Lesson 25 – Task 1 writing introductions

By Berni | October 2, 2012

woman writing

It also signposts to the reader the direction your writing will take so it is worth spending some time learning how to write a good introduction

Conversely, a badly written introduction will set the examiner off thinking about a low band and it will also confuse your reader.

A task 1 introduction will simply be a short overview of the information in the data or, in general training, will set out the purpose of the letter.
For Task 1 it is enough to write just a sentence as an introduction.
If you feel you have to write more then make sure first that the information is important.
Don’t state any of the detail in the introduction.
Use the question as your guide and paraphrase what it says.
Don’t copy words from the question try to find others that explain it.
Don’t use words like below (i.e. from the question) as this rubric is irrelevant.
You don’t have to write EVERYTHING that is in the question as your introduction but try hard to put all the relevant information into one sentence – doing this will demonstrate you ability with language too.
If you are struggling with the introduction you can come back and write it later (this really only applies to the academic module as in general training it will be more closely integrated with the body of your letter) – don’t waste time as the description is the most important – write a few words and then complete it at the end
You should only spend 20 minutes in total on this task so spending too long on your introduction is losing you time

Make sure you can write your introduction quickly and effectively

Get good at paraphrasing questions and turning these into good introductions – look at model essays for this

Look at Task 1 questions and try to write an introduction in one sentence without leaving out any of the important information.

For general training do the same can you get your main purpose into one sentence?

Collect together some good academic vocabulary for use in introductions – the graph shows/ illustrates, we can see from the table etc..
For general training look at letter conventions (find examples online) and make a similar list – I’m writing to ask/inform/request etc. or with reference to…
With a good word list you should be able to adapt to any type of data or letter.

Here’s some more information on paraphrasing from Simon:

and for general training:

Things to do to learn how to write good Task 1 introductions:

There are some questions on the sharing blog write some introductory sentences in the comments box.

Don’t forget, if there is anything you don’t understand or can’t find send a message via Contact us

Try these exercise on Gapfillers

Try this exercise for Task 1 (academic module)

Here’s an example of a formal letter (general training) for you to complete

Now go back to the plan in lesson X and write an introduction for this task (either general training or academic which ever task you are doing

Don’t forget, if there is anything you don’t understand or can’t find send a message via Contact us

Now you’re done!