In this lesson we’re going to learn how to tackle describe a Pie Chart in IELTS Writing task 1 questions to get the highest score.

As an example, let’s take a look at the following question card:

You can watch a video tutorial on how to describe diagrams in IELTS Academic Writing task 1: Pie Chart

 

In this lesson we’re going to learn how to tackle “Line Graph” in IELTS Writing task 1 questions to get the highest score.

 

As an example, let’s take a look at the following question card:

 

You can watch a video tutorial on how to describe diagrams in IELTS Academic Writing task 1: Line Graph

As it was explained the previous lesson, to get the highest score for the first task in IELTS Writing, your answer should have the following structure:

• Introduction
• General overview
• Specific features

How to answer this task?

1. Introduce the line graph.

   Write what it illustrates.

2. Give an overview.

   Briefly summarize what happens on the graph.

3. Apart from obvious trends, see some less noticeable features.

   Where did the graph rise/decline sharply and where slowly? What is the difference between initial and final figures? Where did the records meet?

4. Describe each change on the graph in a separate paragraph.

   This graph is a good example of a situation when students get confused, thinking there is not enough information to write 150 words. In this case, make a lot of comparisons, support your assertions with data and paraphrase the written information. Use vocabulary to describe graphs, linking structures and words from academic wordlist .

 

Model answer

The line graph illustrates the average cost that American customers spent on mobile and landline phone services annually over a 10-year period.

Overall, spending on residential phone services dramatically declined, while popularity of mobile services increased sharply throughout a decade. Also, both of services met at the same record in 2006.

In 2001, spending on mobile phone services began by merely $200, while the amount of annual expenditure on the residential phone services was around $700. Over the following five years, expenditure on landline phone services gradually dropped below $600, whereas expenditure on cell phone services rose to just over $500.

In 2006 cell phones overtook landline phones, and the services became equal in popularity with customers’ annual expenditure of about $550. Then, cell phone expenses rose to approximately $750 in 2010, making nearly a fourfold jump relatively to its initial figure in 2001. Meanwhile, spending on residential phone services experienced a steep fall in 2007 and went on to steadily decrease for the rest of the period.

(168 words)

 

In this lesson we’re going to learn how to tackle describe a diagram in IELTS Writing task 1 questions to get the highest score.

We will deal with a process diagram. Although diagrams are not very common in IELTS, they do appear in Writing and are very different from other types of graphs you can get. So it’s a good idea to learn how to structure your answer when describing a diagram.

In this lesson you will:

• See IELTS Writing diagram question
• Learn how to write a band 9 answer
• Learn useful vocabulary
• See video tutorial

 

As an example, let’s take a look at the following question card:

 

You can watch a video tutorial on how to describe diagrams in IELTS Academic Writing task 1:

As it was explained the previous lesson, to get the highest score for the first task in IELTS Writing, your answer should have the following structure:

• Introduction
• General overview
• Specific features

 

Now we’ll take a look at each part of the answer.

1. Introduction

The first paragraph of your answer should be an introduction. For the introduction, you need to paraphrase the topic in your own words. It shouldn’t be longer that 2 sentences.

And this is a possible way to write your introduction:

The diagram explains the way in which steel rods are produced for the furniture industry.

You could also write the introduction in another way:

The diagram shows the process of metal rods production for the furniture industry.

In fact, there are plenty of ways to write your introduction. Just keep in mind that you should use synonyms and paraphrase the topic from your question card.

 

2. Overview

After the introduction, you should give a general overview to summarize what’s going on in the diagram. Unlike line graphs, pie charts and bar charts, diagrams have no general trends or key changes to identify. So, in the overview paragraph you need to write:

1. how the process begins and ends
2. the number of stages

 

If the diagram has loops or repeating stages, or your process is cyclic – write that in your overview too!

Here is a good way to write a general overview:

Overall, the process consists of eleven stages, beginning with the raw material and ending up with the product’s inspection.

Always use word overall to start your overview. This way you will indicate the examiner that you’re describing general trends.

 

3. Specific features

After you’ve given the overview, you should write about specific details of your diagram. To do that, you need to describe each stage of your process in detail. Don’t forget that you should provide information in a logical way!

This is a possible way of describing the specific features of our diagram:

Using connectors

Process is a series of changes that happen over time. That’s why time connectors are extremely important for writing about process diagrams. Use these time connectors to describe specific features of your diagram:

• first of all
• firstly
• to begin
• after that
• then
• next
• in the next stage
• following this
• subsequently
• finally

 

Using additional information

Your diagram will often provide you some additional information and hints for most stages of the process. Make sure that you use all that information while describing specific features of your diagram!

However, sometimes you may see that some stage lacks information for description. For example, we only know that the third stage of our process is called refinement and it happens in a smelting cabin. But we don’t know what exactly happens during this stage.

In this case, you can use a verb to undergo. To undergo = to experience. For example, you can write: “the material undergoes refinement in a smelting cabin“.

And don’t forget that you should NOT write a conclusion in Writing task 1 as you’re not giving your opinion, you’re describing the data.

 

In this lesson we’re going to learn how to tackle bar charts in IELTS Writing task 1 questions to get the highest score. To get a band 9 in IELTS Writing task 1, you should follow this answer structure:

1. Introduction
2. General overview
3. Specific features

Let’s look in detail how to apply this structure to an IELTS bar chart question.

 

IELTS bar chart Question:

The bar chart shows the divorce rates in two European countries from 2011 to 2015.

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

You can watch a video tutorial on how to describe bar charts in IELTS Academic Writing task 1:

And now let’s learn how to answer IELTS bar chart questions.

 

IELTS bar chart answering strategy:

1. Introduction

You should start your answer by writing an introduction. The introduction is 1 or 2 sentences, where you paraphrase the information from your question. You should mention two things in your introduction:

• what your graph shows
• for what period of time

In our example, the introduction can look like this:

The bar chart provides information about the percentages of divorces in Finland and Sweden between 2011 and 2015.

See how I used synonyms to paraphrase the question:

shows → provides information about
divorce rates → percentages of divorces
two European countries → Finland and Sweden (it’s good to be more specific)
from 2011 to 2015 → between 2011 and 2015.

 

2. General Overview

The second paragraph of your answer is a general overview, where you briefly describe major trends on your graph. Ideally, you should describe 2-4 key features.

To make major trends easier to notice, you can outline Sweden’s bars and Finland’s bars like this:

Now it’s obvious that:

• Sweden experienced a downward trend
• Finland experienced an upward trend
• both countries showed fluctuations
• Initially Finland had a lower rate, but in 2015 Finland outraced Sweden

Use word overall to start your general overview. In our case, the overview may look as follows:

Overall, Sweden experienced a downward trend, while Finland showed an upward trend throughout the period. Both countries’ divorce rates had some fluctuations. Although Finland initially had a lower rate, it outraced Sweden at the end of the period.

 

3. Specific details

After we’ve written the introduction and general overview, it’s time to give the specific details. You should describe the specific features in 2 or 3 (sometimes more) paragraphs.

You can group data in such way:

• Details about Sweden
• Details about Finland

When you have two countries (or two cities or any other two things depicted on the graph), the simplest way of grouping data – is to describe each country’s trend in a separate paragraph.

When giving specific features, you have to write exact numbers/percentages and include as much details as you can.

In our case, the specific details may look as follows:

Sweden’s divorce rate was about 45% in 2011, being higher than Finland’s rate by approximately 8%. Then, it rose to almost fifty percent in 2012. However, the figure showed a gradual decrease to about 47% in 2013, and continued to decline steadily to the end of the period, reaching around 45% in 2014 and hitting a low-point of about 37% in 2015.

Percentage of divorces in Finland was less than 40% in 2011, and it decreased in 2012, when about one third of marriages in Finland ended with a divorce (as opposed to almost a half in Sweden). However, the figure experienced a steady growth during the next two years. It rose to approximately 39% in 2013, then increased by around 3% in 2014, and remained steady for the next year, outracing the rate of Sweden.

Tips:

• When analyzing a bar-chart, we cannot always give exact details (due to inaccuracies of the chart), so use words around, about and approximately when giving inexact data.
• Give data for each year shown on the chart

 

The full answer + Practice

It’s the end, we have finally written the answer for IELTS bar chart question. And now, let’s practice: fill in the gaps in this answer with appropriate words.

(190 words)