Vocabulary For Academic IELTS Writing Task 1

» Use correct synonyms in your writing.

» Use a range of vocabulary.
» Do not repeat words and phrases from the exam question unless there is no alternative.
» Use less common vocabulary.
» Do not use the same word more than once/twice.
» Use precise and accurate words in a sentence.
It is advisable that you learn synonyms and use them accurately in your writing in order to give an impression that
you can use a good range of vocabulary

The general format for writing academic writing task 1 is as follows:

Tips:
1. Write introduction and General trend in the same paragraph.
2. Your 'Introduction (general statement + overall trend/ general trend) should have 75 - 80 words.

3. DO NOT give numbers, percentages or quantity in your general trend. Rather give the most striking feature of the
graph that could be easily understood at a glance. Thus it is suggested to AVOID -
 "A glance at the graphs reveals that 70% male were employed in 2001 while 40 thousand women in this year had
jobs."

And use a format /comparison like the following:

"A glance at the graphs reveals that more men were employed than their female counterpart in 2001 and
almost two-third females were jobless in the same year. "

1. Vocabulary for the Introduction Part:

Starting Presentation Type Verb Description

The/ the given / the diagram / table / figure shows / represents / the comparison of…
supplied / the / illustration / graph / depicts / enumerates / the differences…
presented / the chart / flow chart / illustrates / presents/ the changes...
shown / the picture/ presentation/ gives / provides / the number of…
provided pie chart / bar graph/ delineates/ outlines/ information on…
column graph / line describes / delineates/ data on…
graph / table data/ expresses/ denotes/ the proportion of…
data / information / compares/ shows the amount of…
pictorial/ process contrast / indicates / information on...
diagram/ map/ pie figures / gives data on data about...
chart and table/ bar / gives information on/ comparative data...
graph and pie chart ... presents information the trend of...
about/ shows data the percentages of...
about/ demonstrates/ the ratio of...
sketch out/ how the...
summarizes...

Example :
1. The diagram shows employment rates among adults in four European countries from 1925 to 1985.
2. The given pie charts represent the proportion of male and female employees in 6 broad categories, dividing into
manual and non-manual occupations in Australia, between 2010 and 2015.
3. The chart gives information about consumer expenditures on six products in four countries namely Germany, Italy,
Britain and France.
4. The supplied bar graph compares the number of male and female graduates in three developing countries while the
table data presents the overall literacy rate in these countries.
 Tips:
1. If there are multiple graphs and each one presents a different type of data, you can write which graph presents
what type of data and use 'while' to show a connection.

For example -'The given bar graph shows the amount spent on fast food items in 2009 in the UK while the pie chart
presents a comparison of people's ages who spent more on fast food.

2. Your introduction should be quite impressive as it makes the first impression to the examiner. It either makes or
breaks your overall score.

3. For multiple graphs and/ or table(s), you can write what they present in combination instead of saying which each
graph depicts. For example, "The two pie charts and the column graph in combination depicts a picture of the
crime in Australia from 2005 to 2015 and the percentages of young offenders during this period."

Caution:
Never copy word for word from the question. If you do so, you would be penalized. always paraphrase the
introduction in your own words.

Vocabulary for the General Trend Part:

In general, In common, Generally speaking, Overall, It is obvious, As is observed, As a

general trend, As can be seen, As an overall trend, As is presented, It can be clearly
seen that, At the first glance, it is clear, At the onset, it is clear that, A glance at the
graphs reveals that...

Example:
1. In general, the employment opportunities increased till 1970 and then declined throughout the next decade.
2. Generally speaking, citizens in the USA had a far better life standard than that of remaining countries.
3. As can be seen, the highest number of passengers used the London Underground station at 8:00 in the morning
and at 6:00 in the evening.
4. As an overall trend, the number of crimes reported increased fairly rapidly until the mid-seventies, remained
constant for five years and finally, dropped to 20 cases a week after 1982.

2. Details Description:
Main features in the Details
+ Comparison and Contrast of the data. (Do not give all the figures.)
+ Most striking features of the graph.
Just after you finish writing your 'Introduction' (i.e. General Statement + General overview/ trend), you are expected to
start a new paragraph to describe the main features of the diagrams. This second paragraph is called the 'Body
Paragraph / Report Body". You can have one or two body paragraphs.

There are certain phrases you can use to start your body paragraph and following is a list of such phrases ---

1. As is presented in the diagram(s)/ graph(s)/ pie chart(s)/ table...

2. As (is) shown in the illustration...
3. As can be seen in the...
4. As the diagrams suggest...
5. According to the...
6. Categorically speaking...
7. Getting back to the details...
8. Now, turning to the details....
9. The table data clearly shows that...
10. The diagram reveals that...
11. The data suggest that...
12. The graph gives figure...
13. It is interesting to note that...
14. It is apparently seen that...
15. It is conspicuous that...
16. It is explicitly observed that...
17. It is obvious...
18. It is clear from the data...
19. It is worth noticing that...
20. It is crystal clear/ lucid that...
21. It can be clearly observed that...
22. It could be plainly viewed that...
23. It could be noticed that...
24. We can see that...

Vocabulary to show the changes:

Trends Verb form Noun Form

Increase rise / increase / go up / uplift / rocket(ed) / a rise / an increase / an upward trend

climb / upsurge / soar/ shot up/ improve/ / a growth / a leap / a jump / an
jump/ leap/ move upward/ skyrocket/ soar/ improvement/ a climb.
surge.

Decrease fall / decrease / decline / plummet / plunge / a fall / a decrease / a reduction / a

drop / reduce / collapse / deterioriate/ dip / downward trends /a downward
dive / go down / take a nosedive / slum / tendency / a decline/ a drop / a slide
slide / go into free-fall. / a collapse / a downfall.
 Steadiness unchanged / level out / remain constant / a steadiness/ a plateau / a stability/ a
remain steady / plateau / remain the same / static
remain stable / remain static

Gradual increase an upward trend / an upward

------------ tendency / a ceiling trend

Gradual decrease a downward trend / a downward

------------ tendency / a descending trend

Standability/ Flat level(ed) off / remain(ed) constant /

remain(ed) unchanged / remain(ed) stable / No change, a flat, a plateau.
prevail(ed) consistency / plateaued /
reach(ed) a plateau / stay(ed) uniform
/immutable / level(ed) out/ stabilize/
remain(ed) the same.

Examples:
1. The overall sale of the company increased by 20% at the end of the year.
2. The expenditure of the office remained constant for the last 6 months but the profit rose by almost 25%.
3. There was a 15% drop in the ratio of student enrollment in this University.
4. The population of the country remained almost the same as it was 2 years ago.
5. The population of these two cities increase significantly in the last two decades and it is expected that it will remain
stable during the next 5 years.
 Tips:
1. Use 'improve' / 'an improvement' to describe a situation like economic condition or employment status. To
denote numbers use other verbs/nouns like increase.
2. Do not use the same word/ phrase over and over again. In fact, you should not use a noun or verb form to describe
a trend/change more than twice; once is better!

3. To achieve a high band score you need to use a variety of vocabulary as well as sentence formations.

Vocabulary to represent changes in graphs:

Type of Change Adverb form Adjective form

Rapid change dramatically / rapidly / sharply / quickly / dramatic / rapid / sharp / quick / hurried /
hurriedly / speedily / swiftly / significantly/ speedy / swift / significant / considerable /
considerably / substantioally / noticably. substantial / noticable.

Moderate change moderately / gradually / progressively / moderate / gradual / progressive

sequentially. / sequential.

Steady change steadily/ ceaselessly. steady/ ceaseless.

Slight change slightly / slowly / mildly / tediously. slight / slow / mild / tedious.

1. The economic inflation of the country increased sharply by 20% in 2008.

2. There was a sharp drop in the industrial production in the year 2009.
3. The demand for new houses dramatically increased in 2002.
4. The population of the country dramatically increased in the last decade.
5. The price of the oil moderately increased in last quarter but as a consequence, the price of daily necessity rapidly
went up.

Vocabulary to represent frequent changes in graphs:

Type of Change Verb form Noun form

Rapid ups and wave / fluctuate / oscillate / waves / fluctuations /

downs vacillate / palpitate oscillations / vacillations
/ palpitations

Example:
1. The price of the goods fluctuated during the first three months in 2017.
2. The graph shows the oscillations of the price from 1998 to 2002.
3. The passenger number in this station oscillates throughout the day and in early morning and evening, it remains
busy.
4. The changes of car production in Japan shows a palpitation for the second quarter of the year.
5. The number of students in debate clubs fluctuated in different months of the year and rapid ups and downs could
be observed in the last three months of this year.
Tips:
1. 4. DO NOT try to present every single data presented in a graph. Rather pick 3-4 most significant and important
trends/ changes and show their comparisons and contrasts.
2. The question asks you to write a report and summarize the data presented in graphs(s). This is why you need to
show the comparisons, contrasts, show the highest and lowest points and most striking features in your
answer, not every piece of data presented in the diagram(s).

Types of Changes/ Differences and Vocabulary to present them:

Great change / Huge difference:

Adjectives Adverbs
Overwhelming Overwhelmingly
Substantial Substantially
Enormous Enormously

Big change / Big difference:

Adjectives Adverbs
Significant Significantly
Considerable Considerably

Medium change / Moderate difference:

Adjectives Adverbs
Somewhat Somewhat
Moderate Moderately

Minor change / Small difference:

Adjectives Adverbs
Fractional Fractionally
Marginal Marginally
Slight Slightly

Dates, Months & Years related vocabulary and grammar:

» From 1990 to 2000, Commencing from 1980, Between 1995 and 2005, After 2012.
» By 1995, In 1998, In February, Over the period, During the period, During 2011.
» In the first half of the year, For the first quarter, The last quarter of the year, During the first decade.
» In the 80s, In the 1980s, During the next 6 months, In the mid-70s, Next 10 years, Previous year, Next year,
Between 1980 - 1990.
» Within a time span of ten years, within five years.
» Next month, Next quarter, Next year, Previous month, Previous year.
» Since, Then, From.

Percentage, Portion and Numbers:

Percentages:
10% increase, 25 percent decrease, increased by 15%, dropped by 10 per cent, fall at 50%, reached to 75%, tripled,
doubled, one-fourth, three-quarters, half, double fold, treble, 5 times higher, 3 timers lower, declined to about 49%,
stood exactly at 43%.

Fractions:
4% = A tiny fraction / 24% = Almost a quarter. / 25% Exactly a quarter. / 26% = Roughly one quarter.
32% Nearly one-third, nearly a third. / 49% = Around a half, just under a half.
50% Exactly a half. / 51% = Just over a half. / 73% = Nearly three quarters.
77% = Approximately three quarter, more than three-quarter. / 79% = Well over three quarters.

Proportions:
2% = A tiny portion, a very small proportion. / 4% = An insignificant minority, an insignificant proportion.
16% = A small minority, a small portion. / 70% = A large proportion.
72% = A significant majority, A significant proportion.89% = A very large proportion.
89% = A very large proportion.

Words/ Phrases of Approximation - Vocabulary:

» Approximately / Nearly / Roughly / Almost / About / Around / More or less / Just over / Just under / Just around
» Just about / Just below / A little more than / A little less than.

Vocabulary - Using the appropriate "Prepositions":

» It started at..., The sale started at $20..., It peaked at...
»It reached at/to..., It reached the lowest point /nadir at...
»It increased to 80 from 58. It decreased from 10 to 3.
»There was a drop of six units. It dropped by 3 units.
»It declined by 15%. There was a 10% drop in the next three years.

Formal and Informal expressions and words:

Avoid informal expressions and go for the Formal ones, instead!

Informal Formal

Go up Increase

Go down Decrease

Look at Examine

Find about Discover

Point out Indicate

Need to Required

Get Obtain

Think about Consider

Seem Appear

Show demonstrate/
illustrate

Start Commence

Keep Retain

But However

So Therefore/
Thus

Also In addition/
Additionally

In the meantime In the interim

In the end Finally

Anyway Notwithstanding

Lots of/ a lot of Much, many

Kids Children

Cheap Inexpensive
 Right Correct

I think In my opinion

Following are the vocabularies for Academic IELTS Writing Task 1 grouped as Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and
Phrase to help you improve your vocabulary and understanding of the usages of these while describing a graph.

Noun:

Increase:
A growth: There was a growth in the earning of the people of the city at the end of the year.
An increase: Between the noon and evening, there was an increase in the temperature of the coast area and this
was probably because of the availability of the sunlight at that time.
A rise: A rise of the listener in the morning can be observed from the bar graph.
An improvement: The data presents that there was an improvement of the traffic condition between 11:00 am till
3:00 pm.
A progress: There was a progress in the law and order of the city during the end of the last year.

Rapid Increase:
A surge: From the presented information, it is clear that there was a surge in the number of voters in 1990 compared
to the data given for the previous years.
A rapid increase/ a rapid growth/ a rapid improvement: There was a rapid growth in the stock value of the
company ABC during the December of the last year.
N.B: Following adjectives can be used before the above nouns to show a rapid growth/ increase of something:
Rapid, Sudden, Steady, Noticeable, Mentionable, Tremendous, huge, enormous, massive, vast, gigantic,
monumental, incredible, fabulous, great etc.

Highest:
A/ The peak: The number of visitors reached the peak in 2008 and it exceeded 2 million.
Top/ highest/ maximum: The oil prices reached to the top/ highest in 1981 during the war.

Changes:
A fluctuation: There was a fluctuation of the passenger numbers who used the railway transportation during the year
2003 to 2004.
A variation: A variation on the shopping habit of teenagers can be observed from the data.
A disparately/ dissimilarity/ an inconsistency: The medicine tested among the rabbits shows an inconsistency of
the effect it had.
Steadiness:
Stability: The data from the line graph show a stability of the price in the retail market from January till June for the
given year.
A plateau: As is presented in the line graph, there was a plateau of the oil price from 1985 to 1990.
Decrease:
A fall: There was a fall in the price of the energy bulbs in 2010 which was less than $5.
A decline: A decline occurred after June and the production reached to 200/day for the next three months.
A decrease: After the initial four years, the company’s share price increased and there was a decrease in the loss it
was bearing.

Verbs Nouns
» Peaked (at) The peak/ the highest point

» Bottomed (at) The lowest point/ the bottom point

Use 'adjective/adverb' to indicate the movement of a trend.

Examples:
1. There has been a slight increase in the unemployment rate in 1979 at which point it stood at 12%.
2. The price of gold dropped rapidly for the next three years.

Use 'adjective' to modify the 'Noun' form of a trend and use 'adverb' to modify the 'verb' form of a trend.

Greater or Higher?

We usually use 'greater' when we compare two numbers, and 'higher' while comparing two percentages or ratio.
Reversely, 'smaller or fewer' could be used to compare two numbers and 'lower' to compare two percentages or
ratios. The following table would make it clear ---
Examples:

1. The number of male doctors in this city was greater than the number of female doctors.
2. The number of European programmers who attended the seminar was fewer than the number of Asian
programmers.
3. The percentage of male doctors in this city was higher than the percentage of female doctors.
4. During 2010, the inflow of illegal immigrants was lower than that of 2012.
5. the birth rate in Japan in 2014 was higher than the birth rate in 2015.

3. Vocabulary to write the Conclusion part:

To draw the conclusion: In conclusion / To conclude / On the whole.

To Summarize: In short / In brief / To sum up / In summary.
Generally,
Generally speaking,
All in all,
From the graphs, it is quite evident that.

Examples:
1. In conclusion, third world countries have improved their production sectors like garments, over the last 10 years
whereas the first world countries have improved their technology and research sectors during the same period.
2. In brief, the overall sale of the company has improved in the last 5 years except 2005 when the sale reduced
significantly due to retrenchment.

3. All in all, the process of building an IC is a complex one and involves more than eight steps to complete including
the testing phase.

4. It is quite evident that the women employment progressed remarkably in the last decade and in some employment
sectors women are well ahead of men.

5. To conclude, weather forecasting is a complex process and a great deal of technology is used to prepare and
broadcast the reliable weather forecasting.
The bar charts and line graph below show the results of a survey conducted over a
three-year period to discover what people who live in London think of the city.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where
relevant.
You should write at least 150 words.
What are the best things about living in London?

What are the worst things about living in London?

Are these things a major problem in London?

(% of people answering ‘yes’)
Sample Answer 1:
The graphs reveal data of a survey that shows how Londoners feel about living in London by expressing the greatest
and worst thing they face. The data also presents the ratio of these people who think litter, air quality and noise are
some primary concerns. Generally speaking, freedom of shopping, employment and multicultural environment are the
best things about London while costs, crime and mixture of races are the main hindrance of quality life in London,
according to the survey takers.

The bar graphs consider people’s opinion in three years regarding the paramount and poorest aspect of living in
London. As is presented, the highest percentages of Londoners, roughly 42-45 percent, think that the range of
shopping is the best thing they enjoy about London. Around 35% Londoners voted for job and cross-cultural citizens
as main advantages. Night life, places to visit and transport facilities were picked by approximately 20-25% people in
these years as the main attraction for dwelling in London.

Living and housing costs, traffic jam and crime were picked by a significant percentage of people as the vilest thing
about this city. Interestingly, while some people consider multicultural environment and transports as two main
benefits of living in London, more than one third possess an opposite view. Crime was a great problem in the first
year but over the time, fewer percentage of people showed their concern about it.

Finally, garbage problem was mentioned by the highest ratio of people, 70-75% as a great concern in London while
around 65% and 55% on an average considered air quality and noise to be a major problem for living in London.

Sample Answer 2:
The illustration expresses the opinion of Londoners across three years about the paramount and poorest aspects of
living in London. Overall, shopping, job, night life and places to visit were picked as the greatest things about living in
London while cost, traffic jam and crime were picked as the vilest thing there. Interestingly, cross-cultural people and
transport were voted both as good and bad aspects about this city.

The highest percentage of Londoners, over 40%, believe that shopping experience in London is the best thing about
living in this city. Around 35% of them picked employment facilities as the second most attractive aspects in London.
Activities like night life, visiting places were mentioned by one-quarter of them as advantageous. On the contrary, half
of them expressed their concerns about the cost of living. A similar presentence of the survey takers expressed traffic
congestion as a hindrance for their living. Crime was another worst thing about London according to these survey
participants.

Interestingly, cross-culture and transports were both mentioned as great and worst thing about life in London. Finally,
majority of the citizens expressed their apprehensions about litter, noise and air quality to be major issues.
HW 1.

The pie charts below show the online 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.

Online retail sales in New Zealand - 2003 and 2013

HW.2 The number of tourists visiting Malaysia and Dubai from 1995 to 2003 is
presented below.
Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown in the diagrams below.
Write at least 150 words.
Tourist Visit in Malaysia and Dubai (in ‘000)
HW 1. Model Answer 1:
The pie charts demonstrate four diverse sub-categories of online vendition for retail business in New Zealand both in
2003 and 2013. To analyze this diagram, we begin by taking a closer look at the data presented and it is obvious that
travel industries made the highest online sales in 2003 and the entertainment enterprises emerged as the e-
commerce leader in 2013 in New Zealand.

Taking the statistical data into account, we may infer that the largest part of sales went for travel category, 37%, in
2003 whereas a salient decrease, by 8%, in travel sales can be detected in 2013.

If we compare those two charts, it is easy to say that there was a considerable rise in online film/music sales (by
11%) during the period. Similarly, online book sales rose by 3% from the initial ratio of 19%. On the contrary, sales
share of travel and clothes dropped by 11% and 6% respectively. Most important difference between the online sales
in the given years was the film/music industry's sales. They accounted for one-third of online retail sales in 2013 while
a number of 2003's film/music sales was less than one-fourth of total online sales.

[Written by - Berk Gurel]

Sample Answer 2:
The pie charts compare online sales of clothes, books, travel services and films/music in New Zealand between 2003
and 2013. Generally speaking, online sales of books and movies/music increased in a decade while clothing and
travel related services witnessed a drop in sales in New Zealand.

As is given in the pie charts, online travel service’s sale ratio was the highest in 2003, precisely 37%. Clothing and
‘film & music’ each made a 22% of total sales and it was 3% higher than the online sale ratio of books.

After a decade, the sale ratio of clothes dipped by 6% while travel services witnessed a drop in online sales as well.
Precisely 29% of online retail sales were from travel industries. Reversely, online sales of books and films surged in
2013, reached to 22% and 33% respectively. It is worth noticing that, approximately one-thirst of all online retail sales
in 2013 was for film and music industries, though, its sale volume a decade ago was less than a quarter of total online
retail sales.

HW. 2 Sample Answer 1:

The line graph compares the number of travellers who visited Malaysia and Dubai from 1995 to 2003. Overall, more
tourists went to visit Malaysia from 1995 to 2000, but afterwards, Dubai got more visitors.

Getting back to the details, 100 thousand tourists visited Malaysia in 1995 and it was more than double than the
number of tourists in Dubai at the same time. Next year, visitors to Malaysia increases while declined in Dubai.
Afterwards, the number of tourists in Malaysia and Dubai rapidly increased and in 1998, 200 thousand people went to
Malaysia compared to over 150 thousand in Dubai. Interestingly, holidaymakers’ number to both these places
became identical and reached to over a quarter million in 2000. Next year, both countries witnessed a hike in their
tourists’ number which stood at around 325 thousand. A reverse trend during the next few years followed with more
tourists in Dubai than in Malaysia. In 2002 Dubai got more trippers and this trend continued in the next year when 0.4
million vacationers visited Dubai compared to less than 0.25 million in Malaysia.

Sample Answer 2:
The line graph compares the number of visitors in Malaysia and Dubai between 1995 and 2003. Both these countries
received more tourists in 2003 than they did in 1995 and Dubai’s share of travellers went higher than that of Malaysia
despite a reverse scenario in early years.

According to the illustration, the number of tourists who visited Malaysia in 1995 was 0.1 million, more than double
than that of Dubai. The visitors in Malaysia kept on increasing very swiftly till 2000 when it attracted more than a
quarter tourists. On the contrary, Dubai, despite a decline in 1996, managed to attract more vacationers and had
almost the same number of people visiting there in 2000 as it was in Malaysia. Next year, both of their tourists’
number went up but afterwards Dubai had been more successful in getting more visitors than Malaysia did. In 2003,
four hundred thousand people travelled to Dubai, an overwhelming rise than that of 1995, while Malaysia managed to
attract fewer than 250 thousand vacationers, which was roughly 2.5 times than that of 1995.