IELTS Writing Task One Tips

IELTS Writing Task One is more important than many people think. Essentially it is testing your ability to describe and understand information that you will be shown in a chart, diagram, table or graph.

You will need to paint a word picture of the trends, compare and contrast data, and sometimes give a description of a process.

Remember you do not need to describe every small part of the graph. You need to look at it overall, and give the general overview. Also usually you are going to be using the past tense, but check the dates on the graph in order to be sure. 

Finally remember it is an overview, you are not interpreting it, and in task one your opinion why is not needed. 

To describe the trends shown in a graph, you need to learn some specific vocabulary, just like those shown below.

1) Verbs to use with an upward trend

Climbed 

Went up

Grew 

Increased 

Rose 

Jumped – To suddenly increase a lot

Rocketed – A much faster increase.

“The number of Wechat users has rocketed.”

“Production rose steadily throughout the decade.”

2) Verbs to describe a downward trend

Declined

Decreased

Dropped

Fell

Went down

Plummeted – To suddenly decrease a lot

Plunged – To decrease quickly

“In 2015 profits decreased.”

“The number of Pokemon Go users has plummeted in the last year.”

3) When the trend is more or less stable

Maintained

Remained

Stayed

Constant

Stable

Steady

Unchanged 

“Throughout the period, the number remained the same.”

“The number was steady throughout.”

4) Adverbs for describing trends

These usually come after the verb, and describe how something happens.

ŸSharply

ŸRapidly

ŸQuickly

ŸSteeply

When the increase or decrease is very fast

ŸConsiderably

ŸSignificantly

ŸSubstantially

The increase or decrease is big, but not as fast.

Steadily

Gradually

Substantially

The increase or decrease is slow and not as much.

Slightly

Slowly

5) Nouns for describing trends

Decline

Decrease

Dip - When the graph goes down for a little while and then goes back up again.

Drop

Fall

Fluctuation

Growth

Rise

Peak - The top of the graph, just like the top of a mountain.

Slump - When something suddenly goes down a lot and for a long time 

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