How To Write An Overview
Overview is the most important part of the writing task 1 of IELTS. The examiner tends to read the overview of the answer first, before reading your other part of the answer. It is therefore very important for you to answer it properly. You need to write it in a way that the examiner gets a clear view of the main trends of the graph,and the other important information that can be grasped from the graph.
What Are You Expected To Write?
Now, if you want a
Band 5 – Relate details mechanically with no clear overview; there may be no data to support the description
Band 6- Present the overview with information appropriately selected
Band 7- Present the overview clearly telling the main trends, differences and similarities.
What Is An Overview?
Overview is the paragraph that contains a short summary of the main features. This is done by picking out the 3-4 most significant trends that you notice and then writing them plainly. You need not to either support or go against it. All you are required to do is tell them plainly in the paragraph.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
This is the sentence you will see after the main question in almost every writing task 1 of the IELTS and this is exactly what you need to do in the overview paragraph.
Let us take an example.
cumulative_emissions of GHG
Overall there are 10 regions. United States, China, European Union, Russian Federation, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Japan, Canad, Mexico and the rest of the world.Out of these, United States, Japan and European Union and the rest of the world make up the majority, with the rest of the world being the largest. Mexico and Canada make up a very small proportion.
We can then include these things in an overview paragraph:
The pie chart is comprised of ten regions in total with United States, Japan and European Union contributing maximum to the green house emission. United States has the single biggest share and Mexico, Canada cause the least green house gas emission.
Now, here have I talked about any numbers, who is greater than the other by how much. In this paragraph i.e. the over view paragraph all that I have done is reported what I saw visually and that is exactly what you need to do in the overview paragraph.