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Academic Writing Task 1 (Lesson 3 - Bar Chart ) (2)

This document provides a guide on how to effectively tackle bar chart questions in the IELTS Writing Task 1 to achieve a high score. It outlines a structured approach consisting of an introduction, general overview, and specific details, using a sample question about divorce rates in Sweden and Finland from 2011 to 2015. The guide emphasizes the importance of paraphrasing, identifying trends, and providing specific data in a clear and organized manner.

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Ziprey Lising
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2 views

Academic Writing Task 1 (Lesson 3 - Bar Chart ) (2)

This document provides a guide on how to effectively tackle bar chart questions in the IELTS Writing Task 1 to achieve a high score. It outlines a structured approach consisting of an introduction, general overview, and specific details, using a sample question about divorce rates in Sweden and Finland from 2011 to 2015. The guide emphasizes the importance of paraphrasing, identifying trends, and providing specific data in a clear and organized manner.

Uploaded by

Ziprey Lising
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Writing Task 1: Bar chart

In this lesson we’re going to learn how to tackle bar charts in IELTS Writing
task 1 questions to get the highest score. To get a band 9 in IELTS Writing
task 1, you should follow this answer structure:

1. Introduction
2. General overview
3. Specific features

Let’s look in detail how to apply this structure to an IELTS bar chart question.

IELTS bar chart Question:

The bar chart shows the divorce rates in two European countries from 2011 to 2015.

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

And now let's learn how to answer IELTS bar chart questions.
IELTS bar chart answering strategy:

1. Introduction

You should start your answer by writing an introduction. The introduction


is 1 or 2 sentences, where you paraphrase the information from your question.
You should mention two things in your introduction:

 what your graph shows (divorce rates in Sweden and Finland)


 for what period of time (2011-2015)

In our example, the introduction can look like this:

“The bar chart shows the divorce rates in two European countries from 2011 to 2015.”

The bar chart provides information about the percentages of divorces in


Finland and Sweden between 2011 and 2015.

See how I used synonyms to paraphrase the question:

shows → provides information about


divorce rates → percentages of divorces
two European countries → Finland and Sweden (it’s good to be more
specific)
from 2011 to 2015 → between 2011 and 2015.

2. General Overview

The second paragraph of your answer is a general overview, where you


briefly describe major trends/ranking on your graph. Ideally, you should describe
2-4 key features.

To make major trends easier to notice, you can outline Sweden’s bars and
Finland’s bars like this:
Now it’s obvious that:

 Sweden experienced a downward trend


 Finland experienced an upward trend
 both countries showed fluctuations
 Initially Finland had a lower rate, but in 2015 Finland outraced Sweden

Use word overall to start your general overview. In our case, the overview may
look as follows:

Overall, Sweden experienced a downward trend, while Finland showed an


upward trend throughout the period. Both countries’ divorce rates had some
fluctuations. Although Finland initially had a lower rate, it outraced Sweden at
the end of the period.

3. Specific details

After we’ve written the introduction and general overview, it’s time to
give the specific details. You should describe the specific features in 2 or 3
(sometimes more) paragraphs.

You can group data in such way:


 Details about Sweden
 Details about Finland

When you have two countries (or two cities or any other two things depicted on
the graph), the simplest way of grouping data - is to describe each country’s
trend in a separate paragraph.

When giving specific features, you have to write exact


numbers/percentages and include as much details as you can.

In our case, the specific details may look as follows:

Sweden’s divorce rate was about 45% in 2011, being higher than Finland’s
rate by approximately 8%. Then, it rose to almost fifty percent in 2012.
However, the figure showed a gradual decrease to about 47% in 2013, and
continued to decline steadily to the end of the period, reaching around 45%
in 2014 and hitting a low-point of about 37% in 2015.

Percentage of divorces in Finland was less than 40% in 2011, and it


decreased in 2012, when about one third of marriages in Finland ended with
a divorce (as opposed to almost a half in Sweden). However, the figure
experienced a steady growth during the next two years. It rose to
approximately 39% in 2013, then increased by around 3% in 2014, and
remained steady for the next year, outracing the rate of Sweden.

Tips:

 When analyzing a bar-chart, we cannot always give exact details (due to


inaccuracies of the chart), so use
words around, about and approximately, was just below/above
when giving inexact data.
 Give data for each year shown on the chart

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