Describing Spatial Images on the Task 1 Portion of Your IELTS Exam

7/30/2019 Describing Spatial Images on the Task 1 Portion of Your IELTS Exam

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Describing spatial images on the Task 1 portion of your IELTS

exam

Describing spatial images on the Task 1 portion of your IELTS

examination requires particular vocabulary to be employed.

Lets look at this cross-section of a new basketball shoe design,tentatively titled Speedlite, and a list of its components:

Speedli te shoe cross-section

Component Code Reference Chart

Component

CodeDescription

3 pliable rubber shoe sole

11patented one-directional mesh that lets

moisture escape but does not let it enter

12 foot

13b heat-responsive foam that moulds the


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shoe to the shape of the foot

14aair duct allowing air to escape to make

the shoe more flexible

14b flexible rubber framing the air ducts

15bpatented Foamtech foam/plastic mix

allowing for greater jumping ability

To describe this image properly, we would need to first select a part of

the cross-section to begin with. Ideally, as we move from describing one

part of the shoe to another, we want to transition smoothly. This means

that the parts we describe in sequence will most likely be connected to

each other in some way, such as the sole of the shoe (component 3) andthe Foamtech part (component 15b). Thus, a plausible response wouldlook something like this:

This image is a cross-section of the new Speedlite high-top shoe. The

general shape of the shoe is somewhat standard, yet the basic

components that make up the shoe are quite unique, 2 of which hold

patented technology. From the bottom up, the sole of the shoe,

Component 3, appears to be made of a pliable rubber base encasing 2

air ducts, 1 beneath the ball of the foot and 1 beneath the heel. Thewearer stands on the patented Foamtech, which has been designed to

give them an increased ability to jump. Surrounding the foot is a foam

mould, denoted in this image as Component 13b. The tongue of the shoe

harbors Component 11, a patented mesh, allowing excess water to exit

but not enter. Above the ankle is a third air duct allowing for further

flexibility.

Between the combination of pliable rubber, air ducts and Foamtech in-sole, the Speedlite is expected to allow its wearer to jump at increased

height, making it an asset to any basketball player.

As you can see, our description moves from 1 part of the shoe to another

in a sequence that follows how the shoe is built, giving the reader an

better impression of the shoes overall structure. To avoid overly


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focusing on minute details, Component Codes are shared only as wemove to new parts of the shoe and not for each individual part.

ELTS Task 1

How to describe a cyclical image

Cyclical images are images that depict a process that repeats, for

example the life cycle of a butterfly or the process nature goes through

to create rain. In this post, Id like to go over some of the language you

can use to accurately write the opening broad sentence in your IELTS

Task 1 response. (Please note: this is the second sentencein your

response following your data type description sentence. If you are

unfamiliar with how to structure your Task 1 response, please view myTask 1 structure tutorialhere.)

Lets take the following diagram as an example. Here, we can see an

image outlining the life cycle of a frog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RNBUoxAQ4&feature=channel_video_titlehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RNBUoxAQ4&feature=channel_video_titlehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RNBUoxAQ4&feature=channel_video_titlehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RNBUoxAQ4&feature=channel_video_title


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(Image source: infovisual.info)

-From start to finish, the life cycle of the frog appears to have 7 stages.

(Ryans note: The exact number of stages may depend on how you wish

to dissect the image. Personally, I would break this image down into 4

stages: early growth, first physical changes, terrain adaptation stageand full development.)

How can we describe the overall process of this image? Take the

following sentences as examples:

-The common frog undergoes a number of physical changes over the

course of its life.

-From an egg to a fully-grown adult, the common frog experiences a

number of radical physical changes.

-Adapting from a water-dependent creature into one capable of surviving

on land, the frog undergoes a tremendous transformation over the course

of its life.


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A table can present data in 1 of 2 ways and depending on how the data is

presented, the students response will need to vary in the lexical

resources it uses. Lets look at examples of the 2 manners in which atable can present data:

1Static data/cyclical dataStatic data (such as a menu) and cyclical data (such as a bus schedule)

present data that does not evolve or change over time. For example, the

data presented on a menu never evolves and the data presented in a busschedule repeats but never really changes.

When describing these kinds of tables, we often use language that

denotes its static or cyclical nature and will thus typically speak in

present tense.

Worlds 10 most populous countries

China 1,341,000,000

India 1,210,193,422

UnitedStates

311,086,000

Indonesia 237,556,363

Brazil 190,732,694

Pakistan 175,626,000

Nigeria 158,259,000

Bangladesh 150,308,000

Russia 142,905,200

Japan 127,960,000

To describe this table, we would use comparative phrases like:


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There exists a huge difference between the first 2 entries and the

remaining 8.

China is bigger than the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria andBangladesh combined.

Russia, although geographically largest, is only a fraction the

population of China or India.

2Trending dataTables that present trending data pull from alternate lexical resources.Take the following table as an example:

Canadian Population Growth

1985 27,233,000

1990 29,084,342

1995 31,788,000

2000 32,230,700

2005 33,893,000

2010 34,567,300

Because this data presents trends, the nature of the language we use to

describe it changes. In our description of this data, we would need to

accurately depict the way the data changes and this requires more than

comparative sentences written in the simple present tense. Here, our

language would vary. The following are some examples regarding how

to describe the trends present in the above table:

The Canadian population sees a faster overall climb between 1985 and

1995 than between 1995 and 2010.

Between 1995 and 2010, the population of Canada grew gradually and


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at a somewhat steady pace to roughly 34 and a half million people.

In Canada, the population appears to have grown by more than 7

million people in a 25-year time span.

As you can see, the lexical resources and written structures we use todescribe static/cyclical and trending data are different.

Images that depict a process typically come in 1 of 2 types: (1) an image

depicting a cyclical process and (2) and image depicting a linear process.

Today, we are going to look at the linear variety. Lets take a look at this

sample question:


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The image below shows a basic paper making process.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information

shown below.


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This image outlines a linear paper-making process, from raw material tofinished product.

The beginning of the process is twofold, with raw logs of wood being

chewed into pulp and mixed with other purchased wood chips in adigester to further refine their consistency. The resulting pulp is then

washed and screened for purity before entering into either 1 of 2

finalizing processes. The first produces rough box paper by initially

forming and drying wet pulp. After this, the pulp is rolled into reels and

is cut. The finished product is stored as bales, ready to be shipped off

and made into boxes. The second finalizing process produces refined

printing paper, which requires the wet pulp receive additional cleaning

and dying. The pulp undergoes 2 separate pressing methods beforebeing dried and finally rolled for storage.

Now lets take a second and review what we have done here. Firstly, we

have grouped certain sections of the process together. For example, the

entire first few steps have been grouped into a single sentence presenting

a single thought:grinding wood into pulp. Secondly, we move on to talk

about how the pulp is prepared before either being turned into box paper

or printing paper by grouping these few steps. Finally, we describe the

details of each finishing procedure separately.

When looking at the response as a whole, we can see it numbers at about

125 words, which is perfect and leaves us with a few words with which

we can put together an interpreting paragraph to help conclude our

passage strongly (were not going to focus on this section today,

though).

So, in a nutshell, we took our process and broke it down into smaller

minor details: (1) the creation of pulp from raw materials, (2) thefinalizing process employed to create box paper and (3) the finalizing

process employed to create printing paper.

The cohesion we use helps the reader to see how the ideas relate to one

another and makes the piece overall easier to read.


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IELTS Writing Task 1Describing trends

I am often surprised at how IELTS students lack the basic ability to

describe trends. A trendis simply the direction of data, usually

occurring over a period of time. In the event we are given a data sourceon our IELTS examination that presents trends (as in, for example,

graphs, charts or tables), we must be able to describe what is going on

accurately.

Thus, in this post Id like to review a few phrases we can use to describe

trends. To get us started, lets look at this graph:

Here, we can see a graph outlining the number of hours of sleep theaverage British male (of varying ages) received in 2009.

For those of you who have read myTask 1 ebook, you know that our

first step is to identify the broad, minor and minute details depicted in

this data source. Broadly speaking, the above graph appears to show a

slight decline in daily sleeping hours between British youth and the

elderly. The minor trends appear to be threefold: (1) a decline between aBritish males teenage years and twenties, (2) a leveling between their

twenties and forties and (3) a gradual rise between their forties and old

age. We should also note that the last figures in the graph (denoting

sleeping patterns in old age) are lower than those present at the

beginning of the graph (denoting adolescent sleeping patterns). Minute

details would include all of the precise figures that make up the data

presented. For example, the adolescent sleeping figure of9.2 hours per

night would be considered a minute detail. In this graph, we are given 6

minute details. Minute details should only be included in our IELTSTask 1 response to help emphasize a key point in the trend presented

(this is usually a change in the direction of the trend, the beginning of

the trend or the end of the trend).
http://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdatahttp://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdatahttp://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdatahttp://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdata


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OK, in our analysis above, we used the following words to describe the

overall trend of this graph: decline, leveling and gradual rise. How else

could we say these trends?

decline: slight drop, modest reduction, light fall, slide, depresses toleveling: reaches a plateau, hits its lowest point, remains steady at,

remains stable, unwavers, without variation

gradual rise: slight recovery, modest gain, lightly inflates to, increasesmodestly

To show some of this in action, we could summarize the entire trenddepicted in this source as:

The adolescent figure of 9.2 daily hours of sleep experiences a modestreductionas a British male moves into his twenties. This new sleeping

pattern is slightly less than 8 daily hours of sleep andremains stable

until a man reaches his mid-forties, when his daily sleeping durationincreases modestly by perhaps 30 minutes or so.

Here, we can see some of these new trend-describing phrases in action

(Ive bolded them). This piece is further helped by certain keywords that

make the various ideas presented work together cohesively (notably:This new sleeping pattern).

A piece of writing that employs a consistent form throughout is

considered to followparallelism. Parallelism is the basic idea that

writing structures and patterns should remain consistent throughout anentire piece of writing.

For example, in the following sentence:

Russian natural gas was revalued to $330.84 USD in January of this

year, up from three hundred and fourteen US dollars in December lastyear.

we can see an instance of improper parallel structure. The student

should have written the second monetary value as $314 USD, not three


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hundred and fourteen US dollars. Writing in this manner helpsstrengthen the piece stylistically.

Mistakes related to parallelism are all too commonly committed by

IELTS students.

Another stylistic note Id like to touch on in this blog post isshorthand.

Shorthand is an unfortunate habit that IELTS students often exhibit in

their essay response, most likely in an effort to increase their writing

speed. Common shorthand notes and symbols that should never be

included in your IELTS Task 1 or 2 response are:

(This sign is formally called an ellipsis and used to denote

information the reader is to assume. Dont let your examiner assumeanything or they will only assume you dont know how to write

academically!)

- (A dash is often used in shorthand to allow the writer to jump quickly

from one topic to another. Its great for sending text messages on your

mobile phone but not so great when you are expected to sound

academic.)

e.g. / i.e. (Both symbols are often used to denote examples but neither

will bring formality to your writing.)@ (I am always astounded when I see students using the @ symbol in

academic text!)

Acronyms (I regularly suggest students avoid them on their examination

unless they are acronyms that refer to countries or very established

companies, such as the UK or IBM. As a basic rule, if you feel your

reader wont know what the acronym refers to, dont use it.)

Qualifying words


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For those of you looking to improve your writing and reading, take noteof some of these alternative ways to describe the quality of something.

Time/Rate of

occurrence

Never, rarely, seldomly, once in a blue moon,

occasionally, sometimes, often, next to always,

always, without fail

Conditional Only, except, if, on the condition that, provided

that

Order Before, after, first, second, third, final, last

People Women, men, male, female, professional

Negative Non-, un-, not, noQuantity Surpassing, over, under, few, too much, too

little, not enough

Supporting/Refuting Anti-, but, yet, however, on the other hand,

with this, in favour of

Possibility May, might, could, potentially, possibly,

probably, must, certainly

Importance Necessary to, need to, ought to, have to

Comparison More than, bigger, smaller

Additional info Further, in addition, also, as well

IELTS Writing Task 1Describing trends

I am often surprised at how IELTS students lack the basic ability to

describe trends. A trendis simply the direction of data, usually

occurring over a period of time. In the event we are given a data source

on our IELTS examination that presents trends (as in, for example,graphs, charts or tables), we must be able to describe what is going onaccurately.

Thus, in this post Id like to review a few phrases we can use to describe

trends. To get us started, lets look at this graph:


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Here, we can see a graph outlining the number of hours of sleep theaverage British male (of varying ages) received in 2009.

For those of you who have read myTask 1 ebook, you know that our

first step is to identify the broad, minor and minute details depicted in

this data source. Broadly speaking, the above graph appears to show a

slight decline in daily sleeping hours between British youth and the

elderly. The minor trends appear to be threefold: (1) a decline between a

British males teenage years and twenties, (2) a leveling between their

twenties and forties and (3) a gradual rise between their forties and old

age. We should also note that the last figures in the graph (denotingsleeping patterns in old age) are lower than those present at the

beginning of the graph (denoting adolescent sleeping patterns). Minute

details would include all of the precise figures that make up the data

presented. For example, the adolescent sleeping figure of 9.2 hours per

night would be considered a minute detail. In this graph, we are given 6

minute details. Minute details should only be included in our IELTS

Task 1 response to help emphasize a key point in the trend presented

(this is usually a change in the direction of the trend, the beginning of

the trend or the end of the trend).

OK, in our analysis above, we used the following words to describe the

overall trend of this graph: decline, leveling and gradual rise. How else

could we say these trends?

decline: slight drop, modest reduction, light fall, slide, depresses toleveling: reaches a plateau, hits its lowest point, remains steady at,

remains stable, unwavers, without variationgradual rise: slight recovery, modest gain, lightly inflates to, increasesmodestly

To show some of this in action, we could summarize the entire trenddepicted in this source as:
http://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdatahttp://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdatahttp://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdatahttp://www.youtube.com/watchwatch?v=9jrlsokdbBY&feature=youtube_gdata


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The adolescent figure of 9.2 daily hours of sleep experiences a modest

reductionas a British male moves into his twenties. This new sleeping

pattern is slightly less than 8 daily hours of sleep andremains stable

until a man reaches his mid-forties, when his daily sleeping duration

increases modestly by perhaps 30 minutes or so.

Here, we can see some of these new trend-describing phrases in action

(Ive bolded them). This piece is further helped by certain keywords that

make the various ideas presented work together cohesively (notably:This new sleeping pattern).

Describing Spatial Images on the Task 1 Portion of Your IELTS Exam

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