--- title: "Writing Task 1: Notes from IELTS Podcast" category: metodo --- # Writing Task 1: Notes from IELTS Podcast > **Source:** Adapted from publicly available content on (Ben Worthington). This is an original, condensed summary — not a copy of their site. Task 1 rewards a narrow set of skills done consistently: paraphrase the prompt, place a real overview, group data instead of listing it, and match your tense to the dates on the chart. Everything below is built around those four things. --- ## The paraphrase sentence (your opening line) Your first sentence is a rewritten version of the question, not a copy of it. The rules: - Never copy the whole question — the examiner doesn't count those words as yours. - Don't change *every* word either. Some technical terms (percentage, decade) can't be replaced without sounding forced. - Swap what you safely can: nouns for synonyms, "shows" for "illustrates," passive for active. A working substitution list: | Original | Paraphrase | |:---|:---| | chart / graph | bar chart / line graph (name the specific type) | | shows | illustrates, depicts, compares | | diagram | figure | | information | data | | the number of | the figure for | | proportion | percentage, share, segment | | people in the UK | British people / Britons | | from 2005 to 2015 | between 2005 and 2015 / over a ten-year period | | how to produce X | the process of producing X | ## The overview — the single biggest score jump The line between a Band 6 and a Band 7 on Task 1 is almost always the overview: 2–3 sentences stating the *big picture* trends with no numbers in them. It goes in its own paragraph, right after your paraphrase — not buried at the end. Recommended paragraph order: 1. Paraphrased question (1 sentence) 2. Overview — big trends, no data 3–4. Supporting detail, grouped by theme, with the actual figures Writing the overview *before* the details also helps you: you already know what point each detail paragraph needs to prove. ## Tense: three rules, no exceptions 1. Look at the dates in the title or axes. - Year before the current year → **past tense** - Year after the current year → **future tense** - No date given → **present simple** 2. If the chart spans both past and future years, you can legitimately switch tense mid-answer — but do it deliberately, not by accident. A chart running 1990–2040 needs past tense for the historical part and future (sometimes future perfect: "coal *will have* reached...") for the projected part. 3. Once you pick a tense for a section, don't drift out of it without a reason. ## Grouping beats listing The single biggest structural mistake is describing every data point in the order it appears. Instead, sort your information into two groups before writing — by trend, by category, or by time period — and give each group its own paragraph. A pie chart on "holiday destinations 1955–2005" isn't six random facts; it's "the group that grew" and "the group that shrank." When turning a bare graph label into a sentence, always convert it into a proper noun phrase: > Label: *Owns a Smartphone (72%)* > Sentence: *The proportion of respondents who owned a smartphone (72%) was more than double the proportion who did not (28%).* ## Superlatives and possessives Superlatives double as comparisons for free ("the largest," "the smallest," "the most expensive") — use them liberally. One grammar trap: drop "the" when a possessive is already doing that job. > *China's most productive year was 2010* — not *China's the most productive year*. ## Chart-by-chart notes **Bar charts.** Assume ~10–12 sentences total, and assign each one a job rather than writing freely: one introduction, two using superlatives, one comparison, one grouping two similar data points, one flagging an exception to the general trend, one complex sentence, one simple sentence, and two for the overview/summary. Practical checklist: - Don't mix formats (decimals and rough estimates) in one sentence. - Check for a date — it may force past tense. - Swap "big" for something sharper: "the most significant." - Compare the highest and lowest rather than every gap. **Pie charts.** Use a four-paragraph model: paraphrase → group 1 → group 2 → 2-sentence overview. Know your proportion vocabulary (per cent, proportion, share, amount) separately from your comparison vocabulary (most/least, larger/smaller). Written fractions are worth knowing cold: a half (50%), a third (33%), two thirds (66%), three quarters (75%), a quarter (25%). When two pie charts share a time frame but different topics (e.g., EU food imports vs. exports in 2018), you need proportion + comparison language. When two pie charts share a topic but different years, you additionally need trend/change language. **Maps.** Organize your description spatially and consistently — walk through a floor plan the way you'd walk into the room, or move right-to-left across a town map, but don't jump around. Use compass points (north-east, south-west), spatial prepositions (alongside, between, opposite), and the passive voice for planned changes, since nobody knows *who* is planning them: *"A new car park will be built beside the sports centre."* A fronted clause is a cheap way to add grammatical range: *"Next to the library, a small café has been added."* **Flow charts / processes.** The structure is: 2-sentence intro (what the process is + one comment on its nature) → sequential body → 1–2 sentence conclusion (often where the overview goes instead). Two grammar habits define a strong process answer: passive voice ("the clay is extracted...") and present simple, because you're describing a system, not a specific event. Sequencing vocabulary carries the whole thing: *first, then, after that, finally* for linear steps; *while, concurrently, at the same time* for simultaneous steps; *either...or, alternatively* for branching choices. Ask yourself before writing: how many steps, is it linear or cyclical, and are there any places where two things happen at once? **Describing percentages without repeating "%" ten times.** Four ways to vary this: (1) compare sections directly — *"nearly three times what they spend on entertainment"*; (2) swap in fractions — *"a third of monthly income"*; (3) reach for less obvious vocabulary — *proportion, figure, one in five*; (4) group multiple categories together — *"just over half is spent on rent, utilities, and groceries combined."* ## Marking criteria, in plain terms Task 1 is scored on four equally weighted criteria (25% each): Task Achievement, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy. A few things that specifically separate the bands: - **Band 6 → 7 hinge:** presenting a clear overview. Without it, you're capped. - **Band 9 Task Achievement test:** could someone redraw your diagram accurately from your writing alone? If yes, you've reported the right level of detail. - **Band 9 Coherence:** should feel almost invisible — connected ideas without a string of "firstly, secondly, thirdly." - **Band 9 Lexical Resource:** not just knowing "fluctuates" and "gradual decrease," but knowing natural synonyms and correct word-form shifts. - **Band 9 Grammar:** cleft sentences, relative clauses, and concession clauses used inside 150 words — but only after your basic tenses, passive voice, and prepositions are already error-free. Advanced grammar doesn't offset basic mistakes. Minimum word count is 150; there's no upper limit, but you only have 20 minutes, so aim for quality over length and leave time to proofread.