Bar chart
There are 5 steps to writing a good IELTS bar chart essay:
1) Analyze the question
2) Identify the main features
3) Write an introduction
4) Write an overview
5) Write the details paragraphs
1.Simple bar chart/column graph
2.Complex bar chart/column graph
Use this simple planning process as you practice writing IELTS bar chart essays and you’ll have no problem remembering it in the exam.
Steps 1 and 2 of the planning process should take around 5 minutes. It is essential that you don’t miss these out as they are the key to writing a high-scoring essay.
On this page, I’m going to take you through the whole planning process step-by-step as we work on a practice question.
Before we begin, here’s a model essay structure that you can use as a guideline for all IELTS Academic Task 1 questions.
Ideally, your essay should have 4 paragraphs:
Paragraph 1 – Introduction
Paragraph 2 – Overview
Paragraph 3 – 1st main feature
Paragraph 4 – 2nd main feature
Step 1 – Analyse the question
The format of every Academic Task 1 question is the same. Here is our practice question again with the words that will be included in all questions highlighted .
The bar chart below shows the sector contributions to India’s gross domestic product from 1960 to 2000.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Every question consists of:
Sentence 1 – A brief description of the graphic
Sentence 2 – The instructions
The graphic – chart, graph, table, etc.
Sentence 2 tells you what you have to do.
You must do 3 things:
1. Select the main features.
2. Write about the main features.
3. Compare the main features.
All three tasks refer to the ‘main features’ of the graphic. You do not have to write about everything. Just pick out 2 or 3 key features and you’ll have plenty to write about.
Our practice graphic is a dynamic bar chart. That is, it includes a timeline giving data from several different points in time.
So, for this question, we need to identify the main trends (that is, the general developments or changes in situation) in the three key sectors of the Indian economy – agriculture, industry and service – between 1960 and 2000.
Alternatively, a bar chart may be static with the data coming from one point in time, as in the example below. For this graphic, we would need to compare the different variables, that is, the different leisure activities favoured by Canadian boys and girls.
Step 2 – Identify the Main Features
The graphic in IELTS bar chart questions should not be difficult to interpret. Each question has been created to test your language skills, not your mathematics ability.
All you are looking for are the main features. These will usually be the easiest things to spot. As we’ve just seen, the type of key features will depend on whether the bar chart is dynamic or static.
There will be lots of information in the graphic to help you identify them. Here are some useful questions to ask?
What information do the 2 axes give?
Is it dynamic or static?
What are the units of measurements?
What are the time periods?
What can you learn from the title and any labels?
What is the most obvious trend?
Are there any notable similarities?
Step 3 – Write an Introduction
In the introduction, you should simply paraphrase the question, that is, say the same thing in a different way. You can do this by using synonyms and changing the sentence structure. For example:
Question:
The bar chart below shows the sector contributions to India’s gross domestic product from 1960 to 2000.
Introduction (Paragraph 1):
The bar graph illustrates the relative percentage contributions made by the agricultural, industrial and service sectors to the Indian economy between 1960 and 2000.
This is all you need to do for the introduction.
Ideally, key words such as ‘sector’ and ‘contributions’ should be replaced by synonyms but there aren’t any obvious words that could be used instead so it’s fine to repeat them. It’s important that your language sounds natural so never try to force in synonyms that don’t quite fit.
Step 4 – Write an Overview (Paragraph 2)
In the second paragraph, you should report the main features you can see in the graph, giving only general information. The detail comes later in the essay. You should also make any clear comparisons you spot.
This is where we write about the general trends. Here are the ones we picked out above.
Main feature 1: The contribution of the agricultural sector dropped steadily.
Main feature 2: The contribution of the service sector increased each decade.
Main feature 3: Industry remained static from 1980 to 2000.
Now form these ideas into two or three sentences with a total of around 40 words. State the information simply using synonyms where possible. No elaborate vocabulary or grammar structures are required, just the appropriate words and correct verb tenses.
For example:
Overview (Paragraph 2):
Over the whole time period, the significance of agriculture declined steadily while services grew in importance decade by decade. A different patterned emerged for industry, which initially showed a slowly increasing percentage but then plateaued from 1980 onwards.
Step 5 – Write the 1st Detail Paragraph
Paragraphs 3 and 4 of your IELTS bar chart essay are where you include more detailed information about the data in the graphic. In paragraph 3, you should give evidence to support your first 1 or 2 key features. Don’t forget to make comparisons when relevant.
Here are our first 2 main features again:
Main feature 1: The contribution of the agricultural sector dropped steadily.
Main feature 2: The contribution of the service sector increased each decade.
And this is an example of what you could write:
Paragraph 3:
In 1960, agriculture contributed by far the highest percentage of GDP, peaking at 62%, but it then dropped in steady increments to a low of 12% in 2000. The service sector, on the other hand, had a relatively minor impact on the economy in 1960. This situation changed gradually at first, followed by its contribution jumped from 28% to 43% between 1980 and 1990. By 2000 it matched the high point reached by agriculture in 1960, showing a reversal in the overall trend.
Step 6 – Write the 2nd Detail Paragraph
For the fourth and final paragraph, you do the same thing for your remaining feature/s. We have one main feature left to write about.
Main feature 3: Industry remained static from 1980 to 2000.
Here’s an example of what you could write:
Paragraph 4:
Industry remained a steady contributor to India’s wealth throughout the period. As a sector, it grew marginally from 16% in 1960 to exactly a quarter in 1980 then remained static for the next two decades, maintaining a constant share of the overall GDP.
Here are the four paragraphs brought together to create our finished
essay.
Simple bar chart
Introduction
You should start your answer by writing an introduction. The introduction is 1 or 2 sentences, where you paraphrase the information from your question. Introduction contains 3 things
The topic at the top
The horizontal and vertical axis
Additional data
Task achievement
Relevant features
Spend one minute to understand the graph
Describe key features only
Plan your structure before you write
Coherence and Cohesion
Coherence means STRUCTURE
Introduction (1.2 sentences)
Overview=Big picture (2.3 sentences) (no numbers)
Body paragraph A
Body paragraph B
Cohesion means FLOW
Sentence structure
Linking words
Preposition
! Think of synonyms
Lexical Resource
You have to use words precisely
Grammar and accuracy
Complex structure/ modular verbs / condition (Meanwhile, although, however)
!!!MAKE SURE THAT YOU WRITE 150 WORDS OR ELSE YOU CAN LOSE -1 , -1.5
For example:
1.The bar chart shows the monthly spending in dollars of a family in the USA on three items in 2010
Paraphrasing: The bar chart depicts the monthly expenditure on food, gas and clothing of a family living in the USA in 2010.
2. The chart below indicates the number of people who have heart attacks every year in the US.
Paraphrasing: The chart gives data about the differences in the annual number of men and women of three age groups who suffer from heart attacks in the USA.
Big picture/Overview
The second paragraph of your answer is a general overview, where you briefly describe major trends on your graph. Ideally, you should describe 2-4 key features.
Or:
• exactly what is being compared
• highs and lows or most and least
• similarities and differences
• anything that stands out as exceptional
For example:
1.The bar chart shows the monthly spending in dollars of a family in the USA on three items in 2010
It is clear that as people grow older, the risk for heart attack increases; and it can also be seen from the chart that heart attacks often happen to men rather than women.
The bar chart compares the number of incidents and injuries for every 100 million passenger miles travelled on five different types of public transport in 2002.
It is clear that the most incidents and injuries took place on demand response vehicles. By contrast, commuter rail services recorded by far the lowest figures.
A total of 225 incidents and 173 injuries, per 100 million passenger miles travelled, took place on demand-response transport services. These figures were nearly three times as high as those for the second highest category, bus services. There were 76 incidents and 66 people were injured on buses. Rail services experienced fewer problems. The number of incidents on light rail trains equalled the figure recorded for buses, but there were significantly fewer injuries, at only 39. Heavy rail services saw lower
numbers of such events than light rail services, but commuter rail passengers were even less likely to experience problems. In fact, only 20 incidents and 17 injuries occurred on commuter trains.
(165 words, band 9)
The graph gives the figure….
It is apparently to note that..
It is conspicuous that…
It is explicitly observed that..
It is clear from the data
It is worth noticing that…
It is crystal clear/ lucid that
It could be plainly viewed that..
It could be noticed that
In general, In common, Generally speaking, Overall, It is obvious, As is observed, As a general trend, As can be seen, As an overall trend, As is presented, It can be clearly seen that, At the first glance, it is clear, At the onset, it is clear that, A glance at the graphs reveals that...
Example:
In general, the employment opportunity has increased till 1970 and has dropped down afterwards.
As is observed, the figures for imprisonment in the five mentioned countries show no overall pattern of increase or decrease rather shows the considerable fluctuation from country to country.
Generally speaking, USA had a far more standard life than all the other 4 mentioned countries.
As can be seen, the highest number of passengers used the London Underground station at 8:00 in the morning and at 6:00 in the evening.
Body paragraph/ Specific details
After we’ve written the introduction and general overview, it’s time to give the specific details. You should describe the specific features in 2 or 3 (sometimes more) paragraphs.
You can group data in such way:
Details about Sweden
Details about Finland
When you have two countries (or two cities or any other two things depicted on the graph), the simplest way of grouping data - is to describe each country’s trend in a separate paragraph.
When giving specific features, you have to write exact numbers/percentages and include as much details as you can.
In our case, the specific details may look as follows:
Sweden’s divorce rate was about 45% in 2011, being higher than Finland’s rate by approximately 8%. Then, it rose to almost fifty percent in 2012. However, the figure showed a gradual decrease to about 47% in 2013, and continued to decline steadily to the end of the period, reaching around 45% in 2014 and hitting a low-point of about 37% in 2015.
Percentage of divorces in Finland was less than 40% in 2011, and it decreased in 2012, when about one third of marriages in Finland ended with a divorce (as opposed to almost a half in Sweden). However, the figure experienced a steady growth during the next two years. It rose to approximately 39% in 2013, then increased by around 3% in 2014, and remained steady for the next year, outracing the rate of Sweden.
Given the bar chart comparing twelve countries in terms of the overall number of medals that they have won at the Olympic Games.
At the onset the USA is by far the most successful Olympic medalwinning nation. It is also noticeable that the figures for gold, silver and bronze medals won by any particular country tend to be fairly similar.
The USA has won a total of around 2,300 Olympic medals, including approximately 900 gold medals, 750 silver and 650 bronze. In second place on the all-time medals chart is the Soviet Union, with just over 1,000 medals. Again, the number of gold medals won by this country is slightly higher than the number of silver or bronze medals.
Only four other countries - the UK, France, Germany and Italy - have won more than 500 Olympic medals, all with similar proportions of each medal colour. Apart from the USA and the Soviet Union, China is the only other country with a noticeably higher proportion of gold medals (about 200) compared to silver and bronze (about 100 each).
(178 words, band 9)
Vocabulary
Date, month & year related Vocabulary and Grammatical rules:
Between ...(year/ month)... and ...(year/ month)...
From ...(year/ month/ day/date)... to ...(year/ month/day/date)...
In ...(year/ month)...
On ...(day/ day of the week/ a date)...
At ......, In ......, By ......
During ... (year)...
Over the period/ over the century/ later half of the year/ the year...
Over the next/ past/ previous ........ days/ weeks/ months/ years/ decades...
To be
Be /make up/ consist of/ constitute/ comprise/ amount to / equal account for/ represent/ include/ record/ reach/stand at/ become
Very
Quite / rather / fairly / very / highly / extremely / comparatively / relatively
Vocabulary to show how many times...
Exactly the same.
Roughly the same
Practically the same
Twice
Thrice
Four times
Five times
Ten times
Hundred times.
Vocabulary to show how much changed...
Halved
Equalled
Doubled
Trebled / tripled
Quadrupled
Pentadrupled
Hexadrupled
Septupled
Octupled
Nonupled
Centupled
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