In Academic Task 1 you are shown a graph, table, chart, map or process and given 20 minutes to write at least 150 words. You are not asked for an opinion or for reasons - only an accurate, well-organised report of what the visual shows. Task 1 is worth one-third of your Writing score, and the single biggest score-lifter is a clear overview, because Task Achievement explicitly rewards a writer who "clearly presents an overview of main trends, differences or stages". Get the overview right and you have already secured the hardest mark on the page.
The four-part method
- Introduction (1 sentence). Paraphrase the question. Change the wording, not the meaning.
- Overview (1-2 sentences). State the 2-3 biggest patterns - the highest and lowest points, the overall direction, the most striking difference. No specific numbers here.
- Body paragraph 1. Describe and support one logical group of data with figures.
- Body paragraph 2. Describe the second group, comparing where useful.
Group, don't list. A common band-5 answer crawls through every line in order ("In 2000 it was 20, in 2001 it was 22, in 2002…"). A band-7 answer selects and groups the significant data - the biggest, the smallest, the fastest-changing - and leaves the trivial detail out.
Worked example 1 - a line graph
The chart shows the percentage of households with internet access in three countries between 2000 and 2020.
Introduction (paraphrase):
The line graph illustrates how home internet access changed in Country A, B and C over a twenty-year period from 2000.
Overview (no numbers):
Overall, access rose substantially in all three countries, yet Country A consistently led throughout the period, whereas Country C, despite the fastest growth, remained the lowest.
Body sentence (grouped + supported):
In 2000, just 20% of households in Country A were connected, a figure that climbed steadily to reach roughly 90% by 2020. Country B followed a similar upward path, ending some 15 percentage points behind.
Notice the verbs of change - rose, climbed, reached - and the comparison language - consistently led, behind, the lowest. Why this scores: the overview alone earns Task Achievement (it captures the main trends without a single number); the grouping of A and B together shows Coherence & Cohesion; climbed steadily and upward path show Lexical Resource; and a figure that climbed (a relative clause) plus the accurate past tense show Grammatical Range & Accuracy.
Worked example 2 - a process or map
A process diagram or map needs a different toolkit. Here the overview reports the number of stages and the start/end points, not a trend.
The diagram shows how glass bottles are recycled.
Overview (no numbers, no opinion):
Overall, the recycling of glass is a linear process comprising six main stages, beginning with the collection of used bottles and ending with the sale of newly formed products.
Body sentence (passive + sequencers):
In the first stage, used bottles are collected from households and transported to a processing plant, where they are cleaned and sorted by colour. The sorted glass is then crushed and melted in a furnace before being moulded into new bottles.
Why this scores: processes reward the passive voice (are collected, are cleaned, is then crushed) because the agent is unimportant, and sequencing language (in the first stage, then, before being…) carries the Coherence mark. For a map, you would instead use change-over-time language (the woodland was replaced by housing, a new road was constructed to the north).
Tense, comparison and approximation language
- Past data → past tense (increased, fell). Projected/future data → is expected to / is projected to / will. A static table, map or process → present tense (or past passive for a "before/after" map).
- Describe size of change: a sharp/steady/gradual/slight rise · a marked/marginal difference · to rocket / to plummet (large) vs to edge up / to dip (small).
- Compare: X was twice as high as Y · roughly three times more than · the gap widened/narrowed · A outstripped B.
- Approximate, because precision is rarely the point: just under, approximately, in the region of, slightly more than.
Model collocations to bank: a steady upward trend · to reach a peak of · to level off at · to fluctuate around · followed by a sharp decline · accounted for the largest proportion.
Common mistakes
- No overview - the fastest way to cap Task Achievement at band 5, no matter how accurate the detail is.
- Listing every number instead of selecting the significant ones.
- Adding opinions or causes ("this is because people got richer"). Report only - speculation is penalised here.
- Copying the question wording - paraphrase to score Lexical Resource.
- Mixing up percentage and percentage points ("rose by 30%" vs "rose by 30 percentage points") - a precision error examiners notice.
Try it
Open a chart prompt at **/ielts/writing and write only your introduction plus a two-sentence overview with no numbers*. Read it back: could a person picture the graph from your overview alone? If yes, you have the hardest mark in the bag. Then add one body sentence that groups* two data sets and supports them with a figure each - and check your tense matches the time frame of the visual.
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