IELTS Part 1 Writing: The 'QE'

Once you know your structure, and if you don't then you need to read this post first:

IELT writing 1: Structure, then your ready to identify what are you writing about. This is something that can be quite difficult to understand and apply correctly.

What you are writing about is usually an expression of quantity (QE), for example:

• the number of

• the rate of

• the percentage of

• the amount of

One of the things you need to get good at, and fast at, is identifying the QE in the graphs, charts or tables you look at. So for example, look at the graph below.

(a) What is this?

It is 10.000

(b) 10,000 what?

10,000 high school students

So, 10,000 is the number of high school students

So, what this graph shows is the number of high school students (this is your QE)

(c) Now, what did the 10,000 high school students do? And where?

10,000 is the number of students who studied English in NZ in 2007.

This is what you need to be able to do very quickly when you first see a graph or chart. You need to be able to identify the QE . Take the quick test below to match graphs and charts wiith QEs.