Here is a band
9 sample answer for you and question analysis.
The chart
below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone call in the
UK, divided into three categories, from 1995-2002.
Summarise the
information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant.
Answer
The bar graph shows the combined time spent in billions of minutes, on three different kinds of phone call in the United Kingdom, from 1995-2002.
Overall, local calls were the most popular over the whole period, with
national and international calls and calls on mobiles second and third
respectively. However, the number of minutes spent on international and
national calls and mobiles both increased over the period; with mobile minutes
increasing dramatically, thus narrowing the gap between the three categories by
2002.
Minutes spent on local calls fluctuated over the time period, with just
over 70 billion minutes in 1995, peaking at approximately 90 billion in 1999
and then steadily decreasing to just over 70 billion minutes in 2002.
National and international calls increased steadily year on year, from
just under 40 billion minutes in 1995 to a peak of just over 60 billion in
2002. Mobile minutes increased at a very rapid pace from approximately 3
billion in 1995 to around 45 billion in 2002. Mobile phone usage nearly doubled
from approximately 22 billion minutes in 2000 to 40 billion in 2001.
Analisys
You will notice that there are four paragraphs in this answer and each paragraph has a purpose. I advise all of my students to use this four paragraph structure. Let’s look at it in more detail.
Paragraph 1
Paraphrase
question. This should be one sentence only and it is how you should start all
of your essays. Paraphrasing is just writing the sentence again so that it has
the same meaning but with different words.
In this
example I have changed phrases like ‘total number of minutes’ to ‘combined time
spent’ and ‘divided into three categories’ to ‘three different kinds’.
Paragraph 2
In this
paragraph we outline the general trends or most noticeable general things about
the chart. This is our overview and the examiner will be looking
for this. It is very difficult to get a high band score without one. Notice
that I have not included any numbers in this paragraph and instead used very
general language to show what is happening overall.
Overall, local
calls remain the most popular, despite a bit of fluctuation, and the other two
also show a general increase. We are not really looking for what happens
between years in this paragraph and instead we take a very broad view of the
data. We can then move on to describing these general trends in more detail in
the next two paragraphs.
Paragraphs 3 and 4
These
paragraphs are our details paragraphs and it is here that we describe the
general trends. This is where we have to use the data.
You will
notice that I have taken the first sentence in paragraph 2 and
described it in more detail in paragraph 3.
Then I have
taken the second sentence from paragraph 2 and
described it in more detail in paragraph 4. This is a very logical
way to order the information, will boost your marks for coherence and cohesion
and also make it easier for you to organise your thoughts and save you time in
the essay.
You may also
find my grammar
guide for IELTS task 1 useful. It has lots of phrases to help
you describe data.
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