IELTS academic writing task 1 guide in detail

1. Every report is read four times by an examiner
and each time, it will be marked on one of the
following criteria:
Task Achievement (TA)
Coherence and Cohesion (CC)
Lexical Resource (LR)
Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA)

3. • Single line graph/Double line graph
• Bar graph (Single, Double or Triple bar graph)
• Pie chart
• Table
• Process
• Picture/Map
Types of graphs for report

4. Line Graphs
In this graph we deal with variables which
increase ,decrease , fluctuate or stay constant
over a period of time.

5. A) Verbs and nouns for describing trends and
changes•Verbs and nouns show direction of change
•Adjective and adverbs show the degree of change
Trend Verbs Nouns
rise (rose-risen) [to/by]
increase [to/by]
 go (went-gone) up [to/by]
 climb [to/by]
grow (grew-grown) [to/by]
 boom
 surge
 soar
 rocket [to/by]
a rise [of]
 an increase [of]
 a growth [of]
 an upward trend
 a boom
 a surge

6. fall (fell-fallen) [to/by]
 decline [to/by]
 decrease [to/by]
 dip (dipped) [to/by]
 drop (dropped) [to/by]
 go (went-gone) down
[to/by]
 plummet [to/by]
 plunge [to/by]
 dive [to/by]
Deteriorate
 slump [to/by]
 a fall [of]
 a decline [of]
 a decrease
[of]
 a drop [of]
 a reduction
 a slump
 a plunge

7. do (did) not change
remain/stay +
stable/steady/static/unchanged [at]
maintain the same level
 no change
Position  stood at/was
 level (levelled) off [at]
plateau (plateau) [at]
 level (levelled) out [at]
 stabilize [at]
 peaked [at]
 reached
 a leveling off [at]
 a plateau [at]
 reached a
high/peak of
 reached a low of
Constant
Change fluctuated [around]
Be unpredictable
Be erratic
 a fluctuation

8. B) Adjectives and adverbs for degree of change:
Very
extensive
change
dramatic dramatically
huge n/a
enormous enormously
tremendous tremendously
Degree Adjective Adverb
Extensive
change
substantial substantially
considerable considerably
significant significantly
remarkable remarkably

9. Average
change
noticeable noticeably
marked markedly
moderate moderately
Degree Adjective Adverb
Small change slight slightly
small n/a
minimal minimally

10. C) Adjectives and adverbs for speed of change:
Quick change
rapid rapidly
quick quickly
sharp sharply
swift swiftly
steep steeply
Speed Adjective Adverb
Slow change
steady steadily
gradual gradually
slow slowly
Unexpected
change
sudden suddenly
unexpected unexpectedly
abrupt abruptly

11. Try to show good command of English grammar by using
both noun and verb forms
•London show a significant increase in the cost of homes.(Noun)
•The cost of homes in London increased significantly(Verb)
For future trends:
Predictions
Expectations
Anticipations show
Forecasts reveal [that] it will drop dramatically.
Estimates indicate
Evaluations
Calculations
It is
predicted
expected
anticipated
forecast
estimated
evaluated
calculated
that gold prices will drop dramatically
It isIt is

12. predicted
expected
anticipated
forecast
estimated
evaluated
calculated
Gold prices are
to drop dramatically

13. 1. First event:
At/In the beginning, At first,
In the first year,
In the first month,
In 1999,
In January,
In the first year, 1999, In the first year (1999),
2. Middle events:
…and…
…but…
However, Nevertheless,
Then, Next,
After this/that, Following this/that, Afterwards,
This is followed by + <n/n.p>
…following which…
…after which…
…which is followed by… + <n/n.p>
…until…after which…
…until…following which…
…until…when…
…before… + <sentence or n.p.>
during/over the next…years
…years later,
3. Final event:
Finally, Ultimately,

14. – For Trends:
relatively
rather
almost
– For Values:
Roughly
Almost
About
Approximately
Around Just
just below
just above
A little/slightly more than
A little/slightly less than

16. The line graph compares the percentage of people in three
countries who used the Internet between 1999 and 2009.
It is clear that the proportion of the population who used the
Internet increased in each country over the period shown.
At a glance much larger percentage of Canadians and
Americans had access to the Internet in comparison with
Mexicans, and Canada experienced the fastest growth in
Internet usage.
In 1999, the proportion of people using the Internet in the USA
was about 20%. The figures for Canada and Mexico were lower,
at about 10% and 5% respectively. In 2005, Internet usage in both
the USA and Canada rose to around 70% of the population, while
the figure for Mexico reached just over 25%.
By 2009, the percentage of Internet users was highest in Canada.
Almost 100% of Canadians used the Internet, compared to about
80% of Americans and only 40% of Mexicans

17. Comparison Bar
Charts

18. •More + noun +than : More males than female chose the
t.v
•Adjectives+-er+ than: The price of an apartment was lower
in 1946 than 1999.
•Fewer +noun+than: Fewer females than males chose tv.
•More/ less+ adjectives+ than: The tv was more popular
among males than females.
•The most/least +adjective : The most popular form of
communication was the internet.
•The + adjective +- est: The fastest means of
communication is emailing.
•As many….as: As many males as females chose the
computer.
•Not as many….as :Not as many males as females chose
the radio.

19. Adverbs in comparison:
•Slightly more…than..
•Considerably more….
•Many more
•Substantially more
•Significantly more
•Far more
•Much more
•Nearly as many …as

20. Figure Alternative Expressions
0 Non off / … Failed to Register Anything
5% Only a minority / a small proportion a twentieth
10% A tenth / only one in ten
20% A Fifth / less than a Quarter
25% A Quarter / one in four
30% Slightly more than a quarter / nearly a third of
40% Two Fifth of / somewhat less than a half
50% Half
60% Almost Two third / More than half
70% Nearly three quarters
75% Three Quarters / A clear majority
80% Four Fifths / A very Sizeable majority
95% The vast majority
1 – 5 A few – only a few
10 A small number
101 – 105 Just over a hundred

21. How would you define majority, few & Many in percentages.
Majority normally means more than Fifty Percentage
Few and many are normally used with numbers rather than percentages ; a small
percentage of people could still refer to a large number of people.
Adjactive Usage Example
Hefty / Massive Use for Big Numbers A hefty 90 % of.
Modest Use for Percentage 15 – 40
%
A modest 20% of.
Mere / Tiny Use for Small numbers A mere 10% of.
Over Whelming Use with the word majority An overwhelming Majority of.
Small Use with the word minority A small minority of.

22. Using ‘double’ ‘treble’ ‘-fold’ & times :
Doubled
Eg : - The number of un employed people doubled between 2005 & 2009
Twice as …as/compared to’
Eg : - There were twice as many unemployed people in 2009 as in 2005
Twice as many people were unemployed in 2009 compared to 2005.
Two Fold
Eg : - The number of unemployed people increased two fold between 2005 & 2009
There was two fold increase in the number of unemployed people between
2005 & 2009
Four times
Eg : - The figure in 1998 was four times the 1996 figure