IELTS - Writing Skills - Task 2 - Thesis Essay Introductions & Structure - Live from Cambridge

you hey guys bye good morning I'm so about that if you tuned in about 10 minutes ago and found that we weren't there well we were there I promise it's just that we had slight technical problems again many many Paula G is for those who tuned in last week and found there's nothing to watch unfortunately lovey ends in that company decided that they didn't want to work oh so close to Christmas so they just turned everything off a little bit annoying but unfortunately really really quite British anyway so we're back and this is these if you watched the last one which was cancelled this is pretty much gonna be the same thing but it's still very important and it's always a good idea to review things again so many Polish for this hopefully you okay there and the first thing I want to say to you guys is well Happy New Year okay I September the 31st which means here in the UK the new year 2017 is about 14 hours away for some of you somewhere watching you're already celebrating and if you're 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there's something you don't understand it's really a good idea to ask a question and at the end of the session we will actually leave some time for any questions that do come up okay if you of course if you're watching this later again don't worry about it we keep an eye on the comments on the chats and if there are if you think that's a good question then we'll actually answer it live in the show and give you the answer to the question but also something like that could help other people so really important to you know really important to stay in touch and ask questions okay I know from experience and also many students talk about this this really really nothing worse than sitting there home trying to find the answer to something you can't find it it's we know it's there but you know you'll get frustrated and you feel there's nobody to help well we're here to help if it's something we can do to help you we absolutely promise on my heart on my son's heart on my wife's heart on everybody's heart we promise we're going to do this okay good so just to recap with this is the fourth in the series the first one was focused on writing task 1 and the introductions for these data charts things like the bar chart the line chart and so on show 2 was the introduction into task to look at the different question types how are we construction organized as question types lesson 3 session 3 was focused on and white and task 1 but this they'd line charts basically we did a line charts but it could be any chart with it which has time inside ok and today we're going to look at of the introductions things we should and should not do for a body paragraph for nobody paragraph introduction for writing and task - ok so hopefully it's all important don't forget that our shortly after the show is finished we'll be posting a download link so you can download the material that you've seen actually inside these are screenshots they're lovely they're presented they're very very beautiful we spent a long time to do this and you know download it keep it completely free forever hopefully you'll find more official information there ok don't forget to check out the other videos and if you like what you see hit the subscribe button so you know more about it when the next show comes live we know hopefully with no connection problems hit the like button shows that you love us of course you love us everybody loves us so you know that's that's the power that's the fuel that's the energy we need to get from you guys and it keeps hurting us we're doing the right thing and we'll do more of these in the future this this show as you can see is focused on writing tasks - okay and we're specifically looking at why can't I - introductions this is we the thesis essay is the an example of the thesis essay is the agree/disagree which is a very common type although if you go back to watch the second show you go to see that it's not just agree disagree there are many kinds of these essays and it's important to know how to how to organize your answer and how to structure it okay we are actually today going to be spending a lot of time on record e introductions so let's let's talk about this for a second the introductions matter the first part and some would say the most important part of your writing task 2 is the introduction now the reason being is that foodist introduction you do a number of things the first thing is that you you show you understand so you show you show you understand now that really matters very much because you could be the best writer in the world but if you don't show you understand then you need to get it that the example is gonna be a little bit cautious about you know what's going to happen next ok so this is the first point the second thing about introductions is that you understand that and you understand the direction now the direction could be I agree with something I disagree with something I'm going to talk about why it's a good idea why something is a bad idea ok but direction matters now for those of you who are doing IELTS for university this is probably even more important direction direction direction university is in the UK are a little bit scary because the teachers don't hold your hands as much as they would do maybe in other courses they're going to give you a question they're going to discuss it and then you're going to go away and start writing it maybe by yourself or as part of a team a group but the direction really is a key important points the more Club mode the more carefully control what's going to be inside the essay later the better your score will be and that's what we call direction and the last thing is introductions you need to show which they show so you say show a clear response now a clear response means it's much more than just saying I agree or I disagree ok that's easy to say I agree with something I disagree with that's ok but direct response means that if you agree then you should say why you agree or if you disagree you just say why you disagree or even if you say well it depends then you should say why it depends this also matters ok2say just i agree and i was set i will agree and tell you why later this this is not really a good introduction okay right now in the IELTS essay the agree disagree to this essay the introduction is quite simple when it's only about fifty sixty words so remember this guys are sober between fifty and sixty words but go ahead to university especially with doing undergraduate or postgraduate like a masters for example your introductions they normally advise to be about ten fifteen percent of the total essay so if you do a two thousand word essay which is relatively short at a university then your introduction is going to be two hundred words as you go through the course and you're doing a longer a longer writing could be five six thousand words then that introduction could be six hundred words and it sounds like a lot but it really isn't so what we're going to learn here is fairly basic but it's it's actually really really important because it's the when example is checking your introductions your body paragraphs your conclusions they want to know do you understand the concept of what an introduction does do you know why it's there do you know the reason for it okay so introductions really really important and it sounds a bit strange but when it comes to these introductions the recurring takes you know the exams gonna be think about two things if you get it right great if you get it wrong there's big problems if there's the introduction is wrong there's the wrong structure the wrong contents the wrong direction then it means that the body paragraphs are also going to do the same thing and that will be a problem there's no matter how good your writing is so introductions matter now before you go on to actually the details of introduction we're going to talk about just to review very quickly with you all you know the three kinds of questions that you will see in a writing task 2 you may know them you may not but it's good to review them this again is detailed in our second show so I recommend that you if you miss that second show go back have a look at some we love really important information there okay we have the we have these three questions the first one is called question type one okay and the question type one where says you do not need to you do not need are your opinion in instruction but you need to you so you need to give your opinion but you do not need to write about other people's viewpoints you don't have to do the other side you need to make sure that the ideas you present explained it really clearly well this essay is the thesis essay and this one as we've known before this an example that will be the agree/disagree now it may sound a bit strange when I said you don't have to write the other side but you really don't have to 250 words to 300 words that's the total length of your essay hmm that's quite short okay okay don't hit me don't hit me though swing writing 300 words is not a long essay white 300 words is an essay where you're basically showing you understand and you can present one or two simple ideas about it that's it to put in the other person's point of view the other side you could be very very careful about because if you do a paragraph saying I agree and a paragraph about why other people disagree then it may be confused with another kind of essay the two-sided essay the advantages and disadvantages the benefits and drawbacks okay so you need to make sure that it's clear what kind of essay it is and you're showing it in your structure that means you do the other side it's not importance okay you can do of course and we will look at this possibly in a later show or dealing with more advanced complex structures but right now it's it's right now I'd say to you it doesn't really matter too much 300 words 250 words is a crazy short essay okay okay and promise you I promise you that's true okay if you think about if you're typing this on to a computer screen onto a four piece of paper 250 words it's maybe this much doesn't seem a lot right now I know it seems like a very much and I can understand which I sympathize of course but at university if we're doing this for academic or higher studies then you need to understand that this is the beginning okay so you need to show clear concepts clear ideas and clear structure the other kind of essay which comes up in your IELTS test is called this one here this is the hall it's the evaluation essay many of you have learned this by yourself or boo teachers or books this is called the two-sided essay and this essay was to say this it's not focused on your opinion your opinion comes at the end of the essay so at the beginning you don't say I agree or I disagree instead you have to talk about the different sides of different few points and explain why these viewpoints exist ok so there's nothing about you okay and at the end of the essay you have to say where the balance lies so you can say here I think there are more advantages or I think there are more disadvantages or the benefits some more or the drawbacks or more the choice again is yours but it's only at the end of the essay eg put your introduction your opinion the final kind of essay is the question type 3 this is called the cause-effect essay now this one doesn't happen very often in our tests probably about 15 to 20 percent per year but when it does happen it causes old numbers of problems oh my goodness okay not many people like this one the most common type we know is called problem solution and this is quite a tough essay because firstly you need to understand the topic and then you need to understand well how can I solve the topic how can I fix it but more importantly there's also a very strong grammar part if this kind of writing you have to demonstrate certain things so for example a solution if you're giving a solution the solution will happen in the present or in the future which means he needs to use the future tense you need to use modal verbs you need to use conditional sentences okay in this kind of essay you may be explained asked to explain the problems or maybe the causes or maybe both but you'll always be asked to give solutions so how can we solve it's how can we rectify this again there it doesn't come up very often but it is a very important structure to learn because a university now so those are the three kinds of essays we have here just three examples and this is the first example which says in order for people to have a comfortable and enjoyable life they should consider financial security as the most important factor so it says to what extent do you agree or disagree so we know this is an example of a thesis essay so so here you can say I agree or I disagree in the opinion in the introduction and that's fine the second kind is this one some people feel that using technology is the best way to solve all of our current and future problems in society while others think we are becoming overly dependent and should focus on other solutions do you think that the benefits of technology outweigh the possible disadvantages so this essay is called an evaluation essay we are looking at two sites and we know this because in the task part it says the benefits and disadvantages and it says here do you think so that's to say yes III I think there are more benefits or I think there are more disadvantages that's something that we should be saying in our conclusion at the end of the essay okay it's a university you'll be doing the same thing where you evaluate you took a look at the two sides or how many sites are and then only at the end do you say what you feel about that okay but again this is a very common kind of question where we took where we have two sites the two so it's here let's go for go for a lovely red color is that some people some people feel and it says here others think okay so we know there's two sides of that the final kind of essay is this one here which we know as the problem solution the cause-effect essay sososo cause and effect which says the rates of obesity in both developing and developed countries are increasing obesity it's not about being fat obesity is being where somebody where put a person's body mass index is so high then it could cause potential health problems it impacts on their quality of life okay and here in Western society is tend to happen a lot because good quality food is really easily available here in the UK for example and you can use this as an example as a solution the government is thinking about increasing the tax on these kind of products I'm not sure exactly how much it would be but basically these products stays in their sugar products or high sugar high fat they going to become more expensive which is eyes as a father you know if a young crazy three or boy could Nathan hi Nathan love you Nathan sorry that's my son he's not here by the way don't worry I want to make sure that he has a good healthy attitude to eating in the future and so maybe maybe it's a good idea anyway this is a cause-effect question so it says what do you think us so here we asked you asked as a writer what do you think are some of the causes of this problem and what measures can be taken key points of this question is that it says causes and it says measures so you have to give at least two for each one okay guys so these are the three main kinds of essays that come up in your arts test okay we don't know what's going to happen generally speaking from my experience in exam experience of many teachers the thesis essay is the most common but you need to be well practiced and confident in all of these things so if you don't know ask questions if you don't know get in touch we can help you with structures and organization sorry cup of tea very British okay so so what are the key points which people come up and have problems with is when it comes to the agree/disagree essay I know this example here the question you know the question often asked is that so how so how do I know how do I know it's an agree disagree essay what's the features what tells me about this well there are two things which you need to consider the first one is here the task every question has a task and the task is what you have to do about the writing but the other example is actually in the topic a service quiz the topic so the topic here okay has some feature some language characteristics the first one is the word should now should if you know is a modal verb modal verbs are often used to give opinions you know for example your mother say you should go to bed early okay use mom okay or your father say you should eat your vegetables there's another one or you should save money or you should be more careful but that's an opinion so if we see the word should or could or might or need to these modal verbs they mean an opinion another example is that we will see the most important now this is a superlative in this part of the comparative language range a superlative is also an opinion you know if something is the best something as to faster is the quickest you know I've been through many many countries I think there are gray countries my wife for example hey wifey comes from Taiwan and Taiwan is a great place the people are so nice traffic not so much but if I was to say well let's think about the environment I say that you could say that the UK is UK has has a great environment okay has the best environment and it's clean usually especially here in Cambridge okay so things like the clean is thought of best those are superlatives and because it's a very strong thing to say well people can disagree with that so if we see these super natives inside writing tasks to in question that we know that's possibly there's something with the we can agree or disagree with so there are some language features some language characteristics let's talk about this so features features of an opinion which is not yours is one that's in the question well the first thing to look at is modal verbs as I've just mentioned look for modal verbs okay server the verbs in the topic they often say that you know this ice somebody thinks something should happen and then you you have to say well I agree or disagree of this the second one a second feature is as I just mentioned here we took what are so comparisons comparisons or superlatives superlatives also tell us that the world that's something I can disagree with look for words that the most important or the biggest or the greatest okay and the third one is adverbs and adjectives adverbs and adjectives so ad checks are so adjectives okay we'll say that something is a good idea good is an adjective do you think is a good idea could be a bad idea could be maybe or something is or so here we're so poor what good is an adjective which could we can disagree with adverbs was something which is okay only example our nuclear power is the only solution for our future only solution only is a adjective well there's an adverb do you agree is that right is that what we should be doing okay so here we have a number of questions and the first one says because of the modern pressures of today's society people should be spending more time at work in order to remain competitive should that it's a modal verb well a modal verb great a modal verb say well should we be spending more time is that right you know it's out to eat do we agree that maybe we should be doing something else but because the modal verb is there it means that we can agree or disagree with that or what about this one advertising is visible in every corner of our modern world and the choices offered allow us to personalize our lives more than ever however many people many feel that the matter advertising available needs to be reduced do you prevent societies becoming too commercialized so needs to be now some of you are very quick to notice that this is not a modal verb and you're right it isn't a modal verb but it's an expression and it's an expression which is a synthesis synonym so synonymous expression so it's dancing in it okay and it means this it means the same as a shirt or must they are equivalents okay and so again if we say needs to be well they do need to do this it is important okay maybe it's not again if you want to disagree go ahead disagree please disagree but you can agree of course if you like advertising so those are two examples of modal verbs and expressions which mean modal verbs let's move on to the next one where we have just here which says studying subjects such as art and music are useless as they have no place in preparing young people for the future so what about useless those of you may be quick to shout out if I can hear you yep got it thank you this is an adjective burnt under adjective okay something is good something's bad something is useless is it useless think about it is it useless to give opinions for example if you go to a restaurant and you're eating the food and you think oh this food is great you know the food is great because you've had food which is not so good so great food means an adjective it compares against something else oh this one here technology is the only solution available to us as we move into a future that has such issues as global warming and malnutrition the only solution ok adverb is that the only solution maybe there are other solutions maybe we should turn off technology maybe technology is causing too many problems you know we love technology in my life I love technology in my life I'm pretty sure a lot of you do as well but does it always work have you ever tried to use a printing machine on a Monday morning at 9 o'clock just before class starts and their printing machine breaks ah well maybe it's not a good solution so is it the only solution if you see the adverbs inside then we can actually agree with this actually agree or disagree of those things the last thing to talk about is in this one so in today's modern workplace job satisfaction is much more important than job security so much more in employed and van okay so a comparison so a comparison actually means that we are comparing two things is something more important than something else again if you see comparisons aside to right introductions you can change that you can disagree maybe think the balance is the other way well it's fine that's okay that's good another example it says a young person's education is one of the most critical stages in their development however many feel that support from teachers is more important than that from parents so there are two things here maybe the first one is that support is more important than again as a comparison but if you want it to you gotta be very careful about this it also says one of the most critical stages you know that's here one of the most critical is a superlative a supportive structure do you agree that do you think maybe it's not do you think maybe becoming a father becoming a mother maybe learning to drive buying a house taking out a mortgage and a big loan from a bank to buy a house maybe that's a most important stage well okay if you think that say it we in US and si we would say well maybe maybe that's more important just here but if you want to talk about this other part as well this spot here okay next time we'll be very happy to see that you've identified it so yeah good job okay so here we have it this is so just a review we should be looking for a number of language features to know that it's an agree disagree si we have our modal verbs we have our express we have our modal verbs assured and could wear our expressions which mean the same thing certain need to be must be we have our adjectives our adverbs we have our comparisons we have our superlatives okay look for this in the question if it's in the question then I should focus you that's the direction that's the thing we'd spoke about before that's the thing we should write about in there so look for direction and these tell us that's this is the direction this is the opinion okay so guys look for it to go back through the Cambridge books go back through the examples your teachers have given you look at all those things and say well uh maybe I understand why I got it wrong or yeah I got I saw that I nailed that one that was good okay so look for these things so the next question okay is well what is a good introduction and what is a bad introduction excuse me a second must drink my British tea though is actually from Scotland very nice though right so let's let's actually look at a question let's look at two examples in introduction and let's decide what's good and bad about these introductions what the examiner will be looking for and also what you should and should not do in your introduction so this is zoom across okay and let's look at this one here what so we have the question just here and we have two parts we have our topic and we have our task so the task is just here and the topic is that part here remember it is the task that you're responding to not the topic the topic is background the topic helps you understand the direction and it says in this lesson here let's give another color orange as orange it's a lovely warm color it's cold in Cambridge yesterday in Cambridge the hardest temperature was five degrees it's a six now is eight or nine degrees who is like solar out there but next week it's gonna be even colder please topic and task this topic says this schools do not teach the skills that students require once they leave school to establish a career only subjects applicable to the workplace should be taught at school and a task says to what extent do you agree with this opinion so what do we do well the first thing we need to do is understand what the questions asking us okay so let's look at the first five hit schools do not teach the skills the students require once they leave school to establish a career so do not teach the skills then that's a pretty strong thing to say no so that's something so we're example do I agree with that do I disagree of that it would depends because maybe in some cultures some countries were some of you're watching this you say well yeah it's all business or is all academic and I want to do arts and I want to do paintings and I want to be a dancer or something like this but maybe others other education systems maybe if you're watching here in the UK or maybe in Europe or in America say well no no schools do a pretty good wage it give us a good range of skills it depends but the point is that you can if you want to disagree with that so go ahead disagree if you want we have a second part of the question that we have a red color here this one'd subjects applicable to the workplace it should be taught here so that's wow that's pretty strong okay so here we have our adverb here we have our okay so modal verb and mode okay so you're find that this question actually has two parts to it so you have Part one and Part two okay so we know that we're writing about a few things so let's have a look at these introductions a and B and disciple how well do they do with the question now that we've looked at the question we've kind of beginning to understand the direction and maybe hopefully forming an opinion about it so we have our introductions a and B so let's go for a and B so school a says this school subjects are varied and cover a number of areas such as science humanities and the arts however much of what is learned is useless ones children leave school well many other important skills are not taught at all I believe that scores should be towards the subjects the skills that will be beneficial once students enter the workforce and adult life okay let's try B B says school subjects are varied and come cover a number of areas such as science humanities and the arts much of what is learned is not always directly relevant to real life but it's our time in full-time education only meant to teach us skills for the workforce or can it be argued that education has a wider purpose okay so we've got three you've got a sir two introductions here so which one is better there must be good the first thing I can tell you about a and B is that the grammars fine spelling is fine there's thing all about this at all and this means something for you anybody's watching this now or will watch it later on it's not just about good grammar or vocabulary there's other things here which can influence the difference being a six and a seven or a seven and the eight which is hopefully where you're open hopefully what you're aiming for it's more than just grammar vocabulary we care about structure there's a lot of things happening here let's have a look so okay so let's look at this so a so you notice that the first sentence for a this goes number one and number one here the first sentence for a and B is the same when that's good and and this first sentence for an introduction is very important so there's a sentence 1s 1 means sentence 1 okay so sentence 1 it is background okay and so what doing by backgrounds well it's it gives the topic of the question it gives the background to the question topic and background this is not and I must stress this don't write what you think don't say I agree don't say I disagree this is not right at all this first sentence you are just paraphrasing the topic and if you remember back to the start of the show you'll also remember that I said you have to show you understand and this first sentence helps the examiner say oh good you understand so oh oh maybe they don't understand question mark hashtag marshal so the first sentence is a general sentence it's the topic it's the background of something that's really important when you do this is don't you can use the vocabulary of course some vocabulary is very unique but don't copy the structure from the question because we want you to see paraphrase now paraphrasing is really important and we will cover this in a later class paraphrasing means you take the ideas cook put him in your head mix it around a bit write it down but you don't copy at the grammar structure because if the structure is the same you just change a few words you're still copying and examine we'll still find this out or figure it out and unfortunately mark your score accordingly so don't don't don't copy structure okay so let's go back so so far for a and B the first sentence is fine they should be the same thing so let's go on to sentence number two now sentence number two so that one that keeps the game so let's look at just one okay so sentence tick now let's go for let's look at B first okay so says much of what is learnt is not always directly relevant to real life okay right so yeah it's quite short isn't it hmm now if you go back to just a few rooms ago we said that this question actually has two parts it has part one where they don't teach the right skills and part two where they say that they should only teach things applicable to the workplace if you look at this much of what is learned it's not directly relevant to real life well you'll find that this is the same as part this is same as part one part one okay and it's part one only oh oh where's Part two what about the workplace and only subject where's that well it's missing that's a problem now to show you what I mean let's look at a let's see why it's different so let's give it a the second sentence says however much of what is learnt is huge this one's children leave school okay while many other important skills are not taught at all okay all right huh so this first part here much of what is learnt is useless once you leave school it's that's actually the same again as part one of the question but while many other important skills are not taught at all that's actually part two ah part two are okay so suddenly we see that a and B does have a difference a actually responds to both parts of the question so part two which is here and part why would you stare but B dozen B only focuses on part of the question and this is a very common thing examiners get this a lot where people are beginning to answer the question but not fully answer it and again this comes down to direction does this matter well yes it matters very much but not as much as it matters at university well imagine that somebody can be spending two or three weeks researching a question presenting answer to find that they've missed half the question all that work they have to do more so it's important to think and organize your writing before you write it look at the question see well how many things do I am I actually agreeing or disagreeing with here there's two things B doesn't do this B only focuses on a half point the second point okay so that's B here and be a does this a does the first part as well and that's a problem so what about this second sentence what should we do well the second sentence okay is okay second sentence is two again we begin to focus we focus on the issues we add detail we actually define direction we actually say well what is the K maybe the essay is about education but education is a big big big area so what thing about education are we writing about so we define the area okay and again we paraphrase again it comes from the question it's not what we think it's what we understand and they're different so we paraphrase this and again I'm in distress this I can't stress this enough we don't copy structure so the better you rephrase it to change the grammar around you if you don't if you can't change the words but change it around to show you understand so sentence one sentence two so so far a is living like a really good introduction be it's not bad B is good English but it's not right and it could be the best English in the world if it's not right it's it's not right the exam is gonna go sorry let's go on to sentence three what happens next how does this particular adventure finish okay so let's go for B again already B seems have some problems so B it says but B says at the end of the introduction but is our time in full-time education only meant to teach us skills for the workforce or can it be argued that education has a wider purpose that's a good point I mean it's a great point there's a couple of things here though that a bit strange first is first just for all of you who may not know this the word but please please please please please please please do not begin a sentence with the word but in speak spoken English in your IELTS speaking test in day-to-day life it's fine no problems in story books such as you know Harry Potter story books the written books it's fine it's a different kind of writing but don't do it in an academic writing we would say something however or on the other hand or in contrast of this don't say but at the beginning of a sentence in an academic writing the other problem with this particular final sentence is the word or because if we look at it it says is that okay it's a time for this or is it a wider purpose so we don't know the writers opinion do we agree do we disagree we have no idea the writers decided to say is it this or is it that they showed us this but the question is a thesis question you have to at the beginning of your essay in this part of your essay show what how you feel and you can't just say I agree or I disagree you need to say more so let's look at a a says this is I believe that school should only teach the subjects and skills then will be beneficial once students enter the workforce and adult life well that's great that's very clear interestingly they don't say I agree or disagree and but you're fine as a writer hopefully you don't have to say I agree or disagree doesn't mean you agree or disagree it's quite clear that the writer has an opinion I believe and they say the writer uses some motor language like the word only shoot only to make it question okay to make it quite stressful and they use beneficial as an adjective to stress the point okay once as another adverb they use this language so a has a very clear direction we know what the writer thinks be we got no idea no idea at all so let's talk about the sentence three sentence three very important this has a name it's a name you're going to hear a lot of in my classes my presentations but at university all my goodness you can hear this every day it's called a thesis statement and this is why it's called a thesis essay a thesis statement is your opinion do you agree do you disagree your opinion and why okay and if we were to and if we were to break this up into two parts the first t-positive introduction are basically from the question this final part of introduction is from you okay and there's a difference between the two parts so to get a great introduction we would suggest that you do three sentences and as I mentioned earlier before about 50-60 words maximum okay okay so I British tea oh my god she's good okay so three parts sentence one we give the background sentence to where you focus on the issues look for them look for that opinion language look for the modal verbs look for these superlatives comparatives look for the adjectives adverbs look for this language okay and paraphrase it and then sentence three is how do you feel about that do I agree do you disagree and as I've mentioned before don't just say I agree or disagree you have to say why give a general reason why you agree or disagree so this kind of introduction echa echa has a name okay now many of you have probably seen this well maybe even your mother has these in the kitchen or father but okay it looks like this have you ever seen one of these maybe know the name if you don't that's fine this has a name and we call it is called a funnel don't grow boys well where they are you talking about kitchen equipment aha there's a reason for this it's because of the shape of the funnel and this kind of introduction to our writing task to the thesis question is called a final introduction and it's a very classic as a very common kind of structure we see as see an academic level university level we see it in university our undergraduates we see the odds test it's you know even children young children at school here in the UK 15 16 14 will begin to avoid a final introduction so let's explain why it's called a final introduction so we have our three parts let's begin to me this one part 2 part 3 parts okay part 1 part 2 part 3 so part 1 is big and wide okay and this is sentence number 1 and remember in sense number 1 would we just rephrase so we rephrase topic so Rytas was a Freitas topic okay and then sentence number two as to we then begin to focus focus on the particular issues that we're talking about in this particular writing task right and then the third part here send us three okay so I'll just call this TS TS no actually those we lazy but I wish a not thesis statement thesis statement is what do you think how do you agree how do you feel okay thesis statements okay and then you see here everything after artists are the body paragraphs which are focused on the details of the right six style of introduction for the IELTS New Year's Eve two of you it's okay you alright guys so you may okay so we've had a few problems so yes we did it okay so guys you may have missed it may have actually found we disappeared we haven't disappeared we just had to reconnect with a new one sorry I think it's on New Year's Eve my many many polishes our new New Year's Eve it's probably a lots of people wanting to phone home and talk to mummy and daddy and everything else so really really really sorry I'm still here okay we're gonna push on keep pushing keep pushing sorry for the connection it's you know it's just with little bit beyond our control technology huh okay we love the internet and then we we love the internet and then one doesn't work oh my goodness so so so so much stress is why I have party no hair because of the problem okay I back to the point we were just went through if you rejoined us again just back we're talking about the thesis statement and then we're saying about why is the thesis statement importance okay what's the point about the thesis statement okay well okay the thesis the thesis statement really matters because it's here that we say that we can agree or disagree with something okay and when we okay so when we agree disagree we just can't say well I agree or disagree we have to say more than this okay so okay let's refresh that okay wait so we can't okay we can't just say why we just can't say I agree or I disagree there has to be more it has to be much much much much much much much much much more okay so let's talk about why so this this go out for a second okay and let's look at this this is a review an overview of the introductions okay and let's go through it says here it's important to understand the topic of the essay the key points that need to be answered in USA and most importantly your opinions structure matters so we have our s1 os/2 and our s3 now s1 is where you rephrase the topic you give the facts you give the reader some background information now it sounds strange you don't give any examples of any kind of opinion well not strictly true you can give opinions but not yours you can give an example in that examples the key thing because if you give an example in your introduction be careful that you're not going to really use it again later you've got a great example save it for your body paragraphs save it for that part of your writing I think that's very very important sentence - is that why sentence - that's where you begin to focus to the topic at someone's opinion again advantages or disadvantages but again it's not the right place to say well I agree or I disagree sentence 3 is the thesis statement which we can look at a bit more detail this is where you give an opinion and it must have some kind of relationship to sentence - do you agree do you disagree do you think maybe it depends okay do you think there are more advantages disadvantages but say so say how you feel and give a little detail - why okay the detail part matters because this is your introduction to the essay and is important to get the reader understanding what's going to happen next so let's look at some colors and so let's go down here now this one is an example of okay a very is very colorful but it supposed to show some very important concept when it comes to writing and task writing tasks so this is just to explain we are looking at our introduction so I just labeled this introduction and we inside we are looking we have our s1 which is the background we look in the s2 which is where we focus and s3 the thesis statement okay so this is this is your opinion and this is your reason so in South st. Louisan one and reason to so you just can't say I agree or disagree you need to introduce the needs give the reasons first so here it's very general might as a very general here yes generate general but then when we go from here into body paragraph one where we have was called a topic sentence which is the first sentence of a body paragraph there we actually explain much more about reason one topic sentence for reason one it's much longer okay and then for reason - well reason - is down here okay it's a body paragraph two this again is our topic sentence topic sentence okay and for a reason to this this means is really really important that you give you give the reader some idea at the very beginning if you just say I agree or I disagree we don't know how you feel we don't know why you feel this you've got to say it in your introduction you've got to say I agree because you know it's dangerous and it's interesting whatever you say make sure that you put it into your introduction before you explain about it in the body paragraphs so that thesis statement this part here the thesis here white a thesis statement very very very very very very very important okay why because we don't just see it in the body paragraphs we also see it in the conclusion so let's go back out again so this is the so you can see again that's in our conclusion which are labeled us here again so we have our reason one we have our reason to and again your opinion which you saw and in the introduction so just the SC's is that okay so this is a general guideline for a structure you give and this all begins with your introduction that's why it's so important to get this right the examiner wants to know that you understand but if the structure is not rides if you're not including information then how'd the examiner know you understand that's a question so let's move up so this one here is a so as you can see this is a two body paragraph structure listen this one here is a three body paragraphs in structure but it follows the same principles so we have our introduction just here you're rioting it's just not enough supervisor separately which is why you need to really think and organize this before you write it it matters so so so so so much okay and then we have our topic sentence for a reason to say okay so topics okay a topic sentence for a reason too and then again our topic sentence for reason three and all this time we are looking if you choose to do a three body paragraph structure we don't recommend you do more than three three is usually quite a lot that we are looking for a link between the two a relationship between this and here and here again a relationship between the two points okay and conclusion again reason one reason to and reason three okay and again this is your opinion at the end okay so something your opinion what you said at the very beginning or if we've said a very beginning you can also say at the very end okay so it's all linked together and this is why we don't want amazing ideas we're after quality careful control and structure but these things matter very very very much okay so hopefully these things are very useful print these out keep them the right side so when you're writing it tells you about what how do i structure this how do I organize it okay and just before we move on when you do come to the conclusion and okay different versions here and our conclusions in there okay when you restate your reasons which say so so Rhys right here so big letters restate restate your reasons for agreeing or disagree but don't copy don't repeat the same vocabulary this is unfortunately an English test and we are looking for your range of language we wanted you to summarize in the conclusion the reasons you said before but not repeating exactly the same vocabulary to show the examiner at your language range so at the beginning of the essay before you do your writing you do your planning you've got to think about this I have this idea can I say this idea in many different ways so practice so let's move on ok and I said here this will be this particular thing will be included in our notes at the end which you can download at any time but do download it so let's move on and let's look at the question okay so here what a question working hours today are too long and people are not spending as much time as they should with their family or leisure activities and it says what is your opinion on this it doesn't say I agree or disagree but it is it says your opinion so we know it's about what you think inside the question we have these parts working now as they are too long well that's okay that's an opinion do you agree with that do you disagree with that but it's something that you have to look at in your writing and people are not spending as much time as they shoot okay on their or their families and literati of this so this is opinion number two opinion tip so we know that this essay has two parts so two parts which means they're very easy way to do this is to look at this part in body paragraph 1 of USA and maybe look at this in body paragraph 2 of USA you know one paragraph has one idea and as I mentioned before we will come back and look at body paragraph even later on okay right so we have two so we have two parts of the question that's the question now let's look at the possible introductions okay so this is the this is example number one it says census we have our three sentences s1 s2 s3 which means that this clear structure is following the funnel idea it says in today's highly technological world people are spending too many hours doing their work yeah okay technology there this means that people are not being with their family as much as they should or doing activities for leisure hmm okay I agree with this statement for a number of reasons and we'll present my answer in the following paragraphs hmm yeah okay right so the grammars fine the spelling is fine but it's not a good introduction why what's the reason whereas a few things here first things first please please please please please please technology is this the examiners say is this really related is technology really related to this question a lot of people do this at the beginning of a writing task to because they think everything's technology related but this essay is nothing to do technology please please please please please don't put something into your introduction unless it's completely relevant the question does not mention technology so you don't mention technology okay right so it says here said what next thing says is there people people are spending too many hours doing their work okay well spend too many hours doing their work it's if we look at the question which is just here it's not bad working hours a day or two long this part it's okay okay it could be explained another way but it's not copy too much but we do have the second problem it says that look at sentence two this means that people are not being with their family as much as they should be or doing leisure activities for leisure okay so being with their family being with their family spending time with their families or doing activity for leisure that leisure activities so this part here is basically it's copied the grammars fine spellings okay but it's copied its doesn't anything so I was saying well we just copied the same thing change the words around a bit but that's it this is not a good focus and it doesn't show us as the examiners the readers that you understand so don't do this you got to really rephrase it and they'll go into the third sentence I agree look at this stuff so this one here I agree with this statement for a number of reasons and will present my odds in the following paragraphs right we see a lot of this and it's not a good thesis statement I agree with this statement okay fine we know we know that you agree for a number of reasons well we're thinking which are okay we need to know your reasons generally in this sentence in that first sentence okay we don't want to wait until later to know about how you will feel you know why do you agree why you disagree so that sentence so this is not a good thesis statement it doesn't help the reader understand what's happening it's very you say the word is very generic examiner's you need to understand examiner's we see this for a thousand times a year easily okay it says nothing it says nothing okay it gives no reasons so we don't know why you agree or disagree and that's a big problem this is not a good statement okay so this is a bad one let's have a look at a good one move over here you see firstly it's longer now I'm sorry to say that you will be writing longer to get more detail in but you have to we have our three sentences s1 s2 s3 again and again it says here it is generally thought by many people that in order to become more successful in today's societies they need to work longer than harder than before so this is better because it says in order to become more successful that's one reason we work hard maybe but it's not but it's rephrase is taking the idea from the question changing it around writing another way but it's not copying which is what we want yes I please on my heart please don't copy sentence to the result of this Ness is a lovely thing to say this is a nice link between the two sentences is that other parts of people's lives have suffered unnecessarily and we shouldn't need and we shouldn't need we should need to place more attention these instead okay so again it's talking about you know think other parts of a life of suffering okay what other parts well family family well suppose a family was a leisure etc okay and here we have okay so I'm just going to edit this thing we should need to okay we can also take if you're not happy you're not comfortable saying should need to then instead we we can just say something such as okay should okay this part okay it's not it's actually this part it's not necessary okay sentence three this I feel is a very valid point so this means what this must have said before but this is a link between the two I feel as a very very point and for a more satisfactory life we need to address these imbalances and we consider what's most important so this actually says you know I agree I think it is right and we know what's going to happen later the examiner is going to read this and say we need to address these imbalances this is going to be body paragraph one and reconsider was more important this could be body paragraph two so this is a great thesis statement we know what's going to happen we know why they you know the person that agrees and we know what's gonna be in the body paragraphs this is a very very very good thesis okay and he want to compare to the other one that's not a problem I agree with this statement for a number of reasons and we'll proceed my answer in the following paragraphs we don't know why they agree or this I feel is a very valid point and for a more satisfactory life we need to compile answers in life and we consider what's more what is most important began that's that's much better it's clearer it's clear it's well-organized and it's it helps the reader examiner importantly say yes this person understands good job okay so introductions the first part of a writing task to you for a thesis now keep in mind that this is a thesis essay this is not the advantages or disadvantages this is not the cause-effect problem solution essay this is not that at all okay so let's go back to this one here this point most important so remember the three types the thesis the evaluation the cause-effect remember that a question has two parts a topic and a task the topic is the question the task is what you have to do and remember that you in your introduction you can include examples but don't say too much because you don't want to repeat exactly the same thing later okay remember your thesis statement your thesis statement really really really is very important okay you know respond and give reasons and make sure these will make sure they're clear because they should be explained in body paragraph 1 and finally paragraph 2 remember don't okay you have to we have to respond to the question you have to know you have to identify using modal verbs and adjectives and adverbs and composed approaches what's the opinion okay okay guys so that's writing to us - that's our introductions okay hopefully this has been useful for you I'm sorry for the technical problems earlier like I said New Year's Eve too many people phoning home to their moms their dads their relatives say we miss you and things like this you know so sorry for the after that happens sometimes beyond our control okay hope if you find this interesting hopefully you do hit the like button I was up it looks like this sorry looks like this okay best thing in the world and hit the subscribe as well there's more coming okay every Saturday at the same time and to finish off we have one final thing yesterday you know was yesterday was actually a really really big day for us because we actually hit over 100 subscribers guys I love you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you okay so we're going to have a we have a competition competition okay so right so competition so for a chance to win two hours of one-to-one tuition with me on any part of the IELTS test you can you know you can tell us what you probably tell me where your problems are or we go out we can do a one-to-one class so we can help you with this okay I would like you to answer a question for me and this means that you need to go back go back to the second YouTube broadcast we did December the 10th and I said there were four one two three four four important steps which we recommend that you follow when doing a writing task 1 or a writing task 2 okay so you need to think about your time and organize an opportunity to look back at what you're doing and then you can write in the answer and we can help fix your problems but for the first okay so we so all your answers can you send two contacts at Cambridge aap calm okay just you know writing and we need to know things like your name the answers of course okay one two three four and also importantly your contact details so we can get in touching offer you to help okay this will close this will finish the deadline for this one is on January the 7th which is next year my godness sounds like a long next year okay nine this is at 9:00 8:00 9:00 a.m. GMT UK time okay and like I said for two people will choose two people and those two people will offer some free guidance or some parts of the IELTS could be reading or listening or writing or grammar or pronunciation or intonation or elision or linking phrases or anything you want some okay but get in touch answer the questions and we'll give you two hours of our time okay to help go through some of your problems okay if you do have any questions again any questions any comments put that in the comments section of the chat okay happy to answer to do anything we can to help you these guys okay happy New Year to you I hope that next year is a great year I hope that next year you really do pass your IELTS and it's done forever this horrible horrible exam you have my sympathies I do know how tough it can be okay thank you really very much for watching and take care and you have any questions you know put them into the comment section before we finish okay and I'll give you a few moments to actually talk about that so any questions any comments and you put in the chats right now no questions anything [Applause] okay so got one one one person say ting John you okay happy new year great teaching okay well happy New Year to you too I'm guessing you know what brace your name that you're not okay so you're probably not here in the UK so you can have Chinese New Year and if in a few weeks time so anyway but thank you very much okay and hopefully it's been interesting and useful for you and I look forward to hearing about some great writing that you're doing I think there are many many many people there quickly putting on their coats their jackets rushing to the front door ready to have their celebrations well guys in that case I'll have to love you and leave you stay in touch remember like button you know subscribe you know we'll do more things the more we know let us know what your try to see and with the organized shows one thing we do have Cambridge AP is every class is different every cast is designed exactly for that purpose we don't repeat material it's always new things okay and it's Garrett it's aimed to help particular problems so get in touch the more you can ask the more you let us know the more we can help okay guys we wish you a happy happy happy happy happy new year I hope you had a great Christmas and we look forward to speaking to you guys soon okay take care and have a great 2017 see you next week

Channel: Cambridge EAP

Views: 8,602

Keywords: IELTS, Academic, Task 1, Writing, Exam, Cambridge, Introduction, Advice, Help, Lesson, Live, Stream, Structure, Grammar, Organisation, Chart, Bar, Pie, Line, Table, Map, Process, Diagram, Task 2, Agree, Disagree, Evaluation, Cause, Effect, Problem, Solution, Andi, EAP, Andrew, Argument, body, paragraph, sentence, grammar, vocabulary, lexical, resources, Conclusion, Technique, Coherency, Cohesion, features, example, 3 parts, thesis statement, repetition, irrelevance, topic, paraphrasing, link, linking

Id: Vo6ALRN4a_s

Length: 79min 56sec (4796 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2016