In this tutorial you will:

* review how to write about a flow chart* learn how to divide the writing task into 3 main parts

This will help you to:

* approach this type of task with confidence* obtain a high IELTS score in this exam task

The Task 1 flow chart

An IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 may ask you to summarise and report on a flow diagram describing a process. Flow charts may not be as common in IELTS exams as pie charts or line graphs but that does not mean you won’t have one when you take the test. Let’s look at the steps you should follow to make sure you get a high score in this test activity.

Look before you plan

A Task 1 flow chart might look like this:

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task

The diagram below shows how bricks are manufactured.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant

Write at least 150 words

I’m sure all of us have looked at a diagram of how to do something, from making a Lego model to setting up an electronic device. What we do is spend a while just looking at it, working out the steps and the connections between them. Here we should do the same. Ask yourself key questions:-

* how many steps are there?* are there points in the process when there are two things occurring simultaneously or where there are alternatives?* are there any cause-effect relationships in the diagram?

Plan before you write

IELTS Writing Task 1 is assessed according to 4 criteria:-

* task achievement* coherence and cohesion* lexical resource* grammatical range and accuracy

When you plan what to write and how to organise it, think about what the examiner is looking for. To score at least a 7.0 or higher in task achievement for the exam you must simply do what you are told and include in your summary all the main relevant details.

Describing a process may in fact be easier than seeing and describing the relevant information in pie charts or line graphs. You should also include what they call a “clear overview”, a sentence which captures the main significance of the data presented.

So, the structure of the report could look like this:-

* Introduction: 2 sentences, the first to generally state what the process is and the second to point out some comment on the process, its relevance, complexity and so on.* Main body: a sequential description of the process itself. In our examples, how many stages did you count? Would we need one sentence for each stage or is it possible to combine some together in complex sentences?* A short conclusion of one or two sentences: We may decide in fact to include the “overview” here instead of at the beginning as some kind of concluding remark.

The writing process

Let’s now think about the other three criteria. A report needs to make sense to the reader, the details placed in a logical sequence and appropriate links made to show relationships such as time, cause and consequence for example,