[Paul Davey]

Task 1 Writing

Typical questions will briefly tell you what information is being represented in the chart, graph etc and then ask you to do one of the following:

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

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information given.

First decide whether to use the present tense or the past tense. The graph should indicate this. If there is a date or a period, like a year or a decade, use past tense. If there is no specific time information, you probably need to use the present tense. You probably won’t ever have to use the perfect tense for this kind of report.

A: Describing Single Line Graphs

Most students seem to find line graphs the most difficult to describe. So let's begin here.

Identify exactly what information is being shown from the graph. What are the units? Are they percentages, times, numbers or what?

In the examples given, look at how to describe:

1. The general situation – the graph as a whole

2. Things increasing

3. Things reaching a high point

4. Things decreasing

5. Things reaching a low point

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 29 September 2009 - 02:16 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

The graph shows the number of people using a certain station on the London Underground from six in the morning to ten at night. We can see that this number fluctuates widely at this station, which experiences two pronounced busy times shown by two peaks in the volume of passengers.

The first peak, at 08:00, when 400 passengers use the station, coincides with the morning rush-hour, and is preceded by a two-hour rapid increase in passenger traffic, from a low of 100 at 06:00. It is followed by an equally steep two-hour fall off in passengers to a low of about 175 by ten am

The second peak, during the evening rush hour, occurs at 18:00, when the number of passengers using the station is just short of the morning peak of 400. As with the morning peak, the sharp build up and decline both last for two hours.

From 10:00 in the morning, the numbers slowly rise again until two in the afternoon when they fall: slowly for the first hour then sharply to a daytime low of under one hundred at four in the afternoon.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 15 October 2009 - 06:17 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

Task 1 Assessment Criteria

Task Fulfillment

Answer the question.

Wholly describe the charts with appropriate, accurate detail.

Pick the most important details and general trends.

Reach the word limit. No marks are taken away for going over the limit. If fewer than 150 words are produced then only a maximum band of 5

Cohesion and Coherence

These two are interrelated which is why they are graded together.

Cohesion is how your writing fits together.

The writing with its ideas and content must flow logically?

Structure helps cohesion:

Introduction.

Body paragraphs

Conclusion.

Linguistic cohesion: Use appropriate language to describe numerical information, making sure that the reader always understands what is being described.

Use an elegant style

Coherence is how you are making yourself understood and whether the reader of your writing understands what you are saying.

Don’t let the reader stop because he can’t understand. He must be able to read straight through.

Write in short and clear sentences with none of the information muddled or disorganized.

In long sentences, the meaning and “thread” of the writing can get lost and confused.

Use correct grammar, word choice, structure and punctuation

Vocabulary and Sentence Structure

Use a wide range of words in the right place and at the right time.

Use correct grammar.

Verbs describing the chart should be in the present tenses as the chart exists now (ie: The chart shows – the chart exists in the present so the present simple is fine).

But when referring to the activities in the past, the past tenses must be used (The unemployed spent their time; women shopped in the morning)

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 15 October 2009 - 06:43 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

Look at just the line graph on the right

The graph shows Coca-Cola's dollar share price form 1996 to 2001, which, during the period, fluctuated markedly in the $35 to $85 range, but increased overall, starting in January 1996 at about $35 and finishing in early 2001 at roughly $57.

The first 18 months or so saw a rapid increase in share price, from the abovementioned $35 to almost $70 by the middle of 1997, when they suffered a pretty sharp, albeit limited, 5-month decline to just under $60. There followed an equally steep rise to the period high of $80 in the third quarter of 1998. This peak was followed by an almost two-year drop off to a low of $48 in mid 2000. The price quickly rebounded to over $60 but began to drop again thereafter towards the end of the period.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 29 September 2009 - 03:44 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

The line graph shows sales of gold in Dubai in 2002 in millions of dirhams. There were two periods of high gold sales.

The main season for sales is in the January to May period, when sales were at or above 200 million dirhams per month for the entire 5-month period. Starting in January at 200 million dirhams, sales climbed to 230 in February, before shooting up the next month, March, to a peak of 350 million dirhams. However, for the next four months, sales steadily declined, reaching an annual low of about 120 million dirhams in July.

In August, sales briefly bounced back, almost doubling to around 210 million dirhams, only to be followed by a further slump in September, back to the July figure.

By October, sales had recovered to 180 million dirhams and in the following months, to the end of the year, they remained steady, under 200 million dirhams.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 21 September 2009 - 09:35 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

B: Describing Double Line Graphs

This is not so different from describing single line graphs, of course, and the language will be pretty similar. So if you have practiced the above examples on your own, this is going to be easy. The difference is that you have to tie the two lines together.

As with most IELTS Writing Task 1 essays:--

First sentence: Describe what the graph shows by rewording its title and the relevant information along each axis. Don't copy anything from the graph -- reword with synonyms. Use the words compares and contrasts instead of shows.

Second sentence: Describe the overall change, The most striking things. What you can see "at a glance".

Again be very careful when you say exactly what it is that is going up, reaching a peak, going down, or reaching a low point. And make sure the subject and verb are in agreement (the first rule of grammar)

The number of visits increases steadily throughout the first week

The price drops ......

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 15 October 2009 - 06:30 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

The graph contrasts the numbers of both male and female smokers per 1000 people from 1960 to the year 2000 in Someland. We can see that by the end of that forty-year period, fewer men smoked, whereas more women did so, with the numbers being much closer than at the beginning.

In 1960, 600 men out of every 1000 smoked. This rate steadily declined throughout the period, reaching just 25% by 2000

The number of female smokers, on the other hand, showed an overall increase, albeit with an initial rise followed by a gentle decline. Just under 100 women per 1000 people smoked in 1960. By 1965 this rate had doubled to almost 20%. For the next five years the rate remained steady, before jumping again to around 325 per 1000 in 1975. The same rate was seen in 1980, forming a kind of plateau for the period which was followed by a slow decline over the next 20 years back to 20% by 2000, the same percentage seen in the 70s .

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 29 September 2009 - 04:39 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

C: Describing Pie Charts
Pie charts mostly show figures in percentages so know how to express them:

1. Use percent when the word refers to a specific number. The term percent should be used only when the specific number is included.

Seventy-two percent of the nurses voted to cover their own unit for shortages rather than float.

Of the nurses who left, 22 percent reported they did so to return to school.

2. Select percentage when you refer to the general term. Use the word percentage when you are not including a specific number. Correct examples are:

A large percentage of nurses reported understaffing as a problem.

Only a small percentage of nurses would work the night shift without differential payment.

Synonyms for percentage include:

proportion

amount

quantity

part

share

section

fraction

ratio,

Use comparatives and superlatives for comparing and contrasting information in the pie charts.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 15 October 2009 - 09:06 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

Changes in household spending patterns in America between 1966 and 1996



The pie charts show how American’s spending habits changed between 1966 and 1996. At a glance it can be seen that food and cars were the two biggest areas of expense in both years, in which they made up over half of household spending.

Food accounted for 44% of family spending in 1966, but this dropped substantially to 14% in 1996. However, the outlay on cars almost doubled, rising from 23% in 1966 to 45% in 1996.

Besides cars, other areas also increased significantly. The biggest rise was seen in the share of home expenditure going on computers, which increased a staggering ten fold, from a mere 1% in 1996 to 10% in 1996. In addition much more money was spent on eating out in 1996 than in 1966, doubling from 7 % to 14% over the period.

However, as spending in some areas rose, outlays in others necessarily dropped. For example, not nearly as much money was spent on books in 1996 as in 1966, the ratio showing a huge fall from 6% to only 1%.

Some areas remained unchanged. Americans spent approximately the same amount of their money on petrol and furniture in both years.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 15 October 2009 - 09:29 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

Use Comparatives

In task 1 questions, whenever you have two (or more) sets of data you should try to include language that shows you can use the so-called comparatives.

The Pie Chart shows the percentage of European Union funds being spent on different forms of transport.



The following sentences wouldn’t necessarily be used in an essay, but they illustrate how to use comparatives.

The part of the budget spent on roads was bigger than all the other parts combined.

Roads were deemed more important than railways.

The amount spent on intermodal transport was as low as that spent on airports.

Airports didn’t receive as much money as ports.

The allocation given to ports was not as big as that given to waterways.

Roads were preferred over railways.

The EU would rather fund the building of roads than railways.

Getting the most funds are roads rather than railways

It’s easy to ignore comparatives and write your essay without including any – but don’t do this. You’ll get a higher grade if you show you can use them

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 22 October 2009 - 09:57 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

D: Bar Charts

By now this should be getting easy. Describing bar charts isn’t that much different from the above in that you need to be able to:

-- objectively describe some graphic information.

-- compare and contrast.

-- report on an impersonal topic without the use of opinion.

-- use the language of graph description.

Essentially, when describing a bar chart, you need to describe the bars and their values. You first have to decide in what order to describe the bars: the highest value to lowest value or vice versa. It may be a mixture of this. If there are many bars, you can sometimes group together 1 or 2 or 3 bars, which have similar or the same values, in order to describe them. If there are too many and you can't group them, just describe the ones that are the most significant.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 29 October 2009 - 09:57 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

The chart shows the number of mobile phones and landlines per 100 people in selected countries.




Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information given.

The bar chart shows the number of mobile phones and landlines per 100 citizens, in two North American and several European countries. In four of the seven countries, the percentage of mobile phones users is higher than that of landlines.

Mobile phone use exceeds landline use in Four of the five European countries, with Italy having not only the lowest landline penetration, at about 42 per 100 people, but also having the highest number of mobile phones, at 90 per 100. Denmark bucks the trend in Europe by having more landlines, at 98 per 100 people, the highest of the seven countries, than mobiles, at 83 per 100 – in fact Denmark has the highest phone use of all seven countries, with a combined figure of 181 per 100!

Meanwhile, over in North America, landlines are more common than cell phones, which have a lower penetration than in any European country, at under 50 per 100 people. Mobile phone use in Canada is the lowest of all the countries, with fewer than 40 per 100 people; while a similarly small number of them, 48, are used by every 100 Americans. Landline penetration, however is higher in Canada and the USA than in 3 of the selected European countries.

Here ends my report.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 29 October 2009 - 10:04 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

We have come a long way but how do you know if you’ve written a good report or not?

You can send it t me for correcting and revision: Visit My Website: IELTS in Taiwan

Or follow these steps:

Go back to the assessment criteria (above) and answer these questions.

Task Fulfillment
Did I reach the word limit? 150 words

Did I answer the question? In other words, did I accurately summarize the important features, noting the main trends and comparing and contrasting where relevant?

Are all my reported numbers correct?

Have I missed anything important?

Cohesion and Coherence
Does the report have a suitable structure (Introduction/body/conclusion) and

Does it read well?

Does it make sense?

Are the right things being described? Make sure the grammatical subject of your sentences are correct. That means making sure you know exactly what you are describing: for example, the number of people or the percentage of people or people in a group. Do the subjects and verbs agree?

Did I use connecting words within sentences, between sentences and between paragraphs? (But don’t overdo this!)

Vocabulary and Sentence Structure
Did I Use a wide range of words in the right place and at the right time.

Did I use any idioms?

In my introduction, did I rewrite the information given on the graph and in the question using different words?

Did I use a variety of sentence patterns?

Did I use many comparatives?

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 30 October 2009 - 12:03 PM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

E: Describing Tables

Describing tables is also a little tricky and you should follow the things you’ve already learned above.

Extract the information given in the question and shown on the table for your introduction. Choose the most striking detail to include at the end of the introduction. Then look at the numbers for the body of the essay.

Let's go straight to an example:

Question:

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information in the table below. You should write at least 150 words.

Model Answer

The table shows the number of hours people in different age groups in Someland spend on different activities in their free time per annum. At a glance we can see that the amount of free time varies considerably across the age groups and that people spend more time pursuing different activities at different stages in their lives.

Teens and old people watch the most TV, with the average teen spending 1200 hours on this activity, and the average person over 70 1100 hours. These two numbers are around double those for people of working age. Teens also spend more time than others at the cinema, which accounts for 100 hours of their time in a year.

Two activities decline as people age, namely, group exercise and socializing in large groups. The time spent in the former drops off significantly as people age, with teens spending the most time, 450 hours a year, and people in their 60s and 70s spending no time at all. A similar pattern can be seen in the latter – time spent socializing in groups of more than 4 people – where teens and 20 somethings spend the most time, 350 hours, and people over 50 spend the least, 25 hours.

On the other hand, people in their 30s and 40s spend more time than other age-groups exercising individually, at 200 hours per year; and people in their 30s socialize in small groups more than younger or older people, which they do for 300 hours a year.

Here ends my report

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 12 December 2009 - 02:43 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

Describing Tables: How to Write the Introduction of the Essay

Not too different form the other Task 1 essays describing line graphs, bar charts etc. The words and sentences used in the introduction should not be copied directly – use synonyms and vary the sentence patterns. Notice the verb tense in the essay above—everything is in the present tense because neither the graph nor the question indicates a specific time.

Describing Tables: How to Write the Body of the Essay

Now you can look at the details in the table and decide how to use the information in the body of your essay. The body of the report will describe the information presented in the table in detail.

There will always be too much information in the table to describe, so how do you know what to write about? Easy! You just need to decide:

1. What are the most significant facts.

2. What are the major trends.

Then decide on a clear and logical order to present the material.

Then write using a range of grammar and sentence patterns. Use good vocabulary.

Generally you will choose one of the categories given in the table, according to 1 and 2 above; for example, in the table above you can choose either an age group or activity. In other words your choice depends on whether you can see the most significant facts and trends occurring by age group or by activity.

In my essay above, I have chosen age group as being most important in the first body paragraph, where I described the differences between the activity preferences of a few of the age groups.

In the second body paragraph, I chose to describe activities and the trends that are clear through all the age groups.

You don’t need to include every detail – of course that’s impossible. By describing trends, you can avoid having to describe every age group across every activity.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 17 December 2009 - 07:19 AM 編輯過

[Paul Davey]

F: Describing Flow Charts / Processes
Describing processes and flow charts is pretty easy – you just need to remember to do a few things. Unfortunately, this type of question is rare.

Introduction
Use a single sentence to paraphrase the information given in the question. Don't repeat what you have been given.

Describe Each Stage
Look at the illustration and work out what the stages are and the order that things happen. This should be fairly obvious; just look for the starting point. Organize your information clearly and describe each important stage. Don’t miss any stages.

Link The Stages
You need to put everything in a logical order; so that means using sequence expressions such as

First of all, To begin with, and then, after that, at the same time, next, finally ,,, etc.

Sometimes the process is more complex, then you may need to also use these words

Alternatively, Otherwise In addition, At the same time, Concurrently

Be careful to distinguish stages which happen at the same time – concurrently.

The green cakes are sent on to machine A while the blue ones are loaded into the truck

Sometimes stages are alternatives – it’s either A or B.

Finally, the finished product is graded and then either boxed or thrown away.

Grammar
Think about time – I mean when things happen, especially in relation to the present time and to other events. This will give you the verb tenses. For processes, you will probably need

1) The simple present tense. The mosquito lays her eggs in water. The verb here is in its active state.

2) The present simple passive The food is first washed thoroughly. The verb here is in its passive state.

3) The present perfect passive After the material has been washed it is sent to the machine.

Make sure you know exactly why we sometimes use an active verb and sometimes a passive verb. The reason is in the grammatical subject of the sentence. Put the important thing at the beginning of the sentence – make it the subject. The person (or agent) that does the action (does the verb) is not always important, hence the passive form.

How to Finish
The final paragraph may be brief summary of the overall function of what you have just described. However, you do not need a conclusion as you are not being asked your opinion. An opinion would be considered irrelevant for this task and could lose you marks.

General
As with the other Task 1 essays, do not include information that is not on the graph, diagram or chart.

本篇文章已被 Paul Davey 於 23 March 2010 - 02:20 AM 編輯過