IELTS Writing Task 1: how to describe a chart in 20 minutes

In IELTS Writing Task 1 Academic you have about 20 minutes and at least 150 words to describe a visual: a line graph, a bar chart, a pie chart, a table, a map or a process diagram. Most candidates know the vocabulary of rising and falling. What costs them marks is structure, and in particular one paragraph that many reports leave out.

What IELTS Writing Task 1 is really testing

Task 1 is marked on the same four criteria as Task 2, with one name changed: Task Achievement instead of Task Response. Task Achievement asks whether you reported the most important features of the visual, accurately, with an overview. The public band descriptors are explicit about the overview. A clear overview of the main trends, differences or stages is part of the Band 7 description, while a report that recounts details mechanically with no clear overview is described at Band 5.

A four-paragraph plan

1. Introduction, one sentence. Say what the visual shows, in your own words. Change the wording of the question, not its meaning.
2. Overview, two sentences. The two or three things a reader should notice first: the biggest change, the highest and the lowest, the general direction. No figures are needed here.
3. First body paragraph. The first group of details, with figures and comparisons.
4. Second body paragraph. The second group of details, with figures and comparisons.

Four paragraphs of this shape usually come to 160 to 190 words, which is enough. A Task 1 report has no conclusion in the essay sense, and it never gives an opinion. If you prefer, the overview can come last, but it has to be there.

How to write the overview

An overview describes the whole picture without the details. Ask yourself two questions: what is the general trend, and what stands out?

The first sentence is true, but it is a detail. The second tells the reader what matters before a single number appears, and it is the sentence an examiner looks for.

Choosing and grouping the details

You cannot describe every figure in 150 words, and you are not supposed to. Group the data by what it has in common: the categories that rose and the ones that fell, the largest and the smallest, the period before a change and the period after it. Then give one or two figures for each group.

• Give figures with their units and dates: rose from 150,000 in 2014 to 305,000 in 2024.
• Compare, do not just list: more than twice as many, slightly lower than, the largest share.
• Use the tense of the data: the past for past years, and is expected to for projections.

Accuracy matters more than variety. A figure misread from the chart is a Task Achievement problem, however elegant the sentence around it.

The language of change and comparison

Mix verb and noun forms, such as visitor numbers rose sharply and there was a sharp rise in visitor numbers, but only where both sound natural. A sentence that strains for variety is harder to read than a plain one.

Five mistakes that keep Task 1 at Band 5

1. No overview, or a single vague sentence at the end that summarises nothing.
2. Every number described in the order it appears, with no grouping and no comparison.
3. Opinions and causes, such as this happened because people prefer museums. The chart does not say why, so neither should you.
4. The question copied word for word in the introduction. Words copied from the question are not counted, and they show nothing about your English.
5. Fewer than 150 words. A short report cannot cover enough of the visual to score well for Task Achievement.

Practise with a real chart

The fastest way to improve Task 1 is to write reports and have them marked. EngProgress's free IELTS writing checker includes Academic Task 1 questions with charts: write your report, and the grader checks the figures you used against the chart's data before it marks the four criteria. For a full task to practise each day, use the free IELTS Writing practice. When you move on to Task 2, read How to plan an IELTS Task 2 essay in five minutes.