Lesson 6: Report Writing 1 Describing Data: Ielts Writing - A Comprehensive Guide Official Version
Lesson 6: Report Writing 1 Describing Data: Ielts Writing - A Comprehensive Guide Official Version
Lesson 6: Report Writing 1 Describing Data: Ielts Writing - A Comprehensive Guide Official Version
The graph below gives information about the viewing figures of Channel One News.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant.
Source: essayforum.com 1
You can see that there are several requirements for this task. You have to:
- SUMMARIZE the information
- Select and the report the MAIN FEATURES
- Make COMPARISONS
- Write AT LEAST 150 words
These are all important requirements, as they make up part of the assessment criteria, which include:
- Task Achievement (TA): how well you answer the question.
- Coherence and Cohesion (CC): how well is your text structured.
- Lexical Resource (LR): how good is your vocabulary.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA): how good is your grammar.
Below are examples of visual information that may appear in IELTS Writing Task 1:
Line charts: Bar charts:
Maps: Process:
For this module, we will first focus on the first three types: Line charts, Bar charts and Pie charts.
Which sentence is correct? It’s the first one. The second sentence makes an error when not distinguishing
between categories and their figure.
- Categories: the subject or groups of subject and entity that are compared
- Figures: the data that can be quantified or can be written in the form of number.
In the chart above, School A, School B and School C are three categories that are being compared.
Their Number of students is the figure.
3/ Writing units
Units are an essential part of Report writing, as they indicate how the figure is measured. If the units are
incorrectly added, the information may become inaccurate.
- Sometimes, the chart/graph may include the unit in the form of “HUNDREDS OF, THOUSANDS OF,
MILLIONS OF”. However, when you write in the report, you must get rid of the “s of” part.
e.g. Wrong Correct
200 millions of dollars => 200 million dollars
3 thousands of hours => 3 thousand hours
- In some cases, you will not find the units mentioned in the chart. This is because the question
expects you to deduce the unit yourself.
e.g. The graph shows the number of coffee cups consumed by people in Britain in a year.
=> The unit is CUPS
The graph shows the number of car accidents in Someland.
=> The unit is ACCIDENTS/CASES/INCIDENTS
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D/ IMPORTANT LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURES FOR REPORT WRITING
These structures are mostly used to DESCRIBE data, rather than INTERPRETE them. In other words, these
are “safe” choices when you need to write up reports.
1-5: These words can be used in almost all cases when describing increasing trends.
6-8: These words are used when describing a SIGNIFICANT increase.
11-12: These words can only be used when describing increases AFTER a falling period.
Decrease
Verb Past form Past participle form Noun
1 Fall Fell Fallen A fall
2 Decrease Decreased Decreased A decrease
3 Decline Declined Declined A decline
4 Drop Dropped Dropped A drop
5 Reduce Reduced Reduced A reduction
6 Halve Halved Halved
7 Dive Dived Dived A nosedive
8 Plummet Plummeted Plummeted A plummet
9 Plunge Plunge Plunge A plunge
10 Deteriorate Deteriorated Deteriorated A deterioration 5
11 Dip Dipped Dipped A dip
1-5: These words can be used in almost all cases when describing decreasing trends.
7-9: These words are used when describing a SIGNIFICANT decrease.
10: This word is used to describe a gradual and slow decrease over time.
11: This word is used to describe a quick and minor decrease compared to the rest of the period
Fluctuation:
Verb Past form Past participle form Noun
1 Fluctuate Fluctuated Fluctuated A fluctuated
2 Oscillate Oscillated Oscillated Oscillation
3 Behave erratically Behaved erratically Behaved erratically Erratic behaviors
4 Change constantly Changed constantly Changed constantly Constant changes
- from… to: the first and last point of the change mentioned
e.g. The figures rose from 25 to 30.
The figure decreased to only 15.
Examples:
- The number of fiction books is as high as that of non-fiction ones in 2010.
Figure Category 1 Comparison Category 2
- The population of China is larger than that of Vietnam by at least 10 times.
- The percentage of people aged 14-20 was the highest among the age groups in Britain.
Structure 2:
Category 1 + have/possess/own… + Comparison structure + Figure + Category 2 (if any) + Time/Place
Examples:
- Vietnam produced a greater amount of coffee than the US in the year 2000.
Category 1 Comparison + Figure Category 2
- China possessed the same amount of rice as Thailand in 1992.
- Laos had the highest elephant population in both years.
Structure 3:
Comparison structure + Figure + belong to/can be seen in + Category + Time/Place 8
Examples:
- In 2010, Vietnam produced 20000 tons of rice. The same amount of rice can be seen in Thailand.
Comparison + Figure Category
- The highest figure belonged to China.
- With + Data: Simply used to add data into any structure. This phrase can be at the beginning or at
the end of the comparison structure.
Examples:
Laos had the highest elephant population in both years, with 4000 in 1990 and 5000 in 2010.
With 35000 books, Burnie Public Library has the greatest number of books.
2/ Language of distribution:
a/ Sentence structures for distribution and proportion:
Structure 1:
Category + account for + Data (+ of the chart)
Structure 2:
Data (+ of the chart) + be + accounted for + by + Category
Examples:
- The figure of football made up 30% of the chart
- Asia constituted 60% of the world’s population.
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- 30% of the total was made up by football.
Notes:
- While the two structures above are used exclusively for Pie charts, we can also use comparison
structures to describe the data.
- We can replace “ACCOUNT FOR” with some expressions:
Represent Make up Constitute
- We can replace “OF THE CHART” with some expressions:
Of the total In the total Of the whole
Please note that these are not fully developed reports, so they should not be used as templates for report
writing.
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Source: ielts-exam.net
Source: essayforum.com
- The production of rice in China was the greatest with nearly 200 million tons.
- The second place in terms of rice production belonged to India.*
- The other nations saw a much smaller figure than the top two countries.
- The USA possessed the smallest figure with only more than 8 million tons.
Chart 3: The pie chart gives information on UAE government spending in 2000.
Defence, 22
11
Other expenditures,
23
Social Security, 100
Debt interest, 23
Housing, Heritage
and Environment, 15
- The UAE government spent AED 100 billion on social security, which accounted for almost one third
of the total budget.
- Health and personal social services was the second most invested sector in this year, as it made up
around 20% of the chart, equivalent with AED 53 billion.
- 15 billion of the budget was the expenditure for housing and environment, which represented a
minor proportion among the categories.
LESSON SUMMARY
1/ For Task 1 of the IELTS Academic test, you will have to write a report describing the visual information
given. You may be asked to describe:
- Charts and graphs: Line charts, Bar charts, Pie charts
- Tables of data
- Maps and Diagrams
You will be assessed on four criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resources, and
Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
2/ When working with data, you need to:
- Distinguish between Categories and Figures
- Choose the correct Quantity words for the categories
- Use the correct Unit for the data.
3/ There are three groups of language that you will need to write a report:
- Language of change: used when data for two or more years are presented
- Language of comparison: used for most charts and graphs
- Language of proportion: used mostly for pie charts
PRACTICE
Exercise 1: Complete the following descriptions using a Noun phrase or Verb phrase of change:
Number of books
30
25
20
15
10
5
12
0
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Number of books
1. Starting at 20, from 1990 to 1992, the number of books showed a __________________________.
2. Between 1992 and 1994, the figure ____________ ____________.
3. There was a _____________________ in the number of books in the next two years.
4. The period from 1996 to 2000 witnessed a ____________________ in the book figure.
5. In the year 2002, the quantity of books __________ __________ to a figure of 25.
6. For the rest of the period, there was a __________ ________________ in the recorded data.
100000
80000
Axis Title
20000
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
For Robbie’s Bakery, income started (1)______ £55,000 in 2003 and remained stable (2)_____ this figure
until 2005. At this point, there was a sharp rise (3)______ £70,000. Between 2007 and 2008, the figure went
up (4)______ around £30,000, (5)_____ £70,000 (6)______ nearly £100,000. Finally, income grew gradually,
and peaked (7)_____ £105,000 in 2010.
Concerning Lovely Loaves, earnings fluctuated (8)_____ £80,000 and £90,000 in the first five years, and
then there was a sharp fall (9)_____ £40,000 in 2008. Finally, the figure leveled off (10)______ £40,000
and finished at the same figure.
Exercise 3: For each of the following charts, write TWO sentences that make comparisons:
Chart 1:
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Chart 3:
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HOMEWORK
Assignment 1: Transform the following sentences using various structures learned in this lesson:
1/ Sales of DVD in the UK rose sharply between 2001 and 2004.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
2/ Chocolate production in Colombia saw a significant fall.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
3/ There was a steady growth in average incomes in Europe between 1998 and 2004.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
4/ The year 2000 saw a slight increase in the number of students enrolling in London College.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
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5/ Indonesia has the greatest production of rice among the countries mentioned.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
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6/ Newspapers take the third place among the list of popular means of media.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
7/ Denmark recorded the same figure for mobile phones and landlines in the year 2010.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
8/ Walking was the most preferred activities, as it made up around 30% of the chart. 15
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
9/ Roads accounted for the greatest proportion of the chart with 30% of the total.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
10/ Pizza constitutes 24% of the restaurant’s revenue.
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………….
The chart below shows male and female fitness membership between 1970 and 2000.
Fitness membership
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Women Men
Intro: The given chart reveals the number of members of two genders at the gym in the period from
1970 to 2000.
Overview: In general, while both genders witnessed different trends in membership, the figure for men
tended to be higher than that of women.
Analysis:
Females: 1/ What was the figure for women in 1970? What happened to the figure in 1975?
2/ After a minimal dip, what happened to the figure in 1985?
3/ What was the trend from 1985 to 1995?
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4/ What happened at the end of the period?
Males: 1/ Compare the starting figure of men with that of women.
2/ What happened in 1975? What was the trend in the next 10 years?
3/ Compare the figure of men with that of women in 1985.
4/ What happened to the figure between 1985 and 1995?
5/ What was special about 2000? What was the figure?