IELTS Writing Task 1: Line Graphs, Bar Charts and Tables

In IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 you describe a graph, chart or table in at least 150 words. It is only a third of the Writing marks, so aim to finish in 20 minutes and keep the rest for Task 2. Line graphs, bar charts and tables are the most common formats, and the same method works for all three.

A four paragraph structure

1. Introduction: paraphrase the title in one sentence. Change the verb and the nouns: "The graph shows the number of..." becomes "The line graph illustrates how many..."
2. Overview: two or three sentences on the main features. For a line graph, the overall trend. For a bar chart or table, the highest and lowest groups. Use no numbers here.
3. Detail paragraph 1: the first group of data, with figures.
4. Detail paragraph 2: the second group, compared with the first.

Examiners mark Task Achievement, so a missing overview is the single most costly mistake. A clear overview can lift your score by a full band by itself.

Choose your data, do not list it

A table may contain 30 numbers. You are not expected to mention them all. Group the data: the highest and lowest, the biggest change, and anything that crosses over or stays level. If two items follow the same pattern, describe them together.

Language for change and comparison

• Going up: rose, increased, climbed, grew, went up. With size: slightly, steadily, sharply, dramatically.
• Going down: fell, declined, dropped, decreased, dipped.
• Staying level: remained stable, stayed at, levelled off, fluctuated around.
• Peaks: reached a peak of, peaked at, hit a low of, bottomed out at.
• Comparing: higher than, almost double, roughly half, the most popular, the least common, whereas, while.

Tenses and units

Use the past simple for past dates ("In 2010, sales rose to..."), the present simple for data without dates, and "will" or "is expected to" for forecasts. Always say what the numbers measure: percent, thousands, millions, tonnes, hours per week. Missing units reads as careless.

A worked example

Task: a line graph shows the percentage of people in a city who travelled to work by car, bus and bicycle from 2000 to 2020. In 2000: car 60%, bus 30%, bicycle 10%. In 2020: car 45%, bus 25%, bicycle 30%. Car use fell steadily, bus use declined slightly, and bicycle use rose.

"The line graph illustrates how the proportion of commuters in one city used three types of transport between 2000 and 2020.

Overall, the car remained the most popular way to get to work throughout the period, although its share declined, while cycling became far more common and bus use changed very little.

In 2000, 60% of people drove to work, compared with 30% who took the bus and only 10% who cycled. Over the next two decades, car use fell steadily and reached 45% in 2020, whereas the share of bus passengers dropped slightly to 25%.

The most striking change was in cycling. The percentage of cyclists tripled, from 10% to 30%, so that by 2020 cycling had overtaken the bus as the second most common choice."

That is about 125 words for a graph with only six numbers, so a real task with more data will run past 150. Notice that the overview has no figures and the detail paragraphs group the data by trend, not by year.

Common mistakes

• Giving an opinion or a reason for the trend. Task 1 reports data only.
• Writing no overview, or hiding it in the conclusion.
• Copying the wording of the question word for word.
• Mixing up "the number of" and "the proportion of".
• Listing every number in order.

Practise

Take a Writing practice test, set a 20-minute timer for Task 1 only, and check yours against the model structure above. For other Task 1 formats, read our guides to Task 1 overviews and process diagrams.