In this section, we're going to look at the first ingredient that goes into writing a great essay. We'll be talking about task achievement. So first, let's cover some basic information. According to the official list of band descriptors, in order to achieve a band seven or higher, you need to do the following things. First of all, you have to make sure that you cover all the task requirements by writing about everything that the question is asking you. Next, you have to make sure that you present a clear overview of the main trends, differences or stages that you see in the infographic.

And finally, you have to make sure that you clearly present and highlight all the key features of that infographic. Now in order to correctly present and highlight the key features of an infographic First, you have to know what information is important in the first place. For our example, over here, we have a bar graph. So let's take a look at which features are important and should be discussed. First of all, the starting and the ending data points in a graph or a chart are always important. So, you should always talk about the starting and the ending data points.

In our bar graph example, our graph is starting at the year 1995 and it ends in the year 2000. So in this case, what we can do is discuss the data points that are in the year 1995 and also discuss the data points from the year 2000. Next, we have the highest and the lowest points in the infographic. Now again, similar to the starting and ending data points. These are also very important and If they're available in your graph or your chart, then you should always write about them. So let's see what are the highest and the lowest data points in this graph?

First, I want you to take note that we have three different types of calls. We have the local fixed line call, we have the national and international fixed line call. And finally, we have the mobile calls. So first, let's see what are the highest and the lowest data points for the first call type, which is the local fixed line call. All right, here we have the highest data point for the local fixed line call. And here we have the lowest data points for the local fixed line call.

Next, let's take a look at the highest and lowest data points for national and international fixed line calls. So here we have the highest data point for the national and international calls and here We have the lowest data point. Finally, we have the mobile calls. Here we have the highest data point on here we have the lowest data point. Turning Points are also important when you're describing the graph or the chart. In this case, we have a turning point over here.

Why? Because over here, the local fixed line calls suddenly changed their direction from going upwards to going downwards. Therefore, this is a turning point. It's a point where the direction turns or changes. Now sometimes you'll see interesting changes that may be happening in your graph or your chart. So what are some interesting changes that are happening in this graph?

Well, you may have noticed by now that the local fixed line calls are increasing starting at the year 1995. They increase up until the year 1999 but then suddenly they change the direction and they start going back down. And what you'll notice here is that by the end of the graph, the local fixed line calls stop at a point, which is exactly the same as where it started from. So the starting and the ending data point, for the local fixed line calls are exactly the same. This is an interesting change. Another interesting change that you'll notice is that mobile calls undergo a very fast change.

I mean, look at this. Mobile calls are the least popular out of all three call types. But by the end of the graph, they have grown faster than any other call type. Finally, we have striking differences in this bar graph. Notice the blue circles. What stands out to you?

One thing that stands out to me That, at the beginning of the year, local fixed line calls are the most popular, whereas mobile calls are the least popular. There's a huge difference between the two different call types a striking difference. Let's look at another example of a striking difference. Here. Let's compare these two data points. Mobile calls at the year 1995.

And mobile calls at the year 2002. Notice the significant growth that the mobile call type has gone through over the period of this graph. It's surprising to see that something that started off so small, has grown to be so big by the end of the graph. This is a striking difference. So these are all the features that are important and should be discussed. However, I want you to take note that if you feel that you're going over the timeline Then you should only choose the features that are the most important.

For the writing task one, you're not required to discuss all the features of a graph. All you have to do is describe the most important features. Now let's look at another example to better understand which information is important. Here we have a mixed charts graph. So what we have here is a pie chart mixed with a table. So what features are important in this infographic?

Let's take a look. So you'll remember that we said that starting and ending data points are very important. But guess what, we don't have a starting and ending data point in the pie chart or the table. So in this infographic, we won't be discussing the starting and the ending data points, because they're not there. What we do have however, are the highest and the lowest data points. The highest data point in the pie chart is this number here, the 35% is the biggest number out of all the numbers in this pie chart.

And the smallest data point, the lowest data point is this one over here. 7%. On the other hand, if you look at the total land degraded in the table, what you'll find is that 23% is our highest data point, and 5% is the lowest data point. So these highest and lowest data points in this infographic are important features that we should be discussing in our essay. Now, what about turning point? Do you guys see a turning point in this infographic?

I actually don't. And the reason for that is that this is a comparative graph. Do you remember the differences between competitive graph and a trend scruff in a trance graph? We have information that is changing over a period of time. In a comparative graph, we don't have a period of time. So because we don't have changes happening over a period of time, we also don't have a turning point.

So in this comparative graph, we will not be discussing the turning point because there isn't one. What about interesting changes? Again, I want you to pay attention to the word changes, changes is something that you will see in graphs or charts, where there are changes happening over a period of time. So this means that you will see interesting changes in trend graphs, not in comparative graphs. What you can have on a comparative graph are striking differences. So let's take a look at some examples of striking differences in this infographic here.

So first of all, we can notice that when it comes to deforestation North America only experienced 0.2%, which is the smallest out of all the listed countries. On the other hand, Europe experienced the largest amount of deforestation a total of 9.8%. So this is a striking difference that we see in the deforestation between North America and Europe. Another striking difference is visible. If we look at over grazing. North America experienced the smallest amount of over grazing only 1.5%, whereas Oceania experienced the largest amount of overgrazing, a total of 11.3%.

So again, this is a striking difference that we see between North America and Oceania. We can also see striking differences in the total land degraded, North America experienced the smallest land degradation at only 5% Whereas Europe experienced the largest at 23%. You will notice here that the highest and the lowest data points and the striking differences overlap with each other in this data set over here. So sometimes this can happen where the key information may overlap with each other. And once again, take note that not all key features are going to be present in every single type of graph or chart that you see. So it really depends on whether you get a trend graph or a comparative graph or a process or a diagram.

Okay, now an important part of getting a good score on your task achievement is accuracy. It's very important that you accurately describe the information in the infographic. So first of all, you need to make sure that you are using the correct unit of measurement. Secondly, make sure to use words like approximately about around nearly to avoid inaccuracy. Let's take a look at some examples of this. We have our bar graph over here.

Let's take a look at the different ways that we can describe the data. So we're looking at the year 1999. For this example, and our sentences in 1999, local fixed line calls reached a peak of 90 billion minutes, you will see that the local fixed line calls did in fact, reach a peak of 90 billion minutes. Now here, we don't have to use any of these words, because this bar falls exactly on the 90 billion minute mark. It's exactly on the 90 billion minute line. Now, if you were to say, in 1999, local fixed line calls reached a peak of 90 minutes, you see 90 over here.

And you see minutes over here. Is that correct? Of course not. That is wrong. Why? Because here, the minutes are listed in billions.

Billions. So you have to write 90 billion minutes. That's correct. 90 minutes is wrong. On the other hand, if you write in 1999, local fixed blind calls reached a peak of 90. That is also wrong.

9190 Minutes, 90 seconds, 90 hours. What are we talking about? You have to be clear and use the correct units of measurement. Let's look at another example. mobiles surged in us from about three billion minutes in 1995 to nearly 45 billion minutes in 2002. Notice our use of the words about and nearly.

Why are we using these words? Well, we're using these words, because if you look at 1995, we're not exactly sure about the number of minutes for the mobile calls in 1995. Similarly, in the year 2000, when we look at the mobile calls, we're again, not sure exactly where the bar graph falls, because it doesn't fall on any of these clearly defined lines. So we're not sure and to avoid inaccuracy, we use the word nearly. On the other hand, if you were to say mobile searched in use from 3 billion minutes in 1995 to 45 billion minutes in 2002. That's wrong.

Why Because you may have guessed that this looks to be like 3 billion minutes. But we don't really know for sure if this is in fact, 3 billion minutes. And if this is in fact 45 billion minutes. Whenever you are estimating what the numbers are, you have to make sure to use words like approximately about around and nearly to avoid inaccuracy. All right. Now let's talk about the structure of our essay, because that is also an important part of task achievement.

If you properly structure your essay, then it will be easy for you to answer whatever the question is asking you for. So let's take a look. As you will know by now, we have a total of four paragraphs in our writing task one essay. In the first paragraph. In the introduction paragraph, we have to paraphrase the quote Question language in our own words. In the next paragraph, which is the overview paragraph, we have to describe the starting and the ending data points and also the highest and the lowest data points of the infographic.

Sometimes you may have a graph or a chart where both of these are not available, maybe only one of them is present. If that's the case, then only discuss what is present. If they're both present, then discuss them both. Next, for paragraphs number three, and number four, what you're going to do is split your infographic in half. In the third paragraph, you'll talk about the first half of the infographic. And in the fourth paragraph, you will be discussing the second half of the infographic.

So to conclude, a good structure will allow you to address all the different parts of The task and clearly present your ideas and this is going to boost your task achievement score. So that's it for this video. I'll see you in the next one, where we discuss the second ingredient to your success which is cohesion and coherence.