WRITING TASK 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The pie charts below show the online shopping sales for retail sectors in New
Zealand in 2003 and 2013.

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

Write at least 150 words.

 Noun phrases

Most general noun phrases:

1. online (shopping) sales
2. (shopping) sales online
[This is noun + prep + noun. Here the preposition “on” is combined with the next
word.]
3. the percentage of (shopping) sales which were made online
NOTE: we do not say “to sell sales.” You can say “to make sales.”

You can also use “the internet” to make your noun phrases:
1. internet (shopping) sales
2. (shopping) sales on the internet
3. the percentage of (shopping) sales which were made on the internet.

More specific noun phrases (just an example!):

1. online clothes sales
2. sales of clothes online
3. the percentage of clothes which were sold online

retail: the business of selling things directly to individual customers for their own use
wholesale: the business of selling things in large amounts to other businesses rather than
to individual customers

NB. Travel is rarely used alone as a noun, so therefore we use travel

products / services.
Fill in the gaps with a suitable noun phrase.

The charts provide information about the proportion in four retail categories in
New Zealand for two separate years, 2003 and 2013.

Overall, it can be seen that sales of travel products and clothes decreased, whereas
sales of films and music and books increased.

Looking at the charts in more detail, the proportion of travel products in 2003
was highest at 36% followed by clothes sales at 24%. Film and music sales stood
at 21% and book sales were lowest at 19%.
Note that in detail paragraph 1, we just describe the first chart.

Turning to the second chart, the proportion of travel products which were sold
online had decreased to 29% in 2013. Similarly, online clothes dropped to just
16% which was the smallest sector in 2103. In contrast, online sales of films and
music soared to 33%, and this sector became the largest. Book sales also
increased, but to a lesser extent and stood at 22% in 2013.
In detail paragraph 2, we describe changes in the second chart.