Ielts made easy step by step guide to writing a task 1 pdf

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

This page covers all the basic information you need to know about IELTS Academic Writing Task 1.

Once you have a good understanding of Task 1, I’ll show you step-by-step how to produce high scoring essays for each of the 7 types of questions. You’ll find all these important lessons by following the links to the related pages.

Key Information

1) You are required to write 150 words or more.

If you write less than 150 words, you are unlikely to get more than a Band 5 for ’task achievement’ as you won’t have fulfilled the marking criteria.

2) You have around 20 minutes to plan and write your essay.

3) You should use a formal style of writing.

4) Task 1 contributes half as many marks to your score as Task 2. So, Task 1 is worth 33% of the total mark in the Writing test.

Task Overview

You will be presented with one of the following graphics:

You are required to write a short report about the main features. For example, you may be asked to:

В· summarise data

В· describe the stages of a process

В· explain how something works

В· describe an object or event

The format of the question will always be the same. It will include:

В· A brief description of the graphic

В· The instructions

· The graphic – chart, graph, table, etc.

Here’s a typical question. The highlighted words are always the same no matter what type of question you get.

The line graph below shows the consumption of 3 different types of fast food in Britain from 1970 to 1990.

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

With the format of the question always the same, this means that you can use the same basic method and essay structure to write any essay for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1.

We’ll be looking at a model method and structure in the lesson on Planning an IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 Essay.

Assessment & Marking Criteria

As with all parts of the IELTS exam, Task 1 is marked according to four criteria.

Each carries 25% of the marks.

You can see a full table of all the band level marking criteria for Writing Task 1 by clicking this link – Task 1 Marking Criteria.

Here are the marking criteria for Task Achievement and Coherence and Cohesion. Don’t worry if the detail seems rather complex. Don’t feel overwhelmed. If you follow my advice in all the lessons on how to write essays for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, you’ll be able to meet these criteria and get a good score.

Marking Criteria – Task Achievement

Marking Criteria – Cohesion & Coherence

The 7 Types of Task 1 Questions

Now, we’re going to look briefly at the different type of questions for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 and a sample question for each.

The biggest challenge for many students is that they are not used to working with charts, graphs and tables and don’t know how to interpret this type of data. Don’t worry about this for now as I’m going to show you how to do this in the step-by-step guides.

On this page, I just want to familiarise you with the question structure and the different types of graphics you might get.

First, a reminder of the 7 question types:

Click the links for step-by-step instructions on how to write each type of essay, including a model answer.

1) Bar Chart

Bars charts or bar graphs are very common Task 1 questions. The data can be presented vertically, as in the example below, or horizontally.

The bar chart below shows numbers of seals, whales and dolphins recorded in the Gormez Straits from 2006 to 2018.

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

Write at least 150 words.

2) Line Graph

Line graphs are also common in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1. They are easier to interpret than they may look.

The graph below shows the population for India and China since the year 2000 and predicts population growth until 2050.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Source: Official website IELTS Essentials

3) Table

Tables also come up regularly in Task 1. Some students find these harder to interpret as they are just sets of numbers with no visual representation. However, they are never very complicated. Remember, the IELTS exam is designed to test your language skills, not your mathematics ability.

The tables below give information about the world population and distribution in 1950 and 2000, with an estimate of the situation in 2050.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Click this link for step-by-step instructions on how to answer this question including a model answer:

4) Pie Chart

Although pie charts are not as common as bar charts and line graphs, you need to know how to answer this type of question in case you do get one. They are just another way of visually presenting data.

The chart below shows the reasons why people travel to work by bicycle or by car.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Source: Official website IELTS Essentials

Click this link for step-by-step instructions on how to answer this question including a model answer:

5) Process Diagram

Another less frequent question type is the process diagram. It could be a natural process such as the water cycle, a manufacturing process or the diagram of a system such as the central heating system in a house.

The diagrams below show a structure that is used to generate electricity from wave power.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Generating Electricity From The Sea

Source: Official website IELTS Essentials

Click this link for step-by-step instructions on how to answer this question including a model answer:

6) Map

Occasionally, the IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 question will be about a map. It may ask you to compare two or three maps of a place over a period of time as in this question.

The diagrams below show the changes that have taken place at Queen Mary Hospital since its construction in 1960.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Source: Official website IELTS Essentials

7) Multiple Graphs

Multiple graph questions have more than one type of diagram and are fairly common. They usually include two diagrams such as a bar chart and a line graph or a pie chart and a table as in this sample question.

The diagrams below give information on transport and car use in Edmonton.

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

Write at least 150 words.

Source: Official website IELTS Essentials

Now that you have a better understanding of IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 and are familiar with the 7 different question types, you’re ready to learn how the write a Task I essay.

Just follow the links below to the individual lessons.

Want to watch and listen to this lesson on IELTS Academic Writing Task 1?

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 – All Lessons

IELTS Academic Writing – A summary of the test including important facts, test format & assessment.

Understanding Task 1 Questions – How to quickly and easily analyse and understand IELTS Writing Task 2 questions.

How To Plan a Task 1 Essay – Discover 3 reasons why you must plan, the 4 simple steps of essay planning and learn a simple 4 part essay structure.

Vocabulary for Task 1 Essays – Learn key vocabulary for a high-scoring essay. Word lists & a downloadable PDF.

The 7 Question Types:

Click the links below for a step-by-step lesson on each type of Task 1 question.

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Ready, Set…Write! How to Conquer the IELTS Writing Task 1 in 5 Easy Steps

The first part of the IELTS Writing test may seem super challenging.

Maybe you’re getting nervous just thinking about it!

After all, you only have 20 minutes to do everything: understand the task, plan and write.

However, if you know how to use your time wisely and well, you’ll be just fine.

You’ll even have a chance to proofread your writing at the end.

Just like with the speaking part of the test, it’s all about preparation.

In this post, we’ll look at five steps you can take to walk yourself through this part of the exam.

In the Writing Task 1, you’ll need to work with information presented in a graph, a bar or pie chart, a table, a diagram of stages, a sequence of events or a picture of an object showing how it works.

You’ll need to write at least 150 words.

Let’s get started!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The IELTS Writing Task 1: A Strategic 5-step Walkthrough

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1. Plan Fast and Well

You can’t afford to write a detailed plan, as you only have so much time. But guess what? If you study the diagram, table or chart you are given, you can actually use that as a plan!

For instance, in this example task on the IELTS website, you have a table that shows “the number of students living in the UK gaining English language teacher training qualifications in 2007/8 and 2008/9, and the proportion of male qualifiers.”

The table shows the number of male and female students for both years, along with the total number and the percentage of male students. It also shows how many students gained a TEFL qualification, and how many a UCLES CELTA or other degree.

You can’t write a paragraph for each row or column of this table. You would end up with at least six paragraphs, which is too much to write in 20 minutes. However, you can study the table a bit and think about how you could group information around two main paragraphs.

For example, you may want to focus on 2007/8 in the first paragraph and 2008/9 in the second paragraph. Then you could present the rest of the information as details in each of the paragraphs.

Since the task asks you to make comparisons where relevant, an even better approach would be to write one paragraph focusing on similarities between the two years and one on differences.

Alternatively, you could write the first paragraph on differences between the numbers of males and females in the two years and the second paragraph on differences between the qualifications obtained.

2. Write an Effective Introduction

Imagine that the reader doesn’t have the information summary (graph, chart, etc.) in front of them. This will help you keep the information you include relevant.

You could write a whole separate introductory paragraph, but make sure it’s not too long or you may not have time for the body of your writing.

You may also decide to join the introduction and the first paragraph, but only do this in Writing Task 1, the shorter of the two writing tasks.

Your introduction must have a topic sentence that maps out the rest of your writing, giving your reader a sense of direction. Here’s an example of a topic sentence you could use for the information given above:

The aim of this report is to summarize data on the qualifications obtained by English language teachers in 2007/2008 as opposed to 2008/2009 while also studying the differences in the numbers of male and female teachers in both years.

3. Express Each Main Idea in a Separate Paragraph

Each paragraph needs to have one main idea. The other ideas in the paragraph will be supporting ideas.

By writing a pretty general introduction, like in the example above, you can keep your options open about how to structure the body of the report.

For example, you may decide to go with similarities in the first paragraph and differences in the second paragraph:

In both 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 the total number of female students exceeds the number of male students by over 75%. Moreover, the TEFL certificate is the qualification preferred by both male and female students, with at least two-thirds choosing TEFL over Cambridge UCLES CELTA and other degrees.

There are also a number of differences between the two years. There is a 2% drop in the number of male students who qualified in 2008/2009 as opposed to 2007/2008, despite the total number of students being slightly higher in the second year. As for the certificates students chose to take, there is an increased preference for Cambridge UCLES CELTA and other degrees for female and male students combined in 2008/2009 as compared to the previous year.

Depending on how much time you have left and whether you managed to write at least 150 words, you may decide to write a separate concluding paragraph. You can also just use the last paragraph to serve as a conclusion.

It’s OK not to have a separate concluding paragraph, because in this part of the writing exam you are not summing up arguments or expressing personal opinions.

Keep in mind that the above example is just one way you could organize the information. Taking another look at the “model answer” provided on the IELTS page will let you compare two different ways you could write about this information.

4. Use Clear and Helpful Language

Expressing Percentages

One helpful way of presenting numbers is using percentages.

Have a look at some language for expressing percentages that you may want to include in your own writing:

Expressing Changes

You may want to use other words and phrases to express changes. Here are a couple of useful ways to build phrases about changes.

The number of female employees having formal qualifications…

…rose dramatically.

…increased suddenly.

…decreased sharply.

…dropped steeply.

…fluctuated slightly.

…fell steadily.

There was a dramatic rise in the number of female employees having formal qualifications.

Depending on the situation, you could also say, There was a…

…sudden increase

…sharp decrease

…steep drop

…slight fluctuation

…steady fall

Achieving a Formal Tone

It’s a good idea to try to achieve an impersonal, formal tone and avoid being too subjective and informal.

To do this, avoid using “I” as the subject of a sentence:

Personal, subjective: I can notice that…

Impersonal, objective: It can be noticed that…

Use the infinitive (“to…”) after phrases like “it is necessary” or “it is important”:

It is necessary to instruct all new recruits.

It is important to organize reports well.

Use the gerund form of a verb (the “-ing” form) after phrases like “…involves”:

This part of the training involves participants working in pairs.

5. Don’t Skip Proofreading

Proofreading can help you gain some extra points by minimizing the number of mistakes in your writing. However, remember that you don’t have the time to rewrite entire sentences. You can make small corrections only—keep this in mind as you write!

Set aside around five minutes for proofreading when you’re done writing. Your priority is to finish the writing task, though, so don’t sacrifice writing time for proofreading time.

A good rule is to never hand in your writing early. Use whatever time you have left for proofreading.

If possible, proofread once for grammar and vocabulary mistakes and then once again for spelling mistakes. You may not notice spelling mistakes if you focus on grammar and vocabulary and vice versa.

Remember that this is a language test, so the evaluators will focus a lot on your grammar, vocabulary and spelling, as well as on your ability to organize your writing.

At the end, there isn’t much you can do about organization, but you can correct some small grammar, spelling or vocabulary mistakes.

The IELTS Writing Task 1 may seem difficult at first, but once you practice writing effectively, along with planning and proofreading, you’ll know exactly what to do on the big day!

Maybe even more importantly, preparing for this part of the exam will help you learn to present statistics in a logical and coherent (clear and consistent) way.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

IELTS Academic Writing

– How To Plan a Task 1 Essay –

The first step to achieving a high score in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 is to know how to plan your essay. This is very important and in this lesson, I’m going to explain why and show you how.

The lesson includes:

Many students get a far lower score than they’re capable of achieving simply because they either don’t know how to plan their Task 1 essay or they think that planning takes up time that is better spent writing the essay.

Here are three key reasons why you should plan.

3 Reasons Why You Must Plan Your Essay

1) Planning saves you time

If you plan your essay before you start writing, you will already know what you’re going to say and won’t need to keep stopping to think about the next idea. This means that you will be able to write much faster than if you don’t have a plan.

You only need to spend 5 minutes on the planning stage. That leaves 15 minutes to write and check your essay.

2) Planning results in a more relevant answer

25% of your marks are for task achievement. This includes,

Planning before you start writing will ensure that you include everything that’s required in your IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 essay.

3) Planning results in a better structure

Another 25% of the marks are for coherence and cohesion. This includes,

You may have done a fantastic job of identifying the main features of the graphic, and found some great comparisons to write about, but you must also be able to form your ideas into a well-structured essay. Without a plan, this is difficult to achieve. Unless you have a good essay structure, you will not score highly for coherence and cohesion.

Spending a few minutes planning your essay will give you a basic outline to follow as you write. This will make your task a lot easier and lead to a far better essay, and a happy examiner.

The 5 Simple Steps of Task 1 Planning

There are 5 steps to writing a good essay for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1:

We’ll look at these in more detail below but first, I want to outline an easy to remember 4 part essay structure.

The 4 Part Essay Structure

You can use the same basic structure for all IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 questions. Ideally, your essay should have 4 paragraphs:

Paragraph 1 – Introduction

Paragraph 2 – Overview

Paragraph 3 – 1 st main feature

Paragraph 4 – 2 nd main feature

You are only required to write 150 words. You won’t score extra marks for writing a longer essay. It’s what you write that gains you marks.

With only 20 minutes allowed for the task, it’s important that you don’t try to include too many details. Having an essay structure to work with will help you with this. Aim for quality in your essay, not quantity – the right information written in a logical order.

We’re now ready to work through the 5 step planning process.

Planning a Task 1 IELTS Academic Writing Essay

# 1 Analyse the question

The format of every question in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 is the same.

Here’s a typical question. The highlighted words will always be the same no matter what type of question you get.

The chart below shows the number of men and women in further education in Britain in three periods and whether they were studying full-time or part-time.

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

Every question consists of:

To find out what you have to do, you need to look at the ‘instruction’ sentence.

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

There are 3 things to do:

1. Select the main features.

2. Write about the main features.

3. Compare the main features.

This is the same for every question and every type of graphic.

Many graphics contain a lot of information. You do not have to write about everything. Just pick out a couple of main features and you’ll have plenty to write about.

# 2 Identify the main features

In this lesson, I’m going to give you a quick overview of how to identify the main features of the graphics. I go into far more detail in the lessons on the individual question types where I work through sample questions step-by-step to create model answers.

I’ve created helpful checklists for identifying the main features of the different types of IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 questions. You’ll find them on this page: How To Understand & Analyse Task 1 Questions

The key features of a graphic will usually be the easiest things to spot.

For a bar chart with a timeline, known as a dynamic bar chart, such as in our sample question, look for general trends. The timeline will give you the biggest clues as to the most significant trends.

Alternatively, a bar chart may be static with the data coming from one point in time. For this type of graphic, you would need to compare whatever different variables are shown. In the in-depth lesson on bar chart essays, for example, you’ll see a graph showing the different leisure activities favoured by Canadian boys and girls.

There will be lots of information in the graphic to help you spot the main features. Here are some useful questions to ask for both bar charts and line graphs.

Two general trends in this graphic are:

Main feature 1: the overall number of students in full-time education increases.

Main feature 2: the number of women studying part-time increases steadily but for men, it fluctuates.

The general trends you select will be the starting point for your essay. You will then go on to add more detail.

Let’s look at how to do this. Here’s a reminder of the 4 part structure for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 essays:

Paragraph 1 – Introduction

Paragraph 2 – Overview

Paragraph 3 – 1 st main feature

Paragraph 4 – 2 nd main feature

This structure isn’t going be an exact fit for every possible essay but it’s an excellent outline to work from. Use it as a guideline and adapt it as necessary.

First, the introduction.

# 3 Write an introduction (Paragraph 1)

In the introduction, you should paraphrase the question, that is, say the same thing in a different way. You can do this by using synonyms and changing the sentence structure. For example:

The chart below shows the number of men and women in further education in Britain in three periods and whether they were studying full-time or part-time.

The bar graph illustrates how many male and female students were studying full-time and part-time in Britain during the years 1970/1, 1980/1 and 1990/1.

This is all you need to do for the introduction.

# 4 Write an overview (Paragraph 2)

In the second paragraph, you should report the main features you can see in the graph, giving only general information. The detail comes later in the essay. You should also make any clear comparisons you spot.

This is where you write about the general trends. Here are the ones we picked out above.

Main feature 1: the overall number of students in full-time education increases.

Main feature 2: the number of women studying part-time increases steadily but for men, it fluctuates.

Now form these ideas into two or three sentences with a total of around 40 words. State the information simply using synonyms where possible. No elaborate vocabulary or grammar structures are required, just the appropriate words and correct verb tenses. For example:

Overall, the number of students in full-time education increased over this time. With regard to part-time education, there was a steady increase in women choosing to study part-time but for men, the level fluctuated.

# 5 Write the details paragraphs (Paragraphs 3 & 4)

Paragraphs 3 and 4 are where you include more detailed information about the data in the graph. In paragraph 3, you should give evidence to support your first main idea.

In this instance, the data will be numbers of students in the respective time periods. In other graphics, it might be percentages, age, monetary value or some other unit of measurement.

Don’t forget to make comparisons when relevant.

Here’s our first main feature again:

Main feature 1: the overall number of students in full-time education increases.

This is an example of what you could write:

Between the academic periods 1970/1 and 1990/1, the figures for men studying full-time grew in steady increments, beginning at 100,000 in 1970/1 and rising to nearly 300,000 in 1990/1. For women, the numbers had also risen to around 300,000 by 1990/1 on an increasing trend. Notably, however, the figure for females in full-time education in 1970/1 was roughly half that of men, showing a greater take-up than men between 1970/1 and 1980/1.

For the fourth and final paragraph, you do the same thing for your second main feature. For example:

Main feature 2: the number of women studying part-time increases steadily but for men, it fluctuates.

A different pattern is shown for part-time education. The graph reveals a steady increase in women engaged in part-time study, rising from 750,000 in 1970/1 to 1,000,000 by 1990/1. For men, on the other hand, the figure fluctuated. From 1,000,000 in 1970/1, they had dropped by almost 200,000 by 1980/1 but recovered slightly in numbers by 1990/1. Over the whole time period, the trend between men and women in part-time education reversed, with male students being greater in number in 1970/1 and female students taking pole position by 1990/1.

Here are the four paragraphs brought together to create our finished essay for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1.

This sample essay is well over the minimum word limit so you can see that you don’t have space to include very much detail at all. That’s why it is essential to select just a couple of main features to write about.

We’ve covered a lot in this lesson. Please don’t feel overwhelmed. Once you start using what you’ve learnt to practice answering IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 questions, you’ll soon be able to plan your essay in 5 minutes.