IELTS WRITING TASK 1 PRACTICE

BAR CHART
Analyze the bar chart and underline the key words/phrases you can use in your own writing.
What are some similarities and differences among these two bar charts?

Example 1:
The graph below shows usual water usage (in millions of cubic meters) by industries in some
countries in a year.

Model Answer:
The provided bar graph compares the average ground and supply water consumptions in
seven different industries in several countries in a year. In general, those industries use
more groundwater than supply water and the chemical industry is the highest water
consumer.

Looking at the details, the chemical industry requires about 430 million cubic meters of
ground water and 240 million cubic meters of public supply water. This figure is accounted
as almost twice higher than other industries, for instances, meal/beverages, metal and
paper manufacturers utilise only 110, 240, and 190 million m3 of ground water and in
addition, 190, 90 and 20 million m3 of public supply water every year respectively. Metal
and paper industries are reckoned as almost half and one-twelveth water users respectively
than the chemical industry.

In contrast, fuel and textiles industries utilise the same amount of water and they are the
lowest water consumers with pertaining figures of 70 and 80 million m3 per year of ground
water respectively and with the similar quantity of public supply water of 10 million m3.
Finally, the machinery industry consumes the least ground water of 10 million m3 and 100
million m3 public supply water which is slightly higher than the public supply water use of
the metal industry.

Example 2:
The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone calls in the UK,
divided into three categories, from 1995-2002.

Model Answer:

The bar chart outlines the duration of phone calls by the UK residents from 1995 to 2002.
Generally speaking, most of the UK citizens made local calls during the period and the usage
of cell phones rapidly increased.

According to the bar chart, initially in 1995, British talked more than 70 billion minutes on
fixed-lines while 37 billion minutes were national and international fixed line calls. Only 3
billion minutes were spent by people to talk over cell phone calls. The use of local fixed-line
increased steadily until 1999 when it reached to 90 billion minutes and after that, the
number decreased each year and finally reached to 72 billion in 2002.

The national & international-fixed dialling increased each year and reached to 61 billion in
2002 from the initial figure of 38 billion. Finally, the number of cell phone calls expanded
significantly each year which shows its increasing popularity. In 1995, the mobile phone calls
were only 2 billion minutes and in 2000 it reached to approximately 25 billion minutes. Over
the next 2 years, this number increased to 45 billion.

In summary, mobile phone calls gained a significant popularity among the UK callers and as
of 2002, the local fixed-line calling was still the highest in the UK.
Practice:
Choose one in 2 graphs below and complete your report in 20mins in class. The second
graph will be the task for today’s homework.

1. The bar charts below show the number of hours each teacher spent teaching in different
schools in four different countries in 2001.
2. The chart below shows the changes in sales of four different types of books from 2002 to
2012.