IELTS Writing Task 1: Conclusion or Overview

[0:03]Hello, my name's Liz. In this lesson, I'm going to look at if you need a conclusion or an overview for IELTS writing task one. This is a very important question, and many students ask me about it. If you do the wrong thing, then that will affect your band score. So, I'm going to look at five different questions. Do I need a conclusion for task one? What is an overview? Is the overview important? Can I write an overview and a conclusion? And where can I put the overview? Let's have a look at the first question. Do I need a conclusion for task one? Well, the answer is, no, you don't. In fact, it's a bad idea to have a conclusion for task one. You have an overview for task one, and you have a conclusion for task two for your essay. Now, a conclusion is a paragraph that repeats and restates the main points. And of course, in a short report, you shouldn't be repeating any information. So, don't have a conclusion, but you do need to have an overview. So, that's question two. What is an overview? Well, an overview is a paragraph, and it contains all the key features of the chart or graph or whatever you have for your task one. So, all the key points are collected together and put in an overview paragraph. Is the overview important? It is so important. It is critical for your IELTS writing task one. This is for the criteria task achievement, that's 25% of your marks. And if you don't have an overview, it will be almost impossible to get above band score five for that criteria. So, very important indeed. And number four, can I write an overview and a conclusion? Please don't. Again, the overview contains all the key features, and the conclusion is a repeat. We don't want repetitive information. Also, when you have an overview and a conclusion together, it means that you're dividing your key features into two different places. And this will affect the criteria of coherence and cohesion, which is all about paragraphs. So, it's very important that all your key features are collected in one paragraph, in the overview, and they're not again repeated anywhere else in that report. So, definitely you cannot have both. And the last one, where can I put the overview? So, the overview statement, usually it will go after the introduction, but it is possible to put it at the end of your report after the body paragraphs. Which is the best place? For me, I prefer it after the introduction. I like to read all the main points before I read the details. But again, that's up to you. Both places are logical. Now, if you want some more lessons, here are some