types of task 1

• pie chat
• line graph
• bar chart
• table
• flow chart
• map

Structure

No opinion
No conclusion

1. Introduction
2. Overview
3. Details
4. Details

Line graph

Note

Vocabulary: paraphrasing, comparing, describing changes
Your job is to compare the lines, not describe them separately.
First, make a very general comparison.
Second, compare the lines at specific points.

The line graph compares the amount of electricity produced in France using four different sources of power over a period of 32 years.

two main points

It is clear that nuclear power was by far the most important means of electricity generation over the period shown. Renewables provided the lowest amount of electricity in each year.

details

In 1980, thermal power stations were the main source of electricity in France, generating around 120 terawatt hours of power. Nuclear and hydroelectric power stations produced just under 75 terawatt hours of electricity each, and renewables provided a negligible amount. Just one year later, nuclear power overtook thermal power as the primary source of electricity.

Between 1980 and 2005, electricity production from nuclear power rose dramatically to a peak of 430 terawatt hours. By contrast, the figure for thermal power fell to only 50 terawatt hours in 1985, and remained at this level for the rest of the period. Hydroelectric power generation remained relatively stable, at between 50 and 80 terawatt hours, for the whole 32-year period, but renewable electricity production saw only a small rise to approximately 25 terawatt hours by 2012.

Bar chart

Same as line graph

Your job is to compare the bars.
First, make a very general comparison.
Second, compare specific figures.

The bar chart compares the number of mobile phones sold worldwide by the five most popular manufacturers in the years 2009, 2011 and 2013.

Note

list specific year
how long the period was
between the years XXXX and XXXX

It is clear that Nokia sold the most mobile phones between 2009 and 2011, but Samsung became the best selling brand in 2013. Samsung and Apple saw the biggest rises in sales over the 5-year period.

In 2009, Nokia sold close to 450 million mobile phones, which was almost double the number of handsets sold by the second most successful manufacturer, Samsung. Over the following four years, however, Nokia’s sales figures fell by approximately 200 million units, whereas Samsung saw sales rise by a similar amount. By 2013, Samsung had become the market leader with sales reaching 450 million units.

The other three top selling mobile phone brands between 2009 and 2013 were LG, ZTE and Apple. In 2009, these companies sold around 125 million, 50 million and 25 million mobile handsets respectively, but Apple overtook the other two handsets reached 150 million units, while LG saw declining sales and the figures for ZTE rose only slightly.

The bar chart presents the number of research students, divided by gender, who pursued different subjects in 2005. These subjects included linguistics, psychology, natural sciences, engineering, programming and mathematics.

Overall, there were more male than female research students in the given year. Among all the subjects, male students had a higher enrollment than female students except for linguistics. Although both genders took a strong interest in psychology and natural sciences, two of the most popular subjects, men least preferred linguistics and women mathematics.

Female and male students showed a more or less similar interest in linguistics, psychology and natural sciences. In particular, natural sciences was the most popular of all, showing the same enrollment number of 200. Though very popular, psychology was favoured more by men (200) than women(around 170). The situation was the reverse in linguistics, with more women than men.

However, female and male students showed significant differences in engineering, programming and mathematics. In all three subjects, male dominance was evident, especially in mathematics, which was taken by 200 male students and only around 40 female students. In engineering and programming, the number of female students was roughly half of that of males.

Pie chart

The pie charts compare five catagories of household expenditure in the UK and New zealand in the years of 1980 and 2008.

(2 sentences, 2 main points, no numbers mentioned in this paragraph)

It is noticeable that the proportion of spending on food and drink fell in both countries over the 28-year period, while spending on utility bills rose. Also, UK residents spent a significantly lager percentage of their household budget on leisure than their New Zealand counterparts(the same group of people in another country).

(the same information as the overview, but in more detail)

In 1980, 29% of an average New Zealand household budget went on food and drink, while the equivalent figure for a UK home was 23%. By 2008, expenditure on food and drink had fallen by 4% in New Zealand, and by a full 10% in the UK. By contrast, both countries saw an increase in expenditure on utility bills for the average home.

Leisure activities accounted for the highest proportion of UK household spending in both years, but only the third highest proportion in New Zealand. In fact, in 2008, New Zealanders spent only half as much in relative terms on recreation (17%) as UK residents (34%). In both countries, transport costs and other costs took roughly 15% and 10% of household budgets respectively.

Tips:

1. Don’t describe each country separately
2. Don’t describe each year separately
3. Compare countries and years together
4. Mention all 5 categories (food & drink etc.)
5. Divide the categories into two groups for the two ‘details’ paragraphs
6. The category called ‘Other’ is not important
7. Don’t write “Leisure was 34%”(doesn’t make sense)
8. Write “Households spent 34% of their money on leisure”

spending, expenditure, spent, costs proportion of spending percentage of household budget the equivalent figure for a UK home fell, rose, saw an increase in by 2008, expenditure had fallen spent a significantly larger percentage than their New Zealand counterparts 29% of an average household budget went on while, by contrast leisure accounted for the highest proportion spent half as much in relative terms(we don’t know the specific number)

Table

Your job is to select, describe and compare the key numbers. First, look for main or general features(summary/overview paragraph). Second, describe specific numbers(‘detail’ paragraph).

The table compares the five highest ranking countries in terms of the numbers of visits and the money spent by tourists over a period of two years.

It is clear that France was the world’s most popular tourist destination in the year of 2012 and 2013. However, the USA earned by far the most revenue from tourism over the same period.

In 2012, 83 million tourists visited France, and the USA was the second most visited country, with 66.7 million tourists. Spain and China each received just under 58 million visitors, while Italy was ranked fifth with 46.4 million tourists. 2013 saw a rise of between 1 and 4 million tourist visits to each country, with the exception of China, which received 2 million fewer visitors than previous year.

Spending by tourists visiting the USA increased from $126.2 billion in 2012 to $139.6 billion in 2013, and these figures were well over twice as high as those for any other country. Spain received the second highest amounts of tourist revenue, rising from $56.3 billion to $60.4 billion, followed by France, China and Italy. Interestingly, despite falling numbers of tourists, Chinese revenue from tourism rose by $1.7 billion in 2013.

2 different charts

These are questions with 2 different charts, which you can’t compare together.

First, look for one main feature in each chart.

Second, describe specific numbers for each chart seperately

The bar chart compares the numbers of males and females who took four different evening classes in 2009, and the pie chart shows the age profile of these attendees.

It is clear that significantly more women than men attended evening classes at the education centre. We can also see that evening courses were much more popular among elder adults.

Paragraph 3 adding numbers

According to the bar chart,(shows the reader/examiner, we are only talking about th bar chart) drama, painting and language courses all attracted more women than men to the education centre in 2009. Language classes had the highest number of participants overall, with 40 female and 20 male students, while painting was a popular choice among both genders, attracting 30 female and 25 male attendees . The only course with a higher number of males was sculpture, but this course was taken by a mere 15 people in total.

Paragraph 4 adding numbers

Looking at the age profile pie chart, we can see that the majority of people attending evening lessons were over 40 years of age(last two age groups). To be precise, 42% of them were aged 50 or more, and 26% were aged between 40 and 49. Younger adults were in the minority, with only 11% of students aged 20 to 29, and only 5% aged under 20.

Process diagram

Differences:

• no numbers
• can’t compare anything
• can’t describe trends (increase, decrease)

So, what can we describe?

• how many steps
• where the process begins and ends
• each step in the process

Language for process descriptions:

‘steps’ language passive verbs

• At the first stage in the process
• The process begins with
• Secondly, Finally
• The second step involves
• Next, then, after that
• At the following stage

The first flow diagram illustrates the process of glass container production, and the second diagram shows steps in the process of recycling used glass.

We can see that glass is made using three main raw materials, and that the manufacturing process consists of four distinct stages. It requries five steps to turn used glass into new glass products.

At the first stage in the production of glass, sand, soda ash, limestone and other chemicals are mixed together. Next, this mixture is heated in a glass furnace at approximately 1500 degrees Celsius to produce molten glass. The molten glass can then be shaped, by blowing, to create the end products, namely glass containers.

Glass recycling begins with the collection of used glass products. The collected glass is sorted according to its color, and then washed in order to remove any impurities. At the fourth stage of recycling, the glass is crushed and melted, and the resulting molten glass can finally be moulded to create new items.

Comparison diagrams

• changes to something e.g. an old design compared to a new design – MAP
• or two alternative designs
• or even two alternative locations on a map

• Describe the changes
• Describe things that don’t change
• Describe the differences
• Describe the similarities

The two pictures compare the current layout of the ground floor of a house with a plan to redesign the same living space.

change & don’t change

We can see that the new design proposal involves making a number of changes to the ground floor of the house, mainly in the central hall area. There are no plans to change external wall.

comparison

The most noticeable change from the existing to the proposed floor plan is that there will no longer be a separate hall area when the building work has been done. This will be achieved by removing the internal wall and door between the hall and living room, along with the current staircase and understair storage cupboard. With no separate hall area, the proposed living room will also contain the staircase to the first floor.

To replace the current straight staircase, a new set of winding stairs(旋转楼梯) will be installed in the corner of the living room. The internal door between the hall and kitchen will also be replaced with double doors connecting the kitchen and the new living room. Finally, the planned building work will also include the installation of some kitchen furniture.

Summary