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Writing introduction and overview

This section focuses on the structure of introductions and overviews. For information on what to put in an overview, please see the task 1 overview page.

What does my introduction need to have?

The introduction should be clear about what is shown in the task. You should imagine that the reader cannot see the graph. chart, table, map, or process. I recommend making three things clear.

what - what is it about? sales, profits, people, visits, percentages etc.
where - where did it happen? This may not always be mentioned.
when - when did it happen? This may not always be mentioned.

Can I just copy the information from the task?

No, because that will not count as any work done by you. You will need to paraphrase the information from the task.

What tense should I use for the introduction?

You can use the present simple for what the chart, graph, table, map, or process is about. After that, your tense depends on the time period of the information in the diagram.

How do I paraphrase?

There are two main ways to paraphrase:

Change the word by using synonyms.
Change the sentence structure by using passive voice or changing parts of speech.

Using synonyms

You need to be careful because some synonyms may not work in the context.

Common words you can change:

population - inhabitants/ citizens/ residents

country - nation

area - region/ place/ location

percentage - proportion

the number of - how many

show - provides/ gives (AVOID USING ILLUSTRATES - it is often the wrong word to use)

Changing the sentence structure

Passive voice:

You can change the sentence in the task from active voice to passive voice.

Most of the time the task will be written as: The diagram/ chart/ table/ map/ graph show(s) .......

You can change this to: (what, where, when paraphrased) is/are shown in the diagram/ chart/ table/ map/ graph.

Changing parts of speech:

You can change a noun to a verb, or a verb to a noun, or even changing them to adjectives or adverbs.

sales (n) - sold (v)

population - populated (v/adj)

visits (n) - visited (v)

participants (n) - participated (v), participating (adj)

Useful stems:

The graph/ chart/ table/ process/ map provide/ give information about/ concerning/ regarding .. (what, where, when paraphrased)

Information concerning/ about/ regarding ..(what, where, when paraphrased) is given/ provided/ shown in the graph/ chart/ table/ process/ map.

Examples:

Task: The chart shows the number of visitors to a zoo between January and December.

Paraphrased: The chart provides information about how many people visited a zoo over a year.

Task: The line graph shows the sales of family cars in four countries from 1990 to 2000.

Paraphrased: Information concerning how many family cars were sold in four nations between 1990 and 2000 is given in the graph.

Task: The bar chart shows the number of men and women who were unemployed in different cities in the US in 2014.

Paraphrased: Information concerning female and male unemployment figures across various American cities is provided in the bar chart for 2014.

Do I need to change every word?

No, you can keep some words the same.

What If I don't know what the word means?

Look at the word's position in the sentence to see if it is a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb, and use it again in your paraphrhrase in the right position.

Adding the unit of measurement

One good thing to do is to make the unit of measurement clear in the introduction. This is useful for two reasons:

All figures provided in the body paragraphs will be understandable.
You don't need to keep repeating it throughout your report.

How can I add the unit of measurement?

You can simply use 'and' or the relative pronoun 'which'

The chart provides information about how many people visited a zoo over a year, which is measured in thousands per day.

The chart provides information about how many people visited a zoo over a year, and this is measured in thousands per day.

Information concerning how many family cars were sold in four nations between 1990 and 2000 is given in the graph and measured in millions.

It is also a useful way to start your report with a complex sentence structure.

Why do I need to write an overview?

An overview is necessary for a band 6 and higher.

What is an overview?

An overview is a general summation of the information to give the reader a general understanding of the information. For the information you can put in an overview, please visit the academic task 1 overview page.

What is the difference between an overview and a conclusion?

An overview is just summarising the information.

A conclusion means coming to an opinion or prediction about what will happen.

Where can I write my overview?

You can put your overview in your introduction, as a paragraph after your introduction, or at the end.

I recommend putting it in the introduction because the introduction is so short and because it is something the examiner is looking for.

Useful stems:

Generally, it is clear that.....

It can clearly be seen that ......

Overall, it is noticeable that...

When looking at the ......, it can be noticed that ....

Examples:

The chart provides information about how many people visited a zoo over a year. Overall, it is noticeable that the summer months were far more popular, and the fewest people visited in November.

Information concerning how many family cars were sold in four nations between 1990 and 2000 is given in the graph. Generally, it can be seen that sales increased for all countries throughout the period, and that France always had the highest sales.

Information concerning female and male unemployment figures across various American cities is provided in the bar chart for 2014. It can clearly be seen that there were more women than men out of work, and the city with the highest unemployment for both genders was Los Angeles.