Sunday 23 June 2013

IELTS writing - Part 2 - making a plan

Apologies for neglecting this blog lately! I've been incredibly busy with work and just haven't found the time. However, I'm going to add a lot more material over the summer and for the next few posts I'm going to be focusing on Part 2 writing.

Here is a brief outline that I hope you find useful. If you study linking words ("however", "furthermore", "consequently" etc.) and learn to use them correctly then all you need to do is follow these 4 simple steps and you cannot go wrong (!) Planning is absolutely key. It gives you (and the reader) a clear structure to follow.































This is a simple formula you can use and it will help you to avoid a) writing too much about one idea and neglecting others b) writing too many or too few words c) repeating yourself, and all the other typical mistakes IELTS students make when doing Writing Part 2.

In the next few posts I'm going to give go through Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3 and show you some more detailed examples of how to write a great IELTS essay.

See you soon (I promise!)


Thursday 24 January 2013

Analysing graphs - comparative language

Here's a little exercise to practise your comparative language. You can download the answers below.

UK TV viewing habits
Percentage or viewers who watch soap operas.


Percentage of viewers who watch documentaries.
The charts give information about the types of TV programmes that British men and women and different age groups watch. At first glance, the charts show that women tend to watch 1) __more__ soaps than men overall, although the watch slightly 2)_________________ documentaries. The people that watch the 3) _________________ TV in general are the 45+ age group.
Almost 60% of women watch soaps, which is almost 4) _________________ as many as the number of men. Nevertheless, most age-groups watch 5) _________________ soaps than documentaries showing that documentaries are generally 6) _________________ popular than soaps.
The number of people watching soaps increases steadily from ages 16 to 45 with the 7) _________________ number of viewers, at just over 40% of the age group watched by 16-24 year-olds and the 8) _________________ number; at just over 50% watched by the over 45s.
However, the trend is different for documentaries. The percentage of viewers in the 25-44 year-old bracket is 9)_________________ lower than the number of 16-24 year-olds and those over 45. Just over 40% of 16-24-year-olds watch documentaries, but this number is not 10)_________________ high as the number of people aged 45 and over who watch documentaries, at nearly 60%. Only 31% of 35-44-year-olds watch documentaries, while the number of 24-34-year-olds is 11) _________________ lower at 28%.
You can get the answers here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1LCyaQkPPAhc3JGdXRSVVQ5WFE/edit