IELTS Writing Task 1 General Training

hi everyone Chris here from IELTS advantage comm with a really simple strategy for people doing their general training writing tasks on paper so if you're doing the academic paper or this video isn't for you go and check out our other videos for academic tasks one other link it below this video but if you're doing general training I think that you are really really lucky and because the academic guys they have to interpret maps or processes or pie charts or tables or line graphs all of those things that most people aren't really familiar with but luckily for you guys all you have to do for task 1 is write a letter so most people are familiar with writing letters you probably write emails every single day so this strategy I've taught it to hundreds of students maybe even thousands of students and it really really helps students get it done get it done in 20 minutes and then they can move on to writing tasks to write so first thing is just a little bit of information about what to expect so if you're not sure about what you're going to get on the general training task 1 paper just google it have a look and you're going to be getting basically this format background information so they'll give you some information about what is happening and who they want you to write to and the situation that you're in and then it will ask you to write about three different bullet points so bullet point number one bullet point number two bullet point number three alright so background information and then three bullet points and this is really really important because it's going to help us write the letter and so being familiar with that structure and that information that they're going to give you is really really important all right so the first thing you need to do step one really really important for both task 1 and task to take some time to understand the question so I've known a huge number of students who and this is totally you know acceptable or forgivable in the test because you're under a lot of pressure people just want to start writing immediately it is a bad idea to just you know put your pen to paper immediately take the time to read and understand the question 30 seconds one minute just to read and understand what you're doing because it doesn't matter how good your grammar is or how good your vocabulary is or how good your writing skills are if you don't understand the question you're not going to be giving the examiners what they want all right so take a minute or so to understand the question what are they asking you to do the second thing is decide if it is formal or informal tone is really important when writing letters for task 1 general training and a really really easy way to establish that is just friend is it are you writing to a friend it will say that it'll say write to your friend and it will say the word friend if it says the word friends it is informal all right really really easy to anybody else it is formal not lots of you right now are having all sorts of questions like what if it says to write to my neighbor I'm friendly with my neighbor or what if it says to write to a colleague and I know my colleague or unfriendly with them or what if it says to write to a shop in my local time and I know that person don't worry about any of that all right it's not you're not asking you to write about real life all right just put that to the back of your mind keep it simple asks you to write to a friend that's informal use informal language that asks you to write anybody else formal and again don't be worrying about semi-formal or you know 3/4 formal or anything like that friend informal anybody else formula don't worry that will serve you really really well and it takes one second to establish that and then you don't have to worry about it ok so the third thing you need to do is you need to plan so really important that you plan just like understanding the question investing a little bit of time planning and thinking about your answer is really gonna serve you well in the test so the first thing we need to do is we need to use this structure of the question that they're going to give us because this is going to help us structure our answer and plan I are answer okay so the background information is going to be our first paragraph so para graph 1 okay um this is purpose all right so you're you're stating and the very first paragraph the purpose of the letter so it'll be dear whoever and this is the reason why you're writing to them so you're stating the purpose and the background information in the question is going to give you all that information all right well the point number one becomes paragraph number two bullet point number 2 becomes paragraph number three both point number three becomes paragraph four so we're really really simple okay so part of it off one is your purpose paragraph two is your first bullet point paragraph three your second bullet point all right for your third little point if you're unsure of what that means go and look at a real sample question I'll link it below the video I'll give you an the link where you can see a real question and that will help you out so what you can do is you can use the question two structure up your answer so you've thrown this bit I'm not you just add ideas okay so we just add your ideas and hear your ideas and hear your ideas in here and doesn't they don't need to be sophisticated or high level ideas or the most amazing thing in the world all they need to be is relevant to the bullet point so whatever that ball point tells you to do right about that don't write about other things so if they tell you to write about I don't know tell your friend bullet point number one why what you did last weekend don't start telling them about something other than what you that we can just stick to that and then you move on to a ballpoint number to undo the same for that make sure what you're writing is relevant to the bullet point that's really really important don't start writing about lots of other things and do not memorize you know sentences and paragraphs and think that you can insert them into your answer the examiners will be aware of that and you probably fail if you do that so don't do that and it's really really easy their ideas just need to be simple straightforward like task to this simple straightforward obvious ideas are the best ideas don't try and come over complicate it okay so now that you have planned out your answer you've got your ideas you got your structure here nine you can start to write so number four make sure you write a clear purpose okay it's really really important that the examiner can look at the first paragraph and understand what the letter is a point do not assume that because it's a test situation and the examiner and you know has the question in front of them that they know what you're talking about make sure you state that really really clearly in the first paragraph so dear whoever your friend or whoever it tells you to write to and then start your paragraph with a clear purpose so I'm writing to let you know we're writing to do this whatever and and then skip a line unstarted paragraph number two for these three paragraphs so these three paragraphs that relate to each bullet point right around fifty words and I do not count the words I underlined the word around when I tell students this they get a bit obsessed and they think that they have to write exactly fifty words you know if you're right forty two words if you write fifty five words that's grand but just around fifty words and get to know what fifty words of your handwriting looks like then you won't have to kind individually do not waste time counting words but get used to what you know around fifty words probably two or three sentences something like that some people will be Tuesday some people there'll be four sentences whatever works for you and make sure you're writing around 50 words that will do two things it will make sure that you are over the hundred and fifty word word limit and it will also mean that you're really developing these main points properly okay get used to doing well number six focus on writing a clear message not grammar and vocabulary are 50% of your overall mark but the purpose of writing is to send a clear message the purpose of writing is not to show how many grammar structures you know or how many big words you know focus on clearly conveying a message to the person that's reading your letter the examiner and make sure everything is nice and clear and easy to understand if you do that everything else will take care of itself I'm not saying to use like really really simple language really simple words and simple grammar structures but don't go in thinking vocabulary grammar first go in thinking writing a clear message writing a clear letter first and that is really really going to help you because the examiner what they want to be doing is or what you want things I want to be doing is looking at your letter and being able to read it one time two times and understand everything that is going on I thinking clearly he or she can see that you have you know your purpose is clear and your bullet points are all covered and everything is nice and easy to understand number seven once you've done all that once you've finished writing and you've signed off and did all those things and put your name at the bottom check all right make sure you spend two or three minutes checking everybody makes mistakes every single person in the world makes mistakes with grammar vocabulary spelling all these things make sure you're spending time checking in all right so when you're practicing make sure that this planning stage the checking stage you're doing that when you're practicing to it and the real test you're not doing that for the first time you want to be doing everything in 20 minutes so check your grammar check your vocabulary check your tone so if it's informal using informal language then like contractions if you're using formal language or if it's a formal tone did you use formal language make sure that the tone is consistent throughout the whole response and relevancy so is your purpose is it the same as the purpose in the question and all your ideas the things you're writing about relevant to the bullet points and when you've done that just move on alright don't spend more than 20 minutes on this writing task 2 is worth 2/3 this one task 1 is worth 1/3 which is very very significant but don't spend more than 20 minutes on it just move on and get on to your task 2 so that is the most straightforward simple strategy and I know for IELTS writing task 1 general training hope that you find it useful and and if you want any more help just go to aisle 2 Vantage comm we've got help for both general training writing and academic writing there if you're watching on YouTube please subscribe there's more videos coming up and if you're on Facebook feel free to give us a like or a share or whatever you want to do thank you very much guys see you again soon bye

Channel: IELTS Advantage

Views: 106,684

Keywords: IELTS, General Training, Writing Task 1, Task 1, GT, ielts writing task 1 general british council, chris pell ielts writing, Chris Pell, IELTS advantage, ielts advantage, English, Online, subscribe, IELTS advice, IELTS test, IELTS general training, Learn english

Id: aFeAfHxEilE

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2017