Writing Task Opening Lines: Misconceptions About Paraphrasing the Question

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind.
Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful.
How true that is."
How former US Vice President Dan Quayle
infamously paraphrased the slogan of the UNCF:
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 PARAPHRASING THE QUESTION

 

Does every sentence in your response to an IELTS writing paper count the same towards your band score? 

It should, but it doesn't.
The importance of first impressions aside, let's look at how to start an essay.

Addressing the task in TR requires that you show you understand the question, and that starts in the opening line. The CC criterion requires an essay show "progression" and that starts at the beginning.  Then we get to Lexical Resource, and that's where I think the misunderstanding starts regarding "paraphrasing the question". 

Of course, every IELTS expert has somewhat different advice about how tobe gin an essay. Here's some advice from Chris at IELTSadavantage:

The mental processes required to paraphrase will also help you to fully understand the question and this is one of the reasons I tell my students to begin all of their answers in the writing test by paraphrasing the question.

I completely agree with the first part of that advice. In fact, quite seperately, it's part of the advice I give in my video about the "to what extent do you agree"
essay type. Paraphrase the question IN YOUR HEAD. Whatever you do, don't start writing UNTIL you have fully understood the question. You should have planned the essay before your pencil hits the paper for sentence one, and a superior first line reflects that plan and paraphrases the question from the perspective of what you're going to talk about.

It's not a word-replacement exercise.

What too many do is just re-state the question by inserting different words for the ones in the question.  They treat it like a word-replacement game. Here's a good example of that approach from an old victim, er, recepient of the Temple's advice, Anand (who I tortured through a self-correction exercise). He wrote:

Shopping is now one of the most popular forms of leisure activity in many countries for young adults.
Why is this?  Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

ANSWER: Buying various products is emerging as one of the famous pastime activity among young people in many geographies. 

Shopping = Buying various products
is now = is emerging  
most popular forms of leisure activity = famous pastime activity
in many countries = in many geographies.

Note how many words DON'T change and it just picks out and replaces certain words. The end result makes little sense. Don't do this. 

When you paraphrase the question, you can include MORE or LESS if it fits what you want to say.

A better paraphrasing of JUST the sentence in the question would be this:

In many nations, young people are enjoying shopping as a leading way to spend their leisure time. 

BUT, you don't HAVE TO do this.    

See this video at 8:06 for more on the "game" of word replacement.

A Better Way

A great essay will set up the topic in the first sentence in a way that reflects the ideas that follow. Anand talked about social pressures and financial detriment in the paragraphs that followed... so assuming he has planned his essay in advance and knows that's what he's going to talk about, a good first sentence would be something like:

"Social pressures, particularly on young people, are changing how everyday activities are viewed."

Then..

" Shopping, for example, has become something done not just to buy necessary goods, but to have fun. This essay will look at why attitudes towards shopping have changed and consider its negative impact on the finances of young adults."

Note, I began paraphrasing in the first sentence, and continued it into the second. I've introduced the topic & made a statement. I've indicated what the essay is going to be about. Introduction finished.

So, the essence of my lesson tonight is in these two points:

1. Paraphrasing is not just replacing.
2. Your first couple sentences need to not only introduce the topic and paraphrase the question, but set the controlling idea of your essay.

Task One and Task Two are different

Everything I've been talking about has been primarily geared towards Task 2. With Task One, the first sentence of the report should simply state what the visual information is portraying - None of it's content; just it's nature.