IELTS Prep/ IELTS Writing — Task 1 & Task 2/ Lesson 10
📖 Notes LESSON 10 OF 20

Task 1 — Describing Charts & Graphs

⏱️ 28 min
✍️ Writing

Reporting Data, Not Opinions

Task 1 is graded on whether you can identify and describe the two or three biggest trends in a chart — not on having an opinion about them. The overview sentence is worth more than people think.

Task 1 Basics

20 Minutes, 150 Words Minimum

20
Minutes recommended
150
Minimum word count
0
Opinions allowed — report only
2
Main trends the overview must name

The 4-Part Structure

1
Introduction (1 sentence)
Paraphrase the question — don't copy it word for word.
2
Overview (2 sentences) — the key part
Name the two biggest trends in the data. This is worth more marks than people expect, since it shows you can identify what matters without listing every number.
3
Body 1
First feature, with specific supporting data.
4
Body 2
Second feature, with specific supporting data.

Trend & Data Language

  • Rise: increase, grow, rise, climb, surge
  • Fall: decrease, decline, drop, plummet
  • Stay the same: remain stable, plateau, level off
  • Peak: reach a peak, hit a maximum
  • Fractions: 75% = three quarters, 25% = a quarter
  • Ranges: "from X to Y" / "between X and Y" / "roughly, approximately, around, nearly"
💡
The overview is the highest-leverage sentence
Examiners specifically check whether your overview correctly identifies the two or three most significant features — get that right and even an imperfect body section still scores well.

Full Model Answer — Band 7–8

Below is a complete Task 1 response to a typical line-graph prompt, followed by a breakdown of exactly why it scores well against each of the four criteria from Lesson 1.

Prompt: The graph below shows the percentage of households with internet access in the UK, Brazil and Nigeria between 2000 and 2020. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The line graph illustrates changes in the proportion of households with internet access across three countries — the UK, Brazil and Nigeria — over a twenty-year period from 2000 to 2020.

Overall, internet access rose substantially in all three countries, with the UK consistently maintaining the highest level throughout. Nigeria started from the lowest base but recorded the fastest rate of growth in the final decade.

In 2000, UK household internet access stood at around 30%, considerably higher than Brazil (5%) and Nigeria (under 1%). Access in the UK climbed steadily thereafter, reaching roughly 70% by 2010 and levelling off at approximately 95% by 2020, close to full coverage.

Brazil followed a similar but less pronounced upward trend, rising from 5% in 2000 to around 40% in 2010, before accelerating to nearly 75% by 2020. Nigeria showed the most dramatic change: growth remained minimal until 2010, at which point access had reached only about 10%, but it then surged to almost 50% by 2020 — overtaking the pace of growth seen in the other two countries, even though it remained the lowest of the three overall.

✅
Why this scores Band 7–8
Task Achievement: the overview names the two biggest features (UK highest throughout; Nigeria's late surge) before any numbers appear. Coherence & Cohesion: each body paragraph groups related data logically and uses linking language ("before accelerating", "even though") instead of listing numbers randomly. Lexical Resource: varied trend language (climbed, levelled off, surged, accelerating) avoids repeating "increased" five times. Grammatical Range: mixes simple and complex sentences, correct comparatives, and precise prepositions of time ("by 2020", "in the final decade"). It is also 197 words — comfortably over the 150-word minimum, with every sentence reporting data, never opinion.
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