At this point, you should be getting a handle on how to do the four paragraphs for academic writing.
Task Number one.
The Introduction.
The General Overview.
Specific Details.
Paragraph number one.
Specific Details.
Paragraph number two.
In this lecture, I'm going to be applying that process to a line graph where we're looking at the introduction,
general overview and specific details paragraphs.
So let's go ahead and get started.
As always, we have our standard strategy.
Paraphrasing the introduction, remember the advice that I gave you earlier?
A good strategy for learning how to paraphrase an introduction very, very well is to not look at the
summary when you're doing it, hide the summary and practice being able to to word or structure an introduction
using your own words.
That's going to help you to be able to paraphrase and use synonyms much, much better.
Very often students look at the summary, have trouble thinking of synonyms, and then they just repeat
the exact language and they destroy their score.
In terms of just not showing any English ability at all, you have to do the introduction, general
overview, specific detail, paragraph one, specific detail, paragraph two, four paragraphs, four
paragraphs applicable to every single question type.
Oh.
In terms of the introduction and general overview, we're going to first analyze, scan through the
question, make decisions about what information we're going to use for our introduction and overview,
try to decide how we're going to break, how we're going to break the line graph into two parts and
part one for the first specific details paragraph.
And I need part two for the second specific details paragraph.
Writing an introduction should take no more than 3 minutes, that's all.
No more than 3 minutes.
Writing.
The introduction should take no more than 3 minutes.
Now, in regards to the general overview, 3 minutes maximum OC.
So in total no more than 8 minutes to scan, introduce and to write the overview.
Here is the line graph we'll be looking at in this lecture.
We're looking at a line graph that is looking at the proportion of population aged 65 years and over
in the USA, Sweden and Japan.
And when we're looking at this one, we can see the black line represents the USA, green line represents
Sweden, red line is Japan.
We're looking at a time period from 1940 to 2040, so we're looking at the past, the present and also
the future.
So when you're writing this one, you most likely will go through all three tenses, or it's possible
at a minimum.
At a minimum, you're going to go through the present and the future.
And then on the left side, we can see we're looking at measurements in percentages.
In regards to a general overview, we'll be looking at the highest and the lowest points for each group,
their highest and lowest points.
That's the best way to handle general overviews.
That's what's obvious, right?
Most of the time it's obvious.
What's the greatest what's the least was the most right?
That's the obvious.
General overview information.
Now, in regards to scanning it and looking at how am I going to break down this information for me,
I will most likely break down the information between the past and the future, between the past and
the future.
So I probably will probably be looking up to 1940 all the way through 2000, maybe a little bit over
2000.
And then I would look towards the future, which is 220 to 240, which is the future, right?
So now that I have all that information in my head and like I said, you have to be able to do that
in 2 minutes.
In 2 minutes is perfectly fine.
Perfectly fine.
If you want to write that information down somewhere on your test booklet, perfectly fine to do that
so that you really can you have a structure.
It's almost like doing an outline, knowing what you're going to write before you write.
It helps you go faster and also to write with more coherence and organization.
So now I'm going to go ahead and move forward with writing the introduction and general overview.
I'll be silent while I'm typing this live on the screen right now.
Pay attention to my sentence, structure and vocabulary choices.
Okay.
And there we have a introduction and a general overview.
Over a 100 year period, the USA, Sweden and Japan are projected to have population changes with citizens
over 65 years of age.
And the line graph reveals the percentages for each country.
Now, one thing you'll notice is from the very beginning.
From the very beginning, I'm showing the examiner I can do a proper compound sentence right from the
beginning.
Right from the beginning.
If the examiner sees that, they're going to say, oh, well, this person can do compound sentences.
Let's see if they can do a complex sentence.
Let's see if they can do all these different types of sentences that give you a score of seven plus.
Generally.
Generally speaking, Japan's highest projection is in 2040, while its lowest is between 1960 to approximately
1990.
Now, there we have a what complex sentence the United States least and greatest population over 65
are in 1940 and 2040, respectively, with Sweden following a similar general path.
What I just gave you, there are three sentence types that all fit into the category of a score of eight
or higher.
When you want to when you're when you're saying to yourself, I want to score really, really well in
academic task number one, my question to you is always going to be what English level ability are you
demonstrating?
What are you showing the examiners?
If you're only showing them simple sentences and basic level vocabulary, you're going to score five
or six.
They're looking for you to fit into those rubric categories of seven, eight or nine.
That's how you move your score up to scale.
All right.
So now you have a really good idea of the introduction and the general overview.
In the next lecture, I'm going to be going over, of course, the specific paragraphs.
But before I do that, I'll have you take a look at it in the full screen mode so you can read it really,
really well.
Right.
And there we have it very straightforward, right to the point.
But again, it's all about the quality.
It's not just answering the question is the quality that you're using to answer the question.
All right.
So as I say it, in the next lecture, we'll do the specific details paragraphs for this line graph.
I'll talk to you soon.
Take care.