

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So keep that in mind.

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Basically, I've just said exactly what the writing prompt says.

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It's talking about the predicted sales.

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So I know I'm talking in the future.

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We're talking about Turkey, the mango and Jack and Jones.

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And keep in mind that I have this ampersand only because it is in the label.

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I usually would not use symbols or any sort of abbreviations in the exam, but in this case it's fine because it is the title of the company.

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Okay, now for our overview paragraph, we're going to use this information down here, which is talking about the overall trend.

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And so just to start off, I'm going to use this great word, overall, basically, and it says overall,

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the chart predicts an upward trend in sales of jeans.

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Remember, this is what we looked at.

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Furthermore, Turkish customers are predicted to purchase more jeans from Jack and Jones Company.

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And this is what we looked at in the end of step one.

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So overall upward trend, which is what I've said, and of course, more jeans for Jack and Jones.

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That is sufficient for our overview.

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Now with body paragraph one, we're talking all about mango.

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So this is our first grouping.

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So when I start talking about mango, I'm going to say regarding mango, and we'll talk about January and August.

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So I'll say between January and August, Mango sales will increase by,

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now I want to understand how much it's going to increase.

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So I look at January for Mango and I look at August,

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we're starting at right around 100,000 and we're going up to almost 500,000.

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It looks like it's right in the middle there.

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So the fact that we're starting here,

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I'm going to say it's going to increase by 350,000 because remember we're starting at almost 200,000.

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So I'm going to say 350,000 pairs.

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Following this, I'm going to talk about the plateau.

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So again, I'm right here in August and I'm talking about this plateau.

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So this is a great word to talk about something that just remains the same.

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I'm going to say they will plateau until November and will finally show a positive rise,

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which is going to be right here in November up until December.

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So I'll say they're going to show a positive rise in December to end the year at,

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and I want to say approximately, because it's not quite clear.

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So I'm going to say approximately 600,000 pairs.

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And there we go.

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So that is everything I wanted to say for Mango.

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And now we're going to focus on Jack and Jones.

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There's a little bit more that I wanted to say about Jack and Jones.

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So again, I'm going to not say regarding, but I'm going to use another way to talk about something specific.

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And so I'm going to say, in terms of Jack and Jones, they will begin and end the year.

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Because remember we talked about outselling in the beginning and end.

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So I'm going to say they will begin and end the year outselling Mango by, and I want to look at how many pairs.

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Now it looks like 900,000 is the end for Jack and Jones.

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And we said that Mango was around 600,000.

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So that's about 300,000 as a difference.

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So I'm going to say they're going to outsell Mango by 300,000 pairs at the end.

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So I'll just write that here.

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Then I do want to talk about this sales dip that I talked about in February.

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So I will say, however, since this introduces a contrasting piece of information,

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sales will dip in February to about 250,000.

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Because if you look here in February, it goes down.

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It's not quite at 300,000.

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It decreases to about 250,000 before increasing to around 400,000 in June,

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because you see how it starts quite low in February.

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But then in June, you're right around 400,000.

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So I'm going to write 400,000 in June.

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And then I wanted to talk about that stagnation of sales.

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So I'm going to say after June, basically sales will stagnate until August.

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So my next sentence will say then sales are expected to stagnate until August.

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And then I wanted to talk about the increase.

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So after that, I will say Jack and Jones companies sales will more than recover in September and October.

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And I see that in September and October, they're going to sell around 600,000 pairs.

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So I'll say selling 600,000 pairs of jeans in both months.

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This is interesting because it stays the same for September and October.

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So I'm going to say both months.

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Keep in mind, this is not necessarily a plateau like we saw in mango,

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just because it's for a shorter amount of time and it comes right after a decrease.

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So this is actually an increase.

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It's a steady increase.

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It doesn't stay like this for too long.

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So then I'm going to talk about the ending months and I'll say in the subsequent months,

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a steady rise is predicted and sales will hit a peak of,

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again, this says approximately 900,000 and it isn't exactly clear.

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So I'm going to say a peak of approximately 900,000 by the close of the year.

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And there you have it.

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I have talked about all of my information that I wanted to include for Jack and Jones in the second body paragraph.

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It is normal that one paragraph is a little bit longer than the other.

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It really depends on the information you have.

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So with Mango, it was pretty clear.

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We saw a plateau.

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We saw a steady increase up until August.

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However, with Jack and Jones, there was actually much more to talk about because you see a dip

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and then you see a steady increase and then it just keeps increasing.

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And that seemed to be a more interesting piece of information.

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It was a more interesting group in terms of all the changes.

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So that's why it's a bit longer.

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So this is our essay.

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Now I'm going to show you a cleaner version with different types of language that we can analyze.

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Okay, now we can really analyze this for its language and its word count.

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I've looked at all of these words and the word count here is 172 words.

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That's perfect.

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We have fulfilled our minimum and we've gone a little bit over, but not too much.

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So we've definitely fulfilled what we have to say.

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Now I've separated some important words and phrases by color.

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Let's look at blue first.

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This is synonyms and topic vocabulary.

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So this is specific to this writing prompt.

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There aren't so many things here.

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We have predicted sales, which is what we saw here in the prompt.

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We saw estimated sales, but predicted sales is another way to say that.

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The more you're able to paraphrase and provide synonyms, the more your examiner will understand that you've got a rich vocabulary,

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and this will definitely help you in terms of the lexical resources that you're using.

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So try to use synonyms as much as you can.

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You see here Turkish customers.

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This was a different way to say customers from Turkey or customers in Turkey.

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So using the adjective here.

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And also we see outselling mango.

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That is very specific to estimated sales.

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So the more you study and practice your synonyms, the more these will be at the ready for you.

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And it'll just be more natural to use these synonyms.

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When it comes to useful vocabulary and phrases for the writing task one,

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we have a lot of great things that would work for this specific bar chart because it's treated as a line graph, but also line graphs in general.

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So we see that the chart predicts an upward trend.

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This is great.

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This is a way to say the increase that we see here

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and predicted to is wonderful because we're talking in the future.

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This is a prediction.

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So you really have to make sure you understand the writing prompt because we're not talking in the present or the past.

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This is the future.

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So these are all predictions.

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In our first body paragraph, it says the sales will increase by, so this buy is very important.

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Make sure you know that they will come together.

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If you didn't have buy and you just had increased 350,000 pairs,

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you would lose points on your lexical resource because that's just not the correct way to say it.

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Plateau is another great way to talk about something that is stagnant for more than two months, like we saw here.

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And show a positive rise is another way to say an increase.

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And then approximately is a great way to just say around because we don't know exactly the correct numbers.

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We just have this y-axis as a guide.

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Then in our second body paragraph for more useful vocabulary, a dip.

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This is great.

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So we use this for Jack and Jones in February.

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It's a very sharp decline.

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So a dip is a great way to say that.

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Stagnate is another great way to say that it is steadily increasing, but it's just a bit stagnant.

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It isn't anything too exciting.

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And then in the subsequent months, so in the following months,

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a steady rise, which is exactly what we talked about from September to October, and then hit a peak.

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So this is the highest point, like we saw for Jack and Jones, which is around 900,000.

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When it comes to the important functional words, let's look at red.

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These are great things for just organizing your information and your paragraphs and really just making it flow.

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So in our overview paragraph, we have overall because we're talking in general.

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Then in our first and second body paragraphs, when we want to get into more detail or talk about something specific.

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We can say regarding, or we can say in terms of, and then to talk about a process or to say something next,

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you could say following this when you want to include a contrasting argument or a contrasting piece of information.

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However is a great word to use.

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And then you can also say then when you want to continue, it's very similar to following this and you just continue on with your information.

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So you see how all of these synonyms, useful vocabulary, and functional words really help make your essay a success.

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This is a high-scoring essay because of the four scoring parts.

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We have the task achievement.

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This definitely fulfills the task.

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It reports on the main features.

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It makes relevant comparisons.

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It does so with a minimum of 150 words.

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The second part is it's coherent.

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It is cohesive with our foolproof outline.

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So you've got these different paragraphs.

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It's easy to read and it makes sense.

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And then the last two parts, the lexical resource and the grammatical range are also excellent here.

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We have a nice variation of words.

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We've talked about this in the future tense as was necessary.

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So keep in mind that your outline

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and all of your preparation work will really help you organize your essay and make it a success.

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I took a bit longer today because I just wanted to show you the reasons that I was writing certain things, and I wanted to show you the lines.

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But with practice, I guarantee you that you can do this quickly.

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You should be spending about 20 minutes on this.

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Now, the next example is going to show you something similar, but it is, of course, going to be a bit different.

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Let's speed it up a little bit and we'll show you the preparation work and a model essay.

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Okay, so we have our second example for today.

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It looks to be a bit more complicated and we see three different bars for each year.

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So let's read our prompt and see exactly what we're dealing with.

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It says the chart below shows the total number of minutes

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in billions of telephone calls in the UK divided into three categories from 1995 to 2002.

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Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

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Of course, we have 150 words as a minimum.

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Now, just looking at this chart, like I said, it looks to be a bit more complicated because we've got three categories per year.

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This is exactly what we're looking at, though.

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We have our years on the x-axis here and the minutes in billions on the y-axis.

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So don't worry about this.

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We can still approach this like we did the first example.

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We're going to look at it as a line graph in order to understand exactly what we're dealing with.

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And so here we are.

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I've just included how I would draw these lines.

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So let's take a look at this.

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We see first this gray type of bar is local fixed line.

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So basically I have traced the general curve and you see that it starts as an increase and then it decreases.

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So I've used this in red to show you what that looks like.

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Our second category is national and international fixed line, which is in our white bar.

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And that is a steady increase.

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And then we have mobiles, all calls in the black bar.

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And that also is a slight increase from 1995 to 2002.

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Now, this is extremely important because whenever students see three different categories with a bar chart like this,

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they tend to get nervous about how they're going to group this information.

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And since we've just analyzed the chart, we can see that there are two very different groups.

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The first group is a decreasing in the local fixed line, and the second group has the steady increasing,

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which would be national and international fixed lines and mobiles, all calls.

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So in this case, I would start out by writing about national, international fixed calls, and mobiles.

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I would have the white and the black bars as one group, and then our second grouping will be the local fixed line, which you see here in gray.

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That's just because we are grouping them based on the trend.

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One is decreasing and one is increasing.

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So I'm going to start with the first grouping and I'm just going to make notes about it.

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So I'm going to say national and international plus mobiles.

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And for my second grouping, I'm just going to say local fixed line.

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Now, in terms of things I want to say for national and international and mobiles, I want to talk about how we see a gradual increase for both.

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So for both national, international fixed line and mobiles, this is the biggest thing I'm going to talk about.

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And when we look at our essay, you will see how I've included the numbers

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because I am going to give examples in terms of numbers and in terms of dates, but this is the main thing you would have to understand for this first group.

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The second group, on the other hand, is going to look a little different because they have a different trend.

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So for local fixed line calls, which is going to be the topic of my second body paragraph, I'm going to talk about how it rose steadily.

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I'll talk about how it was a peak at around looks like 90 billion.

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So I'll put 90 billion here just to remind myself.

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And then I'm going to talk about the gradual decline up until 2002.

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And this is it.

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So you really don't have to freak out about grouping things that have three categories.

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In this case, you just want to look for a trend

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because I can guarantee you there is going to be some sort of trend that you can group together.

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And now speaking of trend, we're just going to finish up our step one and really just talk about a general trend.

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We're not talking about details.

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The details, remember, are in our body paragraphs.

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So in general here, I'm just going to talk about local fixed line calls.

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I'm going to talk about the peak and then the decline.

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and then when it comes to national and international calls, I'm going to talk about the gradual rise,

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specifically focusing on mobile calls rising towards the end.

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Now again, my notes are abbreviated.

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This is just to remind me of what I've planned when I write out the essay,

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but keep in mind that we were sort of able to combine all of the various points in step one.

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I was able to immediately see the overall trend just by drawing these lines for each category.

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And I was able to also see the overall trend just by looking at our groupings more in depth.

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So that's really all it takes.

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The more you practice, the more these things will jump out at you quite quickly, and you'll be able to see this right away.

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And now I'm going to show you the model essay.

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Okay, so we have our essay here on the right hand side.

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We're going to read it together while paying attention to these color coded words.

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So we have blue synonyms and topic vocabulary, green useful vocabulary and phrases, and red important functional words.

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So remember we have our introduction statement right here, which is basically just paraphrasing the prompt.

402

And it says the bar chart illustrates the total number of

403

calls in the UK in billions of minutes with three call types over an eight year period from 1995 to 2002.

404

Basically here I've added eight-year period because I see 1995, 2002, and call types.

405

So we see here telephone calls, three categories.

406

I've basically just said call types because that is what these three categories are.

407

Very short and simple and to the point.

408

Our overview paragraph here talks about the general trend.

409

So a nice way to introduce that is to say on the whole, local fixed line calls reached a peak by the middle of the period,

410

which is true here, and then gradually declined.

411

National and international calls showed a gradual rise over the whole period, so from 1995 to 2002,

412

with mobile calls rising considerably toward the end of the period.

413

This is the general overview.

414

Notice that a whole period is a good way to say the entire eight-year span.

415

And all of these things in green are great for line graphs and also for these types of bar charts.

416

Now our first body paragraph, which is talking about national and international plus mobile calls,

417

says with regards to national and international fixed calls, along with mobile calls.

418

Mobile calls stood at around 2 billion minutes in 1995.

419

Over the next four years, they showed a gradual increase, which is exactly what we see here,

420

with a marked increase in call numbers from 2000 to 2002.

421

National and international fixed calls showed a similar pattern, which is here in white,

422

starting at just under 40 billion minutes of calls in 1995,

423

then rising steadily to around 60 billion minutes of calls in 2002.

424

So notice how I have stood at.

425

Again, we're talking all in the past because this is 1995, 2002.

426

So it stood at is a great way to just say what it was around 2 billion minutes in 1995,

427

for example, then showing a gradual increase.

428

You want to show that it was not sharp.

429

And then a similar pattern is what we see with the national and international calls.

430

And then a rising steadily is another way to say that it was quite gradual.

431

Now our second grouping for fixed line, it says turning to local fixed line calls.

432

This is a great way to shift focus.

433

So turning to local fixed line calls in 1995,

434

they began at slightly over 70 billion minutes and rose steadily to a peak of 90 billion.

435

So this is the highest point, the peak, 90 billion minutes by 1999.

436

However, from 2000, the trend showed a gradual decline in numbers of calls,

437

ending in 2002 at the same amount as the start of the period.

438

So we made a note that said 2002 was equivalent basically to what we saw in 1995.

439

So note that, however, is also a great functional word.

440

It shows a contrasting point.

441

And if you take a look at all of this color-coded language, you see that we use a lot of great lexical resources.

442

Our grammar was excellent as well in the past tense.

443

And in terms of the task achievement, everything has been answered.

444

Our word count is 200.

445

So we've definitely fulfilled the 150-word minimum while elaborating as necessary, but not going overboard.

446

And of course, it is coherent.

447

It's cohesive we have used the excellent foolproof outline, which makes sure that everything is organized and makes sense.

448

Again, like I said, with more practice and time, you'll be able to do all of this quickly and really use your 20 minutes in a very efficient way.

449

Excellent job.

450

Let's wrap up this lesson.

451

All right, let's wrap up bar charts part two, which was looking at years on the x axis.

452

When looking at do's and don'ts, first thing you want to do is, of course, analyze your chart as a line graph.

453

It's not very different from a line graph, so keep that in mind.

454

It's always helpful to draw a line like I did to really understand the bars that you see.

455

Then you want to plan how to group the information, just like we did, into our body paragraphs and also understand your trends.

456

Is there an increase?

457

Is there a decline?

458

Is there perhaps a little bit of both?

459

You'll have to write this.

460

And remember, you can actually combine the various aspects of step one, so be on the lookout for that.

461

And then you want to organize your essay just like we did with the various groupings and the trend.

462

Things you don't want to do, definitely don't start writing your essay immediately.

463

You want to make sure you are allotting the appropriate amount of time to outline and then write.

464

So the more you practice, the more you'll understand various trends that will pop out at you and different ways to group your information.

465

So don't worry if you're taking things a little bit slowly right now, just practice, practice, practice.

466

It really makes perfect when it comes to time management.

467

Of course, you don't want to write the wrong amount.

468

We stayed at our 150 word minimum and went up to 200 in our last example.

469

You don't want to stray too far from that because you don't want to spend too much time on this task.

470

And of course, don't get confused over the numerous bars.

471

I'm talking specifically about our second example where we had three categories per year.

472

Don't worry about it.

473

Just stick back to this first tip with analyzing your chart as a line graph,

474

and that should definitely help you understand trends to group things more efficiently.

475

excellent job today this was a tricky type of bar chart go ahead and visit us at www.bestmytest.com

476

slash IELTS to see more examples of bar charts and more strategy

477

and practice tests

478

when it comes to IELTS we'll be waiting for you here until then I'll see you for the next lesson

479

and have a great day

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The Scenario: Mastering IELTS Bar Charts That Act Like Line Graphs

Imagine you’re prepping for the IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, and you open your test to find a bar chart—but wait, the x-axis is packed with years. This isn’t just any bar chart; it’s a line graph in disguise. The video breaks down how to tackle this tricky scenario, showing you how to shift your strategy from static bars to dynamic trends. Whether you’re aiming to boost your IELTS score or just sharpen your data description skills, understanding this twist is key. And while writing is the focus here, the shadowing technique can even help you internalize the language patterns—listening to the video and repeating phrases aloud trains your brain to think and speak in the same flow, which is gold for IELTS speaking practice too.

Useful Chunks & Collocations to Memorize

"Functions as a line graph": Perfect for describing bar charts with time-based data.
"Organize information into groups": A must for structuring your analysis clearly.
"Sharp increase/decrease": Adds precision when highlighting key trends.
"Overall trend": Essential for tying your details together in a coherent way.
"Disguised as a bar chart": Helps you explain the unique nature of these graphs.

These phrases aren’t just for writing—they’re also great for improving English pronunciation when you practice saying them out loud. Try repeating them with the video’s rhythm to nail the intonation.

Your Shadowing Challenge: Speak Like the Expert

Ready to put the shadowing technique into action? Here’s your task: Watch the first 2 minutes of the video, then play it back one sentence at a time. Pause after each sentence, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the speaker’s pace, stress, and tone. Focus on phrases like "the strategy is actually very similar to that of a line graph"—notice how the speaker emphasizes "similar" and "line graph." For extra practice, use a shadowing app to record yourself and compare it to the original. This not only hones your pronunciation but also trains your brain to process and reproduce complex ideas quickly—skills that will shine in both IELTS writing and speaking. Give it a try, and you’ll be surprised how much more confident you feel describing trends, whether they’re in bars or lines!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have included · have done · have analyzed
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	will be presented · can be expected · being said
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	grouping, which is · graph, which is · outline, which is

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 - Bar Charts Lesson 2 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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