Writing Task 1: Describing Graphs Without Panic

Here we mean IELTS Academic Task 1: you are asked not for an essay but for a report. Your job resembles a journalist's: describe neutrally what is in the graph, what the main trends are and what the significant figures are. Expressions like “I think”, “in my opinion”, “this is a good trend” are mistakes in this task, because Task 1 measures an objective description of the data, not commentary.

The task usually looks like this:

The graph below shows the number of visitors to three museums in a city between 2010 and 2020. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

Here there are three commands: select the main features, report them and make comparisons. The word “Summarise” means don't write every number — choose the biggest changes, the highest and lowest points. You must write at least 150 words. About 20 minutes — a third of the total Writing time — is recommended for Task 1; it is not a separate official timer. Leave time to complete and check both tasks.

An important part is the overview — the general picture. Look at the whole graph and answer “what is the main story?” briefly; one or two sentences are a possible practice choice, not an official count. The Task Achievement descriptors refer to a relevant overview attempt at Band 6 and a clear overview at Band 7. Omitting an overview is an important weakness; the full response’s other features and the other assessment criteria also matter.

To find the overview, ask three questions:

1. General direction: are the values rising, falling, fluctuating or staying roughly stable?
2. The most noticeable difference: which category is clearly the biggest or changing the fastest?
3. Crossing or closing of a gap: do the lines cross somewhere?

Example: “Overall, visitor numbers rose at the science and history museums, with the science museum growing by far the fastest and overtaking the art gallery after 2015, while the art gallery changed little.”

For this exercise you can put the overview in a second paragraph after the introduction: the reader sees the main picture early, and you can use it to plan the body. This is not a compulsory location or sentence count. For a time-series graph, summarise the main trends across the period shown rather than describing only the last year. An overview can state the main picture without figures.