As an example, let's take a look at the given topic:
The line graph below shows the household recycling rates in three different
countries between 2005 and 2015.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant.
1. Introduction
The first paragraph you need to write is your introduction. For the introduction
you need simply to paraphrase the information from your topic (make sure
that you mention what your graph shows and for what period of time). It
shouldn't be longer that 2 sentences.
Learn more strategies to write a task 1 introduction.
And this is a possible way to write your introduction:
The line graph illustrates the regional household recycling rates in the UK,
France and Germany from 2005 to 2015.
2. Overview
When giving a general overview, you shouldn’t state any specific details, you
should simply write what’s happening on the graph overall.
It's a good technique to write 'Overall,' before giving an overview.
In this example it could be done as follows:
Overall, the recycling rates of the UK and Germany showed a steady but
significant rise over the period, while the percentage of recycled waste in
France experienced a downward trend.
Basically, you’re saying that UK and Germany’s rates ↑ , France’s rates ↓ . It's
very important to give an overview, your essay will score much lower without it!
3. Specific features
After you've given the overview, you should group data by some feature and
give specific details. In this line graph you can group data in two ways:
a. by country
Describe each country’s recycling rates in a separate paragraph
b. by similar trend
As you can see, the UK and Germany followed a similar trend: their
recycling rates were increasing throughout the period, while recycling
rates of France experienced a fall.
So you can describe an “increase pattern” in the first paragraph and a
“decrease pattern” in the second paragraph.
The last option is better. Here's an example of providing specific data:
In 2005 the recycling rates of the UK and Germany were nearly 35% and
20% respectively. Germany's rate increased sharply throughout the period,
exceeding France's rate in 2009 and reaching almost 60% in the end of the
period. In the meantime, the percentage of recycled waste in the UK grew to
40% in 2007, and then remained steady until 2009. During 2009-2011 it
experienced a rapid surge to more than 50% and continued with a gradual
increase to 60% in 2015.
In early 2005 the recycling rate of France (50%) was the highest among
these three countries. However, it dramatically declined to 30% in 2013.
Then, there was a growth of 10% in 2015, but France's recycling rate was
the lowest in the end of the period.
IELTS pie chart Question:
The two pie charts below show the percentages of industry sectors' contribution to
the economy of Turkey in 2000 and 2016.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make
comparisons where relevant.
IELTS pie chart answering strategy:
1. Introduction
The first paragraph you write is an introduction. The introduction is 1 or 2
sentences, where you introduce your chart. In the introduction you have to
paraphrase the information from your question and mention 2 important things:
what your graph shows
for what period of time
In our example, I wrote the introduction this way:
The two pie charts illustrate how different industry sectors contributed to the
economy of Turkey percentagewise in the years 2000 and 2016.
So, I just took the information from the question card and paraphrased it in
such way:
show → illustrate
the percentages of industry sectors' contribution to the economy of
Turkey → how different industry sectors contributed to the economy of
Turkey percentagewise
in 2000 and 2016 → in the years 2000 and 2016.
pie charts = pie charts (don't change this!)
2. General Overview
The second paragraph of your answer is a general overview, where you
briefly describe 2-4 key features of your chart.
In our case there are two main options to describe key features:
a. find the biggest and smallest slices of each pie chart
b. find which slices became bigger/smaller or didn't change
Now include the information you've gathered from the chart into your overview.
Always start your general overview with the word overall:
Overall, at the beginning of the period construction contributed the least to
the economy of Turkey and agriculture was the most significant economic
sector. In comparison, at the end of the period healthcare and education
became the largest economic segment and the lowest contribution was made
by financial, business and other services.
3. Specific details
The last part of your answer is specific details. You should group the
specific details of your chart in 2 or 3 paragraphs.
You can group data in such way:
a. Sectors that had an increase (construction; trade utilities &
transportation; manufacturing; finance, business and other services)
b. Sectors that had a decrease or didn't change (agriculture;
government; leisure and hospitality; healthcare and education)
In our case, paragraphs with specific details may look as follows:
Construction sector accounted for 3% of Turkey's economy in 2000, and
experienced a more than threefold increase to one-tenth in 2016. Economic
income from trade, utilities and transportation was 14% in 2000 and
experienced a slight growth of 2% in 2016. At the beginning of the period,
manufacturing and finance, business and other services made up 8% and 5%
of Turkey's economy, respectively, and these figures rose to 12% and 8% in
2016.
Agriculture, which comprised almost a quarter of Turkey's economy in 2000,
fell to 14% in 2016. In 2000 economic outputs from government and leisure
and hospitality sectors were at 12% and 17%, respectively, and both
decreased by 3% after 16-year period. In contrast, contribution from
healthcare and education sector remained constant in both years at 17%.
Useful vocabulary to write a percentage of a certain sector::
sector X was 3%
sector X made up 3%
sector X accounted for 3%
sector X comprised 3% of [the whole chart]
IELTS Writing task 1: describing a diagram
In this lesson you will learn how to describe a diagram in IELTS Writing task
1.
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 digram 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:
The diagram illustrates how steel rods are manufactured in the furniture industry.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make
comparisons where relevant.
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:
1. Introduction
2. General overview
3. 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.
Learn more strategies to write a task 1 introduction.
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:
First of all, iron ore, yellow ore and carbon are collected to serve as a raw
material for steel rods manufacturing. After that, the raw material is melted in a
melting slit, where it is heated to a temperature in range of 1300-1500 °C. The
melted mass is then transferred to a smelting cabin to undergo refinement.
Next, the candescent metal is put in a pouring machine and poured into ingots.
In the next stage, the ingots are connected to a cooling reservoir, where the
temperature falls to 60-100 °C. Metal goes through special nozzles and cools
down, forming strands. Following this, the metal strands proceed to rollers that
change their shape. Next, the products are put into a heating machine, where
they undergo heat treatment. Subsequently, a measuring automaton completes
a surface check of the products.
After that, the metal rods are sized by special cutters and get ID stamping.
Finally, the products undergo inspection and are ready for use.
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