Using examples in IELTS Writing Task 2 - DEBUNKING IELTS MYTHS

hello everyone welcome to the ielts multi-step program my name is lan ray and i'll be your anchor for today as is our usual here we go through a lot of messages a lot of feedback that we get from the subscribers our youtube channel and even the candidates that we have in our pre-class center and from the feedback that we've gathered we've discovered some key challenges that test takers have with the ielts and we're going to be responding to them in a series of videos that we'll be releasing on our youtube channel the first of these videos is one that we're going to be shooting today and it's going to deal with using examples in the ielts writing task 2. i repeat the topic again using examples in the ielts writing task 2. now the task 2 of the ielts writing section is the same for both the academic model and the general training model in the task 2 of the ielts writing section you are expected to write an essay of not less than 250 words your essay is going to be an opinion-based essay where your opinions are going to be conveyed as effectively and as efficiently as you can one of the main things that you will do in an opinion essay is to use examples to buttress your points or to support your reasons or to illustrate the points that you're trying to make and this has happened this has turned out to be a major challenge for a lot of test takers and the reason for this isn't far-fetched if you go online you will find a lot of information information telling you about the different ways that you can use examples in the ielts but some people will tell you that it's important to use statistics some people will tell you that you do not need to put any statistics at all some people will also go as far as to tell you not to formulate or to use fake research data in your essays some people will also go ahead and some tutors will also go ahead and tell you that under no circumstance you use personal pronouns when giving examples or illustrating your points all this conflicting information has turned out to be a challenge for a lot of test takers and this is why we get a lot of requests on our whatsapp on our whatsapp group on our youtube channel in the comment section and even in class from candidates asking us what is the right thing to do how should i use examples in the ielts writing task 2. the first thing that you need to know today is we're going to be talking about using fake reset data what do you mean by fake research data in the ielts most times when you make a claim you express a view or you share an opinion you are expected to back that up with your reason and the logical thing to do after backing it up with a reason is to give an example to illustrate or to show what you've just said or to buttress what you've just said now your example can either be drawn from your own personal experience or from your knowledge as indicated in the questions in the ielts in drawing from examples based on your knowledge people come up with data data involving statistics like numbers percentages names of organizations names of bodies names of institutions that have carried out this data now does this data need to be true or can it be fictional that is the question that is the crux of the matter today i can categorically tell you that the ielts examiner is not interested in the truth or lie of your research data what they are concerned about is the validity of that data that you have included in your essay is the example that you have given is that data that you have quoted is it relevant is it valid in the context of what you're describing what you're talking about if yes go ahead if no do not use it what do i mean by research data for example i'm writing an essay on transportation and the question is about if the government should invest in railways or acquiring fast trains to build if an extensive real network or should fix the existing road network and i'm of the opinion that the existing road network is better that is a much more preferable alternative than investing in railways and my reason for this is that the existing road network already has commercial activities tied to it and improving it will only increase the income or revenue that the government will generate from the transportation sector as opposed to starting all over again with the real sector that is my opinion now and the reason is because it can generate more revenue now my example i would go ahead and say to illustrate this a recent survey carried out by the national union of road transport workers in nigeria in 2005 showed that the transportation sector accounts for over 20 billion dollars annually to the nigerian government an improvement of the existing road network would see this amount shoot up to over 100 million or 100 billion per year and this is a significant improvement in the revenue generation model for the government this simply shows that fixing the existing road network has more benefits than starting all over again with a new rail network what have i done them now does that data does it exist anywhere no it doesn't is it true i'm probably sure it's not but is it valid is it relevant to the context of what i'm discussing very very relevant the national union of road transport workers is a body that can be quoted when discussing about transportation matters what would make that example irrelevant or would make it quite problematic is if i quoted the national medical association in terms in a topic that has to do with transportation that's the first thing that you need to know now is there any rule or is there any caveat against this yes there is if you're going to be using fake research data please as much as possible do not overdo it there's something called too much of a good thing you do not want to write an essay where you have research data that is untrue come up like four or five times in your essay that doesn't make any sense once at most twice for me i would say just once because the instruction in your writing task or the writing prompt says that give reasons for your exam you give reasons for your answer sorry with relevant examples from your knowledge or experience so if i do a four paragraph essay that has an introduction two body paragraphs and a conclusion i would do one paragraph four research data which which would fit in for examples drawn from your knowledge and another example from my memory which will fit in for examples drawn from my personal experience and i think that solves that the next thing that you need to do is to know so how can i generate this research data the common places or the easiest ways to generate research data is to ascribe it to the following list of places or list of sources that i would read out sorry i'll be consulting my tab a lot here because i've jotted a lot of notes to make this video for you because i want you to get the specific details and strategies that you can use to convey your examples to illustrate your points to buttress your points in the most convincing manner without falling short of all the standards that the ielts requires the easy ones are using a university study or research universities are known as citadels of knowledge where research is constantly carried out so studies are carried out research programs are carried out in generating your research data you could ascribe it to a university that would be nice another place that you can ascribe it to another medium that you can ascribe your data to would be a poll that's p-o-l a pool or a census now an opinion poll could be drawn an opinion poll could be undertaken regarding the particular thing that you are describing so for example should people get married before they are before the age of 13 you could say according to an opinion poll carried out by the society for family health among 100 young people between the age of 25 to 35 in nigeria at the end of the poll it was discovered that 80 of them were of the opinion that getting married before 30 years of age is has benefits for reproduction and childbearing this is a very good way to use an opinion poll as a source of research data another avenue that you can use for your research data to ascribe your research data to would be a government agency or a non-governmental body a government agency or a non-government or a pressure group could be like the nuatw that i mentioned earlier the nma the nigerian medical association or it could be any of all those bodies that have professional affiliations but have a nationwide rich finally you could also do you can also ascribe your data to a survey carried out by any anybody anybody at all any organization that as long as that organization has a validity with the current with the concept or the idea that you are trying to push forward all of these avenues are easy ways to generate research data and i would advise you to practice by writing a paragraph that has to do with you know you generating data to illustrate a particular point and using all of this um all of these tips and all of this avenues that i've given you and trying to try your hands on it to see how well which one flows for you so that on the day of the exam you would have settled on either one or two that you will be able to use for your essay now the next part of this video will deal with how do we actually introduce examples or illustration in our essay this has to do with our cohesion cohesion refers to how well linked are your essays the words the sentences the paragraphs how do you connect them what is the relationship between them what kind of expressions or words do you use to show the relationships between words between ideas between paragraphs between sentences showing the relationship between an example and a point or a reason that you have given is very very essential you don't just jump into examples you actually have to link it there has to be a sort of cohesion between the example that you're given and the points that you're making the most common expressions that you can use i've listed here and i'll just run through them so that for those of us who have a problem with them can either jot it down by pausing this video or you could go online and research for more variants of how to introduce your examples or illustrations words like or expressions like for example comma for instance to illustrate as an illustration to give a clear example take for example such as all of these expressions are not the only they are inexhaustible there are a lot of expressions that you can use to introduce your illustrations or your examples but these ones are the most common ones and i think they work and according to and in the words of the wise man if you didn't broke don't fix it so if these work i don't think you should go ahead looking for much more ambitious ways of expressing your examples which might lead you into trouble the next item in this video that we'll be looking at is the use of personal pronouns in giving examples or giving illustration in our essays what are personal pronouns personal pronouns are words like i me we these are pronouns that specifically refer to yourself as an entity now is there any room for using personal pronouns in your essay in the ielts yes and no and why it is ambivalent answer i'll explain ideally in an academic essay which is what the ielts is actually is in an academic essay there is usually a little or no room for using personal pronouns because they make your essay sound more how would i say they sound very simplistic but for the purpose of the ielts census has been expressly stated in the question and where is it expertly stated it stated that it says in the ielts it says give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and experience which means that the ielts right from the get-go allows you to use examples from your own personal experiences how do i narrate an example how do i narrate an incident that happened to me personally that that is called from my memory without using personal pronouns it is unavoidable right but what you should try to do is try not to make it too much in your essay because once you start doing that your essay starts lacking credibility it sounds less believable if all your points all your examples all your illustrations are things drawn from your own personal experience only there's a way to present those examples from a general perspective so instead of saying that for example i remember when i was in primary six you could say for example many people in nigeria remember an incident when they were in primary school that so so happened what have you done there you have generalized the scope of that experience you have made it a much more wider experience that other people share and this makes your essay this makes your example this makes your point more believable than if you just go ahead and just come from your own perspective and from your own experiences alone now for the use of personal pronouns what is the rule and what are the things that you should not do do not overdo it that's the first rule for every good thing in the ielts ensure that you do not overdo it if you overdo it it starts becoming monotonous and it might even affect the quality of your expression the next thing you should know is that when referring to we tend to use it when referring to what the general population do including yourself so what would a general population do what would a wide range of people do when traced with a particular concept a particular idea a particular issue and that includes you also to those ways you can use personal examples you can use personal pronouns personal pronouns are most most compulsive in the ielts when you are writing your thesis statements and this will probably feature more in your introduction and your conclusion what's a thesis statement your thesis statement is a statement that expresses your stand and usually accompanied by your reason for example i would say personally i believe that children should be homeschooled as this allows them to land at their own pace and also avoid distractions that's a thesis statement i have given my stand which is i'm choosing home schooling and i have given the reasons why i believe homeschooling is the best you would see that there's no way i could have expressed that thesis without resorting to using a personal pronoun because it is personally what i believe what i hold to be true in the context of that essay your thesis statement as has been stated in previous videos would come up in your introduction and also in your conclusion now you're not going to write your topic sentence in the body paragraph of the essay and use a personal pronoun what do i mean by that so let's say for example now i have given my pc statement as saying that personally i believe that homeschooling is the best option for students for learners as it as it not only allows them to learn at their own pace but also allows them to avoid distraction so these are my two points that i'm going to use in that essay learning at your own pace and avoiding distraction these are the two reasons why i've chosen homeschooling as opposed to traditional schooling my first paragraph topic sentence would be to begin with the most important reason why or the most important benefit of homeschooling is the ability to learn at once pace full stop i wouldn't say that to begin with i believed in i believe that homeschooling allows you to learn at your own pace no that would be me dumbing down the quality of my essay by using too many personal pronouns especially where they are not needed please as much as possible review this video watch it over and over again pause at several intervals when you need to get a particular topic or a particular idea particular points well and try as much as possible to use this in a practical application and how would you do that by writing essays i believe that before you write your ielts test you should have written at least not less than four to five practice essays or sample essays that will be reviewed by a trained examiner or by a tutor who is qualified and competent that way you would have a clear idea of your strengths of your mannerisms of the mistakes that you make and how you can avoid them and improve the quality of your writing like i mentioned earlier using examples is a challenging area for a lot of testicles especially non-native speakers of the language and you would do well to please review all the material that you can get on it most especially this video so that you would not be found wanting after writing a very beautiful essay and your examples will be the points that will be the places where you would have a lot of flops and that would probably drop your scores so like come here get clear coming your way again next time i remain landry your uncle for the ielts multi-step program and in the light and the spirit of what we've been doing now we will be taking your comments your reactions and your feedback about the ielts test and we'll be making videos that specifically deal with all those problem areas all those challenging areas that you have in the test as they cross across speaking reading listening and writing so what can you do subscribe to our channel go to the comment section drop a comment drop a review drop an opinion about the areas that you find challenging or join our whatsapp group or telegram group or even reach out to us across any of our social media platforms and we will be delighted to hear from you should i come your way next again i wish you all the best and all the success that you can get in the ielts test and remember the ielts is not a test of intelligence it is a test of communication [Music]

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Id: 5o5erkJGC-Q

Length: 19min 2sec (1142 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 08 2021