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Bar charts – an interactive lesson

► IELTS Vocabulary
► IELTS Writing
► IELTS Listening Test
This is a complete IELTS writing task 1 lesson. You will find here a quiz on the exam, a sample task 1
question, an interactive quiz guiding you through a possible approach to this part of the paper and then an
online timed exercise and finally a sample answer.

Think and plan

The concept here is to get you doing and most importantly thinking. For me, this is the most academic part
of the whole IELTS exam: indeed, perhaps the one truly academic part of the exam. If I have one major tip
here it is to think (and plan) as much as you can before you start writing. If you do that, the writing part
tends to be easier – with practice!

The aim of the lesson

This lesson has a very particular focus. It is to get you organising and selecting the right information. This
is a personal comment, but I really do believe that the major difficulty in this part of the paper is one of
organisation: in contrast to the essay, all the information is given to you and most of the language is quite
predictable. What is left is the task of putting that information and language together: the task of
organisation.

Now the interesting bit

Below you’ll find an IELTS task 1 writing task. There is a relatively easy set of questions to help you
approach the question. It is in effect a mini lesson. Please note that the information in the chart is made up!
You’ll find my solution posted as a comment. I suggest you do the exercise and then check my answer out.

A suggested approach
In short my suggested approach is:
1. Find the main ideas: look for the obvious points. Often these are missed because they look too simple.
An example of a main idea is that the trend is upwards. Each main idea is the topic of a separate
paragraph (just like an essay really).
2. Find the key supporting details: looking for the extremes is a good place to start- these details are the
support for your main ideas

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Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

Model answer
You will find my model answer attached as a comment. Note that you may have to expand the quiz (bottom
right hand corner) to view it properly.

The Task

IELTS task 1 writing – selecting the right in… »

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bar chart, interactive exercises, task 1

IELTS speaking tips Recommended Website – UEfAP

22 Responses to Bar charts – an interactive lesson

2 of 12 24-Nov-14 11:21 AM
Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

A sample answer

This chart shows the relative popularity of broadband and dial up internet access in 10
countries from Europe, Asia and North America. It is evident that broadband tends to be more
common than dial up. In Japan approximately four times as many houses have broadband
(40%) rather than dial up (10%). A similar pattern can be seen in the USA, Malaysia and Italy.
In contrast, in France and Germany broadband is only 3-4% more popular, while in Australia
they are equally used at 20 %. The major exceptions are the United Kingdom and India where
more houses have dial up access.

The other major point to note is that in the USA over 65% of households have internet access,
while in India only 20% do. In Australia, most of the European countries and Japan just over
half of the people have internet at home. Only about 40% of Italians, however, can use the
internet at home. The country with the lowest figure is India at less than 20%. (168 words)

Notes

There are clearly more ways of organising this report. Another possibility would be to write one
main paragraph about broadband and another about dial up.

The main point to note about this task is the organisation of the answer, Each paragraph
focusses on one main point. This point is then developed and explained with supporting
details.

tiff January 19, 2010 at 1:39 pm # REPLY

Mr Dominic,
Today I happen to find out about this excellent site of yours and I want to thank you for all the
lessons and tips you wrote for practising for the ielts exam. I am very bad at grammar, and am
not confident with my writing skills. I will be taking the exam in Feb and am now educating
myself.
I wrote the report for this bar chart, but I have no one to correct it for me. I would be grateful if
you could correct it for me, and perhaps mark the band score as well? Thank you very much
again for your wonderful classes.
My answer is attached below.

This graph shows the comparition proportion between houses using broadband and dial up to
connect to the internet in nine different countries in 2009. It is obvious that the USA has the
most percentage at 50 percent for broadband while only approximately 20 percent of people
used dial up. Japan and Malaysia have the same pattern where broadband users take up
significantly high rates than that of the dial up users. However, in France, Germany and Italy,
only a slight difference is noted in the users of broadband and dial up respectively. In contrast,
the UK and India have people using dial up more than that of broadband for surfing the
internet. There is an exception in the whole chart where Australians share the same proportion
at about 22 percent for both dial up and broadband. Overall, this chart shows the figures for
each way for surfing the net varies on geographical bases.

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Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

Hello Dominic. Thanks for your amazing blog.

Just a quick note about your answer: the number of countries being displayed in the
chart is actually 9 (cf. paragraph 1, line 1 of your answer).

Dominic Cole November 14, 2010 at 5:08 pm # REPLY

Whoops. Thank you.

will July 14, 2010 at 2:24 am # REPLY

The graph shows the differences of broadband and dial – up internet users in 9
different countries globally.
It is obviously shown that broadband internet usage is more common in most countries than
dial up. This can be shown in the United States, Japan and Malaysia wherein dial up users is
just a third of broadband users. The proportion of broadband users is in between the range of
5% to 50%. The United States easily spearheads’ the list with 50% of the people uses
broadband followed by Japan with nearly 45%. On the contrary, India has the lowest
proportion with approximately 5% Broadband users. While for France, Germany, Italy,
Australia and Malaysia have almost the same in value close to the average of 28%.
Dial up usage being less popular, ne exception to the rule is in the UK wherein Dial up users is
greater than broadband with just under 45%, against broadband users with 20%. In addition
to this it also leads the list for dial up users in contrary with Malaysia and Japan with the
lowest proportion of 5%. For India, Italy and the USA have a share of around 15%, but for
France and Germany it is just close to the average of dial up users which is 25%.
Furthermore another peculiar proportion in the chart is in Australia where broadband and dial
up users is equal.
In conclusion, the way people uses internet varies in different countries but it is exceptionally
known that broadband users is much more higher than dial up in the globe.

– Hi hopefully you can check and comment on this=)

ieltscandidate December 4, 2010 at 9:36 pm # REPLY

HelIo Dominic,
I wrote my answer in “quiz” yesterday, but I had a lot of mistakes. I ‘ve tried to correct them, so
here is my second version ( probably there are also mistakes). Could you check it and
comment? Also, I have a question about the definite article before “internet” . Which is correct
:

“internet”
or
“the Internet” ?

I wrote somewhere with article, and somewhere without..

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Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

We can see that approximately three times more people access internet through broadband
connection than through dial-up connection in the United States, in Japan and in Malaysia. In
contrast, in India and in the United Kingdom the percentage of dial-up connection usage is
almost double. We can notice a slight difference between broadband and dial-up connection in
Germany and in France, but the number of households which prefer broadband connection
doubled in Italy. Australia is an exception where the same proportion of households access
internet through both ways of connection.
The rate of internet usage differs among countries. The smallest fraction of usage is in India,
with under 10%. In most of the European countries around one third of the population has
internet in their households. Australia and Italy have about the same proportion of internet
usage,but significantly different from them are the United States, Japan and Malaysia, where
the large majority of the population uses internet from their home.
In conclusion, it can be seen the the Internet usage through broadband connection is more
common in all countries than the usage through dial-up connection.

Dominic Cole December 5, 2010 at 4:08 pm # REPLY

Definitely “the” internet – that’s one of the most common mistakes there is. I should
do another post on articles soon. The one language problem I see (looking at this v quickly) is
articles. “internet usage” “a large majority”. Other than that, your language is commendably
correct. Don’t worry about this being your second version. That’s how you learn. Don’t worry
too much about timing until just before the exam.

One significant problem here is that you don’t specify enough detail. Anyone reading this
would want to know the facts and figures. Where are the figures?

Otherwise it’s nicely organised and you are certainly using the right range of language.

ieltscandidate December 5, 2010 at 11:00 pm # REPLY

Thank you for your comment.

Oh, that articles. I learned them theoretically, although I need time to gain the feeling of
accurate application.
Lastly, I realized that I missed the particular details. I was scared that the report will be boring
with too many numbers so I reduced the usage of them. Unfortunately, I overdid it.
I am going to practice the articles !

Best regards,
Gabriella

Aiping December 28, 2010 at 10:26 am # REPLY

hey Dominic,
Could you post some materials on Writing for General Training?

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Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

Thanks

Aiping

Dominic Cole December 29, 2010 at 11:30 pm # REPLY

Expect something in the next couple of days. I have completely ignored general
training until – and that’s wrong!

tripat August 18, 2011 at 4:48 pm # REPLY

plz give me some new tips to write task 1 and task 2

]

mohammed January 10, 2011 at 3:04 pm # REPLY

The graph shows the differences of broadband and dial – up internet users in 9
different countries globally.
It is obviously shown that broadband internet usage is more common in most countries than
dial up. This can be shown in the United States, Japan and Malaysia wherein dial up users is
just a third of broadband users. The proportion of broadband users is in between the range of
5% to 50%. The United States easily spearheads’ the list with 50% of the people uses
broadband followed by Japan with nearly 45%. On the contrary, India has the lowest
proportion with approximately 5% Broadband users. While for France, Germany, Italy,
Australia and Malaysia have almost the same in value close to the average of 28%.
Dial up usage being less popular, ne exception to the rule is in the UK wherein Dial up users is
greater than broadband with just under 45%, against broadband users with 20%. In addition
to this it also leads the list for dial up users in contrary with Malaysia and Japan with the
lowest proportion of 5%. For India, Italy and the USA have a share of around 15%, but for
France and Germany it is just close to the average of dial up users which is 25%.
Furthermore another peculiar proportion in the chart is in Australia where broadband and dial
up users is equal.
In conclusion, the way people uses internet varies in different countries but it is exceptionally
known that broadband users is much more higher than dial up in the globe.

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Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

neelima July 17, 2011 at 9:11 pm # REPLY

thanks for the good example.

I need your help for small difficulties. I want to know, for writing task 1, when the past tens
and present tense is used.
I understood it in this way
I am planning to write exam in 2011, so if the chart presents data of 2011, one should answer in
present tense, if it is from 2010 or 2009 one should answer in past tense. is it wright?

Dominic Cole July 17, 2011 at 9:46 pm # REPLY

That’s about right. Though it is unlikely that you will get data for 2011. You are
more likely to need to use the present when there is no date at all on the data – as in a pie
chart. The key is to read the question itself. I did a post on this a week or so ago.

tenses in part 1
http://www.dcielts.com/task-1-2/tenses-academic-task1/

If it isn’t clear. let me know and I shall revise it.

tripat August 18, 2011 at 4:50 pm # REPLY

i agree with u neelima

Joseph September 29, 2011 at 12:44 pm # REPLY

Dominic,

Do you have an active link to the bar chart for the exercise on broadband and dial-up in nine
countries.

Keep up the great work.

Many thanks.

Joseph

Shab October 7, 2011 at 11:48 am # REPLY

Is there any other way to say “four times as many houses” and convey the exact
meaning?
I have problem with this phrase. I’ve read “describing numbers” but I still cannot use it
correctly! Any advice?

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Bar charts – an interactive lesson | http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/task-1-interactive-lesson/

Dominic Cole December 6, 2011 at 5:15 am # REPLY

The only other way I can think of is to turn the numbers around and use “one
quarter”.

Elena November 7, 2011 at 4:26 am # REPLY

Great stuff, Freelancer. Huge 10x.

Elena

Jennifer June 6, 2012 at 5:20 pm # REPLY

Sorry I come from hong kong

I want to ask is it appropriate to provide reasons to justify the results?
I am confused with this as I will have the exam in this month

heartfelt thanks to your useful sites it will be of great use of value especially for those who
cannot afford to attend tutorial classes like me

Superb site!!!!!!!!!!!^_^^_^

Anonymous July 9, 2013 at 7:32 am # REPLY

thank you so much for this great website. Keep up with your fantastic work.

Anonymous September 4, 2014 at 1:33 pm # REPLY

hello sir…your site is great.do you offer essay checking ?

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