WRITING TASK 1 TIPS AND SAMPLES

Nazia Ahmad

Teacher, Breeding Ground

1. Do not start writing before giving yourself enough time to think. First,
decide the language you will need in your answer. Give yourself 5 minutes
to look, think and plan.
2. Study the charts carefully: the titles for example to check if they deal with
the same or connected topics.
3. Check the time frames very carefully in the charts and plan how time
differences will affect your choice of verb tenses.
4. How many paragraphs do we need? – one paragraph is never enough. In
fact, we are encouraged to write in paragraphs. Decide on a simple
paragraph structure – there’s only 20 minutes for this. The best is the
traditional “introduction”, “body”, ‘summary’ structure with the main
“body” part perhaps divided into two paragraphs.
5. Naturally we need in the first-place language to describe proportions. Some
key words are:

• per cent (correctly spelled as two words)

• percentage
• proportion
• amount
• share
6. At the same time, we must be able to use language of comparison –
• most/least
• largest/smallest
• more/less
 • greater/smaller
7. Check the graph title, and the pie chart subtitles, look for dates!
– if the year is before the present year (i.e. 2018), use the past tense – if the
year is after the present year (i.e 2025), use the future tense – if there is no
year, use the present simple tense.
8. Check you don’t accidentally switch the tense halfway through. Sometimes
you will get charts and graphs that will require you to use more than one
tense but do this deliberately and with caution.
9. few examples of good wording for the largest section of your pie charts:

WRITTEN FORM PERCENTAGE FRACTION

A half 50% 1/2
A third 33% 1/3
Two thirds 66% 2/3
Three quarters 75% 3/4
A quarter 25% 1/4

10.If you cannot compare the information of your pie charts, don’t panic. In
such a case giving a summary of each picture is fine. Make comparisons
where relevant.
11.Avoid giving personal opinions at all costs. (E.g. If the graph shows rising
prices and you know it’s because of a war in Middle East, do not say
anything. Your personal opinion must not be mentioned.)
12.Always pay attention to the time frame of your pie charts and use the
appropriate tense (past, present or future).
13.Focus on getting all of the appropriate data from the pie charts/graphs into
your writing.
14.Now that you have the understanding of how to structure your description
of pie charts and graphs for IELTS writing task 1, let’s talk about the
language you should use. Here are a few examples of good wording for the
largest section of your pie charts:
a. It is clear that represents the largest portion of , whereas
is undoubtedly the smallest.
b. Sales stood at % in 1925, which is the majority .
 c. (If the percentage is around 60%) - Nearly a third…
d. (If the percentage is around 52%) - Over a half of all respondents…
e. Here are a few examples of good wording for the smallest section of
your pie chart:
A small fraction…
Exactly 30% of students…
(If the percentage is around 25%) Roughly a quarter of respondents
…whereas sales for were just 10%.
In 1955 approximately three quarters were , whereas in 1960 this
had fallen to just under a fifth.
15.IELTS bar chart vocabulary generally consists of up verbs, down verbs,
adjectives and adverbs of degree and steady adjectives. Take a look over
some of the example words.

16.
17.

18.

Approximation and Proportion

Common Preposition and example sentences

Prepositions for date and time changes
IELTS WRITING TASK 1

EXAMPLE PIE CHART

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task

The pie charts below show the percentage of electricity production by fuel source in France in
1990 and 2010

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

Write at least 150 words

Percentage of electricity
production by fuel source in
France in 1990 and W10

• Coal • Oil Natural Gas • Hydro power • Nuclear power

1990 2010

The pie charts illustrate the amount of electricity created from five different sources of
fuel (oil, coal, natural gas, hydropower, and nuclear power) in France in 1990 and 2010.

Overall, the use of nuclear power for generating electricity in France increased
considerably, whereas the use of natural gas declined sharply over the two decades. In
addition, oil, coal and hydropower all saw declines.

In 1990 nuclear power as a source of energy stood at 17% of electricity production in

France. Natural gas and coal both represented 28%. Oil was not far behind, accounting
for just over a fifth of energy production. However, hydropower indicated only a small
proportion of energy generated in 1990 and 2010.

Looking at the data for 2010, oil and coal both followed the same pattern and saw sharp
declines dropping to 13% as a source of fuel for electricity with natural gas also seeing
considerably less use at 4%. Most strikingly, nuclear power became the most relied on
form of energy, comprising 67% of total electricity production in 2010.
BAR EXAMPLE

Table Example
 The tab/o shows data about underground railway systems in six major cities with
date opened, kilometn1s of route and passengers numbers per year in millions.

Summarize the information by so/doing and reporting the main features, making
comparisons where relevant

Passengers per year

City Date opened Kilometers of route
{million)

London 1863 394 775

Paris 1900 199 1191

Tokyo 1927 155 1928

Washington DC 1976 126 144

Kyoto 1981 11 45

LosAngels 2001 28 50

What information stands out?

• The age of the networks: London being the oldest and LA the newest.
• Kilometres of route: London the longest, Kyoto the shortest.
• Passengers per year: Tokyo the highest, Kyoto the lowest.

These are key pieces of information that must be included in the body
paragraphs. You can also compare this information to the other cities
by using the language of comparison.

Grouping the information

I can see from the table that there are 3 cities with railway systems that are very old (London,
Paris, Tokyo) and 3 cities that have a newer system ( Washington DC, Kyoto, LA) so I will use those
groupings in my body paragraphs.

In body paragraph one I will write about the 3 older railway networks. In body paragraph 2 I will
write about the newer railway systems.

Always take time to analyze the chart or graph in task 1 and decide how you can group the
information. This is an important skill in IEl TS writing task 1 and will help you get a better
band score.
The table illustrates data regarding underground railways from six large cities in various
parts of the world showing the year opened, route length, and yearly passenger
numbers in millions.

London and Paris have the oldest underground train systems with far longer routes
compared to Los Angeles and Kyoto. Passenger numbers for Tokyo are the highest,
whereas Kyoto indicates the lowest number of yearly passengers and the shortest
route.

The London Underground, which opened in 1863, is the oldest network and is the
most extensive with 394 kilometers of track. As for Paris, the underground was
established in 1900, is approximately half the size, and serves more passengers. The
underground in Tokyo is the busiest of the three with 1928 million passengers
yearly and 155 kilometers in length.

Regarding the three newer systems, Washington DC was opened in 1976 and has the
longest route of the three. In contrast, Kyoto has the shortest route at 11 kilometers
and the lowest passenger numbers with 45 million passengers yearly. Following this,
Los Angeles was opened in 2001 with 28 kilometers of track and serves 50 million
passengers per year.

GRAPH EXAMPLE
The line graph compares the fast food consumption of teenagers in Australia
between 1975 and 2000, a period of 25 years. Overall, the consumption of fish
and chips declined over the period, whereas the amount of pizza and
hamburgers that were eaten increased.

In 1975, the most popular fast food with Australian teenagers was fish and
chips, being eaten 100 times a year. This was far higher than Pizza and
hamburgers, which were consumed approximately 5 times a year. However,
apart from a brief rise again from 1980 to 1985, the consumption of fish and
chips gradually declined over the 25 year timescale to finish at just under 40.

In sharp contrast to this, teenagers ate the other two fast foods at much higher
levels. Pizza consumption increased gradually until it overtook the consumption
of fish and chips in 1990. It then levelled off from 1995 to 2000. The biggest rise
was seen in hamburgers as the occasions they were eaten increased sharply
throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, exceeding that of fish and chips in 1985. It
finished at the same level that fish and chips began, with consumption at 100
times a year.