Writing Task 1

Task 1. In IELTs Writing Task 1, you have to summarise information which is usually presented in the form of a table, a pie chart, a line graph, a bar chart, a diagram, or a flow diagram.

IELTs Writing Task 1 sometimes requires you to describe two figures. Before writing your response, it is important to ask yourself the following:

1. What do both figures relate to?

2. What kind of relationship is evident?

a. a simlarity b. a difference c. a cause and effect relationship d. other type of relationship

Once you have answered these questions, you are then in a better position to answer questions 3 and 4:

3. Which aspects of each figure should be highlighted?

4. a. Should the figures be described in separate paragraphs or b. should different aspects of the figures be compared within a series of paragraphs.

If you are presented with two figures which appear to show a cause and effect relationship, it is helpful to take note of this. It will enable you to highlight the information more effectively. However, you should be cautious about expressing a cause and effect relationship too directly. This is because IELTs Writing Task 1 does not ask you to interpret the table or refer to anything outside of it. If you use a cause and effect expression (e.g. causes, leads to), use a the following expression to make the claim less sweeping (e.g. appears to cause, may lead to).

Always look carefully at what figures represent. If they represent percentages, you must use expressions such as a large/small/higher/lower percentage of men… If the figures give numbers, you can write many/more/most/few/fewer men…

You can also use from…to to describe the amount of change. «The percentage of children taking dietary supplements fell from 21 per cent in January to 6 per cent in March».

Notice that the start and end points are indicated by in (in January…in March). If you find this word order confusing, put the time frame at the start of the sentence and the amount of change at the end. «Between January and March, the percentage of children taking dietary supplements fell from 21 per cent to 8 per cent».

Templates are useful for training yourself to think of a range of points quickly and write about them in an organized way. However, during the actual exams, you should spend only 3-4 minutes on this stage, so you will probably have to do your preparation in your head rather than on paper.

Use adverbs to make your comparisons more exact. To emphasise a difference, you can use: many, much, far, and significantly. «Many more students sat examinations in science subjects». For small differences you can use: slightly or nearly as…as. «Nearly as many students sat the Art and Design exam as did the Chemistry exam».

Do not copy the exact words of the task instructions. Re-phrasing the instructions in your own words shows that you have range and flexibility. You can give your response a clear beginning by stating the kind of information the figure shows, and a clear ending by summarising the overall message conveyed by the figure.

To find patterns in the data more easily, try grouping similar items together and looking for associated trends. If you can’t see a pattern immediately, switch your focus.

You should signpost general statements, i.e. introduce them with expressions such as The table/pie chart/graph/etc. shows… The most significant change… Another noticeable trend… Overall.. You must also support general statements with detailed information from the table/graph/etc.

Do not overuse signposting expressions. One signposting expression at the start, one or two on in the middle and one at the end are sufficient in most cases. In process descriptions, the most frequently used signpost is the adverb then. It is normally placed between the subject and verb (Precipitation then increases) or between the auxiliary verb and the main verb (The trees are then extracted).

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