How to Write About a Table (Task 1 Writing)

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful wooden table. It was round and made of the finest mahogany, and it stood proudly in the home of a wealthy business man…”

WAIT! Not that kind of table!

This kind of table:

This chart gives information about the proportion of people from various age groups and family statuses who are currently living in poverty in SomeCity, along with a figure giving the exact number of families in destitution.

Like many other Task 1 Essays, your first goal should be to make a general statement about the information. In this case, we have a clear general statement. What do you think it should be?

In this case, we can make a very general statement such as:

From the table, we can see that the percentage of people living in poverty varies significantly between different family and income groups.

The next step should be to find the most notable features. In a table, this is generally fairly easy, because we can always look for the smallest and largest numbers.

In this case, which two categories have the lowest percentages of people living in poverty?

It's clear that elderly couples, couples with no children, and single aged people experienced the lowest rates of poverty.

What do these categories have in common?

Generally, couples and individuals who are not responsible for children are least likely to live in destitution.

After stating the general trend, give an example to illustrate your point:

The percentage of elderly couples living in poverty was just 4% or 48,000 individuals.

Which two categories have the largest percentages of people living in poverty?

Single people, either with or without children, are more likely to be poverty-stricken.

Give another example to illustrate your point:

The highest rate of poverty can be found in the single parent group, with around 21% of families or 232,000 individuals.

Now we're almost finished!

Important Hints for This Topic

• Always use the present tense, unless you are given a specific date in the past.
• Do not give opinions or include background reasons!
• Use only information you are given.
• Make sure to state a general trend, then give an example.

Here is an ideal sample essay for the topic above:

This table gives information about the proportion of people living in poverty in SomeCity and categorises the information based on type of household. It also provides precise figures as to the number of families in each group. We can see that the total percentage of households living in poverty is about 11%, which represents nearly 2 million individual households overall.

Generally, couples tend to have much lower rates of poverty than single people, either with or without children. Older couples are the least likely to suffer from poverty with a proportion amount of just 4%. Couples with no children are also unlikely to live in destitution, with a poverty rate of just 7% or 211,000 households. Although couples with children have a higher rate of poverty than those without them, they still have the relatively low proportion of 12%. This accounts for a notable number of individual households, however, accounting for 933,000 families.

Expressed as a percentage of households by category, single parents are more likely to experience poverty in SomeCity, with a proportion of 12% or more than 200,000 families. The percentage of childless singles with financial strife is also quite high, accounting for 19% of that group.
In sum, even while there are a significant number of couples with children living in poverty, the group with the highest percentage of households in poverty consists of single-parent families.

The Two-Part Chart (Task 1 Writing)

In a previous post, we learned the basics of writing about bar charts. 

We learned that we must:

• write an introduction telling what the chart is
• make a general statement about the information that we see
• look for the most notable features and give examples
• make a conclusion which restates the introduction

It seems easy, right?

Well, unfortunately bar charts can be more complicated when we are comparing two or more things, or comparing the changes over time.

It's even more complicated when we are given an essay assignment like this one:

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

These charts give information about future sales of blue jeans in Turkey. The bar chart shows the estimated sales of jeans for two companies next year in Turkey. The pie chart shows the projected market share of the two companies in jeans at the end of next year.

Write a short report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below.

Write at least 150 words.

Now what??

There are two charts and we must write about both of them at the same time. But don't worry - we can use the same method that we used for writing about one bar chart, as long as we remember this simple tip for writing about more than one chart:

Write about the charts together. 

Do not separate them!

Students have a bad habit of writing about the charts separately rather than together. This will reduce your score. The charts have been shown together because they have a relationship to each other. You must try to understand this relationship and explain it. 

With this in mind, let's see what kind of general statements we can make about the charts.

Remember that your introduction sentence can be more or less taken from the task assignment at the top of the page. We want to begin very generally, giving information that includes both of the charts. 

Here is a good introduction:

These charts give information about the future jeans sales of two different companies in Turkey. The bar chart shows projected sales for each month of next year, while the pie chart illustrates the percentage of market share that will be held by each company.

Please note: we have included information about both charts equally. Now we must see if there's anything that we can say that is true for both charts. Start looking for notable features!

Look at both charts. Generally speaking, which company is projected to sell more jeans next year? Write a sentence summarizing the biggest trend:

From the chart, we can easily observe that Jack & Jones Co. is going to have higher average sales and a larger portion of market share in the coming year. This should be our first statement after the introduction.

From both charts, it's clear that the Jack & Jones jeans company will exceed Mango Co. in both profits and market share in the upcoming year.

Now that we have shown the relationship between the charts, the rest is smooth sailing! Simply follow the model that we used for a single bar chart. Make sure to mention some notable features on each chart:

• Mention a Notable Feature
• Give A Detail to Support Notable Feature
• Mention Another Notable Feature
• Give Another Detail to Support Notable Feature

When we return to the conclusion, it's important that we write about both charts together again. Don't write about just one!

A good conclusion can restate the information from the beginning in a new way. Like so:

Generally speaking, we can conclude that Jack & Jones Co. is projected to be more successful next year in Turkey, both in terms of market share and raw profits.

Writing About Bar Charts (Task 1 Writing)

Oh, no! It’s the dreaded Task 1 essay! On the IELTS Academic exam, the Task 1 writing assignment will require you to write about a chart or graph. You must write 150 words as quickly as possible.

The Task 1 essay can be scary because we are not always sure where to begin. Usually, we are presented with something like this:

You have 20 minutes to complete this task.

The bar chart below gives information about the average weight of men in kilograms in several different countries. Write a report summarising all the relevant information and give specific examples to illustrate your points.

You should write 150 words for this task.

Actually, this example is a little more simple than most Task 1 Charts, but let’s start with an easy one!

So, where should we start???

Well, the best place to start is looking at the text of the question and noting the most important points.

We know that this chart is telling us

“the average weight of men in kilograms in several different countries”

So we know that our main goal is to COMPARE and CONTRAST the weights of men in different countries.

Remember that you should ALWAYS write an introduction sentence that gives general information about the chart. Luckily for us, we can steal the introduction sentence from the text above the chart. It is absolutely OK to copy the sentence with only slight changes. Therefore, our first sentence should be:

This bar chart gives information about the average weight of men in kilograms in several different countries.

Good, that was easy! Next, we need to make a GENERAL STATEMENT about all the information that we see. Is there anything that we can say about ALL the countries on the chart? It’s tricky when all the countries are different, but we can say something like this:

We can see from the graph that the average weight for men in each of the countries listed ranged between 74 kilograms and 88 kilograms. Within this range, however, there is some notable variation.

So ALL the men in ALL the countries had an average weight between 74 kilograms and 88 kilograms. Fantastic! Now we can pick out the notable features.

Whenever you are presented with a chart of any kind, you should always look for notable features. These are the largest and smallest numbers represented. In this case, which country has the highest weight and which country has the lowest?

It’s easy to see that the U.S. has the highest average weight for men, while Brazil has the lowest average weight for men.  Let’s make a statement about that.

The USA has the highest average weight for males.

That’s good, but we always need to support our notable points with details. So here’s a better sentence:

The USA has the highest average weight for males, with a figure of approximately 88 kilograms per man.

Let’s also mention Brazil!

On the other hand, Brazil shows the lowest figure, with an average weight of about 74 kilograms for men.

Those are two notable points. Another notable point is that most countries on the chart are close to 81 kilograms. The most common weight on the chart is 82 kilograms.

Most countries averages hover around 81 kilograms, with Australia, Canada, and Germany all falling within this range. Australia and Canada show the same average weight of 82 kilograms each.

Great! We’re almost done. Is there anything else that we can notice about the chart? Is there any way to divide these countries into categories? Australia, The USA and Canada are all English-speaking countries. So, it’s possible to say:

Generally speaking, English-speaking countries tend to have higher weight averages than countries that do not speak English.

OK, I think that we covered all the most important information. Maybe I should say…

I think perhaps English-speaking countries have higher weight averages than other countries because of unhealthy diets.

NO!!!

Do not give opinions or make assumptions when writing Task 1! Do not use personal pronouns such as "I" "You" or "We." You should absolutely stick only to the FACTS and write about the information that you can see on the chart. Make a conclusion which expresses your introduction again, but using slightly different words.

In conclusion, although the average weight of men in the countries shown measured from 74 kilograms to 88 kilograms, we can observe some significant fluctuation within that range.

All Task 1 essays should follow this pattern:

• Introduction
• General Statement About the Whole Chart
• Mention a Notable Feature
• Give A Detail to Support Notable Feature
• Mention Another Notable Feature
• Give Another Detail to Support Notable Feature
• Conclusion

Your final essay should look something like this:

This bar chart gives information about the average weight of men in kilograms in several different countries. We can see from the graph that the average weight for men in each of the countries listed ranged between 74 kilograms and 88 kilograms. Within this range, however, there is some notable variation. The USA has the highest average weight for males, with a figure of approximately 88 kilograms per man. This is significantly higher than other countries. On the other hand, Brazil shows the lowest figure, with an average weight of about 74 kilograms for men. Most countries averages hover around 81 kilograms, with Australia, Canada, and Germany all falling within this range. Australia and Canada show the same average weight of 82 kilograms each. Generally speaking, English-speaking countries tend to have higher weight averages than countries that do not speak English. In conclusion, although the average weight of men in the countries shown measured from 74 kilograms to 88 kilograms, we can observe some significant fluctuation within that range.

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