The Definitive Guide to

IELTS WRITING TASK-1 : TABLE

STEP BY STEP PROCESS TO SOLVE

IT

SAZZAD CHOWDHURY

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Each type of questions requires a certain strategy or

approach in order to make the best use of your time.

You should be flexible enough to use all these different

approaches that suit the question task. I

n this guide, you will find how to approach Table with

practical demonstration.

You need to write a report of at least 150 words

T H E R E A R E 4 T Y P E S I E LT S

W R I T I N G TA S K - 1 Q U E S T I O N S .

WRITING TASK1: DATA OR PROCESS (150 W/20M)

TABLE

GRAPH/CHART

DIAGRAM

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A table will be presented to you and you must

write out approximately a 150 word discussion

on it within approximately 20 minutes.

You must evaluate the table, organize your ideas, and develop them into a cohesive and coherent explanation. TO GET HIGH BAND SCORE “

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H O W T O W R I T E A B O U T TA B L E

1

Write a descriptive introduction

2

Write an overview

3 & 4

Describe key information

It is the time to look at the aforesaid steps in action and discover how easy it is to write about a Table.

Cambridge IELTS practice book is used on this regard,

because it is the only official practice test book in the market.

You can open the hard copy book if you already bought it.

Otherwise, follow the table cited below from the Cambridge IELTS 2.

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TITLE OF THIS CHAPTER SHALL GO HERE

The table below shows the consumer durables (telephone, refrigerator, etc.) owned in Britain from 1972 to 1983.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the

information shown below. You should write at least 150 words

PRACTICAL EX AMPLE

Consumer durables

(% of households)

1972 1974 1976 1978 1979 1981 1982 1983

Central heating 31 43 48 52 55 59 60 64

Television 93 95 96 96 97 97 97 98

Video 18

Vacuum cleaner

87 89 92 92 93 94 95

Refrigerator 73 81 88 91 92 93 93 94

Washing machine

66 68 71 75 74 78 79 60

Dishwasher 3 3 4 4 5

Telephone 42 50 54 60 67 75 76 77

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You should write total 3 sentences in the first paragraph.

First sentence would be introductory sentence by

paraphrasing the question statement because writing the

exact question statement will cut down your score.

The second & third sentence would be overview sentences about the table.

H O W T O P A R A P H R A S E

PA R A G R A P H 1 : W R I T E A D E S C R I P T I V E

I N T R O D U C T I O N

To paraphrase the question you need to Changing the reporting verb >> Write what the data represents >> Time duration The most commonly used reporting verbs for this purpose is

"shows". You can use (instead of “shows”):

Provide : The table provides information about...

Represent: The table represents statistics on....

Indicate: The table indicates the number of......

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L O O K AT T H E S E E X A M P L E S

Just after changing the reporting verb, you can write about what the data represents in the table in your own words.

Check whether the table presents total volume or

percentage.

Next to this just write the time duration showed in the table.

The table provides percentage of households in Britain using different consumer durables from 1972 to 1983.

The table represents the percentages of household possess a

range of consumer durables in eight different years. The table indicates the household statistics using consumer

durables in British households from 1972 to 1983.

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Now, it is the time to write overview sentences.

In the first sentence you can write the general trend of the table.

In the second sentence you can write any contrast or comparism visible in the table.

S T R U C T U R E - O V E R V I E W

PA R A G R A P H 2 : W R I T E A N O V E R V I E W

Overall, _____increased/decreased between____.(General trend)

In particular___________ while_______________(Contrast)

It is clear from the figures that________________(General trend)

Nearly_____with a little differentiation in case of_____(Contrast)

Not surprisingly,________________________(General trend)

However, ___slightly fewer/less/more than ____ did. (Compare)

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P A R A G R A P H 3 & 4 : D E S C R I B E

K E Y I N F O R M AT I O N

Structure in Action Now let`s put these sentence structure format for writing overview

for the above table

Overall, the household ownership of consumer durables in Britain increased between 1972 and 1983. In particular, the percentage of households with central heating rose, while the number of households with a washing machine fell.

It is clear from the figures that there is an increasing use of consumer durables in Britain from 1972 to 1983. Nearly, all products usage showed an upward trend with a little differentiation in case of washing machine.

Not surprisingly, the ownership of consumer durables rose in Britain over the years. However, the usage of central heating increased slightly more than dishwasher did.

To describe key information in a table you should

describe the important data in the table. You

can`t write about every column and row, so look

for the significant ones.

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The biggest and smallest number in columns or rows

The biggest change in numbers over the time period

The closest similarity, dissimilarity and exceptions

among categories of data

T H E B I G G E S T & S M A L L E S T N U M B E R

H O W T O F I N D S I G N I F I C A N T D ATA

Central heating 31 43 48 52 55 59 60 64

Television 93 95 96 96 97 97 97 98

Video 18

Vacuum cleaner 87 89 92 92 93 94 95

Refrigerator 73 81 88 91 92 93 93 94

Washing machine 66 68 71 75 74 78 79 60

Dishwasher 3 3 4 4 5

Telephone 42 50 54 60 67 75 76 77

It is interesting to see that the majority of____________. In contrast, the lowest percentage/number of________________________.. FORMAT FOR WRITING “

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N o t i c e t h e u s e o f q u a n t i f i e r s ( e x . “ t h e m a j o r i t y o f ” f o r c o u n t a b l e n o u n “ h o u s e h o l d s ” ) i n w r i t i n g t a b l e .

Y o u s h o u l d b e c a r e f u l i n u s i n g t h e m w i t h c o u n t a b l e a n d u n c o u n t a b l e f o r m s .

Now let`s put these sentence structure format for the above table

It is interesting to see that the majority of households owned Television in 1972 and the figure has risen to 98% from 93% by 1983. In contrast, the lowest percentage of households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978 to just 5% by 1983.

Only with uncountable nouns

With uncountable and countable nouns

Only with countable nouns

a little no/none a few

a bit (of) not any a number (of)

- some (any) several

a great deal of a lot of a large number of

a large amount of plenty of a great number of

- lots of The majority of

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N o t i c e t h e u s e o f c o n n e c t i v e w o r d s ( e x . “ i n c o n t r a s t ” ) i n w r i t i n g t a b l e . F o l l o w i n g l i s t c o n t a i n

o t h e r c o n n e c t i v e w o r d s y o u c a n u s e d e s c r i b i n g t h i s t y p e o f c o m p a r i s o n o r c o n t r a s t .

Therefore, while describing the above table, you can alternatively write like:

It is interesting to see that the majority of/a large number of/a great number of households owned Television in 1972 and the figure has risen to 98% from 93% by 1983. . In contrast, the lowest percentage of households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978 to just 5% by 1983.

On the contrary Alternatively On the other hand

However Whereas -

So, you can write... On the contrary/ Alternatively/ On the other hand/ However/ Whereas/ In contrast, the lowest percentage of households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978 to just 5% by 1983.

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Looking at the table, we can see that the biggest change in numbers from 1972 to 1983 goes to Telephone (77-42=35) and next is Central heating (64-31=33)

T h e B i g g e s t C h a n g e s i n N u m b e r s

The greatest increase was in _________________________rising from________________. Next came to _________(category with second biggest change), rising from__________________________________________________. FORMAT FOR WRITING “

Central heating 31 43 48 52 55 59 60 64

Television 93 95 96 96 97 97 97 98

Video 18

Vacuum cleaner

87 89 92 92 93 94 95

Refrigerator 73 81 88 91 92 93 93 94

Washing machine

66 68 71 75 74 78 79 60

Dishwasher 3 3 4 4 5

Telephone 42 50 54 60 67 75 76 77

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L o o k i n g a t t h e t a b l e , w e c a n s e e t h a t v i d e o c a t e g o r y i s a n e x c e p t i o n ( d a t a a v a i l a b l e o n l y f o r 1 9 8 3 ) a n d

w a s h i n g m a c h i n e s h o w s d i s s i m i l a r i t y w h e r e a l l d a t a c a t e g o r i e s h a s a n i n c r e a s e b u t t h e p e r c e n t a g e o f

w a s h i n g m a c h i n e c o m e s d o w n t o 6 0 f r o m 6 6 i n 1 9 8 3 .

Now let`s put these sentence structure format for the above table

The greatest increase was in telephone ownership, rising from 42% in 1972 to 77% in 1983. Next came to central heating ownership, rising from 37% of households in 1972 to 64% in 1983.

C l o s e s t s i m i l a r i t y , d i s s i m i l a r i t y

a n d e x c e p t i o n s

Consumer durables 1972 1974 1976 1978 1979 1981 1982 1983

Percentage of households with:

Central heating 31 43 48 52 55 59 60 64

Television 93 95 96 96 97 97 97 98

Video 18

Vacuum cleaner 87 89 92 92 93 94 95

Refrigerator 73 81 88 91 92 93 93 94

Washing machine 66 68 71 75 74 78 79 60

Dishwasher 3 3 4 4 5

Telephone 42 50 54 60 67 75 76 77

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T h e F i n a l W r i t i n g ( 1 6 0 w o r d s i n 2 0 M i n u t e s )

Finally, it is worth noting that ___________________________, meanwhile _______________________________________________. FORMAT FOR WRITING “

Now let`s put these sentence structure format for the above table

Finally, it is worth noting that ownership of washing machine actually fell by 19% between1982 & 1983, meanwhile the video reorder just got introduced into the market in 1983.

Adding up all the examples of writing different parts of a table,

let` see what comes up finally.

The table provides percentage of households in Britain using different consumer durables from 1972 to 1983. Overall, the household ownership of consumer durables in Britain increased between 1972 and 1983. In particular, the percentage of households with central heating rose, while the number of households with a washing machine fell. It is interesting to see that the majority of households owned Television in 1972 and the figure has risen to 98% from 93% by 1983. In contrast, the lowest percentage of households used dishwasher and the figure rose from only 3% in 1978 to just 5% by 1983. The greatest increase was in telephone ownership, rising from 42% in 1972 to 77% in 1983. Next come central heating ownership, rising from 37% of households in 1972 to 64% in 1983. Finally, it is worth noting that ownership of washing machine actually fell by 19% between1982 & 1983, meanwhile the video reorder for consumer just got introduced into the market in 1983.

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FIND IT EASY !

If you implement all the steps mentioned here, then you are guaranteed to write about any

table in your IELTS writing exam.

THE WAIT LIST

Yo u ` l l F i n d M o r e i n m y b o o k “ M a s t e r I E LT S A c a d e m i c W r i t i n g

: T h e C o m p l e t e G u i d e b o o k t o S c o r e 7 + ”

T h e b o o k i s c u r r e n t l y n o t

a v a i l a b l e t o t h e p u b l i c .

B u t i f y o u w a n t t o h e a r m o r e a b o u t

t h e b o o k , g o a h e a d a n d c l i c k o n t h e w a i t l i s t r i g h t h e r e .